Labor & Employment Law

Unions Battle Verizon-Frontier Deal and $600 Million Tax Break

Posted on January 08, 2010
There is an oddly named tax loophole?the Reverse Morris Trust?that is so big and lucrative Verizon is getting ready to pull $600 million through it if its sale of rural phone landlines in 14 states to Frontier Communications is approved. Not only does Verizon stand to pocket the $600 million tax break, but a similar deal in New England shows consumers’ phone and Internet services are likely to deteriorate and workers’ jobs may be put in jeopardy...

Speaking of Jobs?

Posted on January 08, 2010
       Here are a few good nuggets about jobs to chew on this cold winter day. ? The reactionary noise machine is trying to bad-mouth the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to make it look like it’s not creating jobs. Wrong. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis this week announced the release of nearly $100 million in renewable energy training grants that will create thousands of jobs and help move our nation to energy self-sufficiency...

85,000 Jobs Lost in December

Posted on January 08, 2010
    Despite the predictions of many economists, job loss worsened in December, with a net loss of 85,000 jobs. The U.S. Department of Labor jobs data out today shows the number of those officially unemployed?15 million?remains the same, as does the 10 percent unemployment rate...

Atlanta Unions Help Boost Candidate from ?No-Name? to Mayor

Posted on January 08, 2010
When Kasim Reed was sworn in as mayor of Atlanta on Monday, he’d come a long way for a candidate whom the Atlanta Journal Constitution said had “nearly zero name recognition” months earlier. The get-out-the-vote drive by the unions of the Atlanta, North Georgia Central Labor Council was a key reason voters not only knew his name on Election Day, but pulled the lever by his name...

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Flight Attendants Protest Slow Contract Talks with United

Posted on January 07, 2010
Contract negotiations are going way too slowly with United Airlines, so the Flight Attendants-CWA (AFA-CWA) today is holding informational pickets at 17 different airports around the globe to protest ?the failure of United Airlines management to negotiate a new contract on time...

Health Care Reform Tax Hits More Chevys Than Caddies

Posted on January 07, 2010
Working families, their unions and health care activists are continuing their battle to ensure that the final health care reform package being hammered out in negotiations between House and Senate leaders is real and meaningful reform. (Click here to find out more about the two bills and next week’s National Call-In Day for health care reform...

House or Senate Health Care Reform? Compare for Yourself

Posted on January 07, 2010
      Over the coming days?and maybe weeks?U.S. House and Senate leaders, along with the Obama White House, will be working to shape one health care reform bill from the two each chamber passed earlier this year. Now is a good time to compare the two and we’ve posted a comparison here...

Trumka: To Solve Job Crisis ?We Must Create Different Kind of Economy?

Posted on January 06, 2010
After meeting with several unemployed San Diego workers this morning, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka spoke at a rally of workers, union, community and faith leaders calling for creation of a local jobs program. What I’ve seen here this morning as I sat with some of the hard-working people of this great city?people who through no fault of their own are without jobs?is another grim reminder of the ever-present struggles of working families in this city, this state, this country...

Better Enforcement = Fewer Mine Deaths

Posted on January 06, 2010
      Mining deaths fell to an all-time low last year, and two of the key reasons, says the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA), are stronger enforcement of mine safety laws and the tougher mine safety rules passed in 2006 after a series of explosions, fires and other deadly incidents...

Hotel Workers, Trumka Arrested at Sit-In for Fair Contract

Posted on January 06, 2010
    UNITEHERE! President John Wilhelm (left) and AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka were among the 140 arrested at a San Francisco hotel sit-in for justice.         More than 100 union members, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka and UNITEHERE! President John Wilhelm were arrested at a sit-in demanding justice and a fair contract for San Francisco hotel workers last night...

Health Insurance CEO?s $73 Million Bonus Covers a Lot of Co-Pays?and Other Health Care News

Posted on January 05, 2010
      Millions of working families are struggling to pay the ever-rising costs of health care or going without, and they await what Congress will do with health care reform. But one person who won’t have to worry about the final shape of health care legislation is H...

Recession?s Lost Wages Cost More than Health Care Reform

Posted on January 05, 2010
      Here’s a stunning fact that points both to the need for Washington lawmakers to rapidly move on massive job creation and pass health care reform: The wages lost as a result of the 2008-2012 recession will top $1 trillion?more than the estimated 10-year cost of health care reform...

Trumka Stumps for Jobs, Justice for Hotel Workers

Posted on January 05, 2010
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka kicks off a swing through California with a focus on jobs for America’s workers and justice for hotel workers. We will blog, Twitter and offer Facebook coverage of the events, but here’s a preview of the major actions...

Space: The Last Frontier for Outsourcing

Posted on January 05, 2010
      Check out this video of workers at Florida’s Kennedy Space Center who talk about the thrill, responsibility and pride of playing important roles in the space shuttle missions. The members of the Electrical Workers (IBEW) have been part of the nation’s space program from its earliest days through the space shuttle program, which flies its final mission in September...

Chavez-Thompson Running for Lt. Gov. of Texas

Posted on January 05, 2010
      Big shout out to AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Emerita Linda Chavez-Thompson who yesterday announced her candidacy for lieutenant governor of Texas, her home state. The “Draft Linda” movement swept through Texas, pulling our much-admired former executive vice president out of semi-retirement and onto the Democratic Party slate for state leadership...

Shuler: Workers Sending SOS to ?Fix the Jobs Crisis?

Posted on January 05, 2010
When AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler is on the road talking to workers around the country, she says the issue most on their minds is jobs. Speaking before a group of labor, management, government and academic leaders and experts at the Labor and Employment Relations Association (LERA) annual meeting in Atlanta yesterday morning, Shuler said she was bringing an SOS from the people I’ve met: Help us fix the jobs crisis...

U.S. Jobs Benefit from ITC?s China Pipe Ruling

Posted on January 04, 2010
U.S. workers who manufacture steel pipes won an important battle against unfair and government subsidized China-made pipe imports when the U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) unanimously ruled in favor of a petition by the United Steelworkers (USW) and eight U...

DeMint: If TSA Workers Join Union, They?ll Let Terrorists In

Posted on January 04, 2010
After the now infamous Christmas day “crotch bomber” episode on Northwest Airlines Flight 253, Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) couldn’t keep his anti-union bile from bubbling out of his mouth. DeMint, who has single-handedly bottled up the nomination of Erroll Southers to head the Transportation Security Agency (TSA), screeched that if TSA workers were allowed to unionize, terrorists clothed in plastic explosive-laden underwear or shoes or ball caps would begin blasting airplanes out of the sky on a regular basis...

Tax on Health Care Will Erode Coverage for Middle Class

Posted on January 04, 2010
      A new year brings with it lots of hope. Let’s hope 2010 brings a health care reform bill that does not penalize working families with a tax on their coverage. Because right now, as New York Times columnist Bob Herbert aptly describes it, there is a ”middle-class tax time bomb ticking in the Senate?s version” of the health care reform legislation...

Cast Your Vote for Best Photo by an Electrical Worker

Posted on January 03, 2010
      Here’s your chance to take a look at the work world as seen through the lenses of 15 members of the Electrical Workers (IBEW) and choose what you think are the top photographs in the IBEW’s 2009 Photo Contest. The finalists?out of more than 300 submissions?offer a fascinating and, at times, stunning perspective of the varied work IBEW members perform every day...

Women Have Come a Long Way in Building and Construction Industry

Posted on January 02, 2010
      In 1979, Beth Szillagyi, an honor roll college student, was desperate to find a job. Even with her Illinois Army National Guard education benefits, the burden of college costs and keeping a roof over her head and food on the table were too much...

The Past Decade the Worst for America?s Workers

Posted on January 02, 2010
Whoa. This from the Washington Post: The past decade was the worst for the U.S. economy in modern times… WaPo is the kind of newspaper that leans heavily toward emphasizing happy economic news, even in the face of 10 percent unemployment. So its coverage of the decade of disaster means the stuation must really be bad...

Richard Trumka: Wishing You Strength and Solidarity in 2010

Posted on January 01, 2010
      The holiday season is a time to step back from the daily grind, relax with family and reflect on the future. This year was a tough one for workers.  In times like these, we appreciate more than ever the love and support of our families and our unions...

New Season for Union Member Adventures in ?Escape to the Wild?

Posted on December 31, 2009
      Illinois Firefighter (IAFF) Greg Curry’s elk-hunting adventure in some of Colorado’s most breathtaking countryside kicks off the fourth season of ”Escape to the Wild” on VERUS Country. The season premiere of the show, which takes union members on once-in-a-lifetime hunting and fishing adventures, will air Sunday, Jan...

Mentors Training Next Generation of Union Leaders

Posted on December 30, 2009
    Royetta Sanford, left, is mentoring future union leader Carrie Meyers-Herron, right.         When Royetta Sanford retired as director of the Electrical Workers (IBEW) Human Services Department, she did not stop working to improve the lives of working people...

Frank on GritTV: Laws Tilted Against Forming a Union on the Job

Posted on December 29, 2009
       In a recent edition of GRITtv, host Laura Flanders brings together three panelists for a talk about the economy, the labor movement and political organizing. In one of the highlights of this episode, Thomas Frank, author of The Wrecking Crew, does a great job of explaining our broken labor laws and how they’re preventing millions of workers from exercising their basic freedom to form a union: You’ve got to remember that one of the reasons it’s so hard to organize in the workplace is that there’s a whole industry out there that has developed to stop people from organizing...

Caring for Retired Race Horses, Rehabing People

Posted on December 28, 2009
      For most of us, the world of thoroughbred horse racing begins and ends with the Triple Crown, those few weeks in the spring when the world’s best horses run in the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness and the Belmont stakes. But beyond the glamour that gilds the top of the horse-racing world, there’s a dirty secret that tarnishes racing’s carefully crafted image?the fate of the run-out and worn-out horses at the bottom-rung tracks far from Churchill Downs or Pimlico...

Ironworker Creates Sportsmen?s Oasis for 911 Responders with Disabilities

Posted on December 27, 2009
    Ironworker John Sferazo built decks for first responders with disabilities to view wildlife.         John Sferazo, a retired member of Ironworkers Local 361 from Brooklyn, N.Y., was one of the first responders after the tragedy of Sept...

Start Your After-Christmas Shopping at The Union Shop Online?

Posted on December 26, 2009
      So you thanked Aunt Tillie for the psychedelic tie and didn’t roll your eyes when you opened the fuzzy Batman slippers with blinking lights from your kids. But if you cringe at the thought of day-after Christmas, door-buster crowds at the big-box stores and malls, you can flesh out your gift stash or get ahead of the birthdays on your gift list at the AFL-CIO The Union Shop Online...

Kids with Cancer Get Winter Wonderland from Building Trades Union Members

Posted on December 25, 2009
    Patients at Dana-Ferber enjoy a Christmas visitor.         The children at Boston’s Dana-Farber Cancer Institute’s Jimmy Fund Clinic are enjoying a jollier holiday celebration than usual, thanks in part to the more than $27,000 union construction and trades workers collected for the institute’s annual Winter Wonderland...

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