Labor & Employment Law

Ohio Senate Continues Attack on Workers, Passes S.B. 5

Posted on March 30, 2011
       Republicans in the Ohio Senate tonight passed (17-16) S.B 5, legislation that eliminates the rights of 350,000 public employees to bargain for middle-class jobs. Earlier this evening, the Republican-controlled House passed the bill.Gov...

Ohio House Passes Bill to Gut Collective Bargaining

Posted on March 30, 2011
Ohio House Republicans passed the bill gutting collective bargaining rights for public employees moments ago, as the crowd booed the attack on working families. The state Senate may vote on the revised version as early as this evening. A Senate committee last month passed a similar version of the bill using the same dirty-tricks tactics as Republicans in Wisconsin when they passed a bill to gut public employees’ bargaining rights...

America Fast Forward Boosts Jobs, Rebuilds Infrastructure

Posted on March 30, 2011
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka says that a new transportation and jobs infrastructure plan ?will help revive manufacturing. It means jobs.? The America Fast Forward initiative has bipartisan and labor/management support. At the Capitol Hill press conference announcing the new initiative today, Trumka joined U...

Maine Mural Artist Has a Few Words for Gov. LePage

Posted on March 30, 2011
When he yanked the 11-panel mural depicting workers in Maine, Gov. Paul LePage said he had been told the images were akin to North Korean propaganda. Now, the artist of the murals, Judy Taylor, says LePage’s comment was especially painful–because her father was awarded a Bronze Star for his service in the Korean War...

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Watch Ohio S.B. 5 Debate Live Now

Posted on March 30, 2011
The Ohio House is now debating S.B. 5 that eliminates the rights of 350,000 public employees to bargain for middle-class jobs. Click here to watch the debate live. A vote on the bill is expected later today. This bill is strongly backed by Gov. John Kasich (R)...

Walker Wants Part of Rejected High-Speed Rail Funds Back

Posted on March 30, 2011
Remember when Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) told the federal government it could shove $810 million in high-speed rail funding that was estimated to create nearly 15,000 jobs? Now he wants some of that money back. The cancelled project, one in which the City of Milwaukee had already spent $10 million on in preparation, would have provided a vital commuter connection between Milwaukee and Madison and spurred future economic development...

King?s Call for Worker Justice Runs Through April 4 Solidarity Actions

Posted on March 30, 2011
Monday, April 4 marks the 43rd anniversary of the death of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He was assassinated while helping Memphis, Tenn., sanitation workers fight for the same workers? rights that governors and state legislators in Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana and other states are now trying to eliminate...

Removal of Labor Mural Akin to Action by ?Totalitarion Regimes?

Posted on March 30, 2011
  Maine Gov. Paul LePage’s unilateral decision to remove an 11-panel mural depicting the state’s working families raises “grave concerns,”  wrote Mount Holyoke College President Lynn Pasquarella in a letter to LePage. The mural, which LePage removed from the Department of Labor over the weekend, includes a depiction of 1902 Mount Holyoke graduate and former U...

Wis. Judge Says Anti-Worker Law Still Blocked

Posted on March 30, 2011
A Wisconsin judge ruled late yesterday that the temporary restraining order is still in force for the law that guts collective bargaining for public employees?despite Gov. Scott Walker’s defiance of the judge’s initial ruling. On Friday, Walker published the law, and Republican state lawmakers said that with its publication, the bill went into effect...

Removal of Labor Mural Akin to Action by ?Totalitarian Regimes?

Posted on March 30, 2011
  Maine Gov. Paul LePage’s unilateral decision to remove an 11-panel mural depicting the state’s working families raises “grave concerns,”  wrote Mount Holyoke College President Lynn Pasquarella in a letter to LePage. The mural, which LePage removed from the Department of Labor over the weekend, includes a depiction of 1902 Mount Holyoke graduate and former U...

Faith, Civil Rights Groups to Stand With Workers on April 4

Posted on March 29, 2011
       Faith communities across the nation will stand alongside working people, civil rights groups, students and immigrants on the days around April 4 to tell hard-working families under attack that ?We Are One.? In a telephone press conference this afternoon, prominent African American and evangelical faith leaders joined with civil rights and labor leaders to announce coordinated actions this weekend and on April 4 in support of working families...

Ohio House Committee Rams Through New Attack on Workers

Posted on March 29, 2011
Ohio House Republicans today rammed through a revised?and worse?version of S.B. 5 that eliminates the rights of 350,000 public employees to bargain for middle-class jobs. But they refused requests by Democrats for time to read the new bill that had more than 30 major changes...

With $4 Billion in Hand, NFL Owners Stick It to Workers

Posted on March 29, 2011
  The NFL team owners are sitting on a $4 billion war chest. Yet they are attacking not only the players, but their most vulnerable employees as well: concession stand sellers, groundskeepers and office staff. The Buffalo Bills already have announced pay cuts across the organization, calling it a “program of shared sacrifice...

Republican Report: Solve Job Crisis by Cutting Wages and Public Employees

Posted on March 29, 2011
Last week, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) spent a great deal of effort touting an economic report from the Republican staff of the Joint Economic Committee. That should be your first warning to step back, take a deep breath and adjust your skepticism meter...

Snyder Slashes Michigan Jobless Aid, Claims it Strengthens Lifeline

Posted on March 29, 2011
Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (R), who earlier this year cut corporate taxes by 86 percent while boosting taxes for working families, yesterday signed a bill into law that cuts state unemployment benefits from 26 weeks to 20. His justification? Maintaining the 26 weeks of help in a state with an official 10...

AFT?s Weingarten: Bargaining Rights Don?t Cause Budget Woes

Posted on March 29, 2011
      Under the phony flag of deficit reduction and budget repair, state lawmakers such as Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R), Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R) and others are attacking workers? rights to bargain for middle-class jobs. In a speech yesterday, sponsored by the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco, AFT President Randi Weingarten challenged those who have blamed public employees and their right to collectively bargain as a cause of their states’ fiscal problems...

Maine Gov. Removes Labor Mural in Stealth Move

Posted on March 28, 2011
Over the weekend, Maine Gov. Paul LePage (R) secretly removed from a state building an 11-panel mural depicting working families’ history. Like Republican state legislators in Wisconsin who passed a bill killing collective bargaining through a series of dirty tricks, Maine’s Republican governor operates away from the public eye–despite being an elected official accountable to taxpayers...

20,000 March for the Middle Class in L.A.

Posted on March 28, 2011
       Nearly 20.000 working people marched through downtown Los Angeles Saturday, making it clear they will fight any attempt to launch a Wisconsin-like attack on workers in cash-strapped California. The march stretched for several blocks and included nurses, telephone technicians, electricians, truckers, screenwriters, actors, longshoremen, teachers and others...

White House Forum: Women Need A Voice

Posted on March 28, 2011
Working women told a White House forum today that women need protections on the job as much now as they did 100 years ago when the  Triangle Shirtwaist fire killed 146 garment workers?most of them young women?and spurred the first nationwide call for workplace safety...

Join March 29 Rally to Support Wal-Mart Women

Posted on March 28, 2011
Hundreds of people will show their support outside the U.S. Supreme Court Tuesday, when the High Court hears oral arguments in what could become the largest class-action civil rights suit in U.S. history. The Stand with the Women of Wal-Mart rally will take place as the nation?s highest court hears arguments on Wal-Mart v...

Breaking: Judge Orders NFL Teams to Stop Reducing Workers Comp for ex-Players

Posted on March 28, 2011
In a landmark ruling, U.S. Judge Paul Crotty of the Southern District of New York issued an injunction today requiring all NFL teams and owners to stop seeking to reduce the workers compensation benefits due to former NFL players as a result of injuries they suffered while playing the game...

All House Members Would Have Lost Under Election Rules They Seek for Workers

Posted on March 28, 2011
The House member leading the fight to deny aviation and rail workers fair union elections would have lost his seat by a 68-32 percent margin under the election rules he wants to impose on transportation workers. Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.), chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, wants to repeal last year?s new rule by the National Mediation Board (NMB) that says air and rail elections should be decided just like any other election?including congressional elections?by a majority of votes cast...

In Florida, as in Wisconsin and Maine, Cronyism Flourishes

Posted on March 28, 2011
Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) has appointed new department heads and given them $20,000- a-year raises over their predecessors. BTW, Florida public employees haven?t had a raise in four years. The Florida Tribune reports that Scott, who has taken on teachers and turned billions in job-creating high speed rail funds, has named 10 new department heads with salaries of $140,000 compared to $120,000 or less for their predecessors, according to a web site database launched by the governor...

Indiana Democrats Win Concessions, Set to Come Home

Posted on March 28, 2011
The dozens of Indiana state House Democrats who went to Illinois to prevent the Republican anti-worker agenda from passing are set to return, having won several concessions from the Republicans. Indiana working families are gathering at the state Capitol this afternoon to welcome them home...

DeMint Wants to Ban All Collective Bargaining for Federal Employees

Posted on March 28, 2011
This is a cross-post from Think Progress. The reporter is Scott Keyes. The defining political story three months into 2011 is the spread of anti-union legislation in the states. Now, a leading senator on the right wants to eliminate collective bargaining rights at a federal level...

Walker Spent $42,000 in Taxpayer Cash on Plane Trips

Posted on March 28, 2011
Even as he tried to balance the budget on the backs of working families, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) has been spending tens of thousands of dollars to fly around the state on a taxpayer-funded plane. A Freedom of Information Act inquiry by the National Education Association (NEA) revealed today that since January, Walker spent $41,935 on the use of state planes for trips around the state...

Let Us Know Your Event for the April 4 Days of Action

Posted on March 28, 2011
      On and around April 4 in hundreds of large and small events nationwide, working people will gather to honor the memory of Martin Luther King Jr., and stand in solidarity with workers across the country who are facing unprecedented attacks on their rights and their jobs...

Solis, White House to Host Online Triangle Shirtwaist Forum

Posted on March 27, 2011
      Ceremonies and events honoring the 100th anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist fire that killed 146 garment workers?most of them young women?and spurred the first nationwide call for workplace safety, continue Monday morning with a special online forum that will examine the connection between a voice at work and job safety...

Wis. Walker?s Latest Stealth Move Shows He Thinks He?s Above the Law

Posted on March 26, 2011
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker has already proven he doesn’t care about the will of his constituents. Now, he thinks he’s above the law. In a late Friday move–so as to get little media attention–Walker defied a court ruling and published the bill killing collective bargaining rights for the public employees...

Wis. Protests Are Watershed Opportunity for Working People

Posted on March 26, 2011
    Thousands protest at the Wisconsin Capitol in Madison.               Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker?s assault on workers provides a rare watershed opportunity for working people to educate the public about unions and collective bargaining and to create momentum to rebuild the union movement...

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