Labor & Employment Law

Violent Repression Continues in Honduras

Posted on October 26, 2009
In the wake of the June 28 coup in Honduras that forcibly deposed and expelled President Manuel Zelaya, thousands of trade unionists?following the call of the three national labor centrals (CUTH, CTH and the CGT)?joined tens of thousands in nonviolent protests, demanding the immediate restoration of democracy in their country...

Showdown in Chicago

Posted on October 26, 2009
      I’m in Chicago for the American Bankers Association meeting. Oddly, I haven’t been invited to the Roaring ’20s dance party I hear they’re having. Why wouldn’t they celebrate the era of wild money and hot times (which slid into the Great Depression)? After all, the bankers are doing well these days...

Bye, America

Posted on October 25, 2009
      In this cross-post from the Alliance for American Manufacturing, Steve Capozzola highlights a fun and educational children’s book that shows why it’s important to buy American-made products. Alliance for American Manufacturing (AAM) Field Coordinator Rachel Bennett Steury has forwarded information on a new book that explains the importance of Keeping it Made in America: “Bye, America” Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 688 President Lance Biglin in Mansfield, Ohio, has taken a creative approach to help educate Americans on the importance of buying American...

Tanker Contract Would Create 44,000 Jobs in United States

Posted on October 24, 2009
      Remember the efforts by the Bush administration last year to tilt the competitive bid process in favor of giving a $35 billion contract to Airbus over Boeing? Only after the Government Accountability Office (GAO) upheld Boeing’s protest of the Air Force’s decision to award the contract to EADS/Airbus and Northrop Grumman did Defense Secretary Robert Gates cancel the competition for the Air Force’s refueling tankers...

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Shuler: We Need to Let Young People Know About Unions

Posted on October 23, 2009
       Nearly 300 young activists and students came to Washington, D.C., last week for the A Better Deal 2009 conference, and AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler was on hand to let these young people know that the labor movement is here to fight for them...

Taxing Benefits: The Wrong Way to Pay for Health Care

Posted on October 23, 2009
      One of the principles that must be at the heart of health care reform is making sure it’s paid for fairly. Unfortunately, some members of Congress are trying to fund it in the wrong way?by taxing working families’ health benefits...

Private Equity Firms, Our New Corporate Masters?

Posted on July 10, 2009
Workers returned Tuesday to the job at Stella D’oro Biscuit Co. in the Bronx after a judge ordered the company reinstate the 136 employees who had remained strong throughout a brutal 11-month strike. But before they could even walk through the doors, they were greeted with the anti-union response by the company’s private equity firm owners, the 21st century’s mutation of the robber barons: Brynwood Partners announced it would shut down operations in October...

Health Care Kumbaya

Posted on July 09, 2009
Protest against health insurers need to have both a union and community face?like this march both against foreclosures and for the Employee Free Choice Act earlier in March in Lynn, Mass. The peasants are filing their pitchforks to a fine point in anticipation of an attack on the palace?and the target of their ire is not what we might have intended...

Trumka Announces Candidacy for AFL-CIO President

Posted on July 09, 2009
                AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka today announced his candidacy for president of the AFL-CIO. Trumka’s slate includes Liz Shuler for AFL-CIO secretary-treasurer and Arlene Holt Baker for executive vice president...

Massive Rally this Weekend in Arkansas for Employee Free Choice Act

Posted on July 09, 2009
This Saturday, Arkansas workers, civil rights activists, faith leaders and union members will come together across Arkansas in support of workers’ freedom to form unions. Workers and their allies will ask Arkansas’ two senators, Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor, to help pass the Employee Free Choice Act and restore the freedom to form unions and bargain for a better life...

Report: Security Screening Process Flawed, Leaves Dockworkers Jobless

Posted on July 09, 2009
      Thousands of longshore workers, truck drivers and other workers at ports across the nation are out of work, not because of a staggering economy, but because they are caught up in a backlogged, inefficient and often inaccurate screening process for background security checks...

Canadian Scholars: Freedom to Form Unions Has Positive Impact

Posted on July 08, 2009
      A group of Canadian scholars is helping to cut through the myths and lay out the facts about the Employee Free Choice Act. These 100 scholars and professors agree workers need the freedom to form unions and bargain for a healthy economy...

America?s Workers Oppose Taxing Health Care Benefits

Posted on July 08, 2009
One of the most troubling health care reform proposals?taxing health care benefits?that had gained some traction in recent weeks appears to be slipping. Grassroots health care activists, President Obama and leading congressional Democrats have helped shed the light on, and slow the momentum of, this unfair tax that could boost working families’ tax liability by as much as 28 percent, according to the Commonwealth Fund...

Widespread Support for Employee Free Choice Act in Colorado

Posted on July 08, 2009
Yesterday morning a group of clergy members delivered a letter in support of the Employee Free Choice Act to the offices of Sens. Mark Udall and Michael Bennet. They represent a coalition of more than 120 faith leaders from around Colorado who have come together to support the legislation, which they see as critical to restoring a fair and prosperous economy for all...

Sen. Franken Joins Senate, Co-Sponsors Employee Free Choice Act

Posted on July 08, 2009
Sen. Al Franken speaks at the AFL-CIO last night after his swearing-in.        Yesterday, after a long, hard campaign and almost eight months of vote counting and litigation, Al Franken was sworn in as the newest U...

Papal Encyclical: Workers? Rights to Form Unions Must Be Honored

Posted on July 08, 2009
In a new encyclical released yesterday by Pope Benedict XVI, the leader of the Catholic Church discusses the challenges of a global economy. He notes that workers’ ability to form a union and bargain is at risk and makes it clear it’s a matter of moral imperative to preserve that freedom...

Analysis of Labor Board Stats: Workers Who Want a Union Rarely Get One

Posted on July 07, 2009
      Time and again, the evidence shows that when workers try to form unions, they often face harassment and intimidation from their employers. In fact, an analysis of labor board elections by University of California-Davis professor David Brody shows the odds of making it all the way through the process, from filing a petition to getting a first contract, years later, are only 573 out of 2,388 or less than one in four...

Stella D?oro Pulls a Wal-Mart, Shuts Down When Labor Board Rules for Workers

Posted on July 07, 2009
      Just days after a federal administrative law judge (ALJ) found Stella D’oro Biscuit Co. guilty of several labor law violations and ordered the company to reinstate more than 130 workers who have been on strike since August, the cookie maker announced it was closing its Bronx, N...

Fredric Rolando, New Letter Carriers President

Posted on July 07, 2009
    New Letter Carriers President Fredric Rolando       Fredric Rolando, a former letter carrier in South Miami, Fla., took office July 3 as the new president of the Letter Carriers (NALC). He succeeds William Young, who announced his retirement last month...

Take Action Today to End Violence Against Guatemalan Trade Unionists

Posted on July 07, 2009
Since the Bush administration pushed the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) through Congress in 2005, Guatemala has become the second most dangerous country for trade unionists in Latin America, trailing only Colombia, according to the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC)...

IBEW Launches ?Working Green? Website

Posted on July 07, 2009
      The Electrical Workers (IBEW) recently launched “Working Green,” a new section on its website dedicated to keeping members, contractors and others looking to break into the new energy economy updated on the latest news about the union’s role in the green revolution...

Op-Eds Highlight Support of Employee Free Choice Act

Posted on July 06, 2009
      Here are four great op-eds from around the country that explain why we need the Employee Free Choice Act. In Pennsylvania’s Centre Daily Times, Penn State professor Paul Clark looks into the history of workers’ freedom to form unions over the past several decades and concludes that the Employee Free Choice Act is critical to restoring balance in the workplace and a healthy economy: This legislation is designed to reform our nation’s primary labor law and re-establish the system of checks and balances between unions and management that historically has proved so beneficial to our nation… Its passage would move us closer to economic recovery and toward a more equitable society...

43,000 New Jersey Communications Workers Ratify Pact, and More Bargaining News

Posted on July 06, 2009
Some 43,000 New Jersey Communications Workers of America ratify a revised contract?and more updates here from the “Bargaining Digest Weekly.” The AFL-CIO Collective Bargaining Department delivers daily, bargaining-related news and research resources to more than 1,100 subscribers...

Training, Quick Thinking by Union Crew Saved Boarded Ship, New Look Reveals

Posted on July 06, 2009
    Discovery Channel reenactment shows pirate takeover of the Maersk Alabama.       For several days in April, the nation waited for the latest news from a U.S. merchant ship off the coast of Somalia, where the captain of the Maersk Alabama was being held hostage in a small lifeboat by Somali pirates...

Back to School for IBEW Retiree

Posted on July 05, 2009
    Regis Kingera       If you were looking for the union label at Penn State University’s recent graduation ceremonies, you likely would have spotted Regis Kingera. The 72-year-old retired Electrical Worker (IBEW), who earned his Bachelor of Science degree after enrolling at Penn State following his 1998 retirement, was sporting the IBEW logo on his mortarboard...

Vets: Employee Free Choice Affirms Freedoms We Fought For

Posted on July 04, 2009
    Kelly Mobley       This Fourth of July, there will parades, picnics, family gatherings and speeches about what it means to be an American and a patriot. For the men and women who have served in the military, being a patriot means fighting at home to protect the freedoms they defended in conflicts abroad...

Winning Together?NEA and the AFL-CIO

Posted on July 03, 2009
Congratulations to the seven lucky National Education Association (NEA) members who today won top prizes in the AFL-CIO Winning Together Contest by displaying their knowledge of the power of union solidarity. The contest was sponsored by the federation’s Unity Partnerships project and was open to NEA members and staff attending the NEA Representative Assembly Expo in San Diego this week...

Maine GOP State Legislator Supports Employee Free Choice Act, and Other Highlights from Around the Country

Posted on July 03, 2009
        Guess who’s joining the campaign for the Employee Free Choice Act in Maine? It’s state Rep. Jim Campbell, a Republican who is defying the expectations of pundits and corporate shills by supporting workers’ freedom to form unions and bargain...

BREAKING: Unemployment Hits 9.5 Percent

Posted on July 02, 2009
      The U.S. unemployment rate rose to 9.5 percent in June, up from 9.4 percent in May. Some 467,000 jobs were lost last month, according to data released today by the Department of Labor. The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more) increased by 433,000 over the month to 4...

Unemployment Rate Hits 9.5 Percent?a 26-Year High

Posted on July 02, 2009
The U.S. unemployment rate increased to 9.5 percent in June, a 26-year high, and up slightly from 9.4 percent in May. Some 467,000 jobs were lost in June, according to data released today by the Department of Labor.  The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more) increased by 433,000 over the month to 4...

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