Labor & Employment Law

?Superman? Documentary Ignores Good Public Schools

Posted on September 21, 2010
The new documentary, ?Waiting for Superman,? powerfully portrays the pain of children and parents struggling in an education system that isn’t meeting their needs.  But it doesn’t tell the real story about public schools, and it doesn’t offer real solutions...

The Recession Is Offically Over?But Not The Misery

Posted on September 20, 2010
In case you missed it, the recession is over. Really. In fact, it was over about 15 months ago, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), a panel of academic economists based in Cambridge, Mass. They say the recession lasted 18 months, starting in December 2007 and ending in June 2009...

Corker Tells Whopper: ?I Saved the Auto Industry?

Posted on September 20, 2010
Some lies are just tiny fibs, reshading the truth just a little bit, something all us?except for the purest of heart?have done.  Then there is the whopper, the bald-faced lie that completely blots out the truth. Just like what Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn...

Trumka, Progressive Panelists Will Explore Worker Anger and the Elections

Posted on September 20, 2010
      The anger that American voters feel, especially working-class voters, is well documented. But the unknown is how they will express that anger on Election Day. This Friday in New York City, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka and Working America Executive Director Karen Nussbaum will take part in a panel discussion on ?Which Way for the Working Class? Elections 2010 and Beyond...

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Harley-Davidson Agrees to Keep Plants Open?and More Bargaining News

Posted on September 20, 2010
Harley-Davidson will keep two plants in Wisconsin open?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...

Gerard Named to Trade Advisory Panel

Posted on September 20, 2010
President Obama last week appointed United Steelworkers (USW) President Leo W. Gerard to his Advisory Committee for Trade Policy and Negotiations. You only have to read what Gerard has written and said about trade to know this is a good appointment for working people...

DREAM Act Would Boost Military Recruitment

Posted on September 20, 2010
AFL-CIO field staffer Will Fischer, a Marine Corps veteran, says a provision in the DREAM Act strengthens the nation?s military. The U.S. Senate will soon have the opportunity to take a strong step toward fixing our broken immigration system and strengthening our military...

Watch the One Nation March on Free Speech TV

Posted on September 20, 2010
      You can watch the One Nation Working Together march on Oct. 2 live on Free Speech TV (FSTV) with hosts Thom Hartmann and Laura Flanders. The television broadcast will include main stage speeches, interviews with organizers and analysts and reporting from the crowd...

Listen Up, Then Vote for Your Favorite in Union Plus Union Song Contest

Posted on September 19, 2010
      The entries for the Union Plus Union Song Contest are in and now it?s time to vote for your favorite. Forty-five men and women submitted their original union-themed tunes (including nine video performances). In just a random sampling, I heard a jaunty Irish-influenced fiddle and guitar romp, a tune that would fit right in with the mid-80?s Cow-Punk underground, a stripped-down guitar and harmonica folker, a hard-edge rocker and more...

Stadium Workers Have Stake in Football Talks

Posted on September 18, 2010
       If National Football League owners lock out the players next season, it will hurt more than just the players. Think about the concession workers at the stadium, parking attendants, clean-up crews and other folks whose livelihoods depend on having a steady stream of fans in the seats on Sunday afternoons...

?What Do We Want? JOBS?

Posted on September 17, 2010
       Eleanor Arlook, Labor 2010 Florida field communications director, sends us this report. ?What do we want? JOBS! When do we want them? NOW!? On a warm afternoon this week, chants from a group of protesters echoed through the sparsely filled plaza in front of the Orange County (Orlando, Fla...

Navy Saves Avondale Jobs Until 2013

Posted on September 17, 2010
    The USS New York, built in the Avondale shipyard, includes 7 tons of steel recovered from the World Trade Center. Some 1,200 workers stayed to keep building the ship after Hurricane Katrina hit the shipyard in 2005.         With layoffs set to begin Oct...

Poverty Figures Make Case for Stronger Safety Net

Posted on September 17, 2010
      The numbers are bad enough: 14.3 percent of Americans or 43.6 million people live in poverty, according to data released yesterday by the U.S. Census Bureau. But several analyses out today show that the headlines on poverty hide even deeper problems...

Boehner Land: A Wall Street Playground

Posted on September 17, 2010
      Opening the gates to ?Boehner Land,? is way beyond the budget of working families, but Wall Street, health insurance, tobacco and other corporate lobbyists have no trouble paying the price of admission. The New York Times reports House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio), who is in line to become speaker of the House if Republicans win a majority of Houses seats this November, maintains especially tight ties with a circle of lobbyists and former aides representing some of the nation?s biggest businesses, including Goldman Sachs, Google, Citigroup, R...

Remembering the Manongs

Posted on September 17, 2010
Gregory Cendana, interim deputy director of the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance (APALA) describes why Sept. 16 is an important day in Asian Pacific American history.  As someone who comes from an immigrant and union family, it is not only appropriate but also necessary for me to share some history and give credit to my manongs who helped paved the way for me to be here today...

Report: Free Trade Deals Don?t Increase Exports

Posted on September 16, 2010
      Free trade was supposed to increase our exports by opening up markets in countries where we had trade deals. But a new report released this week shows that we have had better luck getting Made in the USA goods into countries other than our 17 trade agreement partners...

AFL-CIO Leaders: We?re Building a Movement from the Grassroots

Posted on September 16, 2010
Between now and Nov. 2, the nation?s union members will mount the largest-ever non-party-based political mobilization to elect candidates who will fight for working families?especially when it comes to jobs and continuing fix an economy broken by the failed polices of the past, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said in a live webcast this afternoon...

Activists Launch Week of Action for DREAM Act

Posted on September 16, 2010
With the Senate set to vote next week on the DREAM Act, a group of student, progressive and immigrant activists launched a national week of action to urge lawmakers to vote for the bill. Momentum for passage picked up significantly after Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev...

Live Webcast! Ask the AFL-CIO Leadership

Posted on September 16, 2010
We are live tweeting the Ask the AFL-CIO Leadership Team webcast on the first anniversary of their election.  AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka (RLT), Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler (LS) and Executive Vice President Arlene Holt Baker (AHB) will answer questions about the state of the union movement, the upcoming elections, how to confront our continuing jobs crisis and more...

TODAY: Watch the Live Webcast with AFL-CIO Officers

Posted on September 16, 2010
      Some 1,100 questions came in via Web, video and text for today’s live webcast with the AFL-CIO leadership team to mark the one-year anniversary of their election. Stop by www.aflcio.org today to watch as the officers answer questions about the state of the union movement, the upcoming elections, how to confront our continuing jobs crisis and more...

50 Million Americans Lack Health Insurance

Posted on September 16, 2010
The nation’s worsening jobless situation, which played a big role in the increase in the current U.S. poverty rate to its highest level since 1994, also led to a big jump in the number of those without health insurance. The U.S. Census Bureau reported today that in 2009, some 6...

U.S. Poverty, Home Repos Soar, 300 Economists, Policymakers Say Time to Act BIG

Posted on September 16, 2010
Two bad economic reports this morning reinforce today’s call by 300 economists and policymakers urging the president and Congress to ?redouble efforts to create jobs? through investment in infrastructure, sending aid to the states and creating public service jobs...

Pipeline Project Creates Thousands of Skilled Construction Jobs

Posted on September 16, 2010
More than 13,000 American workers will build the U.S. portion of a 2,000-mile oil pipeline running from Alberta, Canada, to Port Arthur, Texas, under a project labor agreement (PLA) signed this week by four U.S. unions and pipeline builder TransCanada Corp...

9/11 Heroes Tell House: Pass the 9/11 Health Bill

Posted on September 16, 2010
More than 300 9/11 first responders, recovery workers and survivors rallied yesterday on Capitol Hill and then hit the halls of Congress to urge lawmakers to finally approve legislation providing long-term medical care and monitoring. The legislation, the 9/11 Health and Compensation Act (H...

Working America, AFL-CIO Launch Woman-to-Woman Postcard GOTV Drive

Posted on September 16, 2010
          AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler helped kick off a Working America get-out-the-vote postcard writing event in Washington, D.C.         Sometime in the next few weeks as the November elections approach, 50,000 women voters who are union members or members of the AFL-CIO community affiliate Working America will find handwritten postcards in their mailboxes from women just like them urging them to back candidates who back working people...

The Primary Shocker You Haven?t Heard About

Posted on September 15, 2010
You would think a candidate for Congress in the district that’s home to Wall Street and many of the giant financial movers, shakers and insiders–who say we?ve been way too hard on our 21st Century Gordon Gecko wannabes–would put on a decent showing? You would be very, very wrong...

AFSCME?s Next Wave Diving into Labor 2010

Posted on September 15, 2010
    Wisconsin Next Wave participants held a “Set the Record Straight” rally outside the Milwaukee County Courthouse last week.         Karen Hickey of the Wisconsin State AFL-CIO lets us know that young AFSCME members in Wisconsin kicked off their statewide Next Wave conference last week by knocking on thousands of doors in Milwaukee...

Will Bieber Fever Fire Up Young Voters?

Posted on September 15, 2010
       Sure, most Justin Bieber fans are too young to vote, but as savvy and texted-in as they are, they can move a message faster and further than any group. Rumor has it Twitter has its own ?Bieber fever? server to handle the traffic for the teen mega-idol...

BCTGM Members Protest American Capital?s Greed

Posted on September 15, 2010
The company is famous for making little colored candy hearts with messages like ?True Love? and ?Tweet Me? that children?and some adults?exchange on Valentine?s Day. But the purchase of the New England Confectionery Co. (NECCO) by a leveraged buyout firm is sending a bitter-tasting message to workers...

Urgent Action Needed to Stop Currency Manipulation

Posted on September 15, 2010
      It?s no secret that the Chinese government?s currency manipulation policy has caused the loss of millions of manufacturing jobs. But the question is whether the federal government has the will to act ?to level the playing field and provide the support and assistance that millions of American workers and their communities expect and deserve,? United Steelworkers (USW) President Leo W...

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