Labor & Employment Law

D.C. School Chief?s Actions Hurting School Children

Posted on May 03, 2010
The latest controversy over the Washington, D.C., school budget is another example of schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee’s “penchant to act without crossing all of her ‘t’s,’” writes Valerie Strauss in the Washington Post’s Answer Sheet blog...

Let Working Mothers Know You Care This Mother?s Day

Posted on May 02, 2010
      Mother’s Day, May 9, is one of the biggest days in the year for flower sales. Yet thousands of women who pick most of the flowers, many of them mothers themselves, will spend that day working in egregious conditions for poverty wages and in hazardous conditions...

New Hampshire Alliance for Retired Americans Wins Hearing Aid Help Bill

Posted on May 01, 2010
      Charlie Balban, a retired Sheet Metal Workers (SMWIA) member, and president of the New Hampshire Alliance for Retired Americans suspects his hearing loss started during his apprentice days in a noisy shop. Now, years later, he knows firsthand how expensive a good hearing aid can be?and how essential...

Thai Railway Workers Punished for Maintaining Safety Standards

Posted on April 30, 2010
    Tim Ryan of the Solidarity Center (center) meets with Thai labor leaders Somsak Koosaisuk, left, and Sawit Kaewvarn.         Tim Ryan of the AFL-CIO Solidarity Center recently visited Thailand and reports on that country’s railway union’s fight against efforts by management and business leaders to break the union...

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Houston Nurses Vote for Union?Again

Posted on April 30, 2010
    Nurses at Cypress Fairbanks Medical Center in Houston reaffirmed their 2008 vote to join a union.         In a dramatic expression of solidarity and support for a stronger voice to speak out for patients and themselves, nearly 300 registered nurses at Cypress Fairbanks Medical Center Hospital in Houston voted to remain members of National Nurses Organizing Committee-Texas, the state’s affiliate of National Nurses United (NNU)...

CIGNA Admits to Secret Funding for Anti-Health Care Reform Ads

Posted on April 30, 2010
Back in January, as the fight over health care reform was in high gear, the National Journal pinned down what most of us suspected all the time: The nation’s biggest health insurers had been funneling money?about $20 million?quietly to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to air lie-filled, scare-mongering ads about health care reform...

Two Dead in Kentucky Mine with Record of Roof Support Problems

Posted on April 30, 2010
The bodies of two coal miners killed in a roof fall at a western Kentucky mine have been recovered and removed from the mine. The two have been identified as Justin Travis, 27, and Michael Carter, 28. The roof collapsed late Wednesday night. The nonunion Dotki Mine, about 150 miles west of Louisville, is owned by Alliance Coal Co...

Join Us Today to Make Wall Street Pay!

Posted on April 29, 2010
      If you’re not already on your way to New York City to join AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka and 10,000 union and community activists as they march on Wall Street’s Big Banks this afternoon, it’s not too late to join the call for real Wall Street reform...

Buy America: Good Policy, Not Protectionism

Posted on April 29, 2010
Despite the claims of its critics the Buy America provisions in the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is not protectionism, but a reasonable and legal response to the failure of global economic policies to benefit U.S. workers, writes Robert Baugh, executive director of the AFL-CIO Industrial Union Council...

31,000 Deliver Message to Wall Street: Fix The Mess You Made

Posted on April 29, 2010
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka (center), Executive Vice President Arlene Holt Baker and NYC Central Labor Council President Jack Ahern join TWU members and 30,000 other on-the-ground and virtual marchers to Make Wall Street Pay. Some 15,000 union members and other progressives on the ground and another 16,000 virtual marchers got Main Street's message to Wall Street today: Good Jobs Now! Wall Street Must Pay! Marchers in New York carried the names of virtual marchers on stickers as they marched toward the statue of the Wall Street bull...

Wall Street Rally Live Now

Posted on April 29, 2010
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka and more than 10,000 marchers are on Wall Street now. Our message: Make Wall Street Pay. We’re live tweeting the massive Wall Street march and rally.            

Temple Health Care Workers Ratify Contract

Posted on April 29, 2010
      Striking workers at Temple University Hospital in Philadelphia yesterday ratified a new contract by a huge margin?1,045 to 30. After three ratification votes held throughout the day, the members voted 97 percent in favor of the deal. After 28 days on strike and no contract since September, some 1,000 nurses and 500 health professionals, all members of the Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals (PASNAP), an affiliate of National Nurses United (NNU), will return to work Friday...

S.F., Chicago Activists Tell Big Banks ?Pay Up?

Posted on April 29, 2010
      In Chicago and San Francisco this week, more than 1,000 union and community activists in each city marched and rallied and told Big Banks on Wall Street it’s time for them to pay their fair share to rebuild the economy after nearly wrecking it with shady practices that killed millions of good jobs...

Fired Central Falls Teachers Sue School District

Posted on April 29, 2010
      The union representing more than 90 teachers and staff at Central Falls (R.I.) High School who were fired last February filed suit yesterday against the school district. The suit comes after school officials made clear that the fired teachers and school staff were not being returned to their jobs...

Republicans Drop Filibuster, Agree to Debate Wall Street Reform

Posted on April 29, 2010
Last night, Republican senators backed down from their filibuster of Wall Street reform legislation and acceded to begin debating the bill to rein in some of the worst practices by the Big Banks that nearly shattered the nation’s economy. The surrender came after Republicans blocked debate for three days in a row?and amid growing public criticism that the Republican blockade was nothing more than an attempt to shield Big Banks, which have doled out hundreds of millions of dollars in lobbying and political donations, from tougher scrutiny and rules...

Roof Fall Traps Two Kentucky Coal Miners

Posted on April 29, 2010
BREAKING: Word out now that one of the two trapped miners has died, according to media reports quoting Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell. The miner’s identity has not been released.  UPDATE: One of the two missing miners has been located and is alive according to news reports...

Transit Workers Urge Congress to Save Nation?s Transportation System

Posted on April 29, 2010
    TWU President James Little addresses thousands of transportation union members at a Capitol Hill rally.         Transit workers, with the support of the two major transit unions?the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) and the Transport Workers (TWU)?are asking Congress to allow local transit systems to redirect some stimulus dollars from capital improvements toward operating expenses...

Shook Elected to Lead Flight Attendants

Posted on April 29, 2010
    Veda Shook         The Flight Attendants-CWA (AFA-CWA) Board of Directors yesterday selected Veda Shook as the union’s next president. Shook, who is currently the union’s vice president, will take office at the end of the year, succeeding AFA-CWA President Patricia Friend who will retire Dec...

Labor College Dedicates National Workers Memorial

Posted on April 28, 2010
      The number on the brick in AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler’s hand was 5,214. This afternoon, she told the union members, job safety advocates and others at the National Labor College (NLC), 5,214 represents the number of workers killed on the job in 2008...

Congress Looks at Job Safety, Unions Worldwide Observe Workers Memorial Day

Posted on April 28, 2010
      With Workers Memorial Day and the recent deadly workplace tragedies that have claimed dozens of workers lives, two congressional committee hearings focused on job safety and strengthening worker protections. This morning, the House Workforce Protections Subcommittee explored ways to protect workers who blow the whistle on unsafe and dangerous workplace conditions from retaliation, harassment and even dismissal by employers...

Striking Temple Hospital Workers Reach Agreement

Posted on April 28, 2010
      Some 1,500 striking workers, including 1,000 nurses and 500 health care professionals, at Temple University Hospital in Philadelphia are voting today on a new tentative agreement reached last night. If they ratify the new deal, the workers could be back at work as early as Friday...

More than 8,000 Set for Virtual March on Wall Street?Join Us Today

Posted on April 27, 2010
      This Thursday, April 29, some 10,000 union members, community activists from National People’s Action (NPA) and other groups will march on Wall Street. Our message to the Big Bankers: Americans are angry that their reckless greed made a mess of the economy and destroyed jobs?and it’s time they pay to restore those jobs...

AFL-CIO ?Death on the Job? Report: 5,214 Killed at Work in 2008

Posted on April 27, 2010
Each workday, it’s likely that 14  workers won’t come home because they will be killed on the job, according to the most recent statistics. The AFL-CIO’s 19th annual workplace safety report, Death on the Job: The Toll of Neglect, also reports that in 2008, along with the 5,214, workers killed, another 50,000 workers died from occupational diseases, while at least 4...

Workers Mobilizing to Get Fair Pay For Music Artists

Posted on April 27, 2010
For the past 80 years, radio stations have used the publicly-owned airwaves to make billions of dollars playing music without paying anything to the artists who created it. AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) President Roberta Reardon and American Federation of Musicians of the United States and Canada (AFM) President Thomas Lee joined with members of Congress today to announce a strong push by the union movement to pass legislation that supports the fundamental right of American musical artists to be paid for their work...

ILWU Urges Action to Help Costa Rica Dock Workers

Posted on April 27, 2010
    The ILWU has run ads like this one in Costa Rican newspapers informing citizens of the illegal takeover on the docks.         The International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) is calling on the United States government to take immediate action to stop Costa Rica’s attack on SINTRAJAP, that country’s dock workers union...

Wall Street Reform Actions Go Nationwide

Posted on April 27, 2010
Kansas City activists tell Wall Street banks, it’s time to pay up. When Wells Fargo shareholders gather for the big bank’s annual shareholders meeting today in San Francisco, they’ll have a lot of company?about 1,000 workers and community and religious activists...

NYU Graduate Workers Demand Right to Bargain

Posted on April 27, 2010
    NYU graduate assistants rallied for a fair contract in 2003.         After fighting for nearly a decade to gain dignity and respect on the job, teaching assistants, research assistants and graduate assistants at New York University (NYU) are demanding university President John Sexton voluntarily recognize their union within a week or they will ask the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) for a new union election...

Farm Workers Struggle One More Step Toward Democracy in Zimbabwe

Posted on April 27, 2010
    Danielle Nierenberg (left) with Gertrude Hambira, general secretary of the General Agriculture and Plantation Workers’ Union of Zimbabwe.         Bernard Pollack, who is taking a leave of absence from the AFL-CIO to travel through Africa, and Danielle Nierenberg send us a report from their journey through Africa...

California Labor Fed Unmasks Wall Street Whitman

Posted on April 27, 2010
Meg Whitman, the billionaire California Republican candidate for governor, is running for one reason, says Art Pulaski, executive secretary-treasurer of the California Labor Federation: “to do Wall Street’s bidding.”The more we learn about Meg Whitman’s past and her proposals for our future, the clearer it becomes that Meg Whitman is running for governor to do Wall Street’s bidding...

SAG Launches Young Performers Website

Posted on April 26, 2010
    Young performers like actress Nikki SooHoo are protected by SAG contracts.         The Screen Actors (SAG) launched its new Young Performers website over the weekend with an indoor carnival and informational fair at the union’s headquarters in Los Angeles...

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