The Plasma Column Article
UA Local 72 state of the art welding facility.
Reply
Memorial Ride for Shane Wilson, Son of J.D. Wilson March 24, 2012
shane wilson flyer
DEKALB COUNTY, GA (CBS ATLANTA) –
A man accused in a wrong-way crash that killed a Doraville police detective is facing major charges.
Police charged Gene Jones with DUI, vehicular homicide and driving on the wrong side of the road.
Det. Shane Wilson died when an SUV heading the wrong way slammed into his own SUV on Interstate 20 in DeKalb County early Monday morning.
DeKalb police said Jones was the driver.
“There are certainly heavy hearts hear at DeKalb County. There is a connection, not only as a fellow officer. Both the mother and father are retired DeKalb police officers,” said spokeswoman Mekka Parish.
The pain cuts sharply and deeply for Wilson’s family.
“The whole notion of the senseless loss of life and what goes on in the mind of somebody who starts their evening for fun and entertainment and doesn’t take the precautions necessary to ensure they get home safely is truly maddening,” said Rev. Stacey Hanson, Wilson’s step-brother.
Wilson is the first Doraville officer to die in the line of duty since 2000, police said. Officer Hugo Arango was shot and killed while questioning people suspected of breaking into cars at nightclub parking lot.
Wilson began his career with the Doraville Police Department in 2003 as a dispatcher and became a sworn-in officer in 2007. In September 2011, he was promoted to detective corporal.
United Association Strategic Jobs Plan
Deceased Members Report for February 7th, 2012
UA Local 72 General Election Results
How do we as UA members increase these numbers ?
(The Wall Street Journal) – The percentage of Americans who belong to a union stayed nearly flat in 2011, contrasting with sharper declines in recent years.
Labor experts said the figures reflected a slightly improving economy and rehiring in unionized workplaces, rather than success in union organizing campaigns.
The number of union members rose to 14.8 million in 2011 from 14.7 million a year earlier, thanks to an increase in union members at private-sector employers, where unions had struggled to add members in recent years.
The percentage of workers who belong to a union inched down to 11.8 percent from 11.9 percent in 2010, a decline the Bureau of Labor Statistics said left the rate “essentially unchanged.”
The plateau comes amid a wave of efforts in states and Congress to chip away at union benefits and discourage workers from belonging to unions. A Republican-sponsored Senate bill would require union members to vote every three years on whether they want to retain union representation in the workplace.
Congressional Republicans and business groups are trying to block a new federal regulation that would speed union-organizing elections. Last year, Wisconsin stripped public sector union members of many collective-bargaining rights.
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said the slight uptick in the number of private sector members showed that good union jobs are beginning to come back. “Despite an unprecedented volley of partisan political attacks on workers’ rights, and the continuing insecurity of our economic crisis, union membership increased slightly last year,” he said.
Randy Johnson, the US Chamber of Commerce’s senior vice president of labor, sees it differently. “The fact that there’s been some growth is a good sign that the economy is rebuilding a bit but has nothing to do with the unions or their appeal to workers,” he said.
The last time union membership rates rose was in 2008 when they increased to 12.4 percent from 12.1 percent a year earlier. But that increase was not enough to reverse a declining trend over the last three decades, from a membership rate of 20.1 percent in 1983.
UA LOCAL 72 NEWS LETTER 