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Thursday, March 21, 2024
The New York Game: A Baseball Tale Steeped in Labor Struggles
Kevin Baker's "The New York Game" isn't just a love letter to baseball and the Big Apple. It's a rich tapestry that weaves the evolution of America's pastime with the burgeoning organized labor movement and the fight for workplace safety. While baseball takes center stage, Baker doesn't shy away from the harsh realities early ballplayers face.
Sunday, October 26, 2014
Meet the startups trying to stop pedestrian deaths
| Distracted walking is a new safety concern. Today's post is shared from theverge.com As phones get more powerful and screens get bigger, it gets harder and harder to pull our attention away from them, even when it puts us at risk. One place where that unavoidably happens is in the intersections of city streets, where pedestrians, bikers, and drivers meet — sometimes violently. To try to tackle this problem, AT&T partnered with the NYU Rudin Center for Transportation, the NYC Department of Transportation, educational co-op General Assembly, and software competition site ChallengePost to create Connected Intersections, a four-month developer challenge with the goal of inspiring technologies that can make city streets safer for distracted humans buried in their phones and the people around them. "Traffic lights can only do so much." "Pedestrians and cars are kind of at an impasse right now, and it’s getting to a point where real action needs to be taken," Sarah Kaufman of the Rudin Center said at one of the challenge’s developer open houses back in July. "Every two hours a New Yorker is hurt or badly injured, and every 30 hours one is killed in a car crash. So it’s at a point where we have a big opportunity to start using smart technologies to put the power in the people’s hands. Why not put safety in people’s hands? Traffic lights can only do so much." Connected Intersections ended up collecting 45 ideas from teams in 13 different countries and 26 different states. Eight teams were awarded... |
Sunday, September 7, 2014
Fast food strikes hit 150 US cities
| DURHAM, North Carolina — For nearly a month and a half, protesting fast food workers have insisted that they were willing to do “whatever it takes” in order to earn union recognition and a higher wage. On Thursday, they demonstrated what that means. Hundreds of workers across the United States engaged in non-violent acts of civil disobedience, risking arrest to demonstrate their commitment to boosting wages and working conditions. In Durham, N.C., 23 workers occupied a series of increasingly busy street intersections, sitting on the pavement and block traffic for an hour or so before moving on to the next location. Other workers chanted and danced around those who were obstructing traffic, as a drum line of supporters pounded away on their snare and bass drums. All told, thousands of fast food workers across 150 U.S. cities walked off the job on Thursday. Hundreds of those workers — nearly 500 of them, according to a public relations firm supporting the strikes — willfully committed civil disobedience as part of their protest, and were subsequently arrested by the police. A member of Congress who participated in one of the protests was also arrested. In Durham, part of North Carolina’s prosperous and fast-growing Research Triangle, police arrested 26 protesters, including two campaign organizers and one attorney affiliated with the movement. Local police followed the city’s protest for upwards of three hours while making no... |
Monday, December 9, 2013
Deadly Factory Fire Bares Racial Tensions in Italy
PRATO, Italy — Dozens of bouquets block the entrance to the Teresa Moda outlet and factory where seven Chinese workers died last Sunday in a fire that swept through the establishment where they worked and lived.
Enlarged photos of the seven victims, two women and five men, have been affixed to the door under a handwritten sign that reads: “Sorrow Has No Color.” Behind police barricades, in soggy piles, are charred bolts of cloth, mountains of plastic hangers and garbage bags full of newly cut garment pieces.
The building, which houses Teresa Moda, a wholesale distributor which also prepared clothing for assembly lines, did not have emergency exits, officials said. Windows were blocked by bars. Officials believe that a camp stove used for cooking probably caused the fire, in which two others were seriously hurt.
It took calamity to fan national outrage at the low-cost business model that took root here 20 years ago and that has transformed the economy of this Tuscan town 12 miles north of Florence.
But for officials who have tried to get a grip on the problem, “a tragedy is always just around the corner,” said Stefano Bellandi, the local secretary for the CISL, one of Italy’s main unions.
The fire at Teresa Moda, and the uproar that followed, exposed the complicated, and at times tense, cohabitation in Prato of Italian residents and Chinese immigrants, who now own nearly 45 percent of the city’s manufacturing businesses.
Law...
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Monday, November 25, 2013
November 22: Clara Lemlich
Clara Lemlich made a spontaneous speech at Cooper Union on this date in 1909 that sparked the “Uprising of the 20,000,” an industry-wide strike mobilized by the new International Ladies Garment Workers Union.
“I want to say a few words!” shouted Lemlich, a 23-year-old garment worker (usually described as 19), following AFL leader Samuel Gompers’ speech. She was a member of the ILGWU’s executive board and had been arrested seventeen times, with broken ribs to show for it. “I have no further patience for talk,” she said upon reaching the podium, “as I am one of those who feels and suffers from the things pictured. I move that we go on a general strike . . . now!” The strike lasted until February and was met with constant violence, but at its end the union had increased its membership from thehundreds to some twenty thousand, and most of the major sweatshop owners had signed union contracts — except for the Triangle Shirtwaist Company. Lemlich remained an activist throughout her life until her death in 1982 at 96. (For a brief Jewish Currents interview with Clara Lemlich in the year of her death, visit our archive and scan down to “L.”)
“If I turn traitor to the cause I now pledge, may this hand wither from the arm I now raise.” —Traditional Yiddish oath, led in recitation by Clara Lemlich after the strike resolution passed
The Jewish Currents Pushcart now carries a...
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Tuesday, November 19, 2013
NLRB Office of the General Counsel Authorizes Complaints against Walmart, Also Finds No Merit to Other Charges
The National Labor Relations Board Office of the General Counsel has investigated charges alleging that Walmart violated the rights of its employees as a result of activities surrounding employee protests. The Office of the General Counsel found merit in some of the charges and no merit in others. The Office of the General Counsel has authorized complaints on alleged violations of the National Labor Relations Act. If the parties cannot reach settlements in these cases, complaints will issue.
The Office of the General Counsel found merit to alleged violations of the National Labor Relations Act against Walmart, such as the following:
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Sunday, October 20, 2013
Bangladesh: Is Worker Safety Failing in the Global Supply Chain?
 Download the pdf of the Bangladesh features.But as U.S. corporations shifted the bulk of their manufacturing overseas, how responsible should they have been for contractors that set up shop in countries where production is the only concern? Should U.S. and European companies bear some responsibility for the welfare of their contractors’ employees? The authors of the articles in this special section say that yes, the multinational companies doing business in countries like Bangladesh and Pakistan have a moral responsibility to improve the working conditions and safety of the people who manufacture their clothing and other products. After all, manufacturing in Bangladesh is big business: The ready-made garment (RMG) sector in Bangladesh exported goods worth more than $20 billion in the past year; nearly 12 percent more than a year earlier. The... |
Sunday, September 22, 2013
Bangladesh workers must continue to wait for full compensation
Eleven of the brands and retailers sourcing from the factories involved in the Tazreen and Rana Plaza disasters joined high-level compensation meetings, facilitated by the ILO as a neutral chair, on 11-12 September in Geneva. Many other major companies failed to attend, showing total contempt for the 1,900 workers who were injured and the families of over 1,200 workers who were killed making their products.
IndustriALL Global Union Assistant General Secretary Monika Kemperle stated: “Consumers will be shocked that almost a half-year has passed since the Rana Plaza disaster with only one brand so far providing any compensation to the disaster’s victims. I respect those brands that came to these meetings. But I cannot understand brands that are not around the table.” Regarding Rana Plaza out of a total of 29 brands that were invited the following 9 brands showed good faith by attending the meeting: Bon Marché, Camaieu, El Corte Ingles, Kik, Loblaw, Mascot, Matalan, Primark and Store Twenty One. 20 other companies, all of whom were invited, failed to show up: Adler, Auchan, Benetton, C&A, Carrefour, Cato Corp, The Children’s Place, Dressbarn, Essenza, FTA International, Gueldenpfennig, Iconix Brand, Inditex, JC Penney, Kids Fashion Group, LPP, Mango, Manifattura Corona, NKD, Premier Clothing, PWT Group, Texman and Walmart. IndustriALL, the Clean Clothes Campaign (CCC) and the Workers Rights Consortium (WRC) presented a proposed... |
Related articles
- Bangladesh Building Collapse Highlights Need for Safety Inspections (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
- Doing Business in Bangladesh (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
- Workers compensation rates to decline in Oregon in 2014 (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
- Report Recommends Raising Workers' Compensation Premiums (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
- Workers' Compensation Benefits, Employer Costs Rise with Economic Recovery (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
- Parma considering following Cleveland in suing Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation over inflated premiums (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
Friday, August 16, 2013
Bangladesh Building Collapse Highlights Need for Safety Inspections
Today's post comes from guest author Kit Case from Causey Law Firm.
Ed Note: Samsung has been sued in Brazil over factory working conditions
The total number of workers killed or injured in the collapse of a building in Savar, Bangladesh on April 24, 2013 is not yet known, as rescuers continue to search for survivors. As of Sunday, April 28th, the count was at least 377 dead.
Many of those killed were workers at clothing factories housed in the building, known as Rana Plaza, where fire broke out in the wreckage of the building, temporarily suspending rescue efforts as of April 24. Efforts will restart with the aide of heavy equipment, which had previously been avoided in an effort to not injure those still buried in the rubble. T
here no longer are assumed to be any victims remaining alive, although hundreds remain unaccounted for. The death toll surpassed a fire five months ago that killed 112 people and brought widespread pledges to improve worker-safety standards. But since then, very little has changed in Bangladesh.
Human Rights Watch reported on the building collapse, noting that it knows of no cases in which the Bangladeshi government has ever prosecuted a factory owner over the deaths of workers. Many factory owners in Bangladesh are parliamentarians or members of the main political parties. In an interview with a government minister in 2011, the minister told Human Rights Watch that it would be “impossible” to improve workers rights so long as factory owners were senior members of political parties.
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| Bangladeshi Workers Protest Deaths |
here no longer are assumed to be any victims remaining alive, although hundreds remain unaccounted for. The death toll surpassed a fire five months ago that killed 112 people and brought widespread pledges to improve worker-safety standards. But since then, very little has changed in Bangladesh.
Human Rights Watch reported on the building collapse, noting that it knows of no cases in which the Bangladeshi government has ever prosecuted a factory owner over the deaths of workers.USA Today reported on the tragedy with the news that Mohammed Sohel Rana, the fugitive owner of the illegally-constructed building, was apprehended by a commando force while trying to flee to India. Rana was returned to Dhaka to face charges of negligence. Rana had been on the run since the building collapsed Wednesday. He last appeared in public Tuesday in front of the Rana Plaza after huge cracks appeared in the building. Witnesses said he assured tenants, including five garment factories, that the building was safe. Hours later, the Rana Plaza was reduced to rubble, crushing most victims under massive blocks of concrete.
Human Rights Watch reported on the building collapse, noting that it knows of no cases in which the Bangladeshi government has ever prosecuted a factory owner over the deaths of workers. Many factory owners in Bangladesh are parliamentarians or members of the main political parties. In an interview with a government minister in 2011, the minister told Human Rights Watch that it would be “impossible” to improve workers rights so long as factory owners were senior members of political parties.
Monday, December 10, 2012
Statement from the Maquiladora Health and Safety Support Network On the Bangladesh Factory Fires and What’s Needed to Prevent Them
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| Bangladesh Factory Fire |
This will appear as a “Letter from the Coordinator” in the December 2012 issue of the MHSSN newsletter, Border/Line Health & Safety. Garrett Brown, MPH, CIH, is the MHSSN Coordinator and the Network’s website iswww.igc.org/mhssn .
Letter from the Coordinator
Words fail at times like this – another garment factory fire in Bangladesh; 112 dead and 150 injured; another round of despair and anguish for the workers and their families; another round of denials by international garment brands that they bear any responsibility; another round of promises by the brands and their contractors that they will “do better” while refusing to acknowledge that it is their “profits first and foremost” production system that has led to fire after fire after fire.
At least 600 garment workers have been killed – with hundreds more injured, some disabled for life – in factory fires in Bangladesh since 2006. In September 2012, 289 garment workers were killed in a garment factory fire in Pakistan, with scores more injured.
Yet everyone knows exactly the cause of these fires: large quantities of poorly kept flammable materials; damaged or overloaded electrical systems; absent or completely inadequate fire suppression equipment; and non-existent or unimplemented emergency action and evacuation plans. But the people who control these supply chains – the brands – refuse to take any meaningful action to keep from regularly killing the people who make their products and their profits.
The root cause of these fires is a supply chain that places priority on the brands’ “iron triangle” of the lowest price/the highest quality/the fastest delivery from contractors; at the same time that contractors are provided with ever-shrinking, razor-thin profit margins by the brands; while government regulation is made meaningless by corruption and lack of resources; and garment workers are so desperate for work that they cannot refuse any job, no matter how dangerous. Corporate greed and corruption literally kill.
The garment industry’s global supply chain of death-traps is a crisis for all involved – a crisis for workers, for contract manufacturers, for international brands, for governments in the developing world, for the ever-expanding “corporate social responsibility” (CSR) industry, and for the occupational health and safety profession. See the extended “Quotes of the Month” for the perspective of each level of the supply chain. It is a crisis for workers because they are forced by poverty and hunger to go to work every day knowing that they may be burned alive.
It is a crisis for the contractor manufacturers who are denied by their brand clients theresources needed to upgrade their facilities, pay decent wages and still make an “acceptable” profit – so they take “unacceptable risks” with the lives and livelihoods of their work force.
It is a crisis for the brands because their reputations are, or should be, in tatters, and there will come a point when their customers will think twice about buying their products and any employees with a conscience will look for another employer.
It is a crisis for governments in the developing world where more and more of the world’s consumer products manufacturing is being done as they lack the resources (human, financial and technical) and the political will to protect their own citizens.
It is a crisis for CSR because the endless factory fires are proof positive that “corporate social responsibility” is a fake and fraud – all the codes of conduct, all the “independent” monitors, all the “social audits,” and all the CSR consultants and conferences have failed completely in the global garment industry.
It is a crisis for the occupational health and safety profession because it is being drawn into “certifying” working conditions in global supply chains. The Pakistani garment factory that killed 300 workers had been “certified” as safe by Social Accounting International auditors. Apple supplier Foxconn, whose factories have had aluminum dust explosions immediately after inspections, boasted of “certification” under the OHSMS 18000 scheme.
As long as the OHS profession allows these charlatans to profit from meaningless certifications and the resulting worker deaths, the profession will bear an inescapable measure of responsibility. There is a growing recognition of this, such as the statement released by the American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE) after the Bangladesh fire. “It’s not enough to condemn local factory owners for these conditions and to expect long term change,” declared Thomas Cecich, CSP, CIH, Vice President for Professional Affairs and chair of the Center for Safety and Health Sustainability. “The corporations that source supply chain products, as well as their stakeholders, have tremendous power to influence the conditions in which supply chain workers operate.”
As our Network has pointed out repeatedly for many years, the factory fires and unsafe/unhealthy conditions in garment, electronics, and toy supply chains will continue unabated unless two things happen:
- the near-universal “sweatshop business model” described above must change so that life safety issues and workers’ health an safety actually come first in deeds as well as in damage-control public relations statements; and
- workers must be incorporated into plant-level health and safety programs, and be authorized, trained and empowered to play a meaningful role in identifying and correcting hazards – without reprisals and discrimination by their employers.
Perhaps the only ray of hope in this bleak panorama is the effort by a coalition of Bangladesh unions and international workers’ rights organizations – outlined in our July 2012 newsletter [hyperlink] – to establish an independent, competent fire safety program that would be transparent, involve workers as key actors, and actually inspect and require hazard correction in garment factories.
Four brands are required to initiate the project in Bangladesh. Two have signed on – PVH (Tommy Hilfiger, Calvin Klein and other brands) and the German brand Tchibo – but two more are needed. In September, after almost a year of negotiations, The Gap pulled out of talks and declared that it would set up its own program without almost all the elements of the program agreed to by PVH and Tchibo.
One way to remember the latest dead and injured in Bangladesh, and try to prevent more deaths, is to join with others around the world in demanding that the international brands step up to the plate with the proposed fire safety plan. Specifically you can add your voice in a campaign to convince The Gap to make good on its promises via the international letter campaign athttp://www.cleanclothes.org/urgent-actions/gap-appeal .
For further information and background on the factory fires, please see:
- Clean Clothes Campaign: http://www.cleanclothes.org/news/bangladesh-factoryfire-brands-accused-of-criminal-negligence
- Garrett Brown, Corporate Social Responsibility; What is it good for?: http://mhssn.igc.org/CSR_BangladeshFires_ISHN_May2011.pdf
- Garrett Brown, Fashion Kills: Industrial Manslaughter in the global supply chain: http://mhssn.igc.org/EHSToday_FashionKills_Sept2010.pdf
Quotes of the Month from the Bangladesh factory fire
I won’t believe Walmart entirely if they say they did not know of this at all. That is because even if I am subcontracted for a Walmart deal, those subcontracted factories still need to be certified by Walmart. You can skirt the rules for one or two odd times if it is for a very small quantity, but no decent quantity of work can be done without the client’s knowledge and permission.
- Annisul Huq, former president of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and
Exporters Association, quoted by Reuters news service on November 28, 2012.
The buyers write to us to improve working conditions. We asked them to raise prices by 25 cents per clothing unit that would go to workers’ welfare. They refused, citing the financial downturn in their countries.
- Mikail Shiper, a senior official in Bangladesh’s Ministry of Labor and
Employment, quoted in “Bangladesh: How rules went astray,” The Wall Street Journal,
December 5, 2012.
It was my fault. But nobody told me that there was no emergency exit, which could be made accessible from outside. Nobody even advised me to install one like that, apart from the existing ones. I could have done it. But nobody ever suggested I do it.
- Factory owner Delwar Hossain quoted in the Dhaka, Bangladesh, The Daily Star
newspaper, November 29, 2012.
These factories should be shut down, but who will do that? Any good government inspector who wants to act tough against such rogue factories would be removed from office. Who will take that risk? [Kalpona Akter, Executive Director of the Bangladesh Center for Worker Solidarity]…These factories should be closed, but it is not an easy task. We need to follow a protracted legal battle. Always there is pressure because the owners are influential. They can manage everything. [anonymous Dhaka fire official].
- quoted in “Bangladesh Factory Where Dozens Died Was Illegal,” Associated
Press, December 7, 2012.
“We want the owner to reopen the factory as soon as possible or pay us a few months of salary because we have nowhere else to go right at this moment,” said Hasan, a worker who escaped the fire and uses only one name…”I need to recover soon. I need money immediately. We want at least four months of salary to just get by now and by this time, we will look for jobs in other factories,” said Dipa Akter, the 19-year-old worker who injured her led escaping the fire and who has worked at the factory for three years. “Otherwise, I have to go back to my village, where I have nothing to do.”
- BBC News, November 30, 2012
Read more about "job safety"
Dec 03, 2012
The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has published a video to enchance trucker safety. The video, Move IT!, Covers rig move safety for truckers in the oil and gas fields. It helps make sense of the ...
Nov 30, 2012
OSHA has cited the company for three serious safety violations related to the fatalities, including exposing workers to "struck-by" hazards by not protecting them against overpressurization, and failing to maintain and service ...
Nov 28, 2012
OSHA has cited Continental Terminals Inc. for nine serious and two willful safety violations at the company's Jersey City facility. Inspectors were notified of alleged hazards at the facility while they were inspecting another ...
Dec 01, 2012
The U.S. Department of Transportation's Federal Aviation Administration, working with the U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration, today proposed a new policy for addressing flight attendant ...
Friday, December 7, 2012
Triangle Shirt Waist Fire -- Revisited
Read the complete story (NY Times):
THE HUMAN PRICE
Horrific Fire Revealed a Gap in Safety for Global Brands
By JIM YARDLEY
A blaze that killed 112 workers in Bangladesh last month exposed a disconnect among retailers like Sears and Walmart, the monitoring system to protect workers and the factories filling the orders.
Thursday, November 29, 2012
The Devil is in the Details California Style
When Workers Compensation was adopted in the United States after the European model of a benefit system for injured workers in the early 1900's, it was supposed to be a simple remedial system, The unfolding California regulatory process is highlighting, yet again, that the system is in major trouble, and that the glimmer of hope, in the name of reform, to revived it from live-support, is lacking credibility.
The administrative system of Workers' Compensation was built upon simplicity, efficiency, as a social insurance system, It was a process encouraged by Industry to avoid litigation in the civil justice system. Giving up the right to a trial by a jury was a big trade off for Labor back in early 1900's. The adoption of the system, through its poster child, the tragic Triangle Shirt Waist Fire in New York City, was emblematic of the need for a practical system to make things work, and preserve justice in doing so.
The California reform effort of this summer, SB 863, was pushed through by some elite and self-serving lobbying groups, to try to "level the playing field" in a State where economic upheaval forced it to the verge of bankruptcy. As it edged closer to its own fiscal cliff, it was about to take an ailing workers compensation program with it.
Those who practice workers' compensation law in California have just gotten used to complexity. They spend enormous time and effort navigating a a maze of bureaucratic regulations that are generated each reform cycle in the name of simplicity and efficiency.
The administrative system of Workers' Compensation was built upon simplicity, efficiency, as a social insurance system, It was a process encouraged by Industry to avoid litigation in the civil justice system. Giving up the right to a trial by a jury was a big trade off for Labor back in early 1900's. The adoption of the system, through its poster child, the tragic Triangle Shirt Waist Fire in New York City, was emblematic of the need for a practical system to make things work, and preserve justice in doing so.
The California reform effort of this summer, SB 863, was pushed through by some elite and self-serving lobbying groups, to try to "level the playing field" in a State where economic upheaval forced it to the verge of bankruptcy. As it edged closer to its own fiscal cliff, it was about to take an ailing workers compensation program with it.
Those who practice workers' compensation law in California have just gotten used to complexity. They spend enormous time and effort navigating a a maze of bureaucratic regulations that are generated each reform cycle in the name of simplicity and efficiency.
In promulgating Utilization Review Standards noted commentator David DePaolo, points out, "The fear of course is that regulations will end up either ineffective or unduly burdensome thus mitigating potential savings due to excess complexity."
The equation offered by the Rules simply just doesn't add up. They add more costs, fees and "independent extra-judicial parties," without time restrictions, to what is supposed to be a free and speedy process. Outsourcing justice is just taking another step away from the civil justice system and due process rights embodied in our Constitution.
After all these emergency regulations are promulgated, the California Legislature will again visit the system, and a new wave of reform will need to be considered. The devil in the details of the regulations will need to be reviewed. The next legislative cycle is anxiously awaited. Hopefully it will allow the legislature to be open to the suggestions and ideas of all stakeholders and a creatively new system will be entertained to handle medical delivery in the workers' compensation process.
....
Jon L.Gelman of Wayne NJ, is the author NJ Workers’ Compensation Law (West-Thompson) and co-author of the national treatise, Modern Workers’ Compensation Law (West-Thompson).
More about California and workers' compensation
After all these emergency regulations are promulgated, the California Legislature will again visit the system, and a new wave of reform will need to be considered. The devil in the details of the regulations will need to be reviewed. The next legislative cycle is anxiously awaited. Hopefully it will allow the legislature to be open to the suggestions and ideas of all stakeholders and a creatively new system will be entertained to handle medical delivery in the workers' compensation process.
....
Jon L.Gelman of Wayne NJ, is the author NJ Workers’ Compensation Law (West-Thompson) and co-author of the national treatise, Modern Workers’ Compensation Law (West-Thompson).
More about California and workers' compensation
Sep 13, 2012
Injured workers are voicing opposition to recently passed legislation in California to enact austerity measures to save the California workers' compensation from rising costs and expenses. The injured workers group is voicing ...
Aug 15, 2012
Rumors spread like wildfire this week as alleged secret back-room dealing continued in an effort to reform the failing California workers compensation system, yet again. The great trade-off of 2012 appears to be a major move ...
Sep 01, 2012
Tonight the California Legislature took an axe to its ailing workers' compensation system, as part of major election year austerity measures. Targeting both medical and legal costs of operating the program, at the ...
Jul 12, 2012
Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones today announced that a statewide joint task force in the fight against California's underground economy has netted contractors allegedly operating illegally, resulting in 104 enforcement ...
Thursday, March 15, 2012
John Sciortino, 52
He loved music, particularly jazz, and was accomplished with the trumpet and piano. He never missed the Rochester Jazz Festival. He was an avid fan and supporter of the Gregory Kunde Chorale, headed by his good friend and world renowned tenor, Gregory Kunde.
He loved sports of every kind and was always a familiar figure at Frontier Field rooting on the Red Wings or the many teams who completed at the Blue Cross Arena. Through thick and thin, and last year very thick, the Boston Bruins were his team and to his tremendous delight, finally brought home the Stanley Cup.
His home in Cape Cod was his refuge where he escaped to enjoy the pleasures of his family. He was an avid fisherman and boater.
John served tirelessly on the Boards to advance the needs of others through his service with many not-for-profit organizations. At St. Joseph's Catholic Church of Penfield he was chair of the Parish Pastoral Council and led an involved and successful expansion project. He is past Chairman of the Board of Governors for Seniorsfirst Communities & Services. He is a member of Wakan-Hubbard Lodge No. 154 F.&A.M. He served for almost 25 years on the Boards at Valley Manor and Kirkhaven Nursing Home.
His recent appointment to the Board of Trustees at his alma mater, Union College, capped a lifetime of study, financial support and service to the institution that provided him invaluable guidance and purpose.
After graduating from Union, John earned his law degree from Albany Law School in 1986 and was a founding partner in the law firm of Segar & Sciortino. His distinguished service in the bar was dedicated solely to advancing the needs of injured workers. At the time of his death, he was President of the New York State Injured Workers' Bar Association, a founding member of the Board of Governors of the New York Injured Workers' Alliance and founding member and former State Co-Chair of the New York Workers' Compensation Alliance. He was a member of the Board of Directors of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire Memorial, a non-for-profit organization devoted to commemorating the early 20th century sweatshop conflagration which provided the impetus for the enactment of New York State's Workers' Compensation Law. Each year, under John's guidance, more than a dozen Triangle Scholarships are awarded to children of permanently disabled workers attending college across New York State.
Described as "one of the foremost advocates for Workers' Compensation reform", John was invited in 2006 to participate as a panelist at a NYS Senate Workers' Compensation Reform Round Table to offer insight into ways to improve the Workers' Compensation system. In 2007, John served as an advisor to the New York State Department of Insurance Task Force appointed to make recommendations to improve the resolution process for disputed Workers' Compensation cases.
In 2008, he was awarded a Clara Lemlich Public Service Award for his outspoken efforts on behalf of the rights of injured workers in New York State. The recognition is named in honor of the noted 20th century sweatshop labor activist who inspired a massive strike for the New York City garment workers in 1909 which lead to improved working conditions in the garment industry. John has been annually recognized by Super Lawyers. Last weekend he was inducted as a Fellow of the College of Workers' Compensation Lawyers.
John was truly one of a kind - bigger than life. He lived to help and serve others. He was - in the most special way - heaven sent and loved by all. He is survived by his wife of 25 years, Michele, daughter Andrea, mother Hermine Sciortino, sister Linda DiGiralamo, sister-in-law and brother-in-law David and Maureen McDaniel, mother-in-law Shirley Hudson, Uncle/Aunt Dominick and Kathleen Sciortino, Aunt Isabel Sciortino, nieces Nicole DiGiralamo and Ismay English, nephew Matthew Hudson and several cousins. He is also survived by his best friend and law partner, Stephen A. Segar and family. He was predeceased by his loving father Anthony Sciortino and dear friend - brother-in-law Mark Hudson.
Friends may call Friday, 2-4, 6-8 PM at the funeral chapel (2305 Monroe Ave.). Friends are invited to bring a written memory or photo for the family's Memory Book. A Funeral Mass will be held Saturday, 1 PM at St. Joseph's Church, 43 Gebhardt Rd., Penfield. Interment at Oakwood Cemetery. Contributions in John's name may be made to Union College, 807 Union Street, Schenectady, New York 12308. To share a memory or photo of John visit www.anthonychapels.com.
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