Labor & Employment Law

12,000 Minnesota Nurses May Strike?and More Bargaining News

Posted on May 10, 2010
Some 12,000 Minnesota nurses contemplate striking, 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...

California Union Members? Grassroots Blitz Spotlights Meg Whitman?s Wall Street Agenda

Posted on May 10, 2010
This is a cross-post from the California Federation of Labor by Communications Director Steve Smith In an increasingly impersonal political campaign environment saturated with slick TV ads and radio spots, many working families have difficulty discerning the truth from campaign spin…unless they’re union members...

Cambodian Women?s Committee: Building Power for Union Women

Posted on May 10, 2010
    The Cambodian Women’s Committee.         By Alison Omens This is a cross-post from the AFL-CIO Solidarity Center website. AFL-CIO Working America staff member Alison Omens reports from Cambodia, where she is part of a four-member U...

Kentucky ?Rock of Labor? Honors Workers at Closed Tire Factory

Posted on May 09, 2010
      The “Rock of Labor” found a good home. Says Terry Beane, the last president of  United Steelworkers (USW) Local 665 in Mayfield, Ky.: “Years from now, some of our grandkids will see it, and they may not know what it is...

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Is U.S. Air Force Flying Cover for EADS in Tanker Fight?

Posted on May 08, 2010
      With 50,000 jobs at stake in the $35 billion contract battle over a new generation of in-flight refueling tankers, the U.S. Air Force “seems determined to help European businesses rather than our own,” says John Wolcott, editor of  the Snohomish County Business Journal...

290,000 Jobs Created in April, Jobless Rate Worsens to 9.9 Percent

Posted on May 07, 2010
Some 290,000 jobs were created in April, the second straight month in more than year the nation has seen gains in employment. Yet the unemployment rate worsened to 9.9 percent from 9.7 percent in March, according to data released this morning by the Department of Labor...

Forum Asks: Does Whistleblower Law Protect Workers?

Posted on May 07, 2010
      What happens to a private-sector worker who blows the whistle on unethical, discriminatory, unsafe and even sometimes downright illegal actions in the workplace? Federal law is supposed to protect the worker from retaliation. But is that law protecting workers from demotions, dismissals, transfers, pay cuts and other management backlashes? David Michaels, head of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the agency in charge of enforcing the Whistleblower Protection Program, will address those issues Tuesday May 11, in forum sponsored by the Professionals for the Public Interest: Associations and Unions Defending Professional Integrity (PftPI), a group organized by the AFL-CIO Department of Professional Employees (DPE)...

K Street Showdown with Big Banks? Lobbyists May 17

Posted on May 07, 2010
Last week, 10,000 of us-along with 16,000 virtual marchers-marched to the doors of Wall Streets’ Big Banks and told them it was time to pay to restore the millions of jobs their reckless practices destroyed and time to stop their multi-million dollar lobbying campaign to kill Wall Street reform...

Give Now to Expose the Chamber?s War on Workers

Posted on May 07, 2010
Want to get in the ring and help battle the Chamber of Commerce? American Rights at Work is holding a fundraiser to help expose the Chamber’s war on workers. The $7,000 in seven days campaign doesn’t aim to compete with the mega-millions the Chamber collects from its Big Business patrons...

Blanche Lincoln, The Senator From Virginia

Posted on May 07, 2010
      This is a crosspost from Blue Arkansas. Nice house, right? Certainly nicer than almost anything you see regularly here in Arkansas. Guess who owns it. That’s right, Blanche Lincoln. (It’s in her husband’s name.) And guess where it’s located...

Young Workers Summit June 10-13

Posted on May 07, 2010
Young union workers and activists are the men and women who are “Next Up” to lead the nation’s labor movement and they will meet June 10-13 in Washington, D.C., for the first national Young Worker’s Summit.  You can join them–just register by May 21...

12,000 Missouri Home Care Workers Win Union

Posted on May 07, 2010
More than 12,000 home care workers in Missouri won a voice at work when they voted to join the Missouri Home Care Union, an alliance between AFSCME and SEIU. The mail ballot results were announced May 5. AFSCME President Gerald McEntee says the victory is “a great day for home care workers and the people they serve...

Nearly 1,000 Say ?Thank You? to Lawmakers Who Backed Health Care

Posted on May 06, 2010
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka (bottom) and nearly 1,000 union members thanked lawmakers for passing health care and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (top) thanked activists for all their work in building support for the legislation. Health care reform became the law of the land because enough congressional Democrats “had courage and stood with working families,” United Steelworkers (USW) President Leo W...

Netroots Nation Demands Westin Bargain Fairly With Workers

Posted on May 06, 2010
       Big shout out to Netroots Nation, the group that sponsors a yearly conference for progressive bloggers and online activists. Organizers of the annual event, which is slated for Providence, R.I., in 2011, are letting the Westin Providence hotel know that unless management comes to an agreement with workers there, Netroots Nation will not work with the hotel in hosting the more than 2,000 participants who take part...

FLOC Ready to Light Up Reynolds Shareholders Meeting

Posted on May 06, 2010
      Tomorrow, several hundred union, faith and community activists will rally and march at Reynolds American Inc.’s (RAI’s) shareholders meeting in Winston-Salem, N.C., in support of the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC) campaign for justice for migrant tobacco farm workers...

21st Century and Some Child Labor Still Legal in U.S.

Posted on May 06, 2010
       Did you know it’s legal for kids as young as 12 and sometimes younger to pick food on U.S. commercial farms? According to a new report by Human Rights Watch, hundreds of thousands of children are employed as farm workers and they often work 10 or more hours a day with sharp tools, heavy machinery and dangerous pesticides...

Trumka: Green Jobs OR Good Jobs a ?False Choice?

Posted on May 05, 2010
      With the oil platform explosion that killed 11 workers now is spilling millions of barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico as a sobering background, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka told delegates to the 2010 Good Jobs, Green Jobs National Conference: “Never before has the need been so urgent to produce clean energy, to use energy more efficiently, to prevent climate change and to protect our natural environment...

Join the Debate on Fair/Free Trade

Posted on May 05, 2010
Those of us in the union movement know pitting “free” trade against “fair” trade is a false dichotomy: Making trade agreements that ensure basic standards for workers and the environment?fair trade?does not exclude trade deals that open markets and move goods?”free” trade...

Join Us in Our ?Thanks for Health Care? Rally on Capitol Hill

Posted on May 05, 2010
Tomorrow, more than 1,000 union members will deliver a short and sweet message to the U.S. senators and representatives who had the courage to take the side of working families over big insurance companies and vote for health care reform: Thank You! The noon Capitol Hill rally, led by the United Steelworkers (USW) with the support of the AFL-CIO, Utility Workers (UWUA) and SEIU, also will combat the lingering lies spread by Big Business Republicans about the landmark health care reform law that extends coverage to an estimated 32 million uninsured Americans...

Union Mines Are Safer: Ask Tim Miller, Whose 10 Co-Workers Died in Mine Blast

Posted on May 04, 2010
Tim Miller doesn’t buy the coal industry’s claims that nonunion mines are as safe as union mines. He survived a 1989 methane gas explosion and fire that killed 10 other miners at the nonunion William Station No. Nine Mine in his native western Kentucky...

Country?s Future Depends on Creating Good Green Jobs

Posted on May 04, 2010
      The future prosperity of the country depends on our ability to create good, green jobs and clean energy, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said today. Speaking at the opening plenary of the 2010 Good Jobs, Green Jobs National Conference meeting in Washington, D...

May Day in Cambodia: Workers of the World, Unite!

Posted on May 04, 2010
    At least 7,000 people marched and rallied at Cambodia’s National Assembly, the largest number ever at a May Day event.          By Alison Omens This is a cross post from the Solidarity Center website. AFL-CIO Working America staff member Alison Omens reports from Cambodia, where she is part of a four-member U...

National Teacher Day: Pink Hearts, Not Pink Slips

Posted on May 04, 2010
       Today is National Teacher Day and members of AFT across the country are launching a “Pink Hearts, Not Pink Slips” campaign to draw attention to the devastating impact educational budget cuts?and the resulting layoffs?will have on our students, our schools and our communities...

T-Mobile Workers Take Fight for Union to Shareholders

Posted on May 04, 2010
    CWA Vice President Ed Mooney leaflets outside the Deutsche Telekom annual meeting in Cologne, Germany.         T-Mobile USA employees and Communications Workers of America (CWA) Vice President Ed Mooney traveled to Cologne, Germany, last week and joined with their colleagues at ver...

Black Joblessness: A Human Rights Issue

Posted on May 03, 2010
    More than one-quarter of young African Americans are out of work.         High unemployment among African Americans is a human rights issue, a coalition of advocacy groups charge in a filing with the U.N. Human Rights Council last month...

Momentum Building to Repeal Arizona?s Anti-Immigrant Law

Posted on May 03, 2010
      Momentum continues to build for repeal of Arizona’s new anti-immigrant law and as AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka says: The law is not only an affront to American values of fairness and respect for the U.S. Constitution-it “severely undermines workers’ rights...

Holt Baker: Immigration Reform Protects All Workers

Posted on May 03, 2010
Congress must fix our broken immigration system to ensure that all workers’ rights are protected. Otherwise, Arizona’s onerous immigration law could become a model for the country, AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Arlene Holt Baker said. Speaking at the International Workers Day rally May 1 in New York City, Holt Baker reminded the 25,000-strong crowd that Latino workers are at the greatest risk of dying on the job...

California Workers Call on Whitman to Come Clean on Goldman Sachs Ties

Posted on May 03, 2010
The U.S. Department of Justice’s criminal investigation into Goldman Sachs’ role in the subprime mortgage meltdown prompted California’s workers to renew their calls for Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman to provide detailed answers to questions about her close ties to the company...

7,000 Amtrak Workers Reach Tentative Pact?and More Bargaining News

Posted on May 03, 2010
Some 7,000 Amtrak workers reach a tentative contract, and more news from the “Bargaining Digest Weekly.” The AFL-CIO Collective Bargaining Department delivers daily, bargaining-related news and research resources to more than 1,200 subscribers...

In Covanta Struggle, Utility Workers Go Global

Posted on May 03, 2010
In 2008, after some 140 workers at Covanta Energy Corp.’s Rochester, Mass., plant voted to join the Utility Workers (UWUA), the “green” energy company started a two-year-long campaign of delay, “intolerable” contract demands and other bargaining table stalls...

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