Biden & Solis: ‘We Need Collective Bargaining’

(11 am. – promoted by ek hornbeck)

Last night at 6pm est the AFL-CIO along with the SEIU, the National Education Association (NEA), Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) and the Teamsters held a virtual town hall meeting for some forty five minutes.

I was hoping to catch it so to archive, no luck with the program I have while live. Then was hoping the Unions would and have it posted up, no luck as to the whole call in Town Hall at least so far, nothing on any of the sites except a quick writeup.

Low and behold the Huff post did catch the comments by Vice President Biden. This first part is what I posted on my site, the taped comments were just added, all below the fold:

Was hoping that they would have archived this discussion, by phone and streamed last night at 6pm est, but don’t see that they did, this is a short breakdown of what was said. Biden was on fire tellin it like it is!

Mar 17, 2011 – Tens of thousands of working people under attack from Republican governors in 12 states received some high-level support and encouragement today. In a virtual town hall meeting this evening, Vice President Joe Biden and U.S. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis told the workers the Obama administration will stand with them and will stay with them to make sure their rights are protected.

Joined by AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka in the call, the Vice President opened with a quote from President Obama saying that “We can’t have a strong middle class without unions.” Then Vice President Biden added:

“You built the middle class. This fight is not about wages or benefits; it’s about trying to break unions. We absolutely, positively need collective bargaining.”

{continued}

I will add a related, at least for me as a construction trades professional, report that came out yesterday as well. Which highlights the growing concerns as to the Japan Damage and related to Nuke Power Plants here.

One of the easiest ways to cut costs and build bottom line is to cut safety as well as preventive maintenanc­e costs, workers included, and not investing in advances as to worse case scenarios as to accidents. Same for government and infrastruc­ture, much of that infrastruc­ture benefiting the business communitie­s as well as the bottom line capitalist­s, very small ‘c’ capitalism­, who are now paying much less, zero or almost zero, for it’s existence. We by the way pay the costs to build and maintain, by we I mean all the rest of us!

Mar 17, 2011 – U.S. nuclear power plants operate even with known safety problems because of inadequate federal inspections, faulty maintenance and poor design, concludes a report Thursday by U.S. scientists.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission investigated 14 safety lapses at these plants last year, an error rate that’s “high for a mature industry,” according to the Union of Concerned Scientists. Its report, prepared before Japan’s nuclear crisis began Friday as a result of a massive earthquake and tsunami, is the first in an annual series on safety performance at U.S. nuclear power plants..

“Many of these significant events occurred because reactor owners, and often the NRC, tolerated known safety problems,” the report said, adding the NRC inspects about 5% of plant operations. The independent agency, established in 1974, is responsible for overseeing U.S. plants. {continued}