From Boon to Embarrassment

One sign, among many, of labor's current travails is the stalled union growth strategy known as "Bargain to Organize."

More than a decade ago,Find detailed product information for howotractor and other products. there was no bigger buzzword in union organizing circles. When John Sweeney was elected AFL-CIO president in 1995, he encouraged affiliates to employ the tactic by pressuring unionized companies to permit uncontested organizing drives at their non-union facilities or subsidiaries.

In one model Bargain to Organize campaign that began in 2008, the 6,China howocargotruck and China HOWO truck,000 SEIU members employed by Help At Home, a for-profit home healthcare company, used their own contract negotiations in Illinois to confront management about its record of union-busting in neighboring Indiana.

Then-SEIU organizer Matt Luskin reported that after an aggressive membership mobilization campaign, Help At Home signed an agreement that not only gave raises and better benefits to Illinois workers, but also "expanded the organizing rights of thousands of workers in other states where the company operates."

In every industry setting, the goal of Bargain to Organize has been some combination of management neutrality, card check, and/or a "free and fair" election process that enables workers to engage in union activity without harassment, threats, intimidation or job discrimination.

One major success for the strategy came after a five-year struggle in the 1990s, when the Communications Workers for America (CWA) finally won a card check and neutrality deal that now applies to employees of AT&T Mobility. Under its terms, AT&T will recognize CWA if a majority of the workers in a pre-specified bargaining unit sign union authorization cards. The American Arbitration Association (AAA) conducts the card count and certifies the results. AT&T Mobility managers are not allowed to interfere with union organizing activity. Management is even obliged to provide CWA with employee information and workplace access that's not required under National Labor Relations Board election rules.

This negotiated process eliminates the Board's role in determining the scope of new bargaining units--a frequent source of representation election delays. Plus, it avoids the costly, uphill battle of an employer-contested NLRB election campaign.

Through card check, more than 40,000 AT&T cellular technicians, customer service reps and retail salespeople have gained union contract coverage. In the heyday of Bargain to Organize, similar large-scale membership gains were made by the Teamsters at UPS Freight; UNITE HERE at the Hilton Hotel chain; the SEIU and other unions at Kaiser Permanente; and,Find detailed product information for howotruck piston ring, most recently, the SEIU and California Nurses Association at Hospital Corporation of America (HCA).

Such Bargain to Organize tensions and controversies are not new. When I was working with CWA members in the 1990s at the phone company now known as Verizon, it took much education and discussion before local union activists embraced the idea of putting organizing-related demands on a par with wages, benefits,What is the difference between standard "ceramic" tiles and porcelaintiles? and working conditions. Even after organizing rights became a strike issue--in a 17-day walkout by 75,000 Verizon workers in 2000--some influential local officials still viewed card check and neutrality as a far-removed "national union issue."

In 2008-2010, as I reported in The Civil Wars in U.S. Labor, the costly series of disputes that enveloped SEIU, CNA, and UNITE-HERE arose partly over Bargain to Organize strategy disagreements. Then-Change to Win leaders Andy Stern and Bruce Raynor argued that "contract relief" was needed to gain an organizational foothold in healthcare, food service, and other industries. If local unions weren't willing to partner with management and promise some degree of "labor peace," too many nursing homes, hospital chains and catering contractors would thwart unionizing efforts.

In one problematic Stern-Raynor organizing experiment, newly recruited food service workers ended up in a nationwide "local," Service Workers United (SWU); SWU members were covered by a "template agreement" that sometimes undercut existing local UNITE-HERE contracts with the same employers.Leading Swarovski crystalbeadswholesale Wholesale Supplierpandahallprlog. Adding insult to injury, the affected workers belatedly discovered that top union negotiators had secretly agreed to restrict membership activity--such as informational picketing, consumer appeals, and other contract campaign tactics--that would be necessary to win future wage and benefit improvements.

Sunset for China's solar domination?

As solar console prices abide to advance lower, Chinese solar companies are disturbing with abundant debt loads, triggering expectations abounding will be affected to seek a new beverage of funds through takeovers or mergers.

Suntech Power Holdings could be accountable for hundreds of millions in new payments afterwards it appear a abeyant artifice by a partner, while aeon such as LDK Solar, JA Solar Holdings Co, Trina Solar and Yingli Green Energy Holding Co are aswell activity pressure.

With prices for solar panels almost accoutrement the amount to body them, dozens of baby Chinese solar companies are believed to accept shut their doors, and disinterestedness investors accept fled the sector, sending allotment prices of the US-listed Chinese companies down added than 85 per cent back aboriginal 2011.

Most of the Chinese solar companies will be able to break accessible alone if government lenders abide to accumulate curve of acclaim accessible admitting forecasts of several added abode of red ink.

"Solar as an industry is traveling to abide to grow," said Brian Salerno, portfolio administrator for Huntington EcoLogical Strategy ETF. "However, my acceptance is that for a lot of of that time it's traveling to be dull prosperity."

Solar analysts accept acicular to LDK Solar as aswell accepting one of the country's a lot of continued antithesis sheets, with debt and added liabilities of $6 billion against banknote and equivalents of just $244 million.Visit TE online for all of your Application tooling Solutions including tools,

JA Solar listed its debt and added liabilities at $1.5 billion against banknote on duke of $676 actor at the end of the aboriginal quarter,

Trina Solar's debt was a added bashful $1.08 billion against banknote on duke of $490 million, while Yingli appear debt of $3.Choose Quality largescalemolds Manufacturers,44 billion against a banknote position of $675 actor at the end of the aboriginal quarter.

Suntech, which has the bigger console accomplishment capacity, may be on the angle for $690 actor in accessory accompanying to the accessible fraud, and it aswell has a $541 actor convertible band transaction due in aboriginal 2013.

The company,This heavy duty square drive impactsocket set is designed for daily use with air driven, which ahead said it was in abuse of some accommodation covenants, listed absolute debt and added liabilities of $3.58 billion, against about $474 actor in banknote on duke as of Advance 31, according to a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

Beijing has provided billions of dollars in acclaim curve and added supports to its solar industry through state-run banks, bidding the US government to appoint acceptation duties beforehand this year afterwards some US manufacturers filed a barter complaint.

Though analysts and solar competitors alfresco of China accept continued beheld government coffer acclaim curve as a above allotment advantage for Chinese solar makers, that abutment has encouraged an overspend on new factories, arch to a excess of panels on the market.

Obtaining a ablaze account of the Chinese companies' debts can be difficult, analysts said, back debts they generally listed as concise liabilities are perpetually formed forward, about authoritative them abiding facilities.

"Trina is apparently the best-positioned. The amount anatomy is great, and they don't accept as abundant debt as added vendors," said Ben Schuman, analyst at Pacific Crest Securities.

Nearly every solar aggregation has been accident banknote because of the low console prices, and policymakers in Beijing said endure year they basic to see a convalescent industry develop, with a abate amount of large, able players.

Whether that alliance will be spurred by Beijing or the debt-holding banks charcoal unclear.

"That's the million-dollar question," said Schuman. "I don't apperceive if it's absolutely even a catechism of 'if' or 'when,Daneplast Limited UK are plasticinjectionmoulding & toolmaking specialists.' it's added a catechism of how. Is this traveling to be affected consolidation, or a bailout of the debt by state-owned enterprises?"

Local governments in China accept aswell accurate the companies in the industry that China sees as acute to bartering electricity to its economy, but analysts said that abutment appears to focused on befitting the bounded job markets strong.

LDK Solar, which cut 5,000 jobs beforehand this year,Infotile is International online directory of ceramictile, accustomed a allowance duke in July, if the government of Xinyu city, in Jiangxi province, appear it would use aborigine funds to accord the company's loans.

Still, Yingli Chief Financial Officer Bryan Li said the Chinese state-run banks and adopted debt providers appeared accommodating to abutment the companies with the best prospects, and delay for a area shakeout to trim the weaker players.

"(The banks) all accept that solar is an arising industry that has a ablaze future, and a abundant bigger approaching afterwards the consolidation," he told Reuters. "They don't wish to accord up their debt attendance in the solar sector."

Li said the aggregation would column absolute operating banknote breeze in the additional bisected of 2012, but predicted new players would access China's solar area to yield over or buy into weaker companies.

"To a ample extent, I anticipate the basic will be advancing from the state-owned companies, or ample calm groups," Li said.

MSU students research anti-fungal compounds, mold samples from flood

A tragedy for Minot was also something of a boon for Minot State University associate professor Mikhail Bobylev and his team of student researchers. Bobylev has spent many years researching anti-fungal compounds and last summer's flood produced many different mold samples right here in Minot for Bobylev and his students to combat.

"It was very interesting," Bobylev said, describing how different colors of mold white, green, black,Welcome to projectorlamp. brown grew in different places on the wall of one of the flooded houses where the team collected samples. Student researcher Braden Burckhard, a senior chemistry major from Burlington, said the mold-covered wall resembled a kaleidoscope picture.Dimensional Mailing magiccubes for Promotional Advertising,

The team members painstakingly collected the mold samples from two different locations last October.

Finding suitable buildings to test in presented something of a dilemma for the team,Aeroscout rtls provides a complete solution for wireless asset tracking. since many homeowners began demolition and restoration work on their flooded homes as soon as they could get back into them. Luckily, Burckhard happened to know the owner of a badly flooded house on University Avenue who gave written permission for Bobylev and his students to collect mold samples there. Bobylev and student researchers wore protective gear before they set foot in the flooded homes to protect them from the mold. Bobylev said he even had to use a special camera to take pictures inside the houses, since an ordinary camera would be contaminated by mold and would soon have mold growing in every nook and cranny. The special camera was sealed to prevent mold from entering it and had to be washed off as soon as the team left the house.

Burckhard said he valued the hands-on experience, which took him out of the science lab and out into the field.

"It gave us a chance to provide research to the community," said Burckhard.

Burckhard and fellow students researchers used cotton swabs to collect samples from different mold colonies in the flooded homes and, back at the lab,Glass Tile and Glass Mosaics for less at the glassmosaic Outlet. isolated each sample to prevent them from being infiltrated with other samples of mold or from outside contaminants. Samples of each mold type collected were taken and sent to Home Mold Laboratory in Walled Lake, Minn. The lab identified each type of mold and what illnesses it might produce. For instance, one type of mold the group found was a white mold identified as "acremonium alabamense." The lab indicated that this genus of fungi can produce a number of serious diseases if it grows in a human being, including osteomyelitis, peritonitis, meningitis and endocarditis, among other ailments.Credit Card Processing and Merchant Services from merchantaccountes. It is also a serious allergen, aggravating hay fever and asthma.

Bobylev said the white mold sample and other mold types can be dangerous to humans and animals, though they are most dangerous to people who have compromised immune systems, such as cancer or AIDS.

This is why it's important to wear protective gear when cleaning out a flooded house or collecting samples, like he and the students did. Bobylev said he found one sample in Burckhard's neighbor's house that interested him, since it is a type of mold that might be most commonly found in a warmer environment like Yellowstone Park. The human body provides a perfect incubator for this type of fungus, which thrives in a warm environment, said Bobylev.

How council bureaucrats brought misery to a Welsh family farm

Over four generations the family farm had grown to 4,000 ewes, plus 2,000 lambs and 450 cattle grazing on more than 1,600 acres of north Wales countryside.

His dedication had won Henllys Farm in Abergele the respect of the agricultural community and a string of awards.

But the 52-year-old farmer's life was plunged into turmoil when council trading standards officials came calling in September 2008.

They scoured the farm and, among the huge flock of sheep, they found two that were dead.

Nothing unusual about that. But, to Mr Williams' horror, the council officers concluded from the state of the carcasses that the animals had been dead for a long time, possibly weeks, and that Mr Williams had failed to dispose of them within a "reasonable" period of time, usually a day or two after they had died.

Mr Williams strenuously denied their claims, saying that he made regular checks and the sheep could not have been dead for more than 48 hours. But he was charged under the 2006 Animal Welfare Act with failing properly to dispose of the carcasses.

The farmer's expert witness, a leading vet, told the court that foxes, crows, magpies and other predators could reduce an animal's corpse to little more than bones within hours of its death. The local authority finally admitted defeat and dropped the case in October 2009 before local magistrates delivered a verdict.

But Mr Williams' battle with the bureaucrats was not over: he still had to fight two charges of causing unnecessary suffering to lambs in a separate prosecution.

The trading standards officers had found one lamb with an eye infection and another with flystrike, a common condition in which flies lay eggs on a sheep's body.

Mr Williams explained that he knew about the infections and was treating both animals in a separate "hospital field". But the officers ignored his protestations and he was charged and found guilty at Prestatyn magistrates court in June last year.

The farmer appealed and the case dragged on until the council decided last week not to contest the appeal - finally clearing Mr Williams' name. His battle for justice had taken nearly three years.

Mr Williams, who runs the farm with his wife Edna and sons Berwyn, 27 and Selwyn, 29, said: "I've been farming all my life and I've never seen anything like this.

"We found ourselves being pursued on totally groundless charges and the cases have brought a lot of stress and heartache to my family for nearly three years.

"We work hard and are proud of what we do here but we have suffered because trading standards don't understand farming.

"Hopefully this case sends out a signal that families such as my own are not willing to roll over but instead will fight for our basic rights and freedoms."

Mr Williams said the council should "look into the background of the people who make these allegations against farmers".

His delight at finally gaining justice was marred by the fact that his father Douglas did not see his victory as he died in March aged 84.

Mr Williams' solicitor said the case was "one of the worst abuses of the law I have seen by a council against a respected and award-winning farming family".

David Kirwan, a farming specialist with Wirral-based Kirwans solicitors, said: "There was never any justification for bringing this case and it is a scandal that it has been allowed to drag on as long as it has.

"The Williams family has lived in fear for almost three years of the potentially catastrophic impact these groundless allegations could have on their financial well-being and on their reputation as sheep farmers."

"Councils like Conwy seem hell-bent on criminalising the hard-working farming community.

"Invading people's privacy and marching round with their clipboards, these officious people forget how vital the farming community is to the economy of this country."

The case sparked anger in the farming community, with the Farmers' Union of Wales calling for the resignation of Phil Rafferty, head of Conwy council's regulatory services.

Mr Williams is not the only farmer to find himself being prosecuted by "meddling and vindictive" officials under relatively new legislation, only for cases to be dropped after drawn-out and expensive proceedings which put farmers' livelihoods at risks.

Mr Kirwan said the case was just the "tip of the iceberg" of "pointless prosecutions". A series of cases have been brought then dropped in similar circumstances to Mr Williams' ordeal, including several in north Wales in the past few weeks alone.

The cases have cost taxpayers hundreds of thousands of pounds.

They include:

- Major Tom Smith, a deputy-Lieutenant of Gwynedd, his wife and son, who were prosecuted for seven alleged animal welfare offences by Conwy trading standards over the management of his flock of Welsh mountain sheep, tended by an experienced shepherd.

A trial date was set but, after more than six months and many expensive court appearances, the case against all three defendants was dropped this month (MAY) because it was not in the public interest. The case is estimated to have cost the taxpayer £75,000.

- Tomos (CORR) Bryn Jones, a farmer from Denbigh, was prosecuted for breaching cattle movement restrictions after he sold a young heifer for slaughter because it "went berserk" and attacked anybody who came near it or its calf. Cows are always protective of their calves but this animal was considered to be dangerous.

The defence argued that the case was exempt from the restrictions. The case went on for nearly nine months before the prosecution dropped the charges this month (MAY), a few weeks before the trial date. Mr Jones, who accepted a caution, was awarded costs.

- John Davies, a fourth-generation cattle and sheep farmer from Llanrwst, Conwy, was cleared by magistrates last October, and won costs, after being prosecuted for failing to provide his cattle with "fresh, golden-coloured straw" for dry bedding.

The defence said that the farmer would have to be with his animals every minute of the day to ensure such pristine straw. The court was asked: "Are farmers expected to stand behind cows in the barns with a 'pooper scooper' and replace the straw every time the animal defecates or urinates?"