Pennsylvania Employer Gives Workers $100 Each to Offset Cost of Gas

[Omaha Steve]

http://blog.aflcio.org/2008/06/11/pennsylvania-employer-gives-workers-100-each-to-offset-cost-of-gas/

In his latest report from the field, Frank Snyder, Pennsylvania Labor 2008 state director, shows the contrast between an employer who supports working families and a Republican presidential candidate who backs Big Oil.

This week, the nationwide average price of gas exceeded $4 a gallon. One Pennsylvania employer stepped in to help his employees fill their tanks: The president of the Wheatland Tube Co., Bill Kerins. Kerins presented Andrew Harkulich, United Steelworkers (USW) Local 1660 vice president, with a check for $100.



Each worker at the Wheatland Tube will receive a check for that amount to help offset skyrocketing gas prices. As workers entered the factory for the second shift that afternoon, Local 1660 officers, President Mike Munger, Vice President Harkulich and Recording Secretary Karen Yanak, distributed fliers describing Sen. John McCain’s support for tax breaks for Big Oil. Several workers stopped to talk about the detrimental effect that the cost of gas is having on their daily lives, many expressing the hope that McCain will stop favoring the interests of corporations over those of working families.

Munger says workers are making sacrifices in their personal lives in order to afford to go to work:

We have people who live in New Castle, Austintown and Youngstown. These people are sometimes working six days a week and traveling 60 or 70 miles round trip each day. That’s putting a huge dent into people’s gas budget.

FULL story at link.