This is a cross-post from the Electrical Workers (IBEW.)

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has affirmed a lower court’s ruling upholding project labor agreements (PLAs) on state-funded construction projects.

Blaine Logan’s picture of a fellow Electrical Workers (IBEW) member clad in a fire retardant suit and face shield as he reaches into a tight spot to place a weld on a carbon steel refinery conduit was the runaway winner in the 2010 IBEW Photo of the Year contest.

Workers at a General Electric’s (GE’s) refrigerator plant in Bloomington, Ind., have been fighting to keep the facility viable in the cutthroat global economy. Now, two years after the company said it was going to shutter the plant, workers are celebrating a new day. Instead of closing the plant, GE has announced it will invest $93 million in upgrades and begin to produce energy-efficient refrigerators at the plant.

When workers decide they want to come together and form unions, it’s a well-documented fact that management is none too happy about it.