Improving the Community Services Block Grant Act of 2004

IBEW supported an amendment that would authorize funds necessary under the Community Service Block Grants (CSBG) program for six additional months of unemployment benefits for people who have exhausted their state jobless benefits and who are no longer eligible for temporary federal unemployment benefits, which expired in December. Bill Reference H.R. 3030 [Ltr. 1/29/04] The IBEW urged support of the Employee Free Choice Act (S. 1925/H.R. 3619). Card check recognition should be the law of the land giving workers a mechanism in this proposed law to institute first contract arbitration and levy fines against employers who violate the law by stalling negotiations. The IBEW urged rejection of the new personnel rules proposed by the Department of Defense (DoD). In the interest of national security, Congress sought to grant DoD some additional flexibility in managing its work force. Instead, DoD has usurped Congressional authority and proposed that DoD be allowed to: 1. Replace good-faith bargaining with unions over personnel changes to mere “consultation;” 2. Allow DoD to unilaterally determine which changes are sufficiently significant to merit “consultation;” 3. Allow DoD to unilaterally implement personnel changes where it cannot reach agreement with the unions, thereby permitting all post-implementation negotiations to cease; 4. Create an unleveled playing field at the new Defense Labor Relations Board (DLRB) because its members would be selected solely by the Secretary of Defense; and 5. Discriminate against DoD employees because, as a result, up to 200,000 DoD employees could lose their right to join unions. Bill Ref. H.R. 1588, FY 2004 Defense Authorization enacted in 2003 [Ltr. 3/29/04] The IBEW strongly opposes the final regulations written by the Department of Labor to change federal overtime pay rules. The overtime laws guarantee extra work will be rewarded with extra pay. These job protections were won after decades of struggle to make jobs safe and protect workers from abuse. These changes would erode the 40-hour workweek. IBEW opposed S. 2290, the "Fairness in Asbestos Injury Resolution Act of 2004." S. 2290 creates a new asbestos trust fund that contains inadequate award values for victims and does not resolve fund solvency issues; pre-empts asbestos-related compensation for railroad workers covered by Federal Employers' Liability Act (FELA); fails to address the separate treatment of pending claims and settlements; includes language that subrogates the victim's ability to collect other forms of compensation, such as worker's compensation; and lacks a sufficient medical screening provision for high risk workers. Additionally, court costs and lawyers' fees are a good portion of current asbestos awards, leaving unfair compensation settlements for victims. The IBEW supports elimination of prison work programs that unfairly compete with law-abiding citizens. Prison labor allows private companies to bid for work previously under the exclusive jurisdiction of Federal Prison Industries (FPI). Bill Ref. S. 346, a bill to amend the Office of Federal Procurement Policy Act to establish a government wide policy requiring competition in certain executive agency procurements.