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The Great Plains Laborers District Council represents 19 different Laborers local unions, with over 11,000 members, in northern Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska and South Dakota.
These local unions represent workers that include construction laborers, public employees, plant workers and Indian Health Services.
Laborers aid Special Olympics
Laborers from various locals gathered at Illinois State University on June 12-14 to aid Illinois Special Olympics during their state games.
Comptroller Dan Hynes visits with Laborers
Illinois Comptroller Dan Hynes met with Illinois Laborers on June 16 in Bloomington, reaffirming his support for prevailing wage and decent jobs for construction workers. Shown with Hynes are Midwest Region Laborers Legislative Affairs Director Sean Stott, Southwestern Illinois Laborers District Council business manager Glen Ramage, Midwest Region Laborers Manager and Laborers International Union Vice-President John F. Penn, Illinois Comptroller Dan Hynes, Great Plains Laborers Distrit Council business manager Frank Hovar, and Assistant to Vice-President Penn Jack Reid.
Laborers aid Habitat for Humanity
In early June, members of Laborers Locals 309 and 727 donated a Saturday and combined efforts to pour the slab for a Habitat for Humanity House in Clinton, Iowa. Pictured, left to right, are George Long, Jr. (309), Steve Arlen (727), LaVern Mercer (309), Harry Gilbert (309), John Verhelst (309) and Mark Giesler (309).
More worker safety needed
Laborers International Union President Terence M. O'Sullivan wrote this guest editorial for the Las Vegas Sun for Workers Memorial Day, April 20.
The odds are that by the end of today in America, 15 working people will be killed on the job, victims of government and corporations which for too long have accepted workplace hazards as the cost of doing business.
Work Zone Safety the Laborers' goal
Laborers were out in force at rest stops on April 10, promoting careful driving in Illinois work zones.
Laborers 393 - Touched by an angel
Laborers Local 393's efforts in Marseilles, Illinois, to send care packages to U.S. soldiers, was recently featured in the Ottawa (IL) Times.
Laborers 393 celebrates 75 years
Laborers Local 393 celebrated 75 years of history, member services and community involvement on April 18.
Iowa Governor pushes misclassification study
Iowa Governor Chet Culver has created a special task force to close loopholes in state employment laws and help insure that workers are probably covered by workers' compensation and wage and hour laws.
John Penn new LIUNA VP
John Penn, Great Plains Laborers District Council business manager and a Laborers Local 362 member, was named Laborers Midwest Region Manager and a Laborers International Union Vice-President, effective May 1.
100 and still active
When people hear about “horse and buggy” days it conjures long ago times. But one Rock Island, Illinois Laborers Local 309 member has over 70 years of union membership and remembers covered wagons, horses, steam trains and his Model T.
Bill Stickney was born December 5, 1908 in rural Iowa’s Amana colonies.
Illinois Laborer wins community service award
Mike Matejka, a Laborers Local 362 member and legislative affairs director for the Great Plains Laborers District Council, was awarded the 2008 "Robert G. Gibson Community Service" award by the Illinois AFL-CIO.
Laborers 309 honors
The steam locomotive whistles were a constant echo around Silvis, Illinois during World War II, where the Rock Island Line was busy repairing its equipment, keeping it rolling during that frantic time of war.
Second Street wasn’t far from the railroad shops, a small Mexican-American enclave whose residents weren’t the skilled boilermakers or machinists in the rail shops, but the track workers and day laborers who did the railroad’s grunt work and heavy lifting.
Second Street isn’t called Second Street anymore – today it is known as “Hero Street,” thanks to the brave military record of its residents, especially during World War II.
Laborers honor World War II Seneca Shipyard Wokers
The quiet green park in tiny Seneca, Illinois, hides the flurry of activity here 60 years ago.
Crotty Park boasts a ballfield and other outdoor recreation facilities for the small town of 2,000 residents. It also boasts a new monument, erected with donated labor from Laborers Local 393 in Marseilles, Illinois – the LST monument.
Laborers 362 wins Chamber award
Historically, the “chamber of commerce” in a community represents its business interests, while labor unions represent workers.
At the nation’s capitol and in Springfield you’ll often find them on opposite sides when it comes to issues of minimum wages or workers’ compensation.
In McLean County, however, local unions have built a long-term relationship with the local business community. Thus it was extraordinary, but not necessarily surprising, when the McLean County Chamber of Commerce named Laborers International Union of North America Local 362 its “small business of the year.”
More than hot air -- wind farms mean jobs
A gentle “whoosh” is the recurring sound, as giant propeller blades whir effortlessly on the prairie landscape.
Instead of occasional grain elevators and endless crop rows, a new bumper crop is coming to the Midwestern prairies – wind farms.
Small town honors desert war victims
As the Illinois River spins its course in the background, upright marble slaps perched on the stream’s bank recall fiery desert conflict a world away.
Thanks to the efforts of Laborers Local 393 in Marseilles, Illinois, the American service men and women who perished in desert conflicts this past decade are now permanently remembered.
The wall, which already contains over 2,000 names, features five black granite markers, each 6.5 feet tall, stretching more than 50 feet along the river’s bank.