Labor & Employment Law

?Just Say No? Republicans Block Debate on Financial Reform-for Now

Posted on April 26, 2010
Forty Senate Republicans and one Democrat today sided with Wall Street and the Big Banks to deny the opportunity for senators to even debate real financial reform. The Senate fell three votes short of the 60 votes (57-41) needed to begin debate on S. 3217, the Restoring American Financial Stability Act of 2010...

Arizona Immigration Bill Draws Bipartisan Fire

Posted on April 26, 2010
      Across the country, there is a bipartisan outcry against Arizona’s draconian new anti-immigrant law, which many say is impractical, unenforceable, poor policy and will lead to racial profiling. On Friday, Arizona’s Republican Gov...

Marching Across California to Restore the American Dream

Posted on April 26, 2010
    Thousands rally in Sacramento at the April 21 conclusion of the ?March for California?s Future,? a 48-day walk from Bakersfield to demonstrate the need to preserve public services.         (This is a cross-post from the AFSCME website...

25,000 City Workers Near Contract in San Francisco?and More Bargaining News

Posted on April 26, 2010
25,000 city workers in San Francisco reach a tentative agreement?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 1,200 subscribers...

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Seventh Worker Dies from Refinery Blast

Posted on April 26, 2010
A seventh United Steelworkers (USW) member has died after an April 2 explosion at a Tesoro refinery in Anacortes, Wash. Matt Gumbel, 34, died Saturday after fighting for his life for three weeks. The other USW members killed in the blast were Lew Janz, 41; Matthew C...

?Just Say No? Republicans Block Debate on Wall Street Reform?for Now

Posted on April 26, 2010
Forty Senate Republicans and one Democrat today sided with Wall Street and the Big Banks to deny the opportunity for senators to even debate real Wall Street reform. The U.S. Senate fell three votes short of the 60 votes (57-41) needed to begin debate on S...

We?d Hate to Close the Plant. You Won?t Be Joining a Union, Will You?

Posted on April 25, 2010
      What goes on behind closed doors when a supervisor or anti-union hired gun summons a worker to a meeting when a union organizing drive is under way? A new video from the Electrical Workers (IBEW) gives a pretty clear picture of the behind-closed-doors intimidation and veiled (and not-so veiled threats) workers who are trying to form a union are forced to endure...

Still Time to Register for Good Jobs, Green Jobs Conference

Posted on April 24, 2010
      There’s still time to register for the 2010 Good Jobs, Green Jobs National Conference set for May 4­-6, in Washington, D.C. Click here to register. The conference brings together union members, environmentalists, business leaders, lawmakers and administration officials to map out the path to green economy that creates good jobs, reduces global warming and preserves America’s economic and environmental security...

Another Coal Miner Dies

Posted on April 23, 2010
Another reminder of how dangerous our nation’s coal mines can be: A 28-year-old miner died this morning after an accident last night at the Pocahontas Mine in West Virginia. His death comes two weeks after 29 coal miners were killed in an explosion at the Upper Big Branch Mine...

No More Deceit: Strictly Regulate Wall Street

Posted on April 23, 2010
Recent stories about Wall Street contain a recurring theme: deceit. For example, this week the CEO of the late Lehman Brothers, Richard S. Fuld Jr., with a completely straight face swore to Congress that he’d been utterly out to lunch on the issue of “Repo 105,” a sleight-of-hand accounting procedure auditors found Lehman used to conceal its debts...

Immokalee Freedom March Challenges Publix to Do the Right Thing

Posted on April 23, 2010
       More than 1,000 farm workers and religious, student and fair food activists braved the rain for a massive picket, march and rally in Lakeland, Fla., Sunday to demand that Publix Super Markets respect the human rights of the workers who provide the food on the store shelves...

Public Sector, Public Good

Posted on April 22, 2010
    Here are those “$70,000-a-year librarians, living off our taxes!” Members of IUE-CWA Local 201 in Saugus, Mass.         In 2008, my local union was approached by librarians in Saugus, Mass. They wanted to form a union...

G-20 Labor Leaders Meet at AFL-CIO for Labor Summit

Posted on April 22, 2010
When the world’s banks were going under, governments jumped to their aid. Now with record numbers of people out of work, it’s past time for governments to put working people first, or the fledgling economic recovery could fall apart. Leaders from the G-20 nations issued this warning while in Washington, D...

Tanker Bid Tests Who U.S. Trade Policy Really Helps

Posted on April 22, 2010
If the Obama administration is serious about rebuilding America’s manufacturing base, it should start by awarding the $35 billion Air Force tanker contract to Boeing and not to a European firm that has ignored trading rules in its bid, several experts say...

Bill in Congress Would Save or Create 675,000+ Local Jobs

Posted on April 22, 2010
If the Local Jobs for America Act (H.R. 4812) becomes law, it will create or save more than 675,000 local community jobs and more than 250,000 education jobs, according to the latest estimates from the House Education and Labor Committee. In a letter from the coalition of more than 300 groups, including the AFL-CIO, that have endorsed the bill, the groups write: We need bold congressional action in order to put Americans back to work and prevent more layoffs and cuts in crucial services...

Make a Difference?Take Part in Union Summer for Jobs

Posted on April 22, 2010
Are you a college student or recent grad with a streak of activism, a healthy disdain for Wall Street greed and a desire to help put America back to work? Union Summer for Jobs Internship might be just the place for you this summer. The 10-week internship program gives young activists on-the-ground experience in organizing, community activism and coalition building...

Oil Rig Blast Renews USW Call for Tougher Safety Regs

Posted on April 22, 2010
The United Steelworkers (USW) again called for an overhaul of health and safety within the oil industry following the explosion yesterday on an oil drilling rig about 50 miles off the Louisiana coast in the Gulf of Mexico. It was the fourth oil industry incident in a little more than two weeks that has killed or seriously injured workers...

In Person or Online, Join the March on Wall Street

Posted on April 22, 2010
      If you’re ready to tell the big Wall Street bankers that you’re mad as hell about the mess they made with the economy and the jobs they destroyed, join the 10,000 union and community activists from National People’s Action (NPA) and other groups marching through the heart of New York’s financial district April 29...

We?re Still Mourning the Dead and Fighting for the Living

Posted on April 21, 2010
    Jeff Wiggins, president of the Western Kentucky Area Council, AFL-CIO, in the Paducah, Ky., union hall.         A century ago, many immigrant coal miners worked long hours at low pay in jobs that threatened their lives and limbs...

Make a Difference?Take Part in Union Summer

Posted on April 21, 2010
Are you, a college student or recent grad with streak of activism, a healthy disdain for Wall Street greed and desire to help put America back to work? Union Summer might be just the place for you this summer. The 10-week internship program gives young activists on-the ground experience in organizing, community activism and coalition building...

Trumka: Building ?Real? Things?Not Financial Fantasies?Creates Jobs

Posted on April 21, 2010
America’s working families “need an economy that’s based on building?not bubbles,” AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka told the 3,000 union activists and leaders at the AFL-CIO Building and Construction Trades Department’s (BCTD’s) legislative conference this morning...

Young IBEW Members Speak Out at AFL-CIO Forums

Posted on April 21, 2010
              Three weeks after being laid off from his job, Rafael Arredondo, 31, is sitting in a conference room in a Southern California office park, hoping to hear good news about his own future and that of the union movement. He’s one of more than a dozen 20- and 30-something union members gathered around the table, sharing ideas about where organized labor stands right now and where it’s headed...

Icelandic Volcano Means Lost Wages for Flower Workers in Africa

Posted on April 21, 2010
    For workers at this flower factory in Naivasha, Kenya, halted air travel in Europe means lost wages.         Bernard Pollack, who is taking a leave of absence from the AFL-CIO to travel through Africa, and Danielle Nierenberg send us a report from their journey through Africa...

Obama to Eulogize Miners; Trumka Cites Massey?s ?Failure? to Follow Law; Ugly Words from ALEC

Posted on April 20, 2010
President Obama will travel to Beckley, W.Va., Sunday, April 25, to attend a special memorial service for the 29 coal miners killed in the April 5 explosion at Massey Energy’s Upper Big Branch mine. White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said Obama–who will be accompanied by Vice President Joe Biden–will deliver a eulogy “honoring the lives of those who perished and offering his deepest condolences to the loved ones they left behind...

Nurse-Patient Ratio Laws Save Lives, New Study Shows

Posted on April 20, 2010
California’s nurse-to-patient staffing law reduces patient deaths, allows nurses to spend more time with each patient and helps keep experienced nurses on the job, a new study by University of Pennsylvania researchers documents. The study shows that if other states followed the California ratios, patients’ lives also would be saved, too...

Equal Pay Day 2010: Women, 78 Cents, Men, $1

Posted on April 20, 2010
      Today’s the day when women workers finally catch up with the pay men received last year?the day we mark as Equal Pay Day. Being three months and 20 days behind men’s wages means women who work full-time still are paid, on average, 78 cents for every dollar men are paid...

Biden: Growing Construction Jobs Grows the Middle Class

Posted on April 20, 2010
      Pointing to an unemployment rate?nearly 25 percent?for construction workers that is “unacceptably high,” Vice President Joe Biden yesterday told some 3,000 delegates to the AFL-CIO’s Building and Construction Trades Department (BCTD) legislative conference: We are waging a way to get you back where you belong, not just for your sake but for the sake of the middle class, because if you do not grow, the middle class will not grow, and without a growing middle class our ability to lead to the 21st century is diminished...

Saturday, May 8: Help Letter Carriers ?Stamp Out Hunger?

Posted on April 19, 2010
      With the U.S. underemployment rate at 16.9 percent in March, the Letter Carriers’ (NALC’s) annual national food drive next month comes at a time when millions of Americans are struggling to put food on the table. More than 49 million people?including 16...

Big Crowds Back Rio Tinto Miners in L.A., San Francisco

Posted on April 19, 2010
      More than 1,000 union and community activists, joined by about 200 locked-out miners and their families, marched outside the British consulate in Los Angeles Friday to protest British-owned Rio Tinto’s two and half-month lock out of 600 miners at its Boron, Calif...

Bloomingdale, Snyder Elected to Top Posts of Pa. AFL-CIO; George Named President Emeritus

Posted on April 19, 2010
    Richard W. Bloomingdale             Bill George         Richard W. Bloomingdale was elected president of the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO by delegates to the state federation’s convention last week in Pittsburgh. He succeeds William George, who retired after 20 years in the top post...

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