Labor & Employment Law

Marchers Spotlight Massey Mine Deaths at CEO Blankenship Press Club Speech

Posted on July 22, 2010
AFL-CIO Media Outreach Fellow Nora Frederickson contributed to this story. Inside the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., today, Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship tried to defend the indefensible?Massey?s coal mine safety record. Thirty-one miners have died in Massey mines this year, including 29 in the April 5 explosion at the Upper Big Branch (W...

Netroots Nation: Channeling the Power of Jobs, Populism and the Angry Voter

Posted on July 22, 2010
Where does populist anger over the economy go?left or right? It?s a question Working America has focused a great deal on as it relates to both policy and politics, in our discussions of a ?working class at the tipping point,? in our daily work and as it relates specifically to this fall?s elections...

Atlanta Area Residents Demand Big Banks Help Struggling Homeowners

Posted on July 22, 2010
Rally outside Wachovia/Wells Fargo bank in Atlanta   In Atlanta?one of the areas hardest hit by foreclosures?residents who are about to lose their homes today demanded that big banks like Wachovia/Wells Fargo reform their policies and protect homeowners on the brink of homelessness...

Tough Mine, Workplace Safety Bill Advances

Posted on July 22, 2010
Tough new mine safety and workplace safety rules cleared a big hurdle yesterday when the House Education and Labor Committee approved legislation that includes stronger enforcement tools, tougher penalties and broader workers? rights. The bill?now named The Robert C...

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Brazil?s CUT, AFL-CIO Working Together to Address Global Jobs Crisis

Posted on July 21, 2010
    CUT President Artur da Silva Santos         In a global economy, workers must come together across national borders to deal effectively with issues that affect more than one nation and to balance the power of multinational corporations...

Trumka: Boost Fairness and Revenue with Estate Tax Reinstatement

Posted on July 21, 2010
New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner and hundreds of other multimillionaires (and some billionaires, like Steinbrenner) who have passed away this year disproved the old adage, ?the only two things certain in life are death and taxes.? They couldn?t dodge death, but their estates have dodged taxes?some $14...

Without Job Creation Action, Job Levels Stagnant for Years

Posted on July 21, 2010
Even if the economy begins creating jobs at the fastest pace of job growth during the early 2000s, employment levels won?t  reach December 2007 levels?when the Bush recession began destroying nearly 11 million jobs?until 2014. But even with that rate of job creation, according to a new report, because of the growth in the workforce, the unemployment rate will not fall back to pre-recession levels until 2021...

Shirley Sherrod and All Workers Deserve to Have Their Voices Protected

Posted on July 21, 2010
All across the nation, people are watching the case of Shirley Sherrod, who was asked to resign as Georgia state director for rural development at the U.S. Department of Agriculture because of an edited video clip. A moment of personal honesty about a redemptive experience in her own life was snipped into an apparent example of bias, and the unforgiving 24-second news cycle was not her friend...

Senate Breaks Republican Stranglehold on Jobless Help

Posted on July 20, 2010
The U.S. Senate this afternoon broke the Republican blockade of unemployment insurance (UI) for long-term, jobless workers?a blockade that cost more than 2 million unemployed workers their benefits.  The U.S. Senate voted 60-40 to end the filibuster led by Minority Leader Sen...

Obama Tells Senate: Mind the Gap, Pass Paycheck Fairness Act

Posted on July 20, 2010
President Obama today called on the U.S. Senate to pass the Paycheck Fairness Act to close the pay gap that leaves women earning only 77 cents for every dollar that men earn. He says the Paycheck Fairness Act is a common-sense bill that will help ensure that men and women who do equal work receive the equal pay that they and their families deserve…...

The BP Disaster-China Connection

Posted on July 20, 2010
A bipartisan poll shows the majority of voters believe the nation?s economy is no longer the strongest economy in the world and we need an aggressive national manufacturing strategy to regain our pre-eminent position. Here?s one reason why. When the blow-out preventer on the Deepwater Horizon rig needed to be modified, it was sent to China, according to the UK?s Guardian newspaper...

USW Members Urge Action on Clean Energy Jobs Bills

Posted on July 20, 2010
As the U.S. Senate prepares to consider clean energy legislation, hundreds of United Steelworkers (USW) members are visiting Capitol Hill today to urge lawmakers to pass strong legislation that includes the investments needed to create and maintain good, middle-class manufacturing jobs in this country...

CNA?s ?Queen Meg? Draws National Attention

Posted on July 20, 2010
      The California Nurses Association?s (CNA’s) satirical imperial ?Queen Meg,? a parody of free-spending billionaire Meg Whitman and her bid to buy California?s governorship, caught the attention of Time.com today. According to the lead feature on the site?s Politics section, ?the former eBay CEO is willing to spend a mind-boggling $150 million of her own money? to move into the governor?s mansion in Sacramento...

AFL-CIO Union Summer: ?This Internship Has Changed Me?

Posted on July 19, 2010
    Carlos Daniel Rosa, the son of immigrants, says being a Union Summer for Jobs intern makes him part of a movement to make the American Dream a reality.         The AFL-CIO’s Union Summer for Jobs 2010, a 10-week educational internship in which participants are introduced to the labor movement, goes well beyond the average internship...

Solis and Trumka: Our Future Depends on Immigration Reform

Posted on July 19, 2010
The nation?s immigration system is broken and how we treat immigrants will determine what kind of economic future our country will have, Labor Secretary Hilda Solis and AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said today.  On a live webcast, Solis and Trumka, both children of immigrants, called for reforms that secure our borders and provide a clear path to citizenship for those immigrants who are already here...

Netroots Nation 2010: Labor, Online Progressives and Union Beer

Posted on July 19, 2010
      Union activists are joining a couple thousand online progressives this week for the annual Netroots Nation conference. The July 22?25 event in Las Vegas brings political powerhouses like House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn...

Long-Term Jobless Aid Set for Senate Vote Again, McConnell Vows Filibuster

Posted on July 19, 2010
Here?s some advice for Senate Minority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and his Republican colleagues whose obstruction-at-any-price strategy has cost more than 2 million long-term jobless workers their unemployment insurance (UI) benefits. It?s time to stop holding workers laid off in this recession hostage to Washington politics...

Report: Ascension Hospitals Disrespect Nurses? Rights

Posted on July 19, 2010
      Three Michigan hospitals affiliated with Ascension Health System consistently refuse to respect workers’ freedom to join a union and bargain collectively, according to a new report by Interfaith Worker Justice (IWJ). The report shows the Catholic hospitals? actions directly oppose long-standing Catholic social teachings...

Level the Playing Field in Trade Policy

Posted on July 19, 2010
Current U.S. trade policies encourage corporations to move production off our shores to low-wage countries that do not enforce workplace and environmental laws. This is good for multinational businesses and investors but bad for workers and communities, as pointed out by Stan Sorscher, legislative representative for the Society for Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (SPEEA)/IFPTE Local 2001...

Build a Billboard for Boehner

Posted on July 19, 2010
      House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) appears to have two favorite pastimes. The first is bashing everything President Obama and congressional Democrats are doing to revive the economy?including Wall Street reform, job creation, unemployment insurance benefits, health care reform and on and on and on...

Alta Gracia Plant Shows Fair Practices Possible in Apparel

Posted on July 19, 2010
       The first-known apparel factory in the developing world to pay a living wage is operating in  Villa Altagracia, a small impoverished town in the Dominican Republic. For the first time, the 120 workers at the factory will be paid enough to support themselves and their families...

Union Support Helped Win ?Open Fields? Hunting and Fishing Access

Posted on July 18, 2010
Union sportsmen and all hunters and fishing enthusiasts will soon find tens of thousands of new acres of land to explore, thanks to a new Open Fields program that union support on Capitol Hill helped push to the finish line. Last week, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack announced the release of $50 million for the Open Fields program, which provides states with federal funding to create or enhance voluntary hunter-access programs that encourage private landowners to open their lands to the public for hunting and fishing...

Join National Weekend of Prayer and Action for Immigrant Justice

Posted on July 17, 2010
      Interfaith Worker Justice (IWJ) has launched a three-part campaign to fight Arizona?s draconian anti-immigrant law, known as S.B. 1070. During the weekend of July 29?Aug. 1?the time the law is supposed to take effect?IWJ is asking workers and other people of faith to join in a national Weekend of Prayer and Action for Immigrant Justice...

Community Is Family

Posted on July 16, 2010
By Carlos Daniel Rosa In this cross-post, Carlos Daniel Rosa, an AFL-CIO Union Summer for Jobs intern working in Chicago, reports on a recent speech by Karen Lewis, president of the Chicago Teachers Union. You can read posts by the Chicago interns at http://chicagointerns...

OSHA Launches New Whistleblower Protection Site

Posted on July 16, 2010
      The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) says that workers who blow the whistle on safety violations and other unlawful practices ?play an important role in assuring compliance with federal laws.? But, say workplace safety advocates, too many times workers don?t speak up about safety and health problems on the job because they fear retaliation from their employers, even though it?s illegal...

Solis, Trumka Talk Immigration Reform, Worker Rights on Live Webcast

Posted on July 16, 2010
Join Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis and AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka for a live video webcast Monday to address the urgent need for comprehensive immigration reform from a worker rights perspective. The webcast will air at 1 p.m. EDT. Solis will explore the corporate exploitation of undocumented immigrant workers and the depressing effect it has on labor standards nationally...

Dr. Donald Berwick: The Leader We Need for Health Medicare and Medicaid

Posted on July 16, 2010
    Dr. Donald Berwick          John August, executive director of the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions, which represents 90,000 health care workers, describes why Dr. Donald Berwick is a good choice to head the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services...

Won?t You Come See Us, Queen Meg?

Posted on July 16, 2010
After spending $90 million to capture the California Republican gubernatorial primary, billionaire and former eBay CEO ?Queen? Meg Whitman is now spending some of her cash to attack Golden State nurses and their union, the California Nurses Association (CNA)...

Last Chance to Win a $22,000 Triton Bass Boat

Posted on July 15, 2010
    IUPAT member Lonnie Tinder (right) takes the keys to his new bass boat in 2008.         Summer heat got you down? Here?s a chance to cool out on the water in a new boat. The Union Sportsmen?s Alliance (USA) and Triton Boats are giving away a new TR-18 SE fiberglass bass boat powered by a union-made Mercury engine and valued at more than $22,000...

Time for Unity in Kentucky U.S. Senate Race

Posted on July 15, 2010
Kentucky Lt. Gov. Dan Mongiardo (D) didn’t quite pull a ?Happy? Chandler when he told the Lexington Herald-Leader he is ?not taking a position? in the U.S. Senate race between fellow Democrat Jack Conway and Tea Party-backed Republican Rand Paul...

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