UE Facts and Comment
Periodical profile published 1982

Year Published:  1982
Resource Type:  Serial Publication (Periodical)
Cx Number:  CX2689

Abstract: 
UE FACTS AND COMMENT is a bulletin published montly by the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America. It includes such regular features as "Numbers of the Month" which lists items such as the latest consumer price indiex, national employment/unemployment rates and wage figures, and "UE Factsheet" which reports on hazards of various chemicals used by manufacturers, as well as recommended exposure limits.

Another regular feature "Improving Your Contract: Medical Monitoring" points out that medical monitoring of workers does little good because the damage has already been done by the time it shows up in tests. Furthermore, employers are attempting to use legislation to force workers to be tested by company doctors, which gives the company access to information that may be used to discriminate against emplyees. The union suggests:
- Doctors be selected by workers through their unions;
- Tests be done during working hours;
- Workers have the right to refuse testing (with out the company requiring the employee to sign a statement
releasing the employer from any liability under law).

"It Does Pay to Fight" reports that a united militant fight is the only way workers have a chance of protecting themselves, their living standards, and their conditions of work. Another article reports that the average Canadian employee is losing $41.25 a week in real wages compared to what was earned in November 1976.

A special featrue: "How the World Council of Churches Views Multinationals'" is excerpted from "The World Council of Churches Programme on Transnational Corporations: Some Lessons and Challenges" by Marcos Arruda, Geneva, 1982. Their view is that violations of human dignity are:".....the unaviodable result of organizing society on the basis of unlimited growth; the primacy of commerical relations over the human being;....the conception of money and capital as the ultimate value of human life."