Labor & Employment Law

Union Leaders Discuss Workers? Issues in Media Around the Nation

By James Parks

Dozens of newspaper, radio,television and Internet media featured op-eds over Labor Day by union leaders on issues that workers care about–Social Security, jobs, young workers, immigration and job safety.  While most columns ran in local media, several received  national attention, inclduing a piece on Social Security on AOL and job creation in the National Journal. A column written in Spanish on immigration appeared in several Latino publications and a column on workplace safety ran in newspapers in at least three states.  Here are some samples. Click on the author’s name to read the full column.

Social Security: Wall Street and congressional Republicans are ?pushing for Social Security benefit cuts, floating every idea from reducing the inflation adjustment to raising the retirement age.

 ?if we truly want to fix what’s broken, let’s look ahead to designing an employer-based retirement system for future generations while strengthening Social Security. –AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka

Young workers: Are we raising a generation of kids who won’t be equipped to dream? How do we restore for them the promise of what America should and can be?

 We make the public investments that will put America back to work?rebuilding our infrastructure, jump-starting green energy technology and tackling the extreme problems of distressed communities. Workers with good safe jobs won?t need to bump younger workers off the escalator and out of summer jobs. This is the best way to bring our economy back to life, restore consumer demand and fix that broken escalator for America?s working people of all ages. –Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler

Job creation: Ultimately, our nation has to face a decision: Do we aspire for better for America’s families, or do we want to strip away the best of our nation to lower the common denominator? And are we okay with big corporations encouraging working people to form a circular firing squad when the target should be squarely on corporations themselves? –Executive Vice President Arlene Holt Baker

Workplace safety: We should remember that restoring the freedom of workers to organize unions also is an important piece of ensuring workplace safety, because there is no greater protection than empowered workers, on the job every day, looking out for each other.–Trumka and Georgia  AFL-CIO President Richard Ray. Similar pieces ran in several other states as well.

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on September 07, 2010 (boomark / email).