New England’s Newspaper for Working Families
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JANUARY 2012
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Labor hails passage of Mass. casino legislation By Common Ground Staff The passage of long-sought-after legislation authorizing casinos in Massachusetts is being hailed as a victory by local labor leaders who say it will generate thousands of jobs and spur the economy. “It’s pretty simple,” said Francis Callahan, president of the 75,000-member Massachusetts Building Trades Council, which backed the legislation. “It’s economic development. It’s jobs. We view it as another industry to come into Massachusetts.” His counterpart at the Boston
Building and Construction Trades Council, Martin J. Walsh, agreed. “It begins to put jobs in the pipeline,” Walsh said, adding that it would also stimulate the economy. Gov. Deval Patrick signed into law in late November what is the most significant expansion of gambling in the Bay State in decades. The law authorizes up to three destination-resort casinos, plus a slot machine parlor. The three casinos would be located in southeastern, eastern and western Massachusetts.
Tens of thousands of new jobs Estimates on how many jobs will be created as a result vary, especially since the proposal went through several different legislative iterations before the final bill passed. In the summer of 2010, the Massachusetts Building Trades Council cited its southern Nevada counterpart, which had said that every 1 million square feet of construction translates into 1,000 construction jobs over a twoyear period. Based on the Nevada experience, Callahan said the casino
legislation could generate as many as 10,000 construction jobs. Late in 2009, the now-past president of the Massachusetts AFL-CIO, Robert J. Haynes, told a joint legislative committee that bringing the casino industry to the Bay State would create tens of thousands of permanent jobs, in addition to thousands of construction jobs for the initial build-out of the casinos not to mention “indirect jobs” in areas surrounding the casinos. Earlier that year, the Labor See Casino, page 2
Future of Westerly Elizabeth Warren seen as Hospital in doubt a strong labor advocate By Common Ground Staff
By Common Ground Staff
WESTERLY, R.I. -- The future of Westerly Hospital, an economic anchor for this South County community and the employer of hundreds of workers, is in question after a Superior Court judge last month approved a petition to place the health care institution in receivership. The hospital sought the protections of receivership after running a $5 million deficit in its most recent fiscal year and failing to see a surplus in decades, according to one news report. “They basically couldn’t pay their bills, and they sought protection,” said Jack Callaci, a United Nurses and Allied Professionals’ (UNAP) field representative. Just weeks into the receivership process, Callaci, who is the union point man in the process, says it’s too early to forecast how it could impact hundreds of nurses, physical therapists, technicians, tradesmen and other workers represented in UNAP locals 5075 and 5104. It’s too soon for example, to say whether the court-appointed receiver with broad powers over hospital finances eventually may attempt to reopen collective bargaining agreements and re-negotiate wages and benefits, which has been the case in Central Falls. “There’s an awful lot of work he (the receiver) has to do and a lot has to happen,” Callaci said. See Hospital, page 2
At a time when the economy remains stuck in neutral, President Obama is slumping in the polls and exasperation over the wealth gap is at an all-time high, Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren has emerged as something of a liberal hero. Warren, a bankruptcy expert and Harvard law professor, is perhaps best known as a consumer advocate, which is just one example of her lifelong work on behalf of working families and the middle class, according to a campaign spokesperson. “In the U.S. Senate, Elizabeth will be a champion for working and middle class families, continuing a lifetime of advocacy and a record of effectively standing up to Wall Street and the big banks to protect consumers,” said campaign Press Secretary Alethea Harney. “Elizabeth believes that people who want to work together for better wages, for better health care and for better working conditions should have the right
United Nurses & Allied Professionals
to do so. She supports the Employee Free Choice Act and the right to organize.” Warren herself has working class roots. Her father was a maintenance worker and had a heart attack at a young age. That forced her mother to take a job as a receptionist at Sears and Warren to start working as a babysitter at the age of 9. When she turned 13, the future Harvard law scholar took a job as a waitress and became a public schoolteacher after graduating from college. So when Warren told a gathering of the Greater Boston Labor Council at a Labor Day breakfast last September that she felt like she was with family, she really meant it. “It is also possible that I feel this way because my brother John, who is now retired but was a crane operator and a member of the International Union of Operating Engineers, called me and told me to behave myself,” Warren added. See Warren, page 4 R
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