Labor & Employment Law

Kansas City Nurses Join NNU

Posted on September 15, 2010
      It took a decade of hard work, but the 600 registered nurses at the Research Medical Center in Kansas City, Mo., finally have  a stronger voice in patient care and working conditions. Last night, they voted to join the National Nurses Organizing Committee-Missouri, an affiliate of the National Nurses United (NNU)...

Tell Senate It?s Time to Pass the Paycheck Fairness Act?Now!

Posted on September 15, 2010
Time is running out for the Senate to follow the lead of the House of Representatives and pass the Paycheck Fairness Act (S. 182) to help close the wage gap between women and men. The Senate is back to work but could be gone for the fall elections in three weeks...

Ohio Gov. Candidate John Kasich Hates Unions

Posted on September 15, 2010
      John Kasich, the Wall Street executive?as he keeps reminding everyone?running for Ohio governor has made a career of hating and baiting unions. A brand-new video details his deep disdain for unions and workers. In it, Kasich (R) rants that giving workers a voice through unions ?threatens our American values...

Trumka: Union Votes Can Beat False Populism and Economic Treason

Posted on September 14, 2010
    AFL-CIO President Trumka took part in an early morning worksite leafleting of construction workers and taxi drivers at McCarran Airport in Las Vegas.         When U.S., corporations sit on more than $800 billion without creating jobs, when banks hoard more than $1 trillion in profits without lending to small businesses and consumers  and when health insurance companies with tens of billions in profits demand huge premium increases, there are only two words to describe such greed says AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka: “Economic treason!” Addressing the Ohio AFL-CIO convention in Columbus today, Trumka called on union members to mobilize and rally behind “economic patriots? in a ?knock down drag-out? fight against the ?false populism and name calling? that Tea Party and Republican leaders  like House minority leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) are employing in this fall?s elections...

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Republican Claims For Tax Cuts Break Down

Posted on September 14, 2010
The Republicans keep trying to come up with arguments why Congress should not end the Bush-era tax breaks for the rich. One line that keeps getting thrown out is that ending the tax cut will hurt small business by raising taxes on small business owners...

Workers Fighting to Save 5,000 Jobs at Avondale Shipyard

Posted on September 14, 2010
       The residents of New Orleans rallied to survive Hurricanes Katrina and Rita five years ago. They are slowly recovering from the largest oil spill in U.S. history. But now they are coming together to fight a disaster that would cause more economic harm than the hurricanes and the BP spill combined...

L.A. Engineers Ratify New Contract?and More Bargaining News

Posted on September 14, 2010
Some 3,700 engineers and architects who work for the City of Los Angeles have a new 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...

Bold Action On China Currency Would Help U.S. Economy

Posted on September 14, 2010
      In two days of hearings that begin tomorrow, the House Ways and Means Committee will take a close look at the impact of  the Chinese government’s policy of manipulating its currency on our economy. He?s not on the Ways and Means witness list, but the committee should check out what economist Paul Krugman has to say about the subject...

Time to Clear Aviation Bill for Take Off

Posted on September 14, 2010
      Congress returns to work this week and one of its top priorities, say the nation?s aviation unions, is to break the gridlock that has held the vital aviation safety and investment bill hostage. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reauthorization is now on its 15th temporary extension since 2007 and that expires Sept...

Raising Retirement Age Is Deal Breaker and Back Breaker

Posted on September 14, 2010
      It?s a sure bet that none of the members of the federal budget deficit commission has spent his or her career lifting, carrying, digging or otherwise doing hard physical work for a paycheck. Because if they had, it?s another sure bet they wouldn?t even be considering raising the Social Security retirement age, as committee co-chair Alan Simpson and House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) support...

Striking Workers Declare Victory at Mott?s

Posted on September 14, 2010
More than three months after walking out, the 300-plus workers at Mott?s upstate New York applesauce plant declared victory after ratifying a new contract yesterday. The workers will return to work on Monday, Sept. 20, on what would have been the 121st day of the strike...

Sept. 16: Watch the Live Webcast with AFL-CIO Leaders

Posted on September 14, 2010
      We’ve received nearly 1,000 questions so far for our live webcast with the AFL-CIO leadership team. The live webcast is Thursday, Sept. 16, at 4 p.m. EDT. Make sure to hold that date and stop by www.aflcio.org to watch the officers live as they answer questions submitted in writing, by video and via text message...

Workers Fired Up About One Nation

Posted on September 13, 2010
       Working families are getting fired up about the One Nation Working Together march Oct. 2 in Washington, D.C. One Nation is our chance to tell the country that working people and civil and human rights activists are turning the discussion away from fear-mongering and deficit doomsaying to renewing the American Dream for everyone...

AFL-CIO: NFL Lockout Would Hurt Communities

Posted on September 13, 2010
The Minnesota Vikings and the New Orleans Saints kicked off the NFL season in a show of solidarity Thursday night and the AFL-CIO has taken the field in the players? behalf. In a letter released today, the AFL-CIO’s top leaders warned NFL team owners that locking-out players next season could create significant job losses off the field and cause a ?spiraling impact on communities...

Boehner?s Jobs Plan for China, India and Mexico

Posted on September 13, 2010
We all know that House Minority Leader Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio) has a long record of fighting just about every initiative that could give a working family a bit of help as we?re shoveling out the debris leftover from the years when Boehner, Bush et al...

Labor 2010: Taking It to the Streets in Pennsylvania

Posted on September 13, 2010
      When asked by a local TV reporter about the most important issue in the Pennsylvania governor?s race this year, Dan Onorato, the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO-endorsed Democratic candidate for governor, replied, ?There are three issues: jobs, jobs, jobs...

Declare a ?Jobs Emergency? Sept. 15

Posted on September 13, 2010
      On Sept. 15, workers, students and community and religious groups in dozens of cities across the country will revive one of the key demands of the 1963 ?March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom? by calling for full and fair employment and demanding the government declare a national ?jobs emergency...

NYC Laundry Workers Fight Dirty Job-Killing Scheme

Posted on September 13, 2010
      The 150 workers who clean more than 10 million pounds a year of New York City public hospital and morgue laundry are fighting yet another attempt to outsource their jobs. The workers at the city?s Brooklyn Central Laundry (BCL), members of AFSCME Local 420, took to the streets and the courts last month to end the city?s Health and Hospitals Corp...

Bite Back Against Job Stealers

Posted on September 13, 2010
       As joblessness worsens, the nation?s unemployed workers are fighting back. A video by UCubed, Ur Union of Unemployed, graphically depicts what has happened to America’s jobless and calls for fighting back against those who are to blame: Senate Republicans who launched a filibuster to block an extension of unemployment benefits...

Beware: Job Killer Candidates Lurk in Ohio

Posted on September 13, 2010
      Andy Richards, AFL-CIO Field Communications assistant in Ohio, sends us this report. Beware of the Ohio Job Killers lurking among us. Outsourcing our jobs have been their agenda for years. And now, they are asking voters to disregard their job-killing record and put them in charge of some of Ohio?s most important political positions...

Union Sportsmen?s Journal Just a Mouse Click Away

Posted on September 12, 2010
      The Union Sportsmen?s Journal fall issue is now available online. The new online version gives anyone with an interest in hunting, fishing and conservation 24 pages of outdoor tips and features and a look at what it means to belong to this unique community of union hunters and anglers...

Nine Years Later, 9/11 Heroes Need Help

Posted on September 11, 2010
       Mike Hall contributed to this story. Nine years ago, Vito Friscia was just one of the thousands of first responders who were honored for rushing to the scene when the Twin Towers collapsed on Sept. 11, 2001. A Brooklyn homicide detective, he was only a block away when the second of the Twin Towers fell...

Fiorina, Whitman Hold Their Tea Parties in Private

Posted on September 10, 2010
      California Republican candidates Meg Whitman, for governor, and Carly Fiorina, for the U.S. Senate, share many traits. They are both mega-wealthy CEOs with job-killing records. While they portray themselves as competent, sensible and reasonable business women, both are really anti-worker corporate cutthroats who embrace the extreme right-wing agenda that?s taking over the Republican Party this fall...

Let?s Ground U.S. Airways? Union Buster

Posted on September 10, 2010
      In a pitch for its anti-union services, a notorious union-busting firm, Labor Relations Institute (LRI), tells perspective clients: “The Number One advantage companies have over unions during [union] election campaigns is access to voters...

Workers Don?t Fit into Rand Paul?s World

Posted on September 10, 2010
Kentucky State AFL-CIO President Bill Londrigan doesn’t pull punches when he talks about the Bluegrass State’s Tea Party-backed Republican U.S. Senate candidate. Speaking to a sun-baked crowd at Paducah’s 35th annual Labor Day picnic Monday, he warned: A vote for Rand Paul is a vote for the continuation of the economic nightmare now facing workers across Kentucky...

NFL Players Kick Off Season in Show of Solidarity

Posted on September 10, 2010
In the words of sportscaster Al Michaels:  “Nothing like a labor statement to start a season.”  Last night, right after the national anthem at the kickoff of the NFL season, players for the Minnesota Vikings and the New Orleans Saints came out on the field holding up their index fingers...

Insurance Exec: Investing in Workers Pays Off

Posted on September 10, 2010
    Roger Smith         Roger Smith, president and CEO of American Income Life Insurance and National Income Life Insurance, tells why investing in workers pays off for business.  As a CEO of a fast-growing, profitable insurance company, I have a unique perspective on creating private-sector jobs...

Luisa Blue Is New APALA President

Posted on September 10, 2010
    Luisa Blue         Luisa Blue is the new president of the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance (APALA). She succeeds John Delloro, who died unexpectedly of a heart attack last June. Blue was first vice president of APALA, one of six AFL-CIO constituency groups...

Ask the AFL-CIO Leadership Team a Question

Posted on September 09, 2010
      If you could ask AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka one question, what would it be? Now’s your chance. On the one-year anniversary of their election, the AFL-CIO’s top leadership team, Trumka, Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler and Executive Vice President Arlene Holt Baker, will respond to your questions in a live Web chat on Thursday, Sept...

USW Files Complaint Against China?s Renewable Energy Subsidies

Posted on September 09, 2010
The United Steelworkers (USW) today filed a comprehensive trade case under Section 301 of the trade law claiming China has used hundreds of billions of dollars in subsidies, performance requirements, preferential practices and other trade-illegal activities to dominate the renewable energy market...

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