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AFL-CIO NOW BLOG 
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Post Frequency: 1.6/day Last Entry: November 20, 2009 at 10:45:08 Recent Entries: 234
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Join Tweet-a-Thon and Expose the Chamber of Commerce Friday
Posted on November 20, 2009“U.S. Chamber of Greed” is a nice short tweet to start the day with a NotMyChamber Tweet-a-Thon. Get set to join a tweet-a-thon Friday, at 10 a.m. EST, to help launch the #notmychamber campaign spearheaded by the worker advocacy group, American Rights at Work...
Without Jobs, the Nation?s Future Circles the Drain
Posted on November 20, 2009After he was elected AFL-CIO president in September, Richard Trumka traveled around the country on a listening tour. Here’s one story he heard, which he described this week as the AFL-CIO, along with several key allies, launched a jobs initiative to help get our nation back to work...
The Rich Are Different. They Have Jobs
Posted on November 19, 2009Wall Street doesn’t look back at the disaster it wrecked on Main Street. Goldman Sachs, one of the Wall Street firms that got the H1N1 flu shot well ahead of millions of America’s school children, sent this health tip in a memo to its pampered, out-of-touch execs: “Resist the urge to open your own car door; let your driver do it...
Senate Health Care Bill: Moving in the Right Direction
Posted on November 19, 2009Around the country, union volunteers are taking grassroots action to get their senators to support real health care reform. Today, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) officially released the Senate’s version of health care reform legislation, a major step toward the health care reform bill America has been waiting for...
Hundreds in Airline Industry Gain a Union Voice on the Job
Posted on November 19, 2009More than 400 flight attendants and 170 pilots now have strong union voices after voting to join the Flight Attendants-CWA( AFA-CWA) and the Air Line Pilots (ALPA) in three elections, recently certified by the National Mediation Board (NMB). In the latest victory for airline workers, the 300 flight attendants at Compass Airlines voted 2-to-1 for AFA-CWA representation...
Gone with the Wind: Blowing U.S. Tax Dollars Off Shore
Posted on November 19, 2009It turns out a Texas windmill farm developer’s request last month for nearly half a billion in stimulus funds to create 2,000 jobs in China doesn’t rank first on the audacity scale. Shockingly for American taxpayers, and sadly for the staggering 10...
Today: National Day of Action to Stop Wage Theft
Posted on November 19, 2009Workers, community leaders and religious activists are holding rallies, prayer vigils and other actions in more than 40 cities around the country today as part of a National Day of Action to Stop Wage Theft. Wage theft is a national epidemic, which robs millions of workers of billions of dollars they’ve worked for but never seen, says Kim Bobo, executive director of Interfaith Worker Justice (IWJ) and author of the book Wage Theft in America...
American Rights at Work Honors Sweeney, Employee Free Choice Champions
Posted on November 19, 2009AFL-CIO President Emeritus John Sweeney accepts the Eleanor Roosevelt Award from American Rights at Work. AFL-CIO President Emeritus John Sweeney received the top honor at last night’s 5th annual American Rights at Work Eleanor Roosevelt Awards for his long-term dedication on behalf of workers’ freedom to form unions...
Vote Now for POP Art Winner
Posted on November 19, 2009This is one of the six finalists. Click here to see all. The art on the left is just one of six fantastic submissions to the Public Option Please (POP) contest, launched earlier this fall to cut through the Washington Beltway “insider” clutter and provide a vehicle for artists to make the moral case for health care reform and promote a public health insurance option as a vital part of health care reform...
UNITE HERE Fighting for Hotel Workers Across Nation
Posted on November 18, 2009Hotel workers and their supporters held a candlelight vigil outside the Hyatt Regency Boston last week. Members of UNITE HERE are walking out and digging in to fight for fair contracts at hotels across the country. Some 650 workers at the Westin St...
Illinois Grad Employees Win Key Contract Demand, Return to Jobs
Posted on November 18, 2009More than 1,100 graduate student employees at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) won protection of their tuition waivers and other key improvements in a tentative deal reached with the university last night following a two-day strike...
China and Its U.S. Wind Farm Partner Promise More American Jobs
Posted on November 18, 2009After a public outcry over China’s plan to seek $450 million in economic recovery funds to build a wind farm in Texas that would create only 30 U.S. jobs, the companies involved are now promising to put more Americans to work. USA Today reports the companies?a U...
New Polls Show Public Demands a Public Option, and More Health Care News
Posted on November 18, 2009Union members have delivered thousands of letters to senators in support of health care reform. We’re watching closely to see if the U.S. Senate begins its debate on health care this week. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev...
Silvers: We Need Comprehensive Financial Reform
Posted on November 18, 2009AFL-CIO Director of Policy Damon Silvers has a prescription for moving our economy forward: Make the financial sector the servant of the real economy?not its master. Silvers debated American Bankers Association President Edward Yingling on the need for financial reform in a hard-fought discussion at the Aspen Institute yesterday, and the differences between the two were most apparent when it comes to protecting consumers and applying stronger rules to banks, credit cards and the mortgage industry...
CWA, German Telecom Union Create Alliance to Help T-Mobile Workers
Posted on November 18, 2009To better fight the inequity between T-Mobile employees in the United States and those who work in Germany, the Communications Workers of America (CWA) and ver.di, the German telecommunications workers union, announced today they are forming a special alliance to create TU?a union for T-Mobile workers...
Student Anti-Sweatshop Activists Score Big Win for Honduran Workers
Posted on November 18, 2009In what is being hailed as the biggest victory ever by student anti-sweatshop activists, Russell Athletic, the largest supplier of team uniforms and logo-wear, has agreed to reopen a Honduran factory shut down in January shortly after its workers formed a union and will rehire the 1,200 union members...
Canada?s Experts Skewer Shoddy Study on Employee Free Choice
Posted on November 18, 2009Opponents of the Employee Free Choice Act often claim the legislation would hurt employment. They base that falsehood on a study paid for by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and its cronies, which purports to examine the effects of majority sign-up on the labor market in Canada...
Live Coverage of Spotlight on the Jobs Crisis
Posted on November 17, 2009Seth Michaels is posting live from Washington, D.C. Today at the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka and other leaders are launching a bold new agenda to create new jobs and turn around our economy...
Here?s What the World Labor Movement Is Saying to President Obama and Asian Leaders
Posted on November 17, 2009The global labor movement and the AFL-CIO are urging President Obama and other world leaders meeting in Singapore at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) to take strong stands on issues of jobs, trade imbalances, currency policy, workers’ rights and climate change...
Paid Leave Key to Slowing Spread of H1N1
Posted on November 17, 2009The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that one worker sick with the H1N1 (swine flu) virus will infect one in 10 co-workers if he or she goes to work while infected with the virus. Even more frightening, another recent study predicted that 63 percent of Americans will be infected with the virus by the end of December...
Stop Senate Republican Obstructionists, Obama Nominees Deserve Votes
Posted on November 17, 2009William Lurye, AFL-CIO associate general counsel, says Senate Republicans’ obstructionist tactics blocking President Obama’s nominees must stop. UPDATE: Sen. Session’s attempt to filibuster Judge Hamilton’s nomination failed when the Senate voted to 70-29 (including 10 Republicans) for cloture, ending the threatened filibuster...
Shaft Workers, Get an Award for Corporate Social Responsibility
Posted on November 17, 2009Striking Vale mine workers rally last month for fair contracts. Five months after Roger Agnelli, CEO of Vale Inco, provoked a strike by nearly 3,500 miners, mill workers and smelters at three mines in Canada, an employer group is honoring Agnelli?for demonstrating corporate social responsibility...
Trumka: Jobs Crisis?Fix It Now
Posted on November 17, 2009Today at the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka and other leaders joined together to call for urgent action to create jobs and rebuild the economy. In a live webcast panel discussion, the consensus was clear: Without quick action, an entire generation could be mired in economic turmoil...
Employers Pressure Doctors, Workers to Stay Mum on Workplace Injuries
Posted on November 16, 2009More than two-thirds of injured or sick workers in a recent survey feared employer discipline or even losing their jobs if their injuries were reported, a new study from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) revealed today. The GAO surveyed more than 1,000 occupational health practitioners and found: More than two-thirds observed worker fear for reporting an injury or illness...
Trumka: Free Elections Not Possible Now in Honduras
Posted on November 16, 2009The continued repression of trade unionists by the regime set up in Honduras after a June 28 coup makes it impossible to hold free and fair elections, says AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka in a Nov. 13 letter to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton...
U. of Illinois Grad Employees Strike to Save Tuition Waivers
Posted on November 16, 2009More than 1,100 graduate student employees, who teach nearly a quarter of the undergraduate classes at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), went on strike today after the university refused to guarantee continuation of the teaching and grad assistants’ tuition waivers...
Texans Rally for Reform?and Other Health Care News
Posted on November 16, 2009More than 3,000 rallied Saturday in Austin, Texas, for health care reform. More than 3,000 union members and allies crowded the streets of Austin, Texas, on Saturday to show their support for health care reform. The demonstrators gathered at the State Capitol to hear from workers, community leaders and lawmakers...
Carwash Workers? Message Hits Sunset Boulevard
Posted on November 16, 2009Chloe Osmer of the Clean Carwash Campaign in Los Angeles reports on a new way the workers are delivering their message across the area. Last week, the message that carwash workers are organizing for justice reached new heights?above L.A...
26,000 CWA Members Approve Pact with AT&T?and More Bargaining News
Posted on November 16, 2009Some 26,000 CWA members ratify pact with AT&T in the Southwest, 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 1,200 subscribers...
Trumka to Launch Jobs Initiative Tomorrow
Posted on November 16, 2009Tomorrow morning, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka will announce a major new initiative to create and save jobs. (Watch the live webcast at www.aflcio.org/createjobs starting at 9 a.m.) Trumka will be part of a noted panel in “Spotlight on the Jobs Crisis” at the Economic Policy Institute (EPI)...
Union Retirees Celebrate Labor History in New Play
Posted on November 15, 2009In the midst of the worst economic crisis since the 1930s, two Missouri union retirees are stepping back into history to look at the lessons of the Great Depression in a new play. This weekend and next weekend, “1937! One Hell of a Year” is playing at the Just Off Broadway Theatre in Kansas City, Mo...
Heroic Pilot Sullenberger to Lead Rose Parade
Posted on November 14, 2009Capt. Chesley Sullenberger Capt. Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, the heroic pilot who, along with his crew, was responsible for the “Miracle on the Hudson” last January, will serve as the Grand Marshal for the 2010 Tournament of Roses festivities...
Let?s Have a Real Senate Debate on Health Care
Posted on November 13, 2009Alliance for Retired Americans members protested insurance companies’ anti-reform scare tactics. Next week, the U.S. Senate is expected to begin debate on long-promised health care reform legislation. We’ve waited decades and fought hard for this moment?but progress could be blocked if a minority of senators refuses to allow a fair debate and a fair vote...
Asian Pacific Americans Tell Their Stories at First National Workers? Rights Hearing
Posted on November 13, 2009About a dozen workers testified before the first national workers’ rights hearing for Asian Pacific American workers. Ricky Lau, an electrician with the Electrical Workers (IBEW) and a Chinese immigrant, worked for 10 to 12 hours a day, six days a week for his former employer, a contracting company...
Unions Can Help Create Good Jobs for People of Color
Posted on November 12, 2009This chart, prepared by EPI, shows the shrinking of good jobs over the past 30 years. Increasing union membership is one of the keys to creating more good jobs for all workers, but especially for people of color and those in low-wage jobs, several experts said today...
Obama Announces White House Jobs Summit
Posted on November 12, 2009This morning, President Obama announced he will invite labor leaders, business executives, small business owners, economists and other financial experts to a special White House summit on jobs next month. Obama says the summit will explore ways to slow the loss of jobs and quicken the pace of job creation at a time when the nation’s jobless rate is at 10...
?16 Deaths Per Day? Highlights Weak Penalties for Worker Fatalities
Posted on November 12, 2009Every day, 16 workers go to work and don’t come home. They are killed on the job. But far too often, employers that have created or ignored dangerous workplace conditions are not held accountable. Civil penalties are weak and criminal prosecutions rare...
Florida Students Rally for Tobacco Workers
Posted on November 12, 2009Students at the University of Florida (UF) and the University of Central Florida (UCF) spent last Saturday morning raising their voices for justice for tobacco workers. Chanting ”Justice now!” and holding signs that read “Hasta la Victoria” (”Onward to Victory”), dozens of students marched and rallied on UF’s Gainesville campus...
Military Veterans Deserve Jobs When They Return
Posted on November 11, 2009While we take the time this Veterans Day to honor the courage and sacrifice shown by our veterans, we should also rededicate ourselves to making sure vets have a secure and stable life after they finish their service. The U.S. Labor Department reports the unemployment rate among Iraq and Afghanistan veterans is 11...
Report: Face of Unions More Diverse
Posted on November 10, 2009The face of the union movement has changed dramatically over the past 25 years. In 1983, more than half of all union workers were white men, few union workers had a college degree and nearly one-third were in manufacturing. Today, almost half are women, more than one-third have college degrees and only one in 10 work in manufacturing...
Send Your Best Wishes to Fort Hood Hero
Posted on November 10, 2009Sgt. Kimberly Munley Sgt. Kimberly Munley is a bona fide hero, having risked her life to stop the alleged gunman who killed 13 people and injured 30 at Fort Hood, Texas, on Nov. 5. Munley shot the alleged assailant, Maj...
TVA Engineers Join IFPTE
Posted on November 10, 2009By a nearly 10-to-1 margin, members of the Tennessee Valley Authority Engineering Association (EA), employees at the nation’s largest public power supplier, voted to affiliate with the Professional and Technical Engineers union (IFPTE) today. The EA includes more than 2,600 scientists, engineers, technicians and other professional TVA employees...
Global Inequality, Workplace Deaths Increase?No Coincidence
Posted on November 10, 2009Two new reports paint a sobering picture of what growing global inequality really means. Not only are wages continuing to drop, lowering the standard of living for millions of workers and increasing the wage gap, but evidence is emerging that rising inequality can be bad for your health...
Health Care Fight Moves to the Senate, and Other Health Care News
Posted on November 10, 2009These North Dakota Boilermakers are among the thousands of union members across the country calling the Senate in support of real health care reform. The U.S. House passed historic health care reform legislation on Saturday, and now the next step in the process is for the U...
Philadelphia Transit Workers End Strike, and More Bargaining News
Posted on November 09, 2009More than 5,100 members of the Transport Workers (TWU) ended their strike in Philadelphia this morning, 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 1,200 subscribers...
SAG President Joins AFL-CIO Executive Council
Posted on November 09, 2009Ken Howard The AFL-CIO Executive Council today welcomed a new member, Ken Howard, president of the Screen Actors (SAG). Howard, who was elected to lead the actor’s union in September 2009, replaces former SAG President Alan Rosenberg...
Foreign Companies Cop 84 Percent of Stimulus Green Economy Funds
Posted on November 09, 2009Instead of creating thousands of new jobs for out-of-work Americans, the push for alternative energy is lining the pockets of foreign companies. A new study shows that of the $1.05 billion of stimulus funds spent on clean energy grants since Sept...
LabourStart?s Photo of the Year: Child Labor in Bangladesh
Posted on November 09, 2009This photo of a Bangladeshi boy working in a shipbuilding factory is the winner of the 2009 LabourStart Photo of the Year contest. Subscribers to the global online labor news service LabourStart selected K.M. Asad’s striking photo of a Bangladeshi boy working in a shipbuilding plant as the Labor Photo of the Year...
Here?s How the House?s Health Care Reform Would Help You
Posted on November 09, 2009These Wisconsin nurses are among the thousands who have taken action for health care reform. With successful passage of a historic health care reform bill this weekend, experts are weighing in on the benefits that the bill would bring to working families...
Bill Helps Workers, Communities Move to Clean Energy Jobs
Posted on November 09, 2009Workers would get assistance in upgrading their skills and communities could create good green jobs and build infrastructure under legislation introduced in the U.S. Senate last week. The American Worker and Community Assistance Act (S...
Thank Your Representatives for Passing Health Care Reform
Posted on November 08, 2009Last night, 220 members of Congress showed they’re on the side of working families, not big insurance companies. They’ve earned our thanks for keeping their promises and passing landmark health care reform. Our friends at Health Care for America Now (HCAN) have set up an easy tool where you can contact your member of Congress and thank him or her for voting “Yes” on H...
House Passes Landmark Health Care Reform
Posted on November 08, 2009Union members have rallied for health care across the country. This is what progress looks like. Tonight, by a 220-215 vote, the U.S. House has passed a historic health care reform bill that will improve the nation’s health care system, covering millions of uninsured and making insurance work better for those who have it...
Writers Guild Workshops Help Vets Tell Their Stories
Posted on November 07, 2009The WGAE Foundation held the second Veterans Writing Workshop recently in San Antonio. Returning veterans often have a hard time adjusting to civilian life and the Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE) Foundation is helping them find an outlet to tell their stories...
AFGE Member a Hero in Fort Hood Tragedy
Posted on November 06, 2009Sgt. Kimberly Munley Sgt. Kimberly Munley, a civilian police officer at Fort Hood and an AFGE member, is being hailed as a hero for shooting the alleged gunman in yesterday’s bloody rampage at the Army base in Texas...
Wall Street at Front of Line for Swine Flu Vaccine
Posted on November 06, 2009Just when you think you can’t be shocked by Wall Street outrages, we hear Goldman Sachs, Citigroup and other Wall Streeters are getting supplies of the H1N1 (swine flu) vaccine, while school kids, pregnant women and the chronically ill are being turned away at clinics around the country because there is a shortage of the vaccine...
Hell No! We Won?t Send Our Tax Dollars to China
Posted on November 06, 2009United Steelworkers (USW) President Leo Gerard is outraged?as we all are?over the news that a planned $1.5 billion Texas wind farm?seeking financing with U.S. stimulus money?will create only 30 permanent jobs here, but 2,000 jobs in China...
Obama Signs Unemployment Insurance Extension
Posted on November 06, 2009Long-term jobless workers finally have some relief, with President Barack Obama signing legislation today to provide up to 20 extra weeks of unemployment insurance (UI) benefits for workers who exhaust their benefits before finding new work. The bill had been held up for almost six weeks as Senate Republicans blocked several attempts to bring it to a vote...
Florida Activist Training Draws 200 Union Members
Posted on November 06, 2009Signing up for spcial activist training are (L-R) Beverly Curphey (IBEW), Claudie Pouncey (president of the Space Coast AFL-CIO) and Marita Palmer (AFGE). Joshua Anijar, a zone coordinator for the Florida AFL-CIO, sends us this report on a recent activist training session that drew more than 200 union members from Central Florida Labor Council unions in Orlando late last month...
Workers Strike San Francisco?s Grand Hyatt Hotel
Posted on November 06, 2009San Francisco hotel workers rallied in September for a fair contract. Hotel workers began a three-day strike this morning at the Grand Hyatt Union Square in San Francisco. The strike comes two weeks after members of UNITE HERE Local 2 voted by a 92 percent to 8 percent margin to authorize strikes at any of the 31 upscale hotels in San Francisco...
Share Your Photos from the Fight for Health Care
Posted on November 06, 2009Union members are fighting for health care across the country. Union activists across the country are taking part in the National Week of Action for Health Care, and you can see what’s happening on the ground and share your own experiences with our new health care photo site...
U.S. Jobless Rate Shocking: 15.7 Million Workers Unemployed
Posted on November 06, 2009Stunningly bad news on the nation’s jobless rate today: Unemployment worsened in October to 10.2 percent, a huge jump from 9.8 percent in September. That’s 15.7 million jobless workers, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics...
Arcane Labor Law Counts the Votes of Non-Voters
Posted on November 06, 2009Imagine voting on a ballot initiative and knowing that everyone who didn’t show up at the polls still got to vote?because their votes would be counted as “No.” That’s the process for airline and railway workers when they vote on whether to join a union...
House Set to Act Fast Now that Senate Finally Passed Jobless Aid Extension
Posted on November 05, 2009BREAKING: The U.S. House of Representatives this afternoon passed the unemployment insurance extension bill, by a 403-12 vote. The bill is on its way to President Barack Obama who could sign it as early as tomorrow. After weeks of Republican stalling and obstruction that cost hundreds of thousands of jobless workers their unemployment insurance (UI)?the Senate last night approved extending UI to workers who have lost or will lose their benefits by the end of the year...
FLOC: Mexico Doing Nothing to Solve Organizer?s Murder
Posted on November 05, 2009Human rights lawyer Leonel Rivero Rodriquez, left, and FLOC President Baldemar Velasquez The murder two years ago of Rafael Santiago Cruz, an organizer for the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC) in Monterrey, Mexico, is part of a corrupt system of supplying immigrant labor to harvest crops on America’s farms, says FLOC President Baldemar Velasquez...
Working Families Deliver 15,000 Letters for Health Care Reform
Posted on November 05, 2009Union members sent more than 15,000 letters in support of health care reform to Congress. What a contrast: As working families are delivering 15,000 handwritten letters in support of health care reform on Capitol Hill this afternoon, corporate-bused in “protestors” are on the Hill as well?spreading misinformation and trying to outshout the legislative process in Congress today and scare House members from voting in favor of the bill...
Join Biden in Live Webcast on the Economy and the Middle Class Today
Posted on November 05, 2009Click here at 10:30 a.m. EST to join Vice President Joe Biden as he hosts a live webcast with a panel of leading scholars to discuss the unique challenges facing America’s middle class in the 21st century economy. This special Center for American Progress (CAP) and Economic Policy Institute (EPI) event will cover economic developments and trends affecting middle-class families, including changes to the overall labor market in recent decades, shifting gender roles, the need for a work-and-life balance in today’s economy, economic inequality and mobility, and the increased gap between productivity and wages...
National Week of Action: Call Congress for Health Care
Posted on November 05, 2009The U.S. House is getting ready to vote on health care reform that provides affordable and quality care for all. This is a critical time, and every vote in Congress matters. Today, we’re launching a National Week of Action for Health Care, and you can take part by letting Congress know we need health care reform now...
Biden: Strong Unions Needed to Build Middle Class
Posted on November 05, 2009The nation cannot rebuild its middle class without strong unions, Vice President Joe Biden said today. Biden said he and President Obama believe it is impossible to grow the middle class without growing unions. Biden, who chairs the White House Task Force on Middle Class Families, met with a panel of scholars assembled by the Center for American Progress (CAP) and Economic Policy Institute (EPI) to discuss the challenges facing America’s middle class in the 21st century economy...
Doctors, Seniors Unite Behind House Health Care Bill
Posted on November 05, 2009Members of CWA 3122 in Florida spread the word about the need for health care reform. In a massive show of support for health care reform, the nation’s largest organization for doctors, the American Medical Association (AMA), today urged the House to pass the bill it begins debate on today, H...
Maine, Washington Defeat Referendums on Tax Extremism
Posted on November 05, 2009In Maine and Washington State, voters Tuesday overwhelmingly told the extremist right-wing, anti-worker crowd to take their efforts to cripple state governments and slash vital services and shove them. In both states, the so-called Taxpayer Bills of Rights (TABOR)?long a part of the reactionary holy grail?went down by double-digit margins...
?Economy Track? Tells Story Behind the Numbers
Posted on November 04, 2009The nonprofit Economic Policy Institute (EPI) has launched an interactive tool for anyone interested in looking beneath current economic data to find out what’s really happening with jobs and the economy. The new online feature, “Economy Track,” offers easy-to-understand charts built on government statistics and enhanced with exclusive EPI data...
Clean Energy Could Create 850,000 New Jobs
Posted on November 04, 2009With more than 2 million U.S. manufacturing jobs lost since the beginning of this recession in December 2007, a new report says developing a clean energy economy in the United States could create some 850,000 new manufacturing jobs. The report, “Building the Clean Energy Assembly Line: How Renewable Energy Can Revitalize U...
Working Families Win in U.S. House Elections
Posted on November 04, 2009Northeast New York Central Labor Council President Betty Lennon, New York State AFL-CIO President Denis Hughes and union members get out the vote for Bill Owens. New York State AFL-CIO President Denis Hughes and Rep.-elect Bill Owens Last night, on opposite ends of the country, union members helped send two new fighters for working families to Washington...
Workers Join AFSCME, Machinists and IUE-CWA in Recent Campaigns
Posted on November 04, 2009New Mexico child care providers lobbied at the state Capitol earlier this year. Some 2,600 family child care providers in New Mexico recently voted to join Child Care Providers Together (CCPT)/New Mexico, an AFSCME affiliate...
Here?s What Health Care Reform Means for Working Families
Posted on November 04, 2009The AFL-CIO is running an ad in support of health care reform in newspapers in the Washington, D.C., area. Within days, the U.S. House will vote on a historic health care reform bill that will cover everyone, cut costs and protect families from insurance company abuses...
Merrilee Milstein Scholarship Helps Build Next Gen of Union Organizers
Posted on November 04, 2009Merrilee Milstein The late Merrilee Milstein dedicated her life to building a better world for working people. Whether as a union organizer, union vice-president or deputy field director for the AFL-CIO, she inspired many people to join the union and progressive movements...
Burmese Refugees Battle Oppression in U.S. Plant
Posted on November 03, 2009Aung Oo, foreground, and Tim Hand, far right, are on strike in support of their co-workers at W&K Steel. Aung Oo fled his native Burma with his family to escape the brutality, ethnic violence and repression of that country’s military dictatorship...
Global Unions Condemn Mexico?s Move to Bust 44,000-Member Union
Posted on November 03, 2009The global union movement is accusing Mexico’s president, Felipe Calderón Hinojosa, of systematically trying to bust independent unions and is demanding that he respect the rights of workers to form unions. The latest example of Calderón’s anti-worker bias is the takeover last month by federal agents and police of the country’s second largest electrical power distributor, Luz y Fuerza (Central Light and Power)...
Dingell Explains Decades-Long Quest for Health Reform, and Other News
Posted on November 03, 2009Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.) has been fighting for health care reform for more than 50 years, and he’s seen the situation become even more dire over the past decade. In a great new op-ed, he explains the hard truths of our broken system and why we can’t wait any longer for health care reform: This is not a time to give into fear…...
Senate Clears the Way for Vote on Aid for Jobless Workers
Posted on November 03, 2009After weeks of obstruction by Republican Senate leaders, millions of jobless workers who have or who will soon run out of unemployment insurance (UI) benefits may finally have a chance to grab an economic lifeline in the form of extended UI benefits...
Highlights from ?Building the New Economy?
Posted on November 02, 2009Last week, leaders from labor, business and politics came together in Washington, D.C., at the Building the New Economy conference, sponsored by the Alliance for American Manufacturing and the Campaign for America’s Future. A new video shows some highlights from the conference and discussions on the need to rebuild manufacturing in order to strengthen our economy...
Mediation Board Proposes Changes to Democratize Union Elections at Airlines, Rail
Posted on November 02, 2009Bt a 2-to-1 margin, the National Mediation Board (NMB) says it’s time to bring democracy and majority rule to rail and airline workers voting whether to join a union. The NMB today proposed changes to airline and rail election rules to mirror the rules that govern every other democratic election?the outcome is decided by the side that receives the majority of votes cast...
New Jersey Votes for Governor?More Ethics Questions for Christie
Posted on November 02, 2009New Jersey voters are heading to the polls today in a critical and tight race for governor between AFL-CIO-endorsed Gov. Jon Corzine, a supporter of working families, and his opponent, former George W. Bush political appointee Chris Christie. It’s a fight that will determine whether New Jersey will move forward with Corzine’s agenda that helps working families, or whether New Jersey will be taken backward with Christie’s failed ideas on health care, education and workers’ rights...
California Nurses, Catholic Healthcare West Set Benchmark for Containing Pandemics
Posted on November 02, 2009A new agreement between the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee (CNA/NNOC) and Catholic Healthcare West sets a national benchmark for containing the spread of pandemics such as H1N1 (swine flu) and protecting patients and workers...
House Health Reform Bill Debate Begins, and Other Health Care News
Posted on November 02, 2009The U.S. House’s historic health care reform legislation?which would dramatically improve health coverage in this country while cutting the U.S. budget deficit in the long term?is headed to the House floor today for debate. The vote on H...
22,000 L.A. Workers Win Pact with City that Saves Jobs?and More Bargaining News
Posted on November 02, 2009Some 22,000 Los Angeles workers win pact with city that prevents layoffs?and more bargaining news from the “Bargaining Digest Weekly.” The AFL-CIO Collective Bargaining Department delivers daily, bargaining-related news and research resources to more than 1,200 subscribers...
Washington Workers and Supporters Rally to Save People With Disabilities
Posted on November 01, 2009AFSCME Local 573 members and supporters picket the governor?s office in Spokane. This cross-post from AFSCME highlights the protest by members of AFSCME Local 573 in Washington State against Gov. Chris Gregoire’s (D) plan to close two residential facilities to help balance the state budget...
Check Out Online Resource Center for Wage Theft
Posted on October 31, 2009Wage theft has become a national epidemic. A recent study found that low-wage workers in New York City, Chicago and Los Angeles are routinely denied proper overtime pay and often are paid less than minimum wage. Interfaith Worker Justice (IWJ) is highlighting their stories at its new Wage Theft Online Resource Center, which also includes a list of resources and information about the wage theft crisis...
Shuler to IBEW: Let?s Fight for Jobs
Posted on October 30, 2009At this week’s Electrical Workers (IBEW) conference, AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler said we must focus on creating jobs and building a strong, sustainable and fair economy for the future. Shuler, who rose to leadership as an IBEW organizer, congratulated the union’s members on their efforts in mobilizing and contacting members of Congress on behalf of health care reform and other key issues...
Alliance for Retired Americans Fights for Reform, and Other Health Care News
Posted on October 30, 2009Alliance for Retired Americans member Priscilla King (left) joined Rep. Carol Shea-Porter (center) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (right) for the launch of the health care bill. Priscilla King, an Alliance for Retired Americans member from New Hampshire, got the chance to join House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif...
BP Hit with Largest-Ever OSHA Fine of $87 Million
Posted on October 30, 2009Labor Secretary Hilda Solis announced today the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has levied the largest fine in its history?$87.4 million?against BP for failing to correct safety problems identified after a 2005 explosion that killed 15 workers at its Texas City, Texas, refinery...
Unemployment Insurance Must Be Extended for Struggling Workers
Posted on October 30, 2009With 26 million U.S. workers unemployed or underemployed, and the long-term jobless rate the highest since 1981?hundreds of thousands of struggling workers need relief. The U.S. Senate is expected to take action next week on an extension of unemployment insurance (UI)...
Time to Change the Game for Airline and Railroad Workers
Posted on October 30, 2009In this cross-post from the Huffington Post, Edward Wytkind, president of the AFL-CIO Transportation Trades Department, describes why the deck is stacked against airline and railroad workers when it comes to union elections. The deck is stacked against airline and railroad workers when it comes to union elections...
Time Running Out to Rebuild the U.S Economy
Posted on October 29, 2009The unwillingness of political leaders to act boldly for the nation’s economic future has put our prosperity in danger, and it’s past time to do something about it, union leaders and lawmakers said today. Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell (D) told the closing session of the Building the New Economy conference in Washington, D...
CWA Cautions Frontier Shareholders on Verizon Transaction
Posted on October 29, 2009CWA member Elisabeth Choate, fourth from right, warned shareholders about Frontier’s transaction with Verizon. Robert Masciola of the AFL-CIO Organizing Department describes how workers at Frontier Communications are calling attention to a deal with Verizon that workers say is bad for shareholders and workers...
Tanker Contract: Corporate Serfdom or Quality Jobs?
Posted on October 29, 2009Corporate serf masters: same tactics, no matter what the century. The governors of Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama are pushing the U.S. Defense Department to award in 2010 a $35 billion to $40 billion tanker contract to European-owned EADS/Airbus rather than U...
Manufacturing Crucial for Building New Economy
Posted on October 29, 2009Over the next decade, America is poised to invest $2 trillion in infrastructure, health care and a greener economy, but that money must be invested strategically to build a new economy, not just retool the current model, which is not working...
House Health Reform Bill Would Cover Millions?Affordably
Posted on October 29, 2009Today, U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi unveiled a comprehensive reform bill that would guarantee coverage for 96 percent of the U.S. public. Among other things, the bill, H.R. 3962, includes a public option, expands Medicaid coverage to families who earn up to 150 percent of the federal poverty level, provides help for middle-class families to get coverage and sets tough new rules for insurers, making sure that no one can be denied care or be rejected from coverage because of pre-existing conditions...
Trumka: Bank Bailout Language in Proposed House Financial Services Committee Bill Doesn?t Work
Posted on October 29, 2009Today, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka is delivering a message to Congress: The United States needs financial reform that works, and key elements of the proposed legislation covering bank bailouts fall far short of that standard. In testimony today before the House Financial Services Committee, Trumka said while parts of the proposed bill on financial reform bring necessary changes, the elements dealing with the “shadow financial sector”?derivatives, hedges funds, private equity and bailout funds?are going in the wrong direction...
Building the New Economy
Posted on October 29, 2009The Campaign for America’s Future is hosting a Building the New Economy conference in Washington, D.C., today, and campaign staffer Mike Elk describes what needs to happen to make a new economy work for all of us. Today, the Campaign for America’s Future is holding a “Building the New Economy” conference...
Baseball Stars Knock It Out of the Park for Employee Free Choice
Posted on October 29, 2009Just in time for the World Series, 12 members of the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA) have added their names to the broad coalition in support of the Employee Free Choice Act. The players have signed a statement and appeared in print ads in Washington, D...
Where Things Are Made
Posted on October 28, 2009AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka is a key speaker at tomorrow’s Building the New Economy conference here in Washington, D.C. United Steelworkers President Leo Gerard and economist Jeff Madrick also are among the keynote speakers. To our nation’s peril, the free trade orthodoxy continues to ignore a fundamental economic fact: It matters where things are made...
AFL-CIO Outraged at Murder of Colombian Trade Unionist
Posted on October 28, 2009The AFL-CIO is saddened and angered by news of the assassination of Honorio Llorente Melendez, a union organizer for the CUT?Central Unitaria de Trabajadores (Unitary Central of Workers) of Magdalena Medio?in Colombia. Until he was fired recently for trade union activity, Llorente had served as treasurer of Sintrainagro (National Union of Agricultural Industry Workers) in Santander...
Shuler in Oregon: The Sharks We Defeated Are Still Circling
Posted on October 28, 2009At the Oregon AFL-CIO convention, AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler, who got her start organizing in Oregon, spoke yesterday to hundreds of delegates from across the state and encouraged them to start now on educating and mobilizing union members...
Today?s Health Care News
Posted on October 28, 2009Here’s the latest news from the battle for health care reform: ? While much of the media focuses on the Senate, the House bill is expected to be released tomorrow, with a vote coming soon. Call your members of Congress and ask them to support real reform...
Labor Across Prime Time TV
Posted on October 28, 2009Prime time last night was well worth watching. The NewsHour on PBS profiled AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, and MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann hosted California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee (CNA/NNOC) Executive Director Rose Ann DeMoro...
AFT Fights Exploitation of Foreign Teachers
Posted on October 28, 2009The growing number of overseas-educated teachers in U.S. schools has put many talented educators in classrooms, but the trend also has led to a host of concerns about exploitation, questionable hiring practices and harmful effects in the countries that are losing their most qualified teachers...
Federal Judge Blocks California In-Home Service Cuts
Posted on October 28, 2009This cross-post from AFSCME reports the good news that a judge has blocked California’s plans to reduce or drop in-home care services for 130,000 people. United Domestic Workers Homecare Providers Union (UDW/AFSCME) and its partners in a class-action lawsuit have won a key victory in their battle to prevent as many as 130,000 low-income seniors and people with disabilities from losing critical in-home care services...
Rite Aid Workers Win Big Victory from NLRB
Posted on October 28, 2009Rite Aid workers rallied for an end to anti-union actions last June at the company’s shareholder meeting. Robert Masciola in the AFL-CIO Organizing Department writes about a victory in the three-year struggle by Rite Aid workers to join a union...
Showdown in Chicago: Thousands Protest Bankers
Posted on October 27, 2009More than 5,000 people are packing the streets of downtown Chicago this morning, chanting, marching and rallying against Big Bankers and financial institutions that have taken taxpayer money and are using it to give big bonuses to CEOs and to lobby against financial reforms that would ensure they don’t go back on the public dole...
Let?s Foment a Green Industrial Revolution
Posted on October 27, 2009Leo Gerard, president of the United Steelworkers, is among several key speakers at the Building the New Economy conference Oct. 29 in Washington, D.C. AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka also is among the keynote speakers. Here Gerard describes why we need a 21st century green manufacturing revolution...
American Labor Museum Honors Wowkanech
Posted on October 27, 2009New Jersey State AFL-CIO President Charles Wowkanech Charles Wowkanech, president of the New Jersey State AFL-CIO, is being honored as a labor hero at this year’s 27th Annual Sol Stetin Awards Gala. The award is bestowed every year by the American Labor Museum, located at the historic Botto House in Haldeon, N...
Workplaces, Laws Fail to Keep up with Growing Role of Women Workers
Posted on October 27, 2009For the first time in our nation’s history, working women make up nearly half of all U.S. workers, and mothers are the primary breadwinners or co-breadwinners in nearly two-thirds of American families. This dramatic shift from just a generation ago marks a permanent cultural change, yet most institutions, including the workplace and government have not caught up with this new reality...
Report: Unbalanced Immigration Enforcement Hurts All Workers? Rights
Posted on October 27, 2009Some of the Indian workers from the Signal International shipyard, who rallied in front of the White House in 2008, were singled out for investigation by immigration officials. When Josue Diaz, an immigrant worker and his co-workers protested the inhumane and illegal working conditions at a construction site in Texas, their employer called local police and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), a division of the Department of Homeland Security...
Thanking Sen. Reid, and Other Health Care News
Posted on October 27, 2009Pressure from union members across the country has helped move us toward health care reform. A lot of people deserve credit and thanks for yesterday’s announcement that the Senate health care bill will include a public health insurance option?grassroots union members who made phone calls and wrote letters, senators who insisted on a public option, bloggers and community organizations...
Traub: Workers Need Employee Free Choice Now More Than Ever
Posted on October 27, 2009Amy Traub, research director at the Drum Major Institute, has a great piece on the economic crisis and why we need the Employee Free Choice Act. Traub says the nation’s economic crisis is making workers feel powerless on the job?more willing to accept poor treatment, long hours and most crippling for the economy, cuts in wages and benefits...
AFT Civil Rights Conference: Help Turn America Around
Posted on October 27, 2009Public school teachers must work hard to make the nation’s schools places where the suffering of the nation’s children is alleviated. In her keynote address to AFT’s Civil, Human and Women’s Rights conference, Oct. 23-25 in Miami, union President Randi Weingarten said teachers can help turn America around by advocating for change inside and outside the classroom...
$3.4 Billion Smart Grid Investment Will Create Tens of Thousands of Jobs
Posted on October 27, 2009The nation needs jobs?big time. So it’s good to see that a $3.4 billion smart energy grid investment announced today by the Obama administration also will generate many new jobs. In addition to saving energy and empowering consumers to cut their electric bills, the move will create tens of thousands of jobs in 49 states...
Violent Repression Continues in Honduras
Posted on October 26, 2009In 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, 2009I’m going to Chicago next week 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...
Reid: Public Option Will Be in Health Care Bill
Posted on October 26, 2009Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) announced in a Capitol Hill press conference today that he will send a health care reform bill to the Senate floor that includes a public option. States will have until 2014 to decide if they want to participate in the public plan...
Karen See Elected to Lead CLUW
Posted on October 26, 2009CLUW President Emerita Joyce Miller administers the oath of office to the new CLUW national officers. Delegates to the 15th Bienneial Convention of the Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW) earlier this month looked to the future by electing a new slate of officers...
L.A. Carwash Workers Celebrate Law Preventing Wage Theft, Spread the Word
Posted on October 26, 2009Chole Osmer of the Clean Carwash Campaign in Los Angeles took part in a rally to celebrate a new law that protects workers from wage theft and later helped spread the word to carwash workers across the area. Carwash workers and their community supporters celebrated passage of A...
Hate Crimes Bill Heads to Obama
Posted on October 26, 2009After fighting for new hate crimes legislation for a dozen years, union and civil rights activists praised the final passage of a bill that expands the definition of federal hate crimes and removes unnecessary obstacles to prosecution. The Senate passed the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr...
Trumka: Health Care Reform Must Include Public Option, No Benefits Tax
Posted on October 26, 2009With congressional leaders working to bring a combined health care reform bill to the floor soon, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka is optimistic today that a final real reform package will include a robust public option, require employers to pay their fair share and not place an unfair excise tax on working families...
U.S. Health Care System Wasting Billions, and Other Health Care News
Posted on October 26, 2009A new report today from Thomson Reuters shows how badly the nation’s health care system is failing working families. The report estimates that more than $500 billion, and maybe as much as $800 billion, is being wasted every year...
China and the U.S. Housing Bubble
Posted on October 26, 2009We often write about how China’s policy to devalue its currency, the yuan, has been a key factor in the U.S. trade deficit. It’s not an easy issue to grasp. But economist Paul Krugman devotes an entire column to explaining why China’s devalued currency has such ramifications for our country...
Bye, America
Posted on October 25, 2009In 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, 2009Remember 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...
Shuler: We Need to Let Young People Know About Unions
Posted on October 23, 2009Nearly 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, 2009One 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...
AFL-CIO, NFL Players Association and United Way Team Up in Detroit
Posted on October 23, 2009Tomorrow, local union leaders, current and retired NFL players in Detroit will join the United Way to hold a food drive benefiting families affected by the economic crisis. The NFL Players Association (NFLPA) organized the food drive. Saundra Williams, president of the Metropolitan Detroit AFL-CIO, will be among those joining Detroit Lions offensive lineman Stephen Peterman at the food drive...
Wall Street Won?t Do Right. Now They Have To
Posted on October 23, 2009So, Wall Street CEOs didn’t figure out on their own that when they take taxpayer money, they have a moral obligation to help the overall economy with their $700 billion public-funded bailout rather than single-mindedly line their own pockets with billions of dollars in salaries, bonuses and other ego-inflating perks...
Maine Union Members Tell Snowe to Support a Public Option, and More Health Care News
Posted on October 23, 2009Union members in Arkansas and across the country are telling their senators to support real health care reform. When Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) suggested she would block health care reform if it included a public option, Maine workers took action: The Maine AFL-CIO put its convention on hold so attendees could call her and tell her that a public option is essential to make reform work...
Hundreds Protest as Health Insurance Lobby Plots to Kill Reform
Posted on October 22, 2009More than 500 union members and health care activists in Washington, D.C., this afternoon packed the sidewalks in front of and across the street from the meeting of the giant health insurance lobby group, America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), in support of health care reform...
New Mine Safety Chief: The Change We Needed
Posted on October 22, 2009Today, the U.S. Senate confirmed Joe Main?by unanimous consent?as the new leader of the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA). Main is a longtime advocate for safety and health in the mining industry. He worked 22 years as director of Occupational Health and Safety for the Mine Workers (UMWA)...
Dancing with Jay and Daisy
Posted on October 22, 2009When you’re a member of the American Bankers Association (ABA) meeting in Chicago amid the worst U.S. jobless crisis and most disastrous economy since the 1930s Depression, what’s the logical move to make? Dress up in a Roaring ’20s costume and party like it’s 1929...
Live Coverage of Today?s Health Care Rally
Posted on October 22, 2009Seth Michaels is posting live from Washington, D.C. Today, top officials from the health insurance industry are meeting at the Capital Hilton in Washington, D.C., to plot their opposition to health care reform. A lobbyist for America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) said yesterday that health reform needs to be killed, and the insurance industry has spent record-breaking sums on TV ads, lobbying in the District of Columbia and other tactics to hold on to their power over America’s health care system...
Rally Today Against Insurance Company Greed, and Other Health Care News
Posted on October 22, 2009Today, health insurance industry bigwigs are meeting in Washington, D.C., to plot out their strategy to defeat health care reform. We’ll be rallying to show them that we won’t accept anything less than affordable, high-quality coverage for everyone...
Government Grows the Economy
Posted on October 22, 2009Economist Jeff Madrick, director of policy research at The New School’s Bernard Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis, is among several key speakers at next week’s Building the New Economy conference here in Washington, D...
State-by-State Unemployment Data Show Economy Still Hurting
Posted on October 21, 2009The latest state-by-state jobs and unemployment numbers are out, and as the experts at the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) note we have a long way to go before we can say this recession is over. Nationally, the economy lost 5.2 percent of all jobs since December 2007...
Trumka: Retirement Security Promise Must Be Kept
Posted on October 21, 2009The ability to retire after a lifetime of hard work is not just an economic issue, it’s a moral one, said AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, speaking today at the Retirement USA “Re-Envisioning Retirement Security” conference...
Wall Street to Main Street: Lick My Versaces
Posted on October 21, 2009Given the raging jobless rate in this country, it’s no surprise that only 10 percent of Americans say now is a “good time” to find a quality job, reflecting no improvement since February, and less than the 33 percent who held similar views as the recession began in January 2008, according to a Gallup poll out this week...
Shameless: Christie Ad Features Obama?Even Though Obama Supports Corzine
Posted on October 21, 2009The New Jersey governor’s race is just two weeks away, and President Barack Obama is in the state today to support Gov. Jon Corzine for re-election. So why is his challenger, Chris Christie, releasing a Web video that’s basically a minute and a half of Obama speaking, accompanied by pictures of people with Christie signs? Christie must be desperate to make voters think Obama is supporting him to distract from voters’ real concerns: New Jersey working families increasingly are questioning his stands on key issues like women’s health care, his ethics and his support of George W...
Shuler in Pennsylvania: We Must Inspire Next Generation
Posted on October 21, 2009Speaking at last night’s annual dinner of the Southeastern Area Labor Federation of Pennsylvanian, AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler told the state’s union members we must get energized and active so that we can address the needs of a generation of young workers left behind by an economy that isn’t working: We need to reach out to millions of unorganized workers who just don’t see us as the answer to their problems...
Join Us Thursday to Rally Against Insurance Company Abuses
Posted on October 20, 2009This Thursday, representatives from America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) are meeting in Washington, D.C., to plan the next assaults against health care reform. And workers will be turning out to challenge them and demand real health care reform...
14 Senators Urge Unemployment Extension
Posted on October 20, 2009More than 1 million people hurt by the bad economy are at risk of losing their unemployment insurance by the end of the year. During the toughest economic crisis in more than a generation, 7,000 people every day are seeing their UI expiring?and it’s due to the petty obstructionism of two senators who are blocking the needed extension of UI benefits...
Big Rallies to Protest Humana?s Scare Tactics, and More Health Care News
Posted on October 20, 2009Missouri retirees protest insurance company scare tactics. Polling out today shows?again?that the U.S. public wants health care. More news from the battle for health care below. * The Alliance for Retired Americans continues to pressure Humana and other insurers to stop using scare tactics against seniors, including a rally at Humana’s offices in Springfield, Mo...
America Wants a Public Option?Will Senators Listen Now?
Posted on October 20, 2009This morning, a new Washington Post poll showed what many other polls have been demonstrating: the U.S. public supports a public health insurance option as part of health care reform legislation to compete with private insurance companies...
1,800 Boeing Workers Ratify Pact with Pay Increases?and More Bargaining News
Posted on October 19, 2009Some 1,800 Boeing workers ratify pact with pay increases, 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 1,200 subscribers...
Christie: I ?Plead Guilty? to Strong Support of Bush
Posted on October 19, 2009In the race for New Jersey governor, Chris Christie is casting himself as a fresh face and a reformer?but the fact is that he’s a longtime crony of former President George W. Bush. Here’s how Christie, in a 2007 appearance, described his actions on behalf of Bush and his subsequent appointment to a Bush administration political office: Listen, I plead guilty to having raised money for Governor George W...
Nurses Will Strike for Flu Safety
Posted on October 19, 2009Some 16,000 registered nurses, members of the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee (CNA/NNOC), are concerned that hospitals across California and Nevada aren’t doing enough to prepare for H1N1 flu, including adopting new safety standards put forth by the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health Administration (Cal/OSHA) and guidelines issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)...
Trumka to Law Students: We Need Your Help to Fight for Workers
Posted on October 19, 2009At a national law students’ conference presented by the Peggy Browning Fund, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka told the nation’s next generation of labor lawyers justice for workers can’t be won unless there are lawyers willing to fight on their behalf: You’re choosing to follow your conscience, to pursue economic justice and not just to fatten your wallets...
The Missing Link in Clean-Energy Policy
Posted on October 19, 2009Andrea Buffa is a senior writer and policy associate at the Apollo Alliance. What would it look like if the United States had a long-term national economic development policy?including an industrial policy?to grow the clean energy economy? As the Senate debates comprehensive clean energy and climate legislation, and the issue of green jobs becomes increasingly important, now is the time to also consider developing comprehensive economic development and industrial policies...
Today in Health Care
Posted on October 19, 2009Here’s the latest news from around the country as the battle for real health care reform continues: * 45,000 people die every year from lack of access to health insurance. How much would it cost to cover those 45,000 every year, saving their lives? Here’s a hint: It’s less than the $263 million the health care industry has spent this year on lobbying...
Union Plus: Green Programs Give You Back Some ?Green?
Posted on October 18, 2009Union Plus has expanded its “Green” programs that not only help protect the environment, but can put a little “green” back into your pocket through savings on home heating oil, energy-efficient vehicles, home energy audits and more...
Wisconsin Soldier Answers the Call
Posted on October 17, 2009Sgt. 1st Class Chet Millard briefs members of Route Clearing Patrol 5 of the 951st Sapper Wisconsin Army National Guard as they prepare for a convoy to clear IEDs in Afghanistan. This cross-post from AFSCME profiles Sgt...
Jobs Crisis Will Affect Young Workers for a Lifetime, More Recovery Aid Needed
Posted on October 16, 2009Speaking at the second and final day of the Demos conference, A Better Deal 2009, Algernon Austin, an analyst at the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), said the U.S. economy was failing young people long before the current recession was officially declared...
Settlement of 20-Year-Old Anti-Union Hiring Cases Shows Need for Employee Choice
Posted on October 16, 2009In a case that clearly illustrates the need for real labor law reform, four construction unions have reached a settlement with Fluor Daniel over the company’s practice of discriminating against union organizers who apply for work. It took nearly 20 years for the cases to be resolved and some of the original workers in the cases have died...
Nurses Back Franken Bill to Eliminate Heavy Lifting
Posted on October 16, 2009Direct care registered nurses are injured at a higher rate than laborers, movers and truck drivers because they reposition, move and lift patients, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. A proposed bill would protect the health of RNs, ensure patients get the care they need and decrease work injuries, say leaders of the United American Nurses (UAN) and the Minnesota Nurses Association (MNA)...
ILWU Members Pitch in to Help Samoan Tsunami Survivors
Posted on October 16, 2009After the recent tsunami in Samoa and American Samoa, members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) helped provide aid in a big way. When members of the Samoan community in Southern California asked union workers if they would help send a massive shipment of tsunami relief supplies to the two islands, the workers did what union members do best: They came together to help those in need...
Kyl and Hatch Block Unemployment Aid for Tens of Thousands of America?s Jobless
Posted on October 16, 2009Because of the actions of two Republican senators, every day this month 7,000 jobless workers have lost their unemployment insurance (UI) coverage. Each day these two Republicans continue to stand in the way of Senate passage of a UI extension, 7,000 more workers will run out of benefits...
Public Option: The Contest
Posted on October 16, 2009Are you an artist with an activist streak and belief that our broken health care system needs to be fixed now? Put your skills to work for health care reform with Public Option Please (POP) just-launched group’s visual arts contest and to promote public option as a vital part of health care reform...
Root: ?Office Space? Taps Universal Frustration with Workplace
Posted on October 16, 2009Stephen Root At Union City, Chris Garlock of the Metropolitan Washington (D.C.) Council speaks with Stephen Root, who’s in town for Saturday’s D.C. Labor Film Fest showing of “Office Space,” the 1999 funny-because-it’s-true comedy about a demeaning workplace...
Chamber Pot of Commerce
Posted on October 16, 2009Some chamber pots need a lot of cleaning. The day after Barack Obama was elected president, we at the AFL-CIO in Washington, D.C., draped the front of our building with a massive banner: “We’re Turning Around America...
Symposium to Tackle Challenge of Putting America Back to Work
Posted on October 15, 2009The contrast is staggering: While Wall Street celebrates record earnings for the fat cats at the top financial firms, the reality on Main Street is that more than one in six working Americans is now unemployed or underemployed. In the midst of this jobless “recovery,” leading policymakers and experts will gather to discuss how public policy should respond to this unprecedented unemployment crisis at the conference, “The Jobs Deficit: The Challenge of Putting America Back to Work...
AFSCME Members Make ?House Calls for Health Care?
Posted on October 15, 2009Across the country, hundreds of AFSCME health care workers made house calls for health care reform this weekend. Across the country this weekend, AFSCME nurses and community leaders made house calls, getting their neighbors mobilized to pass health care reform that provides affordable coverage to everyone...
A Robust Public Option Creates Competition
Posted on October 15, 2009Stopping by “The Rachel Maddow Show” on MSNBC last night, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka discussed why the AFL-CIO supports health care reform legislation that makes sure Big Insurance doesn’t monopolize the health care field?and why the bill passed this week by the Senate Finance Committee, which does not include a public option, must be improved as it goes through Congress...
Union Movement Rallies in Solidarity with Puerto Rican Workers
Posted on October 15, 2009Thousands of workers rallied in Puerto Rico against the governor’s drastic layoffs. The sign says “Give me back my job.” In states across the country, working people marched and rallied in solidarity today with their Puerto Rican brothers and sisters against draconian budget cuts and cancellation of their collective bargaining rights...
Private Equity Firms, Our New Corporate Masters?
Posted on July 10, 2009Workers 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, 2009Protest 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, 2009AFL-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, 2009This 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, 2009Thousands 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, 2009A 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, 2009One 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, 2009Yesterday 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, 2009Sen. 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, 2009In 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, 2009Time 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, 2009Just 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, 2009New 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, 2009Since 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, 2009The 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, 2009Here 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, 2009Some 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, 2009Discovery 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, 2009Regis 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, 2009Kelly 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, 2009Congratulations 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, 2009Guess 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, 2009The 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, 2009The 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...
Ayers: Employee Free Choice Act a ?Win-Win? for Workers, Business
Posted on July 02, 2009Cutting through the myths and explaining the importance of workers’ freedom to form unions and bargain, Mark Ayers, president of the AFL-CIO Building and Construction Trades Department (BCTD), makes the case for the Employee Free Choice Act in the upcoming issue of The Voice, the magazine of the Construction Users Roundtable (CURT)...
Hang Up and Fly?Tell Senate to Back In-Flight Cell Phone Ban
Posted on July 02, 2009If you get a chance, take a minute and do your part for airline safety and passenger sanity. The Flight Attendants-CWA (AFA-CWA) ) is urging the U.S. Senate to maintain the ban on in-flight cell phone use. Click here to send your senators a message...
Rural Economies Need Employee Free Choice
Posted on July 01, 2009In a great new op-ed in Minnesota’s Bemidji Pioneer, Richard Levins, a professor emeritus of applied economics at the University of Minnesota, says the Employee Free Choice Act gives workers in rural economies the ability to bargain for a better life and restore the economy in their communities...
SEC Proposals Would Expose Conflicts on CEO Pay
Posted on July 01, 2009The AFL-CIO today applauded rules proposed by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to give shareholders better information about the potential conflicts of interest of compensation consultants who help set pay for senior corporate executives...
Covanta Complaint Shows Need for Employee Free Choice Act
Posted on July 01, 2009Here’s another example of why the Employee Free Choice Act is so important. The National Labor Relations Board this week issued a comprehensive complaint charging Covanta Energy Corp. and all of its U.S. subsidiaries with violating federal labor law...
NFFE?s Richard Brown Dies at 47: ?A Trade Unionist at Heart?
Posted on July 01, 2009Richard N. Brown Richard N. Brown, president of the National Federation of Federal Employees (NFFE), died yesterday in Arlington, Va. He was 47 years old. Brown served as president of the 100,000-member NFFE since 1998. The union represents blue- and white-collar federal workers in more than 30 federal departments and agencies...
BREAKING: Minnesota Supreme Court Rules Franken Winner in Senate Race
Posted on June 30, 2009UPDATE 4:41 p.m.: Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty has announced he will certify the election. UPDATE 4:02 p.m.: Former Sen. Norm Coleman has conceded. Al Franken will be the next senator from Minnesota. ********** The Minnesota Supreme Court, after nearly eight months of counting and appeals, has ruled that Al Franken won the election to be Minnesota’s next U...
20,000 University of Wisconsin Faculty Gain Bargaining Rights
Posted on June 30, 2009More than 20,000 faculty members at two midwestern universities are one step closer to good union contracts. Yesterday, Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle signed the state’s biennial budget, which includes a provision extending collective bargaining rights to more than 20,000 University of Wisconsin (UW) faculty, academic staff and research assistants...
Postal Unions Slam Saturday Mail Cut Plan
Posted on June 30, 2009Six days a week, 144 million U.S. homes and businesses count on the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) to deliver the mail. Now, in a cost-cutting move, the USPS wants to slash Saturday mail delivery and the nation’s two largest postal unions say it is a disastrous proposal...
AFL-CIO: Honduras Coup Is ?Unconscionable?
Posted on June 30, 2009The AFL-CIO today called on the U.S. government and the international community, particularly the Organization of American States and the United Nations, to “make every effort” to restore constitutional order in Honduras and reinstate democratically elected President Manuel Zelaya, who was ousted in a military coup Sunday...
Labor Secretary Solis: ?Level the Playing Field?
Posted on June 30, 2009We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: Elections have consequences. Speaking today in an interview with The Washington Post, Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis re-affirmed the administration’s commitment to passing the Employee Free Choice Act and restoring workers’ freedom to form unions and bargain...
New Plant Closing Bill: ?FOREWARNED? Is Better Armed
Posted on June 30, 2009The WARN Act, passed in 1988, was supposed to require employers to give workers and the surrounding community a 60-day advance notice of mass layoffs, providing workers a head start in preparing to find another job and communities a chance to brace for the economic impact...
Two Unions in Hawaii Seek to Block Governor from Ordering Furloughs?and More Bargaining News
Posted on June 29, 2009Two unions in Hawaii seek to block the governor from ordering furloughs for thousands of state workers?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 900 subscribers...
Four Honored for Promoting Diversity in Entertainment Industry
Posted on June 29, 2009George Takei The Equal Employment Opportunity Committees of Actors’ Equity, the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) and Screen Actors (SAG) will honor four performing artists who have made important contributions to increasing diversity in their professions...
Catholic Scholars Support Employee Free Choice Act
Posted on June 29, 2009A group of leading Catholic scholars is adding their voices to the coalition supporting the Employee Free Choice Act. Organized by Catholic Scholars for Worker Justice, dozens of religious leaders, professors and scholars from a wide variety of institutions have signed on to a statement in support of the Employee Free Choice Act and the freedom of workers to form unions and bargain...
Great Quotes: ?Only a Fool? Would Block Workers from Unions
Posted on June 29, 2009As Labor Day approaches, here are some great quotes reinforcing the value of unions to our nation. A big thumbs-up to Ramona for her blog on TPM, which includes quotes from leaders as diverse as Dwight Eisenhower, Clarence Darrow and Pope John Paul II...
Lots to Learn on Solidarity Center Website
Posted on June 29, 2009The AFL-CIO Solidarity Center has added a new look to its website that shows the breadth of the center’s efforts to help workers in 60 countries achieve a better life by forming independent trade unions. The site, www.solidaritycenter...
Ludlow Massacre Site Dedicated as National Landmark
Posted on June 28, 2009Today, Mine Workers (UMWA) leaders, union activists, lawmakers and historians will dedicate the site of the 1914 Ludlow Massacre?one of the bloodiest chapters in the nation’s labor history?as a National Historic Landmark. On April 20, 1914, in Ludlow, Colo...
IBEW, OPEIU Members Honored at Labor College Graduation
Posted on June 27, 2009Cathy Merkel Ken Erdman Among the 103 union members who received their college degrees in ceremonies at the National Labor College (NLC) today, two were singled out for special recognition. Ken Erdman of the Electrical Workers (IBEW) received the 2009 Seidman Award, given to students whose senior paper best focuses on aging and retirement issues...
103 Students Set to Graduate from National Labor College
Posted on June 26, 2009Rachelle Honeycutt works at an oil refinery in Washington State. Sam Schaffer is a skilled sheet metal worker from West Virginia. Javier Almazan organizes workers in south Florida and Cathy Merkel is an registrar in Maryland. They’re all union members...
IUPA Celebrates 30 Years of Fighting for Safety of Public
Posted on June 26, 2009As state and local governments struggle to provide services in this tight economy, the role of unions like the International Union of Police Associations (IUPA) is more important than ever. IUPA, which is celebrating its 30-year anniversary, assists law enforcement locals, including those in “right to work” states, negotiating contracts for and providing benefits to locals in more than 35 states...
Women?s Chamber of Commerce Endorses Public Health Plan Option
Posted on June 26, 2009One the largest groups of women business leaders in the nation called this week for comprehensive health care reform that includes a “a robust” public health plan option. In a report to Congress, the U.S. Women’s Chamber of Commerce, with more than 500,000 members, writes: Americans should also have the choice of a robust government lead a public plan to take on the insurance carriers, provide vigorous competition, and assure all Americans have access to affordable health care...
G8 Union Leaders Issue Urgent Call to Tackle Jobs Crisis
Posted on June 26, 2009The global union movement is issuing an urgent call for the leaders of the Group of Eight nations to tackle the deepening jobs crisis at their summit meeting in L’Aquila, Italy, next month. The leaders must develop a coordinated and jobs-orientated international recovery and sustainable growth plan that focuses on creating good jobs and re-regulating the global financial system, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney told a gathering of G8 union leaders today in Rome...
Rite Aid?s Wrong, Workers Tell Shareholders
Posted on June 26, 2009Rite Aid workers at the drug chain’s distribution center in Lancaster, Calif., took their years-long fight for justice to New York City yesterday, where they urged the company’s shareholders to fire management’s hired-gun, union-busting consultants...
More from the Health Care Town Hall Meetings
Posted on June 26, 2009Bricklayers and members of dozens of other unions told Congress it’s time to pass health care reform. Yesterday, members of Congress met in town hall sessions with constituents who were on Capitol Hill to rally and demand health care reform...
Business Professors: Employee Free Choice Act Good for the Economy
Posted on June 26, 2009Two top business experts have taken to the pages of Business Week to make the case for the Employee Free Choice Act. Paul Adler, a professor at the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California, and Donald Palmer, an associate dean and professor at the University of California-Davis, say corporate hostility to the Employee Free Choice Act and to workers’ freedom to form unions is short-sighted because communities with well-paid workers have economic advantages for business...
Congress Hears Demands for Health Care Reform in Town Hall Meetings
Posted on June 25, 2009Sen. Arlen Specter says health care is a right. “Nothing is more important to me than ensuring that President Obama passes health care reform.” Members of Congress met in town hall sessions Thursday with constituents who were on Capitol Hill to rally and demand health care reform...
Live Coverage of Today?s Health Care Reform Rally
Posted on June 25, 2009Get the <a href="http://www.widgetbox.com/widget/afl-cio-aflcio-on-twitter" mce_href="http://www.widgetbox.com/widget/afl-cio-aflcio-on-twitter">AFL-CIO (AFLCIO) on Twitter</a> widget and many other <a href="http://www.widgetbox...
Thousands Rally, Say We Can?t Wait for Health Care Reform
Posted on June 25, 2009Coming from unions, community organizations and all walks of life, nearly 10,000 supporters of health care reform gathered on Capitol Hill today to send a strong message: We demand affordable, high-quality health care for all, and we aren’t waiting any longer...
CWA Delegates Back Employee Free Choice, Health Care and Unity
Posted on June 25, 2009More than 2,500 members of the Communications Workers of America (CWA) delivered a message to their representatives on Capitol Hill yesterday: It’s time to pass the Employee Free Choice Act and real health care reform. The Capitol Hill lobby day is part of the union’s four-day convention in Washington, D...
Today?s the Day to Make Your Voice Heard on Health Care
Posted on June 25, 2009Thousands of union members, community activists and health care advocates from across the country will converge on Capitol Hill today to demand that Congress pass health care reform legislation that provides quality health care for all...
House Health Care Reform Plan a ?Crucial Roadmap?
Posted on June 24, 2009With thousands of union, health care and community activists set to descend on Capitol Hill tomorrow in what could be the largest ever rally for health care reform, the AFL-CIO is telling House committees this week that comprehensive reform must lower costs, improve quality and cover everyone...
230 Economists Voice Support for Employee Free Choice
Posted on June 24, 2009The Employee Free Choice Act is absolutely necessary to help workers rebuild the economy, according to a statement signed by 230 economists. In the statement, many of America’s top economists, including Nobel Prize laureates, explain why the new law to protect workers’ freedom to form unions and bargain is more than desirable?it’s essential...
TRADE Act Would Overhaul Bad Trade Policy
Posted on June 24, 2009Today, a bipartisan group in Congress said they will reintroduce a major legislative overhaul of the nation’s failed trade policies to put good jobs at the center of a coherent global economic strategy. The Trade Reform, Accountability, Development and Employment (TRADE) Act, which has 106 co-sponsors, was first introduced last year but did not come to the floor...
U.S., European Union File Complaint Over China?s Trade Restrictions
Posted on June 24, 2009The Obama administration and the European Union (EU) announced yesterday they plan to jointly file a complaint at the World Trade Organization (WTO) over China’s trade restrictions on exports of key raw materials used to manufacture products such as baseball bats, contact lenses and plumbing fixtures...
Progressive Change Needs Strong Civics Education
Posted on June 24, 2009More than 100 years ago, a commission, charged with examining how well high school students were being taught about government, politics and citizenship, found that a poor civics education linked to the plethora of bad politicians and weak public servants dominated turn-of-the-century American government...
Employment Non-Discrimination Act ?Long Overdue?
Posted on June 24, 2009The Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), introduced today by Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), is “common sense legislation [that] would bar discrimination in the workplace on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity and expression…it is urgently needed and long overdue,” says AFL-CIO President John Sweeney...
California Veterans, Union Members Want Employee Free Choice
Posted on June 23, 2009A coalition of veterans who are union members and other supporters of the freedom to form unions are gathering today in Los Angeles to send a strong message: Pass the Employee Free Choice Act now to give veterans the chance they need for a better life...
AFL-CIO: Stop Violence Against Iran Demonstrators
Posted on June 23, 2009The global union movement is demanding that Iran stop its violent and deadly repression of the peaceful demonstrations following the contested re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. In a statement today, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said Iranian authorities should cease and desist their violent repression of these peaceful demonstrations, as well as fully prosecute…all of those responsible for the tragic and reprehensible deaths and injuries...
Sweeney, Global Unions Call for Stronger Stimulus Measures
Posted on June 23, 2009Workers are the innocent victims of the worldwide economic crisis and their governments must take stronger actions to stimulate the global economy, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney told the leaders of the world’s top economies today. Governments should ensure that their recovery measures are big enough to maintain and protect jobs and provide social protections, Sweeney told the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD’s) annual forum June 23-24 in Paris...
Employee Free Choice Will Ensure Workers Get a Fair First Contract
Posted on June 23, 2009The freedom to form unions and bargain is critical to workers and to a stronger, fairer economy?but weak law that allows delay and stalling blocks workers from gaining the first contracts that can bring them a better life. Studies show that when workers vote for unions, fewer than half of them have a contract a full year later?and in more than a third of cases, workers still don’t have a contract two years later...
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