Labor & Employment Law

UAW Chevy Wins Big at Brickyard, Nonunion Toyota Eats Exhaust

Posted on August 21, 2010
The fact that a UAW-made engine powered Jamie McMurray’s Chevy Impala to victory at the Brickyard 400 didn’t grab headlines or make the TV news. But it caused this fan in the stands to whoop it up. I’m a 60-year-old union card-carrying Chevy man...

Bankruptcies Up. No Work. Need Action Now to Create Jobs

Posted on August 20, 2010
      How badly do we need our elected leaders to come off their extended vacations and get to work stimulating the economy and creating real jobs? Take a look at two items in the news. First, bankruptcy filings nationwide reached their highest level in five years between April and June, up 11 percent from the same period in 2009...

Public to Lawmakers: Tax the Rich

Posted on August 20, 2010
A majority of the American public thinks Bush’s tax cuts should continue for families that make less than $250,000 a year but should rise to the previous level for those making more than that amount, according to a new CNN poll. Some 51 percent say the tax cuts, which expire at the end of this year, should end for the rich...

Ukraine Unions Leading the Fight for Quality Health Care

Posted on August 20, 2010
Alexander Feltham of the Solidarity Center reports on the struggle of health care workers in Ukraine to gain better conditions for patients and a decent contract. The global economic crisis has had a severe impact in eastern Ukraine, where Soviet-era mines and steel mills dominate the economy...

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Tropicana Dealers Ratify Historic Contract

Posted on August 20, 2010
    Thousands of casino workers and supporters marched in Atlantic City in 2008 to demand that casino owners negotiate with the workers? union.         Casino dealers at the Tropicana Casino and Resort approved an historic first-ever contract for dealers in Atlantic City...

AFL-CIO Protests Saddam-like Iraqi Labor Order

Posted on August 20, 2010
As U.S. combat troops head home from Iraq, new evidence shows there is much to be done before all Iraqis are truly free. In a letter to Iraq?s Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka strongly protests a recent government order that bans all trade union activities in the government-owned electrical industry...

Workers, Activists Rally for Release of Bangladesh Labor Rights Leaders

Posted on August 19, 2010
Jeff Vogt, associate director of AFL-CIO International Department, reports on today?s rally at the Embassy of Bangladesh in Washington, D.C. Some 30 trade union and labor activists from the AFL-CIO, AFT, International Labor Rights Forum (ILRF), United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS) and others rallied in front of the Embassy of Bangladesh today to protest the continued imprisonment on unsubstantiated charges of the leaders of the Bangladesh Center for Worker Solidarity (BCWS)...

Corporations Create More Jobs Overseas than in United States

Posted on August 19, 2010
Been looking all over the place for the millions of jobs the United States has lost in recent years. Finally found some of them today: They went overseas! Unfortunately, new data out from the Commerce Dept. is no surprise. The Daily Labor Report (subscription required) summarizes Commerce’s new findings: In 2008, the first year of the recession, U...

Big Bloc of Dell Investors Back Call to Oust Chairman

Posted on August 19, 2010
Richard Waters confirms that our call for shareholders to withhold their votes from Michael Dell, chairman of Dell Inc, had a big impact–just over 25 percent of shareholders withheld their support for his appointment, an extremely high percentage for such a vote...

American Stories: Social Security Is A Success

Posted on August 19, 2010
       Wealthy lawmakers and pundits who spout off about privatizing Social Security and raising the retirement age, should talk to people like Jerry Conner and Dottie Gutenkauf. Conner of Londonderry, N.H., and Gutenkauf, who lives in Plainfield, N J...

Hotel Workers Tell Bank: ?We Saved Your Jobs, Now You Save Ours?

Posted on August 18, 2010
Taxpayers bailed out Bank of America to the tune of $45 billion. Now, it?s time for the Big Bank to return the favor by saving the jobs of more than 1,500 hotel workers. The Columbia-Sussex hotel chain’s $1.1 billion loan from Bank of America is in potential trouble...

Glenn Beck to Jobless Workers: Go Work at McDonald?s

Posted on August 18, 2010
Haven’t read this but the headline is off to a good start… Glenn Beck has a message for long-term jobless workers: You’re a bunch of un-American losers. Beck went on a tirade this week against workers who have been unable to find a job for 99 weeks or more and come to the end of unemployment benefits...

Dr Pepper Snapple Rakes in Profits, Wants to Cut Workers? Wages

Posted on August 18, 2010
       The Dr Pepper Snapple Group, the corporate conglomerate that owns Mott?s, has been trying to cut the pay of workers at the apple juice company in Williamson, N.Y., even as it reported net income of $555 million in 2009. An article by Steve Greenhouse in the New York Times today quotes a Dr Pepper Snapple spokesman defending the company’s race to the bottom...

Chamber of Commerce: No Equal Pay for Women

Posted on August 18, 2010
On the anniversary of the 19th Amendment which 90 years ago finally enabled U.S. women to cast a vote–the Chamber of Commerce took the opportunity to trash the movement for women to get equal pay at work.  In 2009, women who were full-time wage and salary workers had median weekly earnings of $657, or about 80 percent of the $819 median for their male counterparts...

CNN Ignores Facts, Scapegoats Teachers

Posted on August 18, 2010
CNN aired a segment today scapegoating America?s teachers for the failure of young black males to graduate from high school. The CNN talking heads even went so far as to say that public school teachers don?t care about students. In the rush to put the blame on teachers, they ignored the findings of the very study they supposedly reported on...

Working America Mobilizing Unemployed Voters

Posted on August 18, 2010
Who better to keep candidates focused on the real issue in this election?jobs?than the very people who are out of work? Working America, the AFL-CIO?s community affiliate, is organizing and mobilizing unemployed workers to go to the polls in November to make sure that candidates who favor outsourcing or don?t support workers join them in the unemployment lines...

L.A. Carwash Owners Get Jail Time

Posted on August 17, 2010
    Car wash workers march for better working conditions in 2008.         After two and a half years of fighting for justice, southern California carwasheros celebrated a big win today. Two of the most unrepentant abusers of carwash workers? rights?the Pirian brothers, Benny and Nissan, have each been sentenced to one year in jail for labor law violations...

Insurers Get Fat Pay Hikes While Workers Skip Treatment

Posted on August 17, 2010
While more and more working Americans can’t afford health care, big insurance CEOs are getting fat pay increases?and raising health insurance premiums. Between 2007 and 2009, more than 25 percent of Americans reduced their use of health care?two to five times the rate than in Britain, Canada, France and Germany, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research...

Congress Must Fix Trade Deficit by Addressing China Currency Manipulation

Posted on August 17, 2010
The U.S. trade deficit hit $49.9 million in June, the highest it?s been in nearly two years. But many in Congress don’t see the need to solve this dangerous imbalance by addressing the problem behind the deficit?China?s currency manipulation. Economist Paul Krugman correctly opposes such a timid position...

Rand Paul: Easing Unemployment Means More Drug Use

Posted on August 17, 2010
UPDATE: Rand Paul’s campaign says he stands by his claim of helping unemployed workers with drug abuse. Eddie Vale, AFL-CIO political communications director, brings this to our attention. He’s asking the Paul campaign for a clarification...

Operating Engineers Ratify Contract for 11,000 Calif. State Workers?and More Bargaining News

Posted on August 17, 2010
Operating Engineers ratify a contract covering 11,000 California state employees, 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...

Blue-Green Alliance Bus Tour to Demand Action on Clean Energy Jobs

Posted on August 16, 2010
      To remind lawmakers that Congress has stalled on legislation that would create and save millions of jobs across the country by building a  clean energy economy–while nations like China are forging ahead–the BlueGreen Alliance today kicked off a three-week, 17-state, 30-city bus tour...

Building and Construction Trade Dept. Reaches Out to Jobless Workers

Posted on August 16, 2010
      v The AFL-CIO Building and Construction Trades Department (BCTD) launched a ?Back on the Job“ campaign in recent days to help unemployed workers make their voices heard. The Machinists (IAM) and Working America also have made reaching jobless workers a priority, with IAM’s U-Cubed site organizing workers online and Working America’s Unemployment Lifeline offering information and support...

Thousands Rally in Los Angeles for Jobs, Candidates Who Will Create Jobs

Posted on August 16, 2010
More than 6,000 union members and allies rallied in Los Angeles Friday for a massive jobs action  to tell California candidates for public office that the state needs leaders who can create and save jobs, not corporate-backed millionaires like gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman and Senate candidate Carly Fiorina...

?Can You Imagine Working Until 70?? Congressional Republicans Think That?s OK

Posted on August 16, 2010
       Republican Rep. John Boehner from Ohio says if his party took over Congress in the fall elections, it would raise the Social Security eligibility age to 70. Sharron Angle, Republican candidate for Senate in Nevada, said Social Security should be phased out...

Laborers Returning to AFL-CIO

Posted on August 16, 2010
The Laborers (LIUNA) announced yesterday it is re-affiliating with the AFL-CIO effective Oct. 1, following the unanimous approval of the union?s General Executive Board.  In a statement, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said: More than ever, now is the moment for a unified labor movement...

Global Youth Unemployment Reaches Record Levels

Posted on August 15, 2010
    Participants in the ITUC Youth Summit in June show solidarity with striking Hertz workers.         The global economic crisis has been especially bad for young workers. A new report by the International Labor Organization (ILO) shows that while youth unemployment has been steadily worsening for more than a decade, the economic crisis caused an explosive increase in the jobless rate for young workers...

Happy Birthday Social Security?And Many More

Posted on August 14, 2010
      Today is the 75th birthday of Social Security, and while the nation?s retirees have much to be proud of as Social Security reaches this milestone, they also are anxious as more and more short-sighted politicians take aim at the program...

Trumka: ?We?re Going to Rebuild America With Jobs?

Posted on August 13, 2010
       In the political showdown between Wall Street and Main Street, California is a key battleground. With the third highest jobless rate in the country and a towering budget deficit, California needs leaders who can create and save jobs, not just spout  ”more of the same corporate bull,” AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka told a crowd of thousands at a mass jobs rally in Los Angeles today...

There Is No Tomorrow?America Needs Jobs Now

Posted on August 13, 2010
The nation’s unemployment crisis threatens the very core of the United States?entire communities, rural and metropolitan, are going under. Writing at Huffington Post, Mark Ayers, president of the AFL-CIO Building and Construction Trades Department, says the United States must immediately build on the successes of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and use scarce federal dollars in the most efficient way to boost demand and get jobless workers back to work...

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