Labor & Employment Law

Lessons of Financial Collapse Can?t Be Ignored

Posted on June 08, 2010
      If the nation ignores the history of what caused the collapse of the financial system, says Phil Angelides, “We will be doomed to bail it out again.” Angelides is chairman of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission charged with finding the causes and culprits behind the nation’s economic disaster...

Bold Action Needed to End Unemployment Crisis

Posted on June 08, 2010
      America’s economy is not working for everybody and progressives must demand our elected leaders fight for economic justice?and economic justice begins with good jobs, said AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka. This afternoon, Trumka spoke at a press conference and later on a panel at the America’s Future Now conference here in Washington, D...

Pelosi Says Job Creation Is Economically and Ethically Right

Posted on June 08, 2010
Creating jobs and forging an economy that breaks out of the boom-and-bust cycle that always leaves working families busted is both good policy and morally right, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) told the hundreds of progressive activists at the America’s Future Now conference this morning...

Big Pix Solution Needed to Rebuild Manufacturing

Posted on June 08, 2010
      As important as a Buy America policy is, it is not enough to rebuild the nation’s manufacturing base. We must have a comprehensive industrial policy that supports manufacturing, promotes research and development, emphasizes worker training and rebuilds our infrastructure...

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America?s Future Now Conference Sets Progressive Vision

Posted on June 07, 2010
The America’s Future Now conference kicks off this morning. During the next three days, the largest gathering of progressive activists, leaders and lawmakers will map out an economic and political agenda for change?and the organizing strategies for taking that agenda to the country...

Jobs, Economic Fears?Not Love of Right?Fuel Workers?

Posted on June 07, 2010
The nation’s working families “are understandably frustrated, anxious and angry,” says AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Arlene Holt Baker. “They are angry at Wall Street and the government…they don’t see anybody out there fighting with passion  for good jobs…the forces of the right are at work to turn that anger in a dangerous direction...

Wall Street Reform a First Step to Taking Back America

Posted on June 07, 2010
      Even though Congress is poised to pass the strongest Wall Street reform in recent history, the current bill is just the beginning of the broad reforms we need to take back the country from the Big Banks, a panel of experts said today at the America’s Future Now! conference in Washington, D...

Workers Mourn APALA President John Delloro

Posted on June 07, 2010
    John Delloro         John Delloro, president of the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance (APALA), died unexpectedly Saturday after suffering a heart attack. Delloro, a member of AFT, was elected as APALA’s president in 2009...

Got Health Care Reform and Medicare Questions? Ask President Obama!

Posted on June 07, 2010
  Are you a Medicare recipient with questions about the new health care reform law, or do you know someone who is? Tomorrow, you’ll have a chance to get those questions answered by President Obama and Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius...

Trust, But Verify on Emissions

Posted on June 07, 2010
AFL-CIO Union Industries Director Bob Baugh is a member of a global union delegation attending the next round of the United Nations climate change negotiations in Bonn, Germany. This is the second of a series of blogs on the talks. Be sure to check out part 1...

11,000 CWA Members Ratify Pact with AT&T?and More Bargaining News

Posted on June 07, 2010
Some 11,000 CWA members ratify pact with AT&T, 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...

?Just Transition? to Green Economy Gains Support at Bonn Climate Change Talks

Posted on June 07, 2010
AFL-CIO Union Industries Director Bob Baugh is a member of a global union delegation attending the next round of the United Nations climate change negotiations in Bonn, Germany. This is the first of a series of blogs on the talks. Last December, the world’s leaders left Denmark after producing the Copenhagen Accord as a starting point for a new climate agreement...

Jobs, Economic Fears?Not Love of Right?Fuel Workers? Anger

Posted on June 07, 2010
      The nation’s working families “are understandably frustrated, anxious and angry,” says AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Arlene Holt Baker. “They are angry at Wall Street and the government…they don’t see anybody out there fighting with passion for good jobs…the forces of the right are at work to turn that anger in a dangerous direction...

Air Traffic Controllers Help You Avoid Airline Delays

Posted on June 06, 2010
Here’s a way to avoid delays at the airport when you head off for vacation this summer. The Air Traffic Controllers (NATCA) reminds travelers about the union’s great site: http://AvoidDelays.com. Launched in 2006, AvoidDelays.com is the first tool of its kind to help the flying public...

Roots of Steel: What Happens to those Left Behind When an Industry Collapses

Posted on June 05, 2010
At one time, Bethlehem Steel’s Sparrow Point, plant near Baltimore, Md., employed 36,000 people. It was the world’s largest steel plant in the mid 1950s. Today, the sprawling complex is owned by a Russian conglomerate and employs about 2,500, about 1,800 of whom belong to the United Steelworkers...

1,900 Texas RN?s Vote to Join NNU Affiliate

Posted on June 04, 2010
More than 1,900 registered nurses at five Texas hospitals have voted to join National Nurses Organizing Committee-Texas (NNOC-Texas), an affiliate of the 155,000-member National Nurses United (NNU). The election wins by the nurses took place during the past two weeks, with the latest victory coming last night at the Valley Regional Medical Center in Brownsville...

Arkansas Working Families Ramp Up Final Push for Halter

Posted on June 04, 2010
Arkansas AFL-CIO President Alan Hughes says Tuesday’s June 8 U.S. Senate Democratic primary run-off between two-term incumbent Sen. Blanche Lincoln and Lt. Gov. Bill Halter “is going to be very close.” It was union members, he says, that two weeks ago forced what was once considered a sure win for Lincoln and her Wall Street and corporate backers into a run off with Halter and his progressive, working family agenda...

Economy Adds 431,000 Jobs?Barely Enough to Stay in Place

Posted on June 04, 2010
      Some 431,000 net new jobs were created in May. A whopping 411,000 of those new jobs were temporary U.S. Census jobs, while private employers added only 41,000 new jobs in May. Overall, the unemployment rate dropped to 9.7 percent, down from 9...

1,900 Texas RNs Vote to Join NNU Affiliate

Posted on June 04, 2010
      More than 1,900 registered nurses at five Texas hospitals have voted to join National Nurses Organizing Committee-Texas (NNOC-Texas), an affiliate of the 155,000-member National Nurses United (NNU). The election wins by the nurses took place during the past two weeks, with the latest victory coming last night at the Valley Regional Medical Center in Brownsville...

South Minnesota Labor Council Leader Honored as ?Rising Star?

Posted on June 03, 2010
    Laura Askelin         Laura Askelin, president of the Southeast Minnesota Area Labor Council in Rochester, is being honored as one of the state’s future leaders within the union movement and the political arena. Recently, Askelin received the 2010 DFL Rising Star award from the Women’s Summit Committee of Minnesota’s Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party...

Economy and Jobs at Heart of Working-Class Anger

Posted on June 03, 2010
      From left to right are Working America Executive Director Karen Nussbaum; The Nation?s Christopher Hayes; Rep. Donna Edwards (D-Md.); Thea Lee, AFL-CIO deputy chief of staff; AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka; and The Wall Street Journal?s Peter Wallsten...

New York Lawmakers Pass Domestic Worker Rights Bill

Posted on June 03, 2010
New York is on the verge of becoming the first state to require overtime pay and one day off a week for domestic workers after the state Senate on Tuesday passed landmark legislation extending those rights to more than 200,000 housekeepers, nannies and other domestic workers in the state...

Shailor Named to State Department Post

Posted on June 03, 2010
    Barbara Shailor         Barbara Shailor, former international affairs director of the AFL-CIO, has been named U.S. State Department’s new special representative for international labor affairs. Shailor will lead State’s efforts to promote worker rights, conduct liaison with the global labor movement and focus on strengthening the labor officer operations in U...

Watch Young Workers Summit Live June 11

Posted on June 03, 2010
      The first-ever national AFL-CIO Young Workers Summit kicks off next week (June 10?13) in Washington, D.C. At ?Next Up,? the young men and women who will lead the nation?s union movement into the future will meet with AFL-CIO leaders to share their ideas, skills and concerns about young people?s role in the union movement and especially their vision of the movement?s future...

Steelworkers Help Green Light New Energy Efficient Bulbs

Posted on June 02, 2010
Here’s a way to reduce your carbon footprint and support good green union jobs. Check out the new Sylvania Super Saver halogen light bulbs made by Steelworkers (USW) in a Wellsboro Pa., plant. As more and more households turn to the energy efficient bulbs over the familiar incandescent light bulb that sucks up much more energy, many manufacturers are shutting down their U...

I?m Not Your ATM Website Nabs Top Visual Arts Award

Posted on June 02, 2010
Congrats to our colleagues over at Working America. The organization’s website, I’m Not Your ATM, has won the Gold Communicator Award from the International Academy of the Visual Arts (IAVA) in the activism category and for home page design...

Red Cross Workers Strike over Stalled Talks, Blood Safety Concerns

Posted on June 02, 2010
      More than 1,000 Red Cross workers in seven cities launched a three-day unfair labor practice strike against the American Red Cross this morning. Contract negotiations between the Red Cross and the workers?members of several unions?have been stalled, in some cases, for more than a year...

Why Is ?Free Trade? Conventional Wisdom?

Posted on June 02, 2010
In this cross-post from Huffington Post, Stan Sorscher, legislative director for the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (SPEEA), looks behind the knee-jerk call for free trade to examine what such a policy really means for our nation...

Lincoln Parked on Wall Street, Working Families Drive Halter Bid

Posted on June 01, 2010
One week from today, Arkansas voters will have a choice between two-term incumbent Sen. Blanche Lincoln and her long record of corporate coziness or Lt. Gov. Bill Halter and his progressive agenda based on the interests of working families. The June 8 U...

Letter Carriers Deliver Another Record Food Drive: 77.1 Million Pounds

Posted on June 01, 2010
      The nation’s postal customers responded with extraordinary generosity this year, donating a record 77.1 million pounds of food in the Letter Carriers’ 18th annual “Stamp Out Hunger” food drive. This year’s results topped last year’s record donation of 73...

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