February 18, 2011 Volume 112 Number 4

Union pension funds invest $22 million in Coquille hospital The AFL-CIO Housing Investment Trust is investing $22 million of union pension funds in the construction of a 60,000-square-foot replacement hospital in Southwestern Oregon. The Coquille Valley Hospital project will be 100 percent union-built, creating 225 construction jobs in an area where 40 percent of union building trades workers are out of work. New book brings to life MLK's dreams of economic justice Martin Luther King Jr. — pigeonholed as a civil rights leader — might be better understood as a human rights leader, says UW historian Michael Honey, editor of a new collection of previously unpublished King speeches to union groups. OSHA pulls rule on reporting ergonomics injuries OSHA, the federal agency in charge of making workplaces safer, announced Jan. 25 that it will hold off asking employers to record musculoskeletal disorders like carpal tunnel on a form they already fill out for work-related injuries. “We were stunned,” said Peg Seminario, director of the national AFL-CIO Safety and Health Department. Unions call for boycott of Columbian newspaper Two Southwest Washington labor bodies are calling for a boycott of The Columbian, the Vancouver daily newspaper. “The Columbian continues to publish articles that are biased against and inflammatory toward working-class people, union members, and public employees,” explained the president of the SW Washington Central Labor Council. SEIU 49 scores Oregon’s biggest private-sector win in decades Oregon’s biggest private sector union organizing victory in decades came through this month among support and maintenance workers at St. Charles Medical Center in Bend. It was a close one. The National Labor Relations Board announced Feb. 2 a final tally of 267 to 261. Employees in 69 classifications will now be members of Service Employees International Union Local 49.