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• Florida Students Rally for Tobacco Workers 

Students at the University of Florida (UF) and the University of Central Florida (UCF) spent last Saturday morning raising their voices for justice for tobacco workers. Chanting�"Justice now!" and holding signs that read "Hasta la Victoria" ("Onward to Victory"), dozens of students marched and rallied on UF's Gainesville campus.

The students joined members of the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC), the Student/Farmworker Alliance and the National Farm Worker Ministry to demand justice for tobacco farm workers in North Carolina who suffer low wages and poor working conditions at the hands of Big Tobacco.

The rally followed a UF Student Senate resolution calling for a pay increase and better treatment of Immokalee farm workers, who pick the tomatoes used by Aramark, UF's food provider. "Somebody's got to fight for social justice," said UF junior Justin Wooten.

The students and activists wanted to send a message to Susan Ivey, CEO of Reynolds American, the parent of R.J. Reynolds, the nation's second-largest tobacco company. Ivey has refused to meet with FLOC members

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Hearing held on challenge to new CCC smoking rules  

An arbitrator's ruling on a challenge to the implementation of a new smoking policy at Corning Community College is not expected for several weeks, a CCC official said Thursday.

A hearing was held Wednesday on the challenge by the Professional Educators of Corning Community College. The union contends the change should have been part of negotiations and not adopted as a policy by CCC trustees.

The union and college administration presented their respective sides at the arbitration hearing, CCC President Floyd Amann said Thursday. Lawyers will have to file briefs, and the arbitrator will need some time to make a decision, he said.

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EDITORIAL: Health incentives 

The State Employees Health Plan is about to reward people who take better care of their own health with lower costs. Those who smoke, or who are obese, will pay more. Beginning July 1, 2010, the 600,000 state employees, retirees and teachers in the plan will be enrolled in either of two packages. In one, they will pay 20 percent of their medical costs. In the other, 30 percent. Also starting that day, smokers will be enrolled in the more expensive program. . . .

North Carolina is not breaking new ground here. It is doing what is smart for both its workers and its taxpayers. Other states already differentiate in their health-care coverage based on smoking.

SEANC may not get very far claiming that testing for tobacco use is an invasion of privacy. At many state offices, state employees are allowed smoke breaks. . . .

Programs exist to help employees with both smoking and obesity.

In the future, if individual state employees choose not to take care of themselves, that is their own business only to an extent. While the program may seem harsh to some, state employees are using a plan that costs taxpayers billions of dollars a year, and those taxpayers have a right to expect that employees will help keep costs down. They can do so either by living healthfully or by paying a little extra.

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• Parliament passes Tobacco Bill 

THE National Assembly adopted the Tobacco Products Control Bill with one amendment on Thursday, the last sitting day of the year.

The Bill will now go to the National Council, the House of Review. In a moment of rare agreement between the opposition and the benches of the ruling Swapo Party, Members agreed to a small, but important change of words in Clause 3, which originally stipulated that a member of the umbrella labour movement NUNW, should sit on one of the supervisory boards to be created once the bill is promulgated.

Tsudao Gurirab of the official opposition party CoD proposed that the words should be changed to “a member of organised labour” and thus would avoid the name of a specific labour union.

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• Ruling: Miners can keep chewing tobacco  

"It caused a lot of stress for a lot of people for [the company] to say you can't chew anymore," said Shelly, who testified last month before an United Mine Workers of America arbitrator. Miners had challenged a ban on smokeless tobacco use at the Emery County mine.

Arbitrator Fred Butler ruled in the union's favor Friday, determining that Energy West Mining Corp.'s new policy, officially implemented (but not enforced) July 1, violated the company's collective bargaining agreement covering 276 Deer Creek miners and 17 prep plant workers.

Energy West is the mining subsidiary of Rocky Mountain Power and its parent companies, PacifiCorp and MidAmerican Holdings Co., which enacted the policy at all of their properties.

Butler ruled that chewing tobacco is a prior practice that should be allowed to continue because it is not in conflict with the existing collective bargaining agreement.

In addition, Shelly and other union witnesses at the arbitration session argued that many miners are addicted to chewing tobacco.

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• Unions ready to fight hospital smoking ban 

HOSPITAL unions are drawing up a battle plan to fight a smoking ban introduced earlier this year.

Staffside, a collaboration of Unison and Unite, says staff are unhappy with the move, which was brought in on July 1.

The ban is not legally enforceable but patients, visitors and staff are being asked to respect it.

Union members who staged a protest about the ban in June, say it infringes human rights and people should have a choice about smoking.

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• Unions see red over enforcing smoking ban ($$) 

More than a dozen unions have pledged to the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department that they will enforce the smoking ban, its chief said yesterday, though union leaders disputed that claim.

Director of Food and Environmental Hygiene Cheuk Wing-hing said that he had met the heads of 13 of the department's unions, representing more than 5,400 civil servants, and that all leaders had said they would implement the law. The department has 16 unions.

His claim comes after seven representatives from the department's two staff unions marched to the Legislative Council's complaints division on Tuesday to file a complaint about being made to enforce the ban. A union leader present at yesterday's meeting with Cheuk said that some unions had made clear their opposition towards enforcing the ban.

But Cheuk said that it was only "individual groups" who were unwilling to perform their new duty.

"Civil servants in their right mind will implement the new law," he said.

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Staff too busy to enforce smoking ban, say unions ($$) 

Two unions representing government workers said on Wednesday their members were too busy to hand out fixed-penalty tickets to people violating Hong Kong’s anti-smoking laws.

Their comments follow the extension on Tuesday of anti-smoking laws to include 48 public transport interchanges, bus terminals, wet markets, beaches and housing estates.

Some 2,200 staff from the Leisure and Cultural Service Department, 700 from the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department and 430 from the Housing Department are responsible for enforcing the new penalties.

But the Leisure Service Staff General Union and the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department’s Staff Rights Union, said its members could not perform these extra duties because they did not have sufficient manpower.

However, Director of Food and Environmental Hygiene Cheuk Wing-hing said most of his staff had assured him they would not ignore their new duties.

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• Unions tell staff not to enforce smoking ban ($$) 

A government department's staff union has made a last-minute appeal to its members not to enforce the city's smoking ban - which is being extended today - but to perform only their original duties.

"We've issued a statement to our members, urging them to do our original duties," said Gary Cheung Siu-wing, chairman of the Leisure Service Staff General Union. . . .

Starting from today, 2,200 staff from the Leisure and Cultural Service Department, 700 from the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department and 430 from the Housing Department will be responsible for handing out fixed-penalty tickets to those who smoke in premises and venues under their management - such as libraries, wet markets, beaches and housing estates.

Cheung doubted if they had the legal right to issue the tickets, because over 90 per cent of them still had not got the new departmental warrant card. "Because it's an extra duty ... we need to have the warrant card before we can enforce the new ban," Cheung said.

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To chew or not, that is the question 

nd are on the line Wednesday.

That's when an arbitrator is scheduled to hear a United Mine Workers of America challenge of a new policy that forbids employees of the Deer Creek mine and the Castle Dale preparation plant from having a pinch between their cheek and gum on the job.

The policy became effective July 1 at the Emery County operations by Energy West Mining Co., the unionized coal mining subsidiary of Rocky Mountain Power, at the behest of its parent companies, PacifiCorp and MidAmerican Energy Holdings Co.

"It is a policy consistent across MidAmerican Energy," said Rocky Mountain Power spokesman Dave Eskelsen. "The company is concerned about the health and safety of its employees. A tobacco-free workplace is healthier and safer for everyone."

Dave Maggio, the union's international representative from Price-based District 22, which includes Utah, spit on that argument, while acknowledging that some miners are addicted to the product.

"We have guys dying of black lung [disease]. We have guys inhaling diesel fumes on a daily basis. We have guys who suffer back, knee and ankle injuries up the kazoo," he said. "But we've seen no ill effects from chewing tobacco. None. And I've been in this industry 30 years.

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Smoking just got more expensive 

On June 24, the School Committee took a definitive step in banning smoking on school property. Violation of the ban could bring heavy fines, as high as $300 for both students and faculty members of Tewksbury Public Schools for subsequent offenses. The town is looking to create a policy that serves as a deterrent for members of the school community and to create a healthier school.

Tewksbury is looking into installing tamper-proof smoke detectors in all student bathrooms. The town would also like to rehire a second hall monitor, with both of them supervising the hallways and parking lots.

The policy is a bold move in curtailing smoking on school property. Each offense will bring harsher punishments. For example, if a student violates the policy three times, it would result in a four-day suspension, a $100 fine, mandatory participation in a smoking cessation program, and a student-parent meeting with an administrator.

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• Cuepacs told to remember non-smokers 

KUALA LUMPUR: Cuepacs is ignoring the rights of non-smokers when it opposed the Public Service Department's stand on no-smoking at government departments and agencies.

Prof Dr Rahmat Awang of Universiti Sains Malaysia's National Poison Centre and Malaysian Trades Union Congress adviser on indoor air quality Dr T. Jayabalan said Cuepacs must be seen to serve the rights of non-smokers as much as it wanted to protect the rights of smokers.

They said it had been proven that ventilation systems could not filter the particles and gases in tobacco smoke to safe levels. . . .

They were responding Cuepacs' call to PSD not to impose a blanket ban on smoking in government premises but to provide smokers with designated smoking areas. It was reported in a local daily recently that the PSD would monitor the no-smoking rule at government premises. The PSD had also said government servants were prohibited from smoking in government premises.

Dr Rahmat said the notion that designated smoking areas was a responsible alternative to a smoking ban was flawed.

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Outdoors or Indoors: OPPD says no to tobacco on the job 

And you thought only Nebraska's new law put the fire hose to workplace smoking.

On June 1 -- the day the state's ban on smoking inside workplaces went into effect -- the Omaha Public Power District banned the use of cigarettes and chewing tobacco on the job, even outside.

In effect, none of the utility's 2,400 workers -- not even the worker high atop a power pole -- can take a puff or pinch a snuff on the clock.

Now, two of the utility's major unions have filed a lawsuit that says the ban far exceeded state law and, therefore, violated the unions' contracts with the utility.

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• SEIU pushes for oil, tobacco, liquor taxes  

The state’s biggest labor union is launching a $1-million TV advertising campaign promoting new taxes on the oil, tobacco and liquor industries in hopes of dissuading lawmakers from adopting the deep social services cuts proposed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Republican lawmakers and Schwarzenegger have vowed not to raise taxes to bridge the state’s projected $24-billion deficit, but officials with the Service Employees International Union hope the 30-second TV ad being aired around the state will drum up support for higher levies on certain industries.

The governor wants to eliminate the state’s welfare-to-work program, health insurance for the working poor and student grants, among other programs.

“The governor’s proposed cuts-only budget will destroy the California we know,” said Eliseo Medina, SEIU executive vice president.

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News: PLRB RULES IN APSCUF'S FAVOR REGARDING THE SMOKING BAN 

The Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board (PLRB) ruled that PASSHE committed an unfair labor practice when it failed to negotiate with APSCUF regarding implementation of the Clean Indoor Act.

The PLRB upheld APSCUF's exceptions regarding the PLRB Hearing Examiner's Ruling and vacated that order.

The PLRB informed PASSHE that it must rescind the outdoor portion of the smoking ban and post the PLRB's decision.

APSCUF members are invited to review the PLRB ruling on the Members Only site.

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