Labor & Employment Law

Democracy Roundtable: Right Changes Now Would Build Strong Future

Posted on December 17, 2010
       What will the economy be like in 2021? That?s the question five progressive experts venture to answer as part of an online roundtable in the latest issue of Democracy: The Journal of Ideas. Twice a year, the magazine poses a question to experts about what they foresee for the country in 2021 and posts the discussion on its website and in the publication...

Guest Workers in U.S. Keep Up Fight for Their Rights

Posted on December 16, 2010
    Indian workers from the Signal International shipyard rallied in front of the White House in 2008.         In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, thousands of guest workers with H-2B visas were recruited from Latin America and Asia and brought to the Gulf Coast on the false promise of steady jobs, fair pay, great conditions and even permanent legal status...

Workers Protest Rite Aid?s Corporate Greed, Disrespect of Workers? Rights

Posted on December 16, 2010
    Protestors in Oakland, Calif., send a message to Rite Aid.          Rand Wilson of the AFL-CIO Field Staff  reports on the Rite Aid National Day of Action, Dec. 15. Workers, union activists and community supporters marched and took part in more than 40 actions at Rite Aid stores in 11 states yesterday as part of a National  Day of Action to focus attention on the company’s corporate greed and disrespect for workers’ rights...

Vote for Top Pix in IBEW Photo Contest

Posted on December 16, 2010
      The 2010 Electrical Workers (IBEW) Photo Contest drew more than 400 entries, and those have been narrowed to 15 finalists.  Now you can vote for the top three. The voting closes Jan. 2 and the winners will be announced shortly after. There is no stuffing the ballot box because each visitor is only permitted to vote only once...

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Pulte CEO Hides from Protestors

Posted on December 16, 2010
       Ben Horowitz, researcher for Painters and Allied Trades District Council 15, sends us this report. Almost 300 workers showed up in Troy, Mich., to ask PulteGroup CEO Richard Dugas what his company has done with almost $900 million in tax refunds from the federal government...

Climate Change Talks: Compromise, Consensus and Solidarity in Cancun

Posted on December 16, 2010
AFL-CIO Industrial Union Council Director Bob Baugh was a member of a global union delegation led by the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) attending the new round of United Nations climate change negotiations in Cancun, Mexico. This is the last of a series of blogs on the talks...

Street Dogs Combine Music and Activism in AFL-CIO Concert

Posted on December 15, 2010
       Jennifer Angarita, AFL-CIO Media fellow, talked with lead singer Mike McColgan from the punk rock band, Street Dogs, about punk and politics Greeted by a packed crowd of young activists, local union members and punk rock fans, the Street Dogs held a charity performance at the AFL-CIO building in Washington, D...

Report: Romania Beats U.S. in Internet Connection Speed

Posted on December 15, 2010
      Just as the interstate highway system opened up the nation to fast transportation of goods and services in the 20th century, the road to economic prosperity in the 21st century rides on the Internet highway. But nearly half (49 percent) of U...

ILO Report: Global Wages Stagnating

Posted on December 15, 2010
       Wages around the world have stagnated during the recession and any recovery must start by putting more money in workers? pockets to fuel consumption, the International Labor Organization (ILO) said today in its annual Global Wage Report...

Health Insurers Raised Premiums at Staggering Pace in Past Decade

Posted on December 15, 2010
      Here?s more evidence that the past decade has been very, very good for the health insurance industry and more insight into why Big Insurance fought so hard to derail health care reform, especially the new law?s requirement that companies actually spend premium dollars on health care...

Republican Govs. Blow Off Money for Jobs

Posted on December 14, 2010
All aboard the economic absurdity express! In two states where workers are desperate for jobs?Wisconsin, where the jobless rate is 9.4 percent, and Ohio, where it’s 9.9 percent?the incoming governors rejected $1.2 billion in federal funding for high-speed rail projects, which would have created tens of thousands of good jobs...

IBEW Local Ready to Create Green Jobs in California

Posted on December 14, 2010
       With local unemployment running at nearly 30 percent in California?s Imperial County?the highest rate since the Great Depression?the members of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 569 in San Diego plan to play a big role in helping to rebound the county?s economy...

WTO Ruling Shows Trade Law Can Work for Workers

Posted on December 14, 2010
A World Trade Organization (WTO) panel?s ruling in favor of U.S. tariffs on passenger and light truck tires made in China shows ?the rules of trade, when vigorously enforced, can be made to work for working people,? United Steelworkers (USW) President Leo Gerard said...

Teacher?s Political Action Leads to Union Organizing

Posted on December 14, 2010
    Leslie Boyadjian (left), made the transition from teacher to political activist to union organizer.          Nora Frederickson, AFL-CIO Media fellow, sends us this union member profile. As a junior high school teacher with the Albuquerque public schools in New Mexico, Leslie Boyadjian came face to face every day with the problems plaguing schools across the nation, like understaffed schools and families stretched too thin to give their kids a square meal...

Reynolds, Del Monte, Chiquita Top List of Worst Companies for Freedom of Association

Posted on December 14, 2010
Last Friday, International Human Rights Day, the International Labor Rights Forum (ILRF) named R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. as one of the world’s worst companies of 2010 for workers’ freedom of association. Of the top five worst companies, three are headquartered in the United States: R...

Wisconsin State Workers Approve Contract?and More Bargaining News

Posted on December 13, 2010
Some 22,000 Wisconsin state workers approved a new two-year contract, 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 1,300 subscribers...

New Tools Bring State Corporate Tax Breaks to Light

Posted on December 13, 2010
       Each year, state and local governments give out billions in tax breaks and subsidies to corporations in return for a promise that the company will create new jobs. While most states disclose the names of companies receiving state and local tax breaks, cash grants and other subsidies for job creation, the quality of the reporting varies widely...

Buy Union for the Holidays, and All Year Long

Posted on December 12, 2010
       This holiday season, union families can use their power to help keep good union jobs in the community by purchasing union-made goods and services. The AFL-CIO Union Label & Service Trades Department (UL&STD) has compiled a list of union-made products you can buy and another list of products and services that the AFL-CIO has approved for boycott...

Queen Meg?s Crown Jewels and Other Items Up for Auction

Posted on December 11, 2010
      You can own a piece of royal history, or even better, give a little something from the Queen herself as a holiday gift. Slow down, we?re not talking about some stuffy old English monarchial memorabilia. We?re talking about the one and only U...

Eleanor Roosevelt: She Was One of Us

Posted on December 10, 2010
       Just came from a great event that served as a reminder of why it’s so important to observe Dec. 10, Human Rights Day, which marks the passage of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the United Nations.   Here at the AFL-CIO in Washington, D...

For Sixth Time in a Month, Florida Nurses Join NNU

Posted on December 10, 2010
For the sixth time in about a month, registered nurses at a Florida hospital voted last night for a stronger voice in patient care by joining National Nurses United (NNU). This time it was the 300 nurses at Oak Hill Hospital in Brooksville, near Tampa...

Union Members Share with Those in Need

Posted on November 25, 2010
    Two Los Angeles building trades union brothers share the spirit of solidarity and help each other at Thanksgiving.         The unemployment rate among building and construction workers in Los Angeles County is nearly 40 percent, which means many families face a bleak holiday...

One-Stop Resource for Paid Sick Days

Posted on November 24, 2010
D.C. Carrotmob for Paid Sick Days from CLASP on Vimeo.    More than two of every five private-sector workers do not receive any paid sick days. But having time off if you?re sick makes so much common sense that 95 percent of the public thinks it is unacceptable for employers to not provide paid sick leave...

Report: Deficit Commission Proposals Would Cost 4 Million Jobs

Posted on November 23, 2010
The deficit reduction plan released last week by the co-chairmen of the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility shows that this so-called  budget deficit commission shows the commission has run severely off course. The recommendations issued by co-chairs Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles would cost 4 million jobs over three years and reduce economic growth by 0...

These Millionaires Say: Don?t Extend Tax Cuts for Us

Posted on November 23, 2010
      Looks like some bazillionaires are joining Warren Buffet in urging that Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthiest expire at the end of the year. Calling themselves “Patriotic Millionaires for Fiscal Strength,” more than 40 of the nation’s wealthiest individuals wrote an open letter to President Obama urging him to “allow tax cuts on incomes over $1 million to expire at the end of this year as scheduled...

Crew at ?Biggest Loser? Back at Work?and More Bargaining News

Posted on November 23, 2010
Some 50 workers reached a contract agreement and are back on the job at the reality show, ?The Biggest Loser,? 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 1,300 subscribers...

Workers, Supporters Protest Del Monte?s Greed

Posted on November 23, 2010
When Fresh Del Monte Produce moved its port operations from Camden, N.J., to Gloucester, N.J., it said goodbye to a 22-year relationship with Longshoremen (ILA) Local 1291 and left 200 workers without a job. In Gloucester, they hired members of an independent union and now pay cheaper wages and provide few, if any, benefits...

Central Florida Nurses Are Latest to Join NNU

Posted on November 23, 2010
The 300 registered nurses at Central Florida Regional Hospital in Sanford, Fla., voted last night for better patient care by joining the National Nurses Organizing Committee-Florida (NNOC-Florida), an affiliate of National Nurses United (NNU). This is the second time in a week that nurses in central Florida have gained a voice through NNU?RNs at Osceola Regional Medical Center in Kissimmee voted for the union Nov...

Dec. 7: Show Your Solidarity with Long-term Jobless Workers on Facebook, Twitter

Posted on November 22, 2010
      Congress left town for Thanksgiving break  without taking any action to renew emergency unemployment insurance (UI) for 800,000 long-term job seekers. By the time Congress gets back to work, a million people could be without insurance to feed their families or pay their bills...

Warren Buffet: Don?t Extend Bush Tax Cuts to the Wealthy

Posted on November 22, 2010
       Bazillionaires, listen up to one of your own! While millionaires and billionaires are whining that the Bush-era tax cut to the rich?those who make more than $250,000 a year?should be extended, one of America’s wealthiest men says: NOT...

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