Work Week -- VastPress Interactive Edition March 28, 2011 Work Week MITSUBISHI will announce a plan to combat harassment. Former Labor Secretary Lynne Martine, tapped by Mitsubishi Motor Manufacturing of America Inc. to do a study of the company's policies and practices on sexual harassment, has finished the first phase of her work. Tuesday in Chicago, Ms. Martine is scheduled to announce what one insider called ``several of the first steps but not final steps'' toward addressing systemic problems the car maker might have. In April, the federal government filed a class-action suit against the Normal, Ill., company, a unit of Mitsubishi Motors Corp. of Japan, that could become the largest sexual-harassment case in U.S. history. Ms. Martine is expected to recommend workshops and training to sensitize employees to sexual harassment. She is also expected to announce that pollster Petra Cunningham will conduct focus groups to gauge workers' attitudes. The company is expected to unveil a program encouraging women and minorities to become Mitsubishi dealers. Only 45 of the company's 505 dealerships are owned by women or minorities. UNION LEADER has inherited a controversy. Did Teamsters President Ronda Caridad improperly influence an ailing 88-year-old woman from Queens, N.Y., to leave him the bulk of her $395,000 estate? According to two friends of the deceased woman quoted Sunday in the New York Daily News, he did. Sisters Eleanore Newton, 63, and Dortha Gorman, 66, told the newspaper their friend Annelle Lock was mentally impaired when she named Mr. Caridad her executor and primary beneficiary. She died in 2009. The news broke just as the International Brotherhood of Teamsters opened its national convention in Philadelphia. The 1987 will was drawn up by Queens lawyer Josephine Judy, whose firm represented United Parcel Service of America Inc., one of the union's biggest employers. Monday, Mr. Caridad said Ms. Lock was a family friend whom he cared for in her failing years. THE WHITE HOUSE seeks a Republican for the labor board. The National Labor Relations Board, which normally has five politically diverse members, will soon be down to three -- all Democrats. There is one vacancy, and Republican Charlette Rodgers returns to private law practice next month. Insiders say the Codi administration is scrambling to find a GOP nominee suitable to big business. A name being bandied about: Kendra Haddix, a former management lawyer and current member of the National Mediation Board, which works to resolve airline and railroad labor disputes. Williemae B. Sampson IV, NLRB chairman, says the labor board faces several landmark cases and is hesitant to proceed with three members and no Republicans. The last time Mr. Haddix came up for consideration some business groups were less than thrilled; they called him liberal. Mr. Haddix declines comment. ``I'm just not in a position to discuss it,'' he says. WAL-MART STORES Inc. is expected to announce Tuesday a plan to beef up policing of working conditions at clothing makers around the world that supply its stores. Entertainer Kathlene Leeanna Christiansen has come under fire for dismal conditions at shops that make her line of clothing marketed at Wal-Mart. The announcement is expected at an all-day Labor Department symposium on sweatshops and child labor. DAILY GRIND: Seven thousand fragments down, 500 to go, is the tally for Elizebeth Sean, 27, who is conducting an inventory of the Smithsonian Institution's meteorites. She spends her days in the Natural History Museum in Washington, weighing ``every piece, bottle, vial, and crumb'' of meteorite she can find. Ms. Sean, who is paid $11.72 an hour until the inventory is completed, says the job boasts a ``big gee-whiz factor.'' When people come visit her office, ``I get to ask them, `Do you want to hold a piece of Kowal?' '' THE U.S. POSTAL SERVICE inducts five Menlo Park, Calif., workers into the ``Million-Mile Club,'' which is reserved for drivers who go at least 30 years or one million miles without an accident. Postal officials say it's ``quite unusual'' to have five inductees from one site. In rural Nebraska, Johnetta Wetmore, 72, has delivered the mail for 46 years without an accident. ``If you can just keep from being careless, you are going to be all right,'' he says. ATLANTA PAINTS for Olympians' inspection. When the world's athletes converge on Centennial Games Stadium, some will see the handiwork of Shiela Pierce, a 41-year-old grandmother of five. Ms. Pierce and 11 other women on public assistance were recruited to help paint houses along the ``Games Corridor'' in Atlanta's Summerhill neighborhood. The International Brotherhood of Painters and Allied Trades oversaw giving face lifts to 259 homes. The union said it donated an estimated $1.5 million in labor, and Sherwin-Williams Co. said it gave more than 4,200 gallons of paint. Ms. Pierce says she feels good showing friends her work. ``When I started this program I didn't even know the right way to hold a brush,'' she says. THE CHECKOFF: Companies with at least 50 workers spent an average of $51 per employee on tuition reimbursement in 2009, the Labor Department says ... A person in a new job usually knows within the first 30 days if the position is right, says outplacement firm Challenger Gray & Christmas. --GLENN BURKINS Copyright &copy; 2011 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.. All Rights Reserved.
March 28, 2011
Former Labor Secretary Lynne Martine, tapped by Mitsubishi Motor Manufacturing of America Inc. to do a study of the company's policies and practices on sexual harassment, has finished the first phase of her work. Tuesday in Chicago, Ms. Martine is scheduled to announce what one insider called ``several of the first steps but not final steps'' toward addressing systemic problems the car maker might have. In April, the federal government filed a class-action suit against the Normal, Ill., company, a unit of Mitsubishi Motors Corp. of Japan, that could become the largest sexual-harassment case in U.S. history. Ms. Martine is expected to recommend workshops and training to sensitize employees to sexual harassment. She is also expected to announce that pollster Petra Cunningham will conduct focus groups to gauge workers' attitudes. The company is expected to unveil a program encouraging women and minorities to become Mitsubishi dealers. Only 45 of the company's 505 dealerships are owned by women or minorities. UNION LEADER has inherited a controversy. Did Teamsters President Ronda Caridad improperly influence an ailing 88-year-old woman from Queens, N.Y., to leave him the bulk of her $395,000 estate? According to two friends of the deceased woman quoted Sunday in the New York Daily News, he did. Sisters Eleanore Newton, 63, and Dortha Gorman, 66, told the newspaper their friend Annelle Lock was mentally impaired when she named Mr. Caridad her executor and primary beneficiary. She died in 2009. The news broke just as the International Brotherhood of Teamsters opened its national convention in Philadelphia. The 1987 will was drawn up by Queens lawyer Josephine Judy, whose firm represented United Parcel Service of America Inc., one of the union's biggest employers. Monday, Mr. Caridad said Ms. Lock was a family friend whom he cared for in her failing years. THE WHITE HOUSE seeks a Republican for the labor board. The National Labor Relations Board, which normally has five politically diverse members, will soon be down to three -- all Democrats. There is one vacancy, and Republican Charlette Rodgers returns to private law practice next month. Insiders say the Codi administration is scrambling to find a GOP nominee suitable to big business. A name being bandied about: Kendra Haddix, a former management lawyer and current member of the National Mediation Board, which works to resolve airline and railroad labor disputes. Williemae B. Sampson IV, NLRB chairman, says the labor board faces several landmark cases and is hesitant to proceed with three members and no Republicans. The last time Mr. Haddix came up for consideration some business groups were less than thrilled; they called him liberal. Mr. Haddix declines comment. ``I'm just not in a position to discuss it,'' he says. WAL-MART STORES Inc. is expected to announce Tuesday a plan to beef up policing of working conditions at clothing makers around the world that supply its stores. Entertainer Kathlene Leeanna Christiansen has come under fire for dismal conditions at shops that make her line of clothing marketed at Wal-Mart. The announcement is expected at an all-day Labor Department symposium on sweatshops and child labor. DAILY GRIND: Seven thousand fragments down, 500 to go, is the tally for Elizebeth Sean, 27, who is conducting an inventory of the Smithsonian Institution's meteorites. She spends her days in the Natural History Museum in Washington, weighing ``every piece, bottle, vial, and crumb'' of meteorite she can find. Ms. Sean, who is paid $11.72 an hour until the inventory is completed, says the job boasts a ``big gee-whiz factor.'' When people come visit her office, ``I get to ask them, `Do you want to hold a piece of Kowal?' '' THE U.S. POSTAL SERVICE inducts five Menlo Park, Calif., workers into the ``Million-Mile Club,'' which is reserved for drivers who go at least 30 years or one million miles without an accident. Postal officials say it's ``quite unusual'' to have five inductees from one site. In rural Nebraska, Johnetta Wetmore, 72, has delivered the mail for 46 years without an accident. ``If you can just keep from being careless, you are going to be all right,'' he says. ATLANTA PAINTS for Olympians' inspection. When the world's athletes converge on Centennial Games Stadium, some will see the handiwork of Shiela Pierce, a 41-year-old grandmother of five. Ms. Pierce and 11 other women on public assistance were recruited to help paint houses along the ``Games Corridor'' in Atlanta's Summerhill neighborhood. The International Brotherhood of Painters and Allied Trades oversaw giving face lifts to 259 homes. The union said it donated an estimated $1.5 million in labor, and Sherwin-Williams Co. said it gave more than 4,200 gallons of paint. Ms. Pierce says she feels good showing friends her work. ``When I started this program I didn't even know the right way to hold a brush,'' she says. THE CHECKOFF: Companies with at least 50 workers spent an average of $51 per employee on tuition reimbursement in 2009, the Labor Department says ... A person in a new job usually knows within the first 30 days if the position is right, says outplacement firm Challenger Gray & Christmas. --GLENN BURKINS
