Labor & Employment Law

Main Street Wins: Senate OKs Wall Street Reform, Obama to Sign

Posted on July 15, 2010
In a ?historic shift of power? from Wall Street to Main Street, the Senate this afternoon approved sweeping Wall Street reform legislation and sent it to President Obama for his signature. AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, says the bill, which will rein-in some of most reckless Wall Street/Big Bank practices that shoved the nation?s economy over the cliff, represents a historic shift of power?away from big bankers and CEOs to working families and Main Street...

Happy 75th, Social Security, Watch Out for Deficit Scam

Posted on July 15, 2010
Seventy-five years ago this August, President Franklin Roosevelt signed Social Security into law. Today, the nation?s most successful safety net, a program that has provided retirement security and kept hundreds of millions of seniors out of poverty, is under attack...

Immigration Policies Hurt Children, Rip Families Apart

Posted on July 15, 2010
Two weeks before Arizona?s anti-immigrant law, S.B. 1070, takes effect, immigrant children and their advocates made an urgent plea to members of Congress to review how the nation?s broken immigration system hurts children and its long-lasting effects on children and families...

Chamber Poll Makes Case for Stimulus Over Deficit Reduction

Posted on July 15, 2010
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce?s so-called Jobs Summit yesterday in Washington, D.C., produced little in the way of real solutions to our economic crisis. Instead, there were the usual complaints about regulation and taxes?it opposes both. But the real news came from outside the summit, where a new poll commissioned by the Chamber unintentionally showed that its own members agree with the AFL-CIO and most progressives that the federal government should spend more money stimulating the economy rather than reducing the deficit?the direct opposite of the Chamber?s position...

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Lehigh Valley Union Activists to Rep. Dent: Show Us the Jobs!

Posted on July 15, 2010
      Yael Foa, AFL-CIO senior field representative for the Northeast Region, recently rallied with Pennsylvania union members at the Bethlehem offices of Rep. Charlie Dent to protest his lack of action in creating good jobs. The event is one of dozens union activists are holding around the nation to hold lawmakers accountable for Good Jobs Now...

Social Security Cuts Eyed by Deficit Commission ?Especially Painful,? Report Finds

Posted on July 15, 2010
Next month, Social Security, one of the nation’s most successful and important government programs, turns 75. It is the cornerstone of retirement security for tens of millions of Americans. (Today, the U.S. House Ways and Means subcommittee on Social Security will examine the success of Social Security 75 years after President Franklin Roosevelt signed it into law...

N.Y. Coalition Tells Big Banks Do More to Stop Foreclosures

Posted on July 14, 2010
A coalition of New York City unions and community groups, joined by city Comptroller John Liu, told some of the biggest banks that received hundreds of billions in taxpayer bailouts that it?s time to help out  New York homeowners facing foreclosure. In letters to JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, PNC, Wachovia and U...

?Off With Their Heads? Says Queen Meg in Attack on California Nurses

Posted on July 14, 2010
      Meg Whitman, Republican candidate for California governor and billionaire former CEO of eBay has picked a fight with the California Nurses Association (CNA) that political observers think may backfire and energize nurses across the Golden State to work even harder to defeat Whitman in November...

Report: Immigrant Crab Workers Exploited

Posted on July 14, 2010
      In a stinging indictment of our broken immigration system, a new report shows that crab-picking houses on Maryland?s Eastern Shore rely mainly on hundreds of immigrant women workers who are forced to pay excessive and illegal fees to foreign recruiters only to end up in low-paying jobs in isolated rural areas with poor housing...

Social Security Cuts Eyed by Deficit Commission ?Especially Painful,? Report Finds

Posted on July 14, 2010
      Next month, Social Security, one of the nation’s most successful and important government programs, turns 75. It is the cornerstone of retirement security for tens of millions of Americans. (Tomorrow, the U.S. House Ways and Means subcommittee on Social Security will examine the success of Social Security 75 years after President Franklin Roosevelt signed it into law...

Take the 2010 Ask a Working Woman Survey

Posted on July 14, 2010
      The Great Recession has hit American workers in the gut?unemployment is up, jobs are scarce, foreclosures are occurring at record rates and health care costs are skyrocketing. Even if you are working, wages are stagnant and many seniors will have to work past retirement age just to pay bills...

Some Real Questions for Chamber?s ?Jobs Summit?

Posted on July 14, 2010
When the U.S. Chamber of Commerce kicks off its ?Jobs for America: Summit 2010? this afternoon in Washington, D.C., the question workers most want participants to answer is: Will the Chamber help create good jobs at home or will it just keep backing corporations who chase the bottom line by sending jobs overseas? Rather than straight talk about how corporate greed created the jobs crisis, Chamber leaders are expected to raise the same tired blather that too much regulation is strangling business...

Netroots Nation: Vote on a Union Beer

Posted on July 13, 2010
By popular demand, Working America and the AFL-CIO are bringing back last year?s “Raise a glass for the working class” booth?otherwise known as the beer booth?at Netroots Nation. If you come by our booth anytime the exhibit hall is open and take an action for working families, you?re entitled to come back and sample union beer during the happy hours we?ll be holding next week on Thursday and Friday of the convention...

House Hearing Focuses on Mine, Workplace Safety

Posted on July 13, 2010
Mine Workers (UMWA) President Cecil Roberts told the House Education and Labor Committee this afternoon, ?We can and must do a better job of protecting our nation?s miners,? and urged Congress to approve legislation to strengthen mine and workplace safety laws...

Players Want 2011 All-Star Game Moved Out of Arizona

Posted on July 13, 2010
Baseball fans, take a good look at some of the players in tonight?s All-Star Game. You may not see them at next year?s classic if they are Latino. A growing number of Latino players?including such perennial all-stars as Albert Pujols and Adrian Gonzalez?have said they would not participate in the game if it is played as scheduled next year in Phoenix...

Lack of Jobs, Not ?Generous? UI Benefits, Keep Unemployed Jobless

Posted on July 13, 2010
You?ve really got to wonder if any of the Republican lawmakers, conservative think-tankers and right-wing bloggers who continue to claim that jobless workers would rather collect unemployment insurance (UI) benefits than find a job have ever lived in the real world...

Netroots Nation: Tell Us Your Ideas for the Labor Caucus

Posted on July 13, 2010
      Netroots Nation, the annual gathering of some 2,000 progressive bloggers and activists, is coming up fast?July 22?25?and we need your input on topics we should focus on at the Labor Caucus we hold there every year. Labor communicators from the AFL-CIO, Change to Win and independent unions take part in the Labor Caucus, as well as allies from groups such as Jobs with Justice...

Call-In Day, July 13: Tell Congress to Pass Currency Legislation

Posted on July 12, 2010
      Now that the Treasury Department once again has refused to label China as a currency manipulator, it is more important than ever for Congress to pass strong legislation quickly to stop the unfair and illegal advantage against U.S. producers that China and other nations gain by undervaluing their currency...

UAW, Rainbow PUSH Launch Campaign for Jobs, Justice and Peace

Posted on July 12, 2010
The UAW is joining with the Rainbow PUSH Coalition in a new campaign to refocus our national priorities on jobs, justice and peace.  During a press conference today in Detroit, UAW President Bob King and the Rev. Jesse Jackson, founder and president of Rainbow PUSH, said the campaign will call on our national leaders to rebuild America through new industrial and trade policies that create jobs, encourage manufacturing in America and put workers first...

Washington State Workers Rally to Keep Tanker Made in America

Posted on July 12, 2010
      In this cross-post, Kathy Cummings, communications director of the Washington State Labor Council, reports on a rally Friday in support of Boeing workers. Boeing is in competition with European-based Airbus for the Air Force?s $35 billion tanker contract...

Nationwide Worksite Actions Kick Off Labor 2010

Posted on July 12, 2010
In California, union workers are learning about Republican U.S. Senate candidate Carly Fiorina’s support of shipping jobs overseas, or as she calls it, ?right shoring.? In Illinois, the word is going out about Republican gubernatorial candidate Bill Brady?s opposition to boosting the state?s minimum wage...

Work and Walk in Union-Made Boots with Discounts for Union Members

Posted on July 11, 2010
      With apologies to Nancy Sinatra, these boots are made for working. And, they?re made by union members in Wausau, Wis. The American-made, union-made boots by United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) locals 668 and 717 members at the Weinbrenner Shoe Co...

APALA Mobilizing Asian Americans for Organizing and Political Action

Posted on July 10, 2010
    About a dozen workers testified before the first national workers? rights hearing for Asian Pacific American workers last November.         One of the fastest growing segments of the union movement, Asian Pacific Americans, are mobilizing to make their voices heard in politics and in the workplace...

AFT Leader Outlines Vision to Build Better Public Education System

Posted on July 09, 2010
      Saying America?s teachers would ?lead and propose, not wait and oppose,? AFT President Randi Weingarten outlined a vision to ?build a system of public education as it ought to be.? She said real changes could be made by focusing on good teaching, creating a curriculum that provides opportunity for students to learn and sharing responsibility and accountability with parents and administrators...

Striking Shaw?s Workers Reach Agreement

Posted on July 09, 2010
Striking workers at Shaw?s supermarket warehouse in Methuen, Mass., soon will be back at work after they ratified a new four-year contract yesterday. The pact provides pay raises and continues to provide quality, affordable health care and a defined-pension plan...

Appeals Court Upholds Order to Keep Plants Open

Posted on July 09, 2010
In a major win for workers, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld an injunction that prevents Pratt & Whitney from closing plants in Cheshire and East Hartford, Conn., and throwing some 1,000 workers onto the street. Machinists (IAM) District 26 had filed suit saying the decision to move the work violated their contract...

Vale Miners End Yearlong Strike with New Pact

Posted on July 09, 2010
Members of the United Steelworkers (USW) in Sudbury and Port Colborne, Ontario, Canada, voted today to end their yearlong strike against mining giant Vale, after they approved a new five-year contract. USW Local 6500 members in Sudbury voted 75 percent in favor of the new contract, while Local 6200 members in Port Colborne ratified the deal by a 74 percent  margin...

Plumbers and Pipe Fitters President Hite Named to Export Council

Posted on July 09, 2010
      President Obama has named Plumbers and Pipefitters (UA) President William Hite to serve on the President’s Export Council. Hite is the only labor representative on the council, which advises the president on strategies for expanding U...

Rand Paul: Opposes All Workers? Rights

Posted on July 09, 2010
Kentucky State AFL-CIO President Bill Londrigan says Ron Paul, the state’s Republican Senate candidate, is so vehement in his opposition to the right to the freedom to form unions and bargain contracts that when an anti-union Republican front group sent out a candidate questionnaire, Paul indicated his opposition to workers? rights across the board...

Time to Backlash at Public Employee Bash

Posted on July 09, 2010
      Public employees, the folks who teach our kids, fix our streets, put out our fires and protect our families, have been getting raked over the PR coals lately. Right-wing lawmakers, anti-government hysterics and some mainstream media have blasted?quite wrongly?their work ethic, skills, pay and pensions...

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