Labor & Employment Law

Trumka Takes It to Palin in Her Back Yard

Posted on August 27, 2010
    Laborers members rally with AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka and Alaska State AFL-CIO President Vince Beltrami at two Anchorage hotels in violation of labor agreements.         Last night, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said what many Americans believe but won?t say: Sarah Palin?s rhetoric is poisonous, dangerous and strikes of McCarthyism...

Costa Rica?s High Court Restores Longshore Union Leaders

Posted on August 27, 2010
    Costa Rican police took over the SINTRAJAP union hall in May.         Longshore workers in the United States and Costa Rica are celebrating a ruling by Costa Rica?s high court that restored the democratically elected leaders of the SINTRAJAP longshore union who had been ousted in a government-backed illegal union election...

Enter The ?Why Are You Voting?? Video Contest

Posted on August 27, 2010
       Young people voted in huge numbers in 2008. The members of Congress we elected have had their say on issues from health care to immigration reform. On Nov. 2, we?ll have our say because we have the power to vote for or against every one of those members...

Sanchez to Lead LCLAA

Posted on August 27, 2010
    Hector Sanchez         The Labor Council for Latin American Advancement (LCLAA) announced that Hector Sanchez has been named as the AFL-CIO constituency group?s executive director. Prior to this appointment, Sanchez served as LCLAA?s director of policy and research...

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Nurses to Whitman: ?Women Vote for Women Who Vote!?

Posted on August 27, 2010
      More than 1,500 people, including many women in early 20th century fashion, marched and rallied in Sacramento yesterday to mark the 90th anniversary of the 19th amendment to the U.S. Constitution that gave women the right to vote. The rally, sponsored by the California Nurses Association (CNA), also spotlighted how Republican gubernatorial candidate, billionaire CEO Meg Whitman, hasn?t exercised that right during  most of her adult life...

Trumka: Palin?s Rhetoric Is Dangerous, Poisonous

Posted on August 26, 2010
It?s a speech that is getting a big reaction from the press and pundits across the country and it hasn?t even been delivered yet. AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka will tell the Alaska AFL-CIO convention in Anchorage tonight that former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the self appointed queen of the ultra-conservative movement, has betrayed her fake populist image and, instead, is spouting dangerous and ?poisonous? rhetoric that could incite her followers to violence...

90 Years After the Vote, U.S. Women Still Seek Economic Citizenship

Posted on August 26, 2010
      Women won the right to vote 90 years ago today. As historian Christine Stansell points out, the seemingly “no-brainer” move to ensure women have the same political citizenship rights as men was contested in this country until 1984, when Mississippi became the last state to ratify the 19th Amendment giving women the right to vote...

Alaska Voters Beat Back Extremist Political ?Gag? Measure

Posted on August 26, 2010
Alaska working families weren?t fooled by a so-called ?anti-corruption? ballot measure pushed by out-of-state money that actually could have shut out of the political arena community groups, unions, businesses and even local governments. On Tuesday, voters defeated Ballot Measure 1?also known as the ?Gag Law??by better than 60 percent...

Tomato Pickers? Struggle Coming to a Grocery Store Near You

Posted on August 26, 2010
      The fight for justice for tomato pickers is headed to grocery store aisles across the country now that the top three food service companies and the four largest fast-food companies have signed agreements to improve wages and working conditions in the Florida tomato fields...

Deficit Chair Simpson Rants Against Seniors Again. Time to Go

Posted on August 25, 2010
Maybe when he?s back on some Wyoming ranch, Alan Simpson can avoid stepping in it. But the co-chairman of the federal budget deficit commission seems to squish deep into it, every time he opens his apparently out-of-control mouth about Social Security...

Looking for Health Insurance? HealthCare.Gov. Can Help

Posted on August 25, 2010
http://www.healthcare.gov/widget/healthcare_widget.html    Most union members get their health insurance through work, but if you don?t, or if a family member or friend is looking for health coverage, HealthCare.gov has a brand new tool to help folks find quality and affordable care where they  live...

Florida Labor 2010: Voters Say the State is NOT for Sale

Posted on August 25, 2010
Elle Arlook, AFL-CIO Field Communications director for Florida, sends us this report. ?You can?t buy OUR votes!? That’s the message Florida voters delivered yesterday in primary elections. Or as Kendrick Meek put it in his acceptance speech: Florida is NOT for sale! AFL-CIO-endorsed candidate for U...

Hotel Workers Add 3 Chicago Hyatts to Boycott List

Posted on August 25, 2010
       Ross Hyman, a research analyst for the AFL-CIO Center for Strategic Research, shares this info. Joined by clergy and other community supporters, Hyatt hotel workers gathered outside Hyatt headquarters in Chicago yesterday to announce a boycott of the Hyatt Regency Chicago, the Park Hyatt Chicago and the Hyatt Regency O’Hare hotels...

New Report: Recovery Act Created Up to 3.3 Million Jobs

Posted on August 25, 2010
      While the nation?s job crisis continues, it would be far worse if Republican congressional leaders had been successful in blocking the economic recovery act. A new report from the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act put 1...

Ohio Labor 2010: UAW Retiree??Volunteer Once, You?ll Do It Again?

Posted on August 25, 2010
      Andy Richards, AFL-CIO Field Communications assistant in Ohio, sends us this report. UAW Local 1327 retiree Max Reynolds is no stranger to a labor phone bank. “I?ve volunteered since 1960, and there are very few elections I?ve missed,” said Reynolds, in between making calls to Ohio union members at the Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 32 Hall in Lima, Ohio...

Postal Workers March to Save Saturday Mail Delivery

Posted on August 25, 2010
      More than 3,000 Postal Workers (APWU) members sent a special delivery message to the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) yesterday in Detroit?don?t end Saturday service, keep the mail moving six days a week. Both the APWU and the Letter Carriers (NALC) are fighting USPS’s request to Congress to eliminate Saturday delivery...

Project Agreements: Best Value for Construction Dollars

Posted on August 24, 2010
At a time when construction owners are looking to get the best value for their dollar, they are increasingly turning to what they know works?project labor agreements (PLAs)?to ensure the work is on time and on budget. The AFL-CIO Building and Construction Trades Department (BCTD) reports that this year alone nearly 100 major public and private construction projects worth more than $80 billion have used PLAs, including the first two U...

Colombia?s Workers Risk Lives to Gain Their Rights

Posted on August 24, 2010
    Palm worker in Colombia.         Molly McCoy of the Solidarity Center reports on a recent trip by four U.S. union leaders to Colombia. The delegation included Benjamin Field and  Jeremy Ray from the South Bay  Labor Council, Jennifer Jannon, a Working America regional director and Richard Shaw, executive secretary-treasurer of the Harris County (Tex...

Don?t Raise the Retirement Age

Posted on August 24, 2010
If anybody knows the ins and outs of Social Security, it’s Henry Ballantyne. He was the Social Security Administration?s chief actuary between 1982 and 2000. Today, he told a telephone press conference Social Security that Social Security is financially sound?We don?t need to raise the retirement age...

Iowa Labor 2010: Grassroots Outreach Among Retired Americans

Posted on August 24, 2010
Michael Uehlein, Field Communications director for the Iowa Federation of Labor, sends us this report. In Iowa today, the Alliance for Retired Americans is on the ground talking with seniors and Iowans about issues that affect retired older Americans...

Manufacturing Policy Key to Economic Recovery

Posted on August 24, 2010
      Unlike our nation’s economic competitors, such as China and Germany, which have  national policies geared to increasing their economic development, the United States does not. While we admonish such countrie to consume more and export less, they are figuring out ways to increase exports and consume less—and in turn, are growing their economies far faster than the United States...

Corporate Scandals No Bar to Campaign Cash for Whitman

Posted on August 24, 2010
Who says opposites attract? Two billionaire CEOs?California Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman and her deep-pocket angel, Henry Samueli?are pretty darn cozy. Both their companies have been targets of federal investigations, which looked into whether they were engaged in the same kind of shady Wall Street dealings that drove the economy into meltdown...

Steve Earle Gives Up Dr. Pepper for Striking Workers?and More Bargaining News

Posted on August 24, 2010
Grammy winner Steve Earle gave up Dr. Pepper to urge the Dr. Pepper Snapple Group to  negotiate a fair contract with workers at Motts, and more news from the “Bargaining Digest Weekly.” The AFL-CIO Collective Bargaining Department delivers daily, bargaining-related news and research resources to more than 1,300 subscribers...

IBEW Members in Gulf Coast Rebuilding Lives, Communities

Posted on August 23, 2010
       The residents of Louisiana?s Gulf Coast are determined to rebuild their lives and their communities after suffering the Triple whammy of Hurricane Katrina, the recession and  the biggest oil spill in U.S. history. Union members who live and work in the area, including members of the Electrical Workers (IBEW) are trying to make it through these tough times themselves while also helping rebuild the region (see video)...

UAW Joins Blue Green Alliance

Posted on August 23, 2010
      Citing its commitment to energy-efficient transportation, the UAW today announced it’s joining the Blue Green Alliance. The Blue Green Alliance is a partnership among nine unions and two major environmental groups dedicated to expanding the number and quality of jobs in the green economy...

OPEIU?s Goodwin Calls for ?Back-to-Basics? Unionism

Posted on August 23, 2010
OPEIU President Michael Goodwin Unions can look to their history to rediscover ways to move forward and grow, says Office and Professional Employees (OPEIU) President Michael Goodwin. In a recent op-ed on Crain?s New York Business...

Deficit Commission?s Not So Secret Target?Social Security

Posted on August 23, 2010
      The federal budget deficit commission?actually just a front group to cut Social Security?is trying desperately to keep a lid on its closed-door deliberations. But as David Dayen on Firedoglake points out, the worst kept secret inside and outside the Beltway is the panel’s push to raise the retirement age and make other cuts...

Growing Inequality Threatens Middle Class and Democracy

Posted on August 23, 2010
Here?s why the One Nation movement is so important. The growing inequality between the super-rich and the rest of us is not only shrinking our middle class, it?s threatening our democracy. One Nation is a multi-racial, civil and human rights movement whose mission is to reorder our nation?s priorities to invest in our nation?s most valuable resource?our people...

Iowa Labor 2010: Staying Home this Election Not an Option

Posted on August 23, 2010
Michael Uehlein, Field Communications director for the Iowa Federation of Labor, sent a report on the 54th Iowa AFL-CIO Convention. Hundreds of excited and energized union members from around the state gathered in Altoona last week to discuss the future of the union movement in Iowa...

Union Plus Offers Discounts on College Test Prep Courses

Posted on August 22, 2010
      Getting into college can be stressful and expensive for students and their families. Now a new discount program from Union Plus enables union members and their children to afford the preparation needed to get an edge on college admissions...

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