Labor & Employment Law

One Year After Ledbetter: Work Still Needed on Pay Equity

Posted on January 29, 2010
      One year ago today, working people celebrated a milestone in the battle for pay equity when the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act was signed into law. The law corrected the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision that Ledbetter, a 20-year employee of the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co...

Like 5.7 Percent GDP Growth? Pass a Real Jobs Bill

Posted on January 29, 2010
In this cross-post from the Campaign for America’s Future, Bill Scher explains the need for a real jobs bill to keep the economy growing. Today’s estimate of 5.7 percent annual rate of growth in the Gross Domestic Product for the last quarter of 2009 sure beats a kick in the teeth...

Workers Across Nation Choose a Voice with AFL-CIO Unions

Posted on January 29, 2010
Here are the latest graduates of AFSCME?s organizer-training program, Alternative Union Break. County workers, professional employees, bakery workers, airborne pilots and “ghost” pilots and sheriff’s deputies are among the latest workers to choose a voice at work with AFL-CIO unions...

Trumka on ?Moyers? Tonight, CNN Sunday

Posted on January 29, 2010
    Bill Moyers interviews AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka tonight on PBS.         AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka is tonight’s featured guest on “Bill Moyers Journal” on PBS. In an in-depth 30-minute interview, Trumka will outline steps to restore the nation’s economy, create jobs and rebuild the middle class...

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?Buy America? Puts People to Work

Posted on January 29, 2010
      A new report presents clear evidence that including Buy America provisions in last year’s stimulus package has created jobs and makes the case that the rules should be strengthened in jobs legislation being considered on Capitol Hill...

Trumka: Obama Absolutely Right to Make Jobs Top Priority

Posted on January 28, 2010
                  Obama’s call tonight to make jobs his No. 1 priority in his State of the Union message is the right message, says AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka. As Obama said tonight: Jobs must be our number one focus in 2010, and that is why I am calling for a new jobs bill tonight...

Tell the Senate: JOBS NOW!

Posted on January 28, 2010
In his State of the Union address last night, President Obama made jobs the top priority of his administration, and today you can act to let Congress know jobs are the top priority of working people, as well. Obama praised the House for passing a jobs bill last month and urged the Senate to do the same...

AFL-CIO Unveils 2010 State Jobs Agenda

Posted on January 28, 2010
Last night in his State of the Union message, President Obama called on Congress to pass a jobs bill to help put millions of Americans back to work. But the U.S. Congress is not the only lawmaking body that can fuel job creation. State legislatures have important roles to play...

?Buy America? Puts People to Work

Posted on January 28, 2010
      A new report presents clear evidence that including Buy America provisions in last year’s stimulus package has created jobs and makes the case that the rules should be strengthened in jobs legislation being considered on Capitol Hill...

Dean Baker: Recession Didn?t Have to Happen

Posted on January 28, 2010
    Dean Baker         If the Federal Reserve had done its job, the worst economic downturn since the Depression of the 1930s would not have occurred. Rather than heeding warnings that the sharp upturn in the housing market was a bubble that inevitably would bust, economists at the Fed ignored all the warning signs, says Dean Baker in a Point of View (POV) guest column at the AFL-CIO website...

New High-Speed Rail Projects Put People to Work

Posted on January 28, 2010
Today in Tampa, Fla., President Obama is announcing $8 billion in high-speed rail grants that will save or create tens of thousands of jobs in areas like track-laying, manufacturing, planning and engineering.  Edward Wytkind, president of the AFL-CIO Transportation Trades Department (TTD), says the commitment to develop high-speed rail “couldn’t come at a better time...

Oregon Voters Tell Corporations, Wealthy: ?Pay Your Fair Share?

Posted on January 28, 2010
Oregon voters, faced with a $727 million budget deficit that threatened severe cuts in education, health care, public safety and senior services, voted Tuesday for two “fair share” measures that raise taxes on the state’s wealthiest families and boost a minimum tax on businesses that had been set at just $10 since 1931...

Calling on All Working Americans to Stand Up and Fight

Posted on January 27, 2010
The news is out: The Wall Street bankers we bailed out are giving themselves 2009 cash bonuses of a half million dollars on average?not including stocks. Compare that with the $32,390 annual median wage for regular workers, and you find a formula for outrage...

Athletes Take Field for Haiti Relief

Posted on January 27, 2010
      Members of the NFL Players Association (NFLPA) are stepping up to raise money and promote awareness for the recovery effort in Haiti. You can take action now to help the Haitian survivors by clicking on the AFL-CIO Haitian Disaster Relief site here...

Stimulus Funds Creating Jobs

Posted on January 27, 2010
Critics of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, also known as the stimulus package, often lump it in with the bailout of the banks. But the Recovery Act has nothing to do with Wall Street. It is putting people back to work on Main Street, by creating or saving millions of jobs...

Foxwoods Casino Dealers Reach Historic Tentative Contract

Posted on January 27, 2010
The solidarity of Foxwoods employees led to a tentative first contract.    More than a year after contract negotiations began, some 2,500 casino dealers at Foxwoods Resort Casino and MGM Grand in Connecticut, members of UAW Local 2121, have a tentative settlement for a first contract...

Peinovich Takes Reins as Labor College Interim President

Posted on January 26, 2010
Dr. Paula Peinovich has been appointed interim president of the National Labor College (NLC) by the school’s Board of Trustees. She succeeds William Scheuerman, who announced his retirement last week after serving as NLC president since February 2008...

Union Plus Will Match Your Haiti Relief Donation

Posted on January 26, 2010
      You can double the power of your contribution to Haiti relief if you have a Union Plus credit card. Click here and Union Plus will automatically double your contribution with your credit card to the Solidarity Center’s AFL-CIO Earthquake Relief for Haitian Workers’ Campaign...

Union Leaders Give Chavez-Thompson ?Full Support? in Texas Lt. Gov. Race

Posted on January 26, 2010
      Linda Chavez-Thompson, AFL-CIO executive vice president emerita, and candidate for the Democratic nomination for lieutenant governor of Texas, “is a tireless advocate for civil, human, women’s and worker rights,” says the AFL-CIO Executive Committee in a statement expressing its full support for her run...

Global Unions: Reform Banks Worldwide

Posted on January 26, 2010
The global union movement is calling on other governments to follow President Obama’s commitment to restructure banks as a key part of comprehensive financial regulatory reform. Obama has proposed a series of urgently needed reforms, including an end to the practice of banks using depositors’ money to engage in the kind of high-risk speculative operations, such as hedge funds and private equity, which helped plunge the world into recession...

The Message of Massachusetts: Jobs

Posted on January 25, 2010
  Leo W. Gerard   Bill Clinton saw it clearly when he was running for president against Bush I. It became his mantra: “It’s the economy, stupid.” Clinton wanted to reform health insurance, too. But he understood that during a recession, the first priority is jobs...

Solidarity Center Supports, Extends Workers? Efforts to Build Unions

Posted on January 25, 2010
      Through its work in more than 60 countries on five continents, the AFL-CIO Solidarity Center is supporting and extending workers’ efforts to gain a better life by helping them to build strong unions. In its 2009 Annual Report, the Solidarity Center highlights its wide range of programs to help workers form unions...

Middle Class Task Force Addresses Child Care, College Costs, Retirement Security

Posted on January 25, 2010
The White House Task Force on the Middle Class today announced several initiatives it says will help middle-class families afford soaring child care costs, care for their aging relatives, cope with the challenge of saving for retirement and pay for their children’s college tuition...

?Inglourious Basterds,? Bullock and Bridges Top SAG Award Winners

Posted on January 25, 2010
      Sandra Bullock and Jeff Bridges won two of the top SAG awards.     The cast of “Inglourious Basterds” took home the top honor for best performance by a cast in a motion picture as members of the Screen Actors (SAG) honored their own at the 16th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards® show Sunday...

14 California Unions Oppose Governor?s Attack on Wages?and More Bargaining News

Posted on January 25, 2010
Representing more than 230,000 California state workers, 14 unions are opposing Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s move to slash wages, 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...

Scammers Follow Unions from Newsprint to Cyberspace

Posted on January 24, 2010
As long as there have been labor publications, there have been scam artists masquerading as legitimate union newsletters, magazines or newspapers trying to swindle advertising dollars from unsuspecting businesses looking for a vehicle to reach union members and their families...

Labor College Launches Green Labor Journal

Posted on January 23, 2010
    This photo from the Green Labor Journal shows the rapid decline of arctic sea ice (in white) between 2004 and 2005 due to climate change.         The National Labor College (NLC) and the AFL-CIO’s Center for Green Jobs recently launched the Green Labor Journal, a monthly online journal that examines issues of sustainability, energy use and climate change from a union perspective...

Hey, Democrats, Remember Us?

Posted on January 22, 2010
IUE-CWA Local 201 member Alex Reynoso protests a health benefit tax.   ?Jeff, you guys at the Union Hall aren?t listening to us! You?re talking out of both sides of your mouth. We?re fighting the benefits tax, and now you?re telling us to vote for someone who will tax our benefits! The guys here are voting for Scotty Brown...

Create Jobs, Rebuild Infrastructure with National Infrastructure Bank

Posted on January 22, 2010
A broad coalition of union, business, government and academic leaders has called for creation of a National Infrastructure Bank (NIB) that not only would propel the rebuilding of the nation’s crumbling infrastructure, but also would be a major job-creating engine...

Job Crisis Takes Toll on Union Membership

Posted on January 22, 2010
With the economy hemorrhaging jobs?more than 3.3 million jobs lost in 2009?the latest figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) show union membership in 2009 dropped slightly, from 12.4 percent of the workforce to 12.3 percent. Nationwide, union membership dropped by 771,000, to 15...

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