AL: Retired frefighter, turns into a true American hero

Caught this on CNN, what an amazing story, reminded me of Flip Wilson, the retired NYC fireman who works with Gene Jackson, a retired Steamfitter in NY to help our severely wounded returning veterans. It amazes me how people will do so much to help others, really go out and help, not just with money, but get their hands dirty to change the world for the better.

Russel Jackson is a guy who made me actually watch TV, with the severe need for health care in the United States, like my recent story “60 minutes follows charatible remote health care facility now needed here in the United States“, whereby a medical service on wheels that was initially intended to be used in third world countries, now goes across the United States to help our own people. Well heres another hero, this guy actually started something

I wish I could get the videos embedded here, but what the heck, you’ll have to click a link or two from this story.

From CNN “Helping kids get well one car ride at a time” (7/3/08):

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama (CNN) — If Russell Jackson has his way, any child who needs medical care but lacks the transportation to get there will have a safe and reliable alternative.

“We found that there were 80,000-plus children in Alabama living in a home with no car,” Jackson says.

“And in the rural areas, there are no cabs, there are no buses, there are no trains. … Millions of children in our country every day have no access to medical care when they need to reach it.”

Jackson is so determined that in 1997 he gave up his career as an Alabama firefighter, moved in with friends and dug into his retirement account to start Kid One Transport, a nonprofit organization that provides rides for needy children in his home state.

In 11 years, Kid One’s fleet of vans has ferried more than 16,000 kids to and from scheduled medical-related appointments all over Alabama.

Watch Jackson describe the need for medical transportation in rural Alabama »

Jackson never anticipated he would leave the fire department to head up a nonprofit organization. After all, firefighting was the culmination of a lifelong dream.

“What little boy doesn’t want to be a firefighter?” Jackson says, laughing.

Continue over at CNN to read the rest, to all the heroes out there on this Independence Day, thank you.

Fireman, teachers, police, none are allowed into unions in North Carolina, stand in solidarity for public workers 6/11/08

North Carolina citizens and organizations are calling for the passage of House Bill 1583, which will grant North Carolina’s public servants the collective bargaining rights they deserve.

North Carolina’s anti-worker laws and failures of labor law enforcement have been reported on this site and at Union Review for a while now, from breaking the bylaws of NAFTA by outlawing collective bargaining and freedom of association for public employees, in which Mexico filed charges with the United Nations International Labor Organization, to the recent Charges filed by over 40 North American unions against the state to the blatant discrimination and disregard for safety standards in the states meat cutting industry . You can check out the stories below:

• Safety Workers Bill dropped for the moment, hard core anti-worker conservatives playing games
• Victory: Senate vote’s overwhelmingly in favor of America’s public safety workers
• More than 40 North American labor unions file charges against North Carolina’s anti-union policies (4/26/08)
• Doctors come forward to Congress explaining how they are coerced to mistreat and under treat injured workers (4/21/08)
• U.S. Lawmakers worried about safety after Charlotte Observers expose on the poultry industry(3/08/08)
• North Carolina who was recently sued by Mexico for labor rights violations is at it again, coercing county employee out of Worker Compensation. (2/14/08)
• NC: The Human Cost of the poultry Industry by The Charlotte observer(2/10/08)
  
• North Carolina Violates NAFTA ?? – Right to Freely Associate/Organize/Bargain Collectively (11/07)
• Who’s the Greediest Grinch of 2007? (12/07)

Tomorrow the H.O.P.E Coalition (Hear Our Public Employees) are gathering to help pass House Bill 1583, which will grant North Carolina’s public servants the collective bargaining rights they deserve.

Heres the scoop from PRNewswire – abridged (6/10/08):

The North Carolina H.O.P.E Coalition (Hear Our Public Employees)
will hold a Collective Bargaining Lobby Day and press conference
on Wednesday, June 11, at the NC Legislative Building in Raleigh
Scheduled speakers include Representative Dan Blue (D-Wake), public
employees and local Government officials
 WHY: A strong and growing coalition of North Carolina citizens and
organizations are calling for the passage of House Bill 1583, which will
grant North Carolina's public servants the collective bargaining rights
they deserve. Current NC law singles out public workers as second class
employees by denying them the same negotiation rights as employees working
in the private sector.
 The H.O.P.E. Coalition's core member organizations include NC State
AFL-CIO; American Federation of Teachers/NC; American Association of
University Professors/NC; International Union of Police Associations;
National Association of Social Workers - NC Chapter; NC Association of
Educators; Professional Firefighters and Paramedics of NC; Service
Employees International Union; State Employees Association of NC, SEIU
Local 2008; Teamsters Local 391; UE 150 - NC Public Service.


		
	
	

Firemen, teachers, police, none are allowed into unions in North Carolina, stand in solidarity for public workers 6/11/08

North Carolina citizens and organizations are calling for the passage of House Bill 1583, which will grant North Carolina’s public servants the collective bargaining rights they deserve.

North Carolina’s anti-worker laws and failures of labor law enforcement have been reported on this site and at Union Review for a while now, from breaking the bylaws of NAFTA by outlawing collective bargaining and freedom of association for public employees, in which Mexico filed charges with the United Nations International Labor Organization, to the recent Charges filed by over 40 North American unions against the state to the blatant discrimination and disregard for safety standards in the states meat cutting industry . You can check out the stories below:

• Safety Workers Bill dropped for the moment, hard core anti-worker conservatives playing games
• Victory: Senate vote’s overwhelmingly in favor of America’s public safety workers
• More than 40 North American labor unions file charges against North Carolina’s anti-union policies (4/26/08)
• Doctors come forward to Congress explaining how they are coerced to mistreat and under treat injured workers (4/21/08)
• U.S. Lawmakers worried about safety after Charlotte Observers expose on the poultry industry(3/08/08)
• North Carolina who was recently sued by Mexico for labor rights violations is at it again, coercing county employee out of Worker Compensation. (2/14/08)
• NC: The Human Cost of the poultry Industry by The Charlotte observer(2/10/08)
  
• North Carolina Violates NAFTA ?? – Right to Freely Associate/Organize/Bargain Collectively (11/07)
• Who’s the Greediest Grinch of 2007? (12/07)

Tomorrow the H.O.P.E Coalition (Hear Our Public Employees) are gathering to help pass House Bill 1583, which will grant North Carolina’s public servants the collective bargaining rights they deserve.

Heres the scoop from PRNewswire – abridged (6/10/08):

The North Carolina H.O.P.E Coalition (Hear Our Public Employees)
will hold a Collective Bargaining Lobby Day and press conference
on Wednesday, June 11, at the NC Legislative Building in Raleigh
Scheduled speakers include Representative Dan Blue (D-Wake), public
employees and local Government officials
 WHY: A strong and growing coalition of North Carolina citizens and
organizations are calling for the passage of House Bill 1583, which will
grant North Carolina's public servants the collective bargaining rights
they deserve. Current NC law singles out public workers as second class
employees by denying them the same negotiation rights as employees working
in the private sector.
 The H.O.P.E. Coalition's core member organizations include NC State
AFL-CIO; American Federation of Teachers/NC; American Association of
University Professors/NC; International Union of Police Associations;
National Association of Social Workers - NC Chapter; NC Association of
Educators; Professional Firefighters and Paramedics of NC; Service
Employees International Union; State Employees Association of NC, SEIU
Local 2008; Teamsters Local 391; UE 150 - NC Public Service.

	

Safety Workers Bill dropped for the moment, hard core anti-worker conservatives playing games

UPDATE To: Victory: Senate vote’s overwhelmingly in favor of America’s public safety workers (5/13/08)

According to the Associated Press this Bill has been dropped for the time being, from The NY Times (5/15/08):

Democrats drop first – responder bill
WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Democrats on Thursday dropped a bill allowing all police, firefighters and other first responders to unionize after Republicans complained they didn’t get enough time to offer amendments.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said he did not have enough votes to force final consideration of the bill.

The two top senators on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pension Committee, Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., and Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., will try to work out an agreement before the bill comes back for consideration, Reid said.

The bill would guarantee public safety officers the right to join unions and bargain over wages, hours and conditions of employment. It also would ban them from going on strike.

Two states, Virginia and North Carolina, prohibit public safety officers from collective bargaining. At least 20 other states don’t fully protect collective bargaining rights for firefighters, police officers, corrections officers and emergency medical service workers, supporters said.

States could exempt towns with fewer than 5,000 people or fewer than 25 full-time employees.

”I know there are diverse views on this issue,” Kennedy said. ”We’ll try to work out an orderly process and proceed.”

Sources say, that while there is strong bipartisan support, 11 Republicans are co-sponsors of the Bill, there is also fierce opposition, particularly from Enzi, DeMint and Vitter who have essentially been filibustering by amendment. The Bill will be brought up again right before or after Senate recess.

MA: Firefighters call for unity rally prior to Memorial ceremony and lobby day

At last year’s Lobby Day President McCarthy read the names of our members who died during 2006 of occupationally related illness and injury.

With recent concerns of the under-staffing and the recent attack on their profession in the media, the Professional Fire Fighters of Massachusetts is calling on all non-working members in the area to attend their 3rd annual “PFFM Lobby Day, Unity Rally & Workers Memorial April 29th“. Heres the story from the PFFM web site:

April 29th at 10AM will be the PFFM’s 3rd Annual Lobby Day, Unity Rally and Worker’s Memorial at the State House on Beacon Hill.

To: PFFM Locals and membership

From: Bob McCarthy, President & The PFFM Executive Board

Subj: Unity rally prior to Workers Memorial and PFFM Lobby Day. 04/29/08

All off duty firefighters are requested to attend a “UNITY RALLY’ on Tuesday morning April 29, 2008 on the Boston Common in front of the State House. Formation at the corner of Charles St. and Beacon St. at 10:00am. Uniform of the day is Red Shirt and fire helmet. The Clinton Fire Local 3189 clothing van will be at the Unity Rally at 9:00AM at Charles and Beacon Streets meeting place. They will have the Red Shirts on hand available to purchase. Call 508-380-9606 and ask for Paul if anyone wants to pre-order some Red Shirts so that they can have their size on hand at the Rally.

This rally will be a display of solidarity. The print and news media have attacked our profession unmercifully over the past six months and it has become quite clear that they are attacking our benefits. This unity rally will demonstrate that we will not sit still for their vilification and the malice towards us, our profession and our benefits.

We will respond as proud union members who will fight as “ONE” against any and all attacks on our profession. We will stand proud in support of our local union officers our statewide union officers and our International union officers.

Let us pass the word and make this the best attended rally in our 63
year history.

After the rally we will join our Union Brothers and Sisters at a memorial for all the departed union members who have passed away from an on duty accident, injury or occupational disease at a “Workers Memorial Day Ceremony”. We will then visit our respective State Senators and State Representatives to lobby for our legislative agenda.

click here for a copy of the PFFM Do’s & Don’ts of Lobbying

I hope some of our firefighter friends in the area will get us some pictures, good luck