George Cole, ironworker and brother-in-law of Harold “Rusty” Billingsley who was killed in a recent Las Vegas construction accident, says that Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) withdrew all citations and fines which was initially offered as the accident could have been prevented. Cole says Billingsley’s employer bore no responsibility. Cole discusses unsafe working conditions and OSHA’s failure to enforce safety standards. (0:57)

 

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Mark Ayers, president of Building and Construction Trades Department of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) gives statistics regarding the number of deaths of construction workers compared to the number of deaths of firefighters and law enforcement officers. He says there is a better chance of surviving a tour of duty in Iraq than to survive a day on a construction site. Ayers says on average, four construction workers are killed each day. (1:19)

 

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The building Trade National Legislative Conference celebrated its 100 Year Anniversary with an appearance by Democratic Presidential Candidate Barack Obama (D-IL).

U.S. Senator Claire C. McCaskill introduced the candidate. In her presentation, she emphasized on the advantages of Obama being a president. In her opinion Obama will be “the best President the U.S. has seen.” Criticism on the present administration was also addressed by Sen. McCaskill such as “our president has messed this country.”

Senator Obama started off by raising some questions that the people have been thinking about lately. Questions like the future of the next generation, the economy and so forth. He said “These are the same kinds of questions I heard over two decades ago after I turned down a job on Wall Street and went to work as a community organizer on the South Side of Chicago.” He then continued his speech by saying he is aware of all the difficulties, complications and challenges that a working family undergoes, since he went to college on loans and saw his mother scared of getting sick, because of a chance of not being able to pay her bills.

He also talked about his support of the unions and how he would help the people to reorganize and make unions. The current administration, he said, not only has not fought for the working families, has even “tried to stop you (the workers) fighting for yourselves.” His plan is not only to “end the failed policies of the Bush administration”, but to “end the failed system in Washington that produces those policies.”

The senator made a comment on the Republican Presidential candidate John McCain’s policies and how this country does not need another 4 years of Bush administration. He added that Senator McCain used to oppose tax cuts, “but somewhere along the way to the Republican nomination, I guess he figured that he had to stop speaking his mind and start towing the line.”

He promised to invest in future jobs, in helping the people who have served the country, in job trainings, in health care. The essential part is to invest in this country and not overseas, promote job creations and not only job-training and so forth.

He exited the room by “we are going to save this country; we are going to save this world.”