Labor & Employment Law

U.S. Unions Join Climate Change Talks in Copenhagen

Posted on December 07, 2009
Bob Baugh, executive director of the AFL-CIO Industrial Union Council and co-chair of the AFL-CIO Energy Task Force, is in Copenhagen, Denmark, to ensure that labor’s input helps shape a global climate change treaty. This is his first report on the meeting...

Fix Health Care Right?Don?t Tax Benefits

Posted on December 07, 2009
We’re continuing our campaign for real health care reform with a new AFL-CIO TV ad that sends a clear message: “Pass Health Care. Don’t Tax Health Benefits.” The ad, which started running in key markets around the country over the weekend, emphasizes that taxing benefits will lead companies to cut benefits and will shift cost burdens to families that can’t afford it...

ATU Member: Hero to the Hungry

Posted on December 06, 2009
    After his bus driver shift, ATU Local 1181 member Jorge Munoz feeds the hungry in Queens seven days a week.         There are two things the hungry, jobless and likely homeless men and women in Jackson Heights, Queens, N.Y., can count on every night...

Teacher Survey: Children Coming to School Hungry

Posted on December 05, 2009
       Despite programs intended to ensure children have enough to eat in and out of school, teachers across the nation report they are witnessing a growing number of hungry students?which affects their ability to concentrate and learn, according to a new survey...

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Working America, Union Members Speak Out on Need for Jobs

Posted on December 04, 2009
    Working America and union members held roundtable discussions of the jobs crisis in Albuquerque and other cities across the country.         While top leaders from government, business and labor gathered yesterday at the White House, grassroots union members and struggling families held their own job summits across the country...

Concert Celebrates Studs Terkel?s Life, Work

Posted on December 04, 2009
    Studs Terkel passed away in October 2008.         The life and times of the late labor activist and author Studs Terkel will be celebrated Monday at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., with a concert-style reading of “Will the Circle Be Unbroken? Reflections of Death, Rebirth, and Hunger for a Faith...

Delegates to New RN Super Union Set for Convention

Posted on December 04, 2009
A new National Nurses United union is holding its founding convention Dec. 7-8 in Phoenix. The new union is a joint effort by the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee (CNA/NNOC), the United American Nurses (UAN) and the Massachusetts Nurses Association (MNA)...

North American Pilots Join ALPA

Posted on December 04, 2009
    ALPA President Capt. John Prater (left) and Ron Rindfleisch (right), an ALPA staff rep, welcome Capt. Al Gallo, temporary NAA MEC chairman, into the union.         The 181 pilots at North American Airlines (NAA) are the newest members of the Air Line Pilots (ALPA)...

Whose University? California Students Fight for Access to Education

Posted on December 04, 2009
      Marcy Rein, a retired member of Office and Professional Employees (OPEIU) Local 29, gives us an in-depth report on the struggle by students at the University of California to oppose draconian cuts that endanger jobs and quality education...

Bargaining Rights for Airport Screeners Would Help Security

Posted on December 04, 2009
       Granting collective bargaining rights to airport screeners and other Transportation Security Agency (TSA) employees would enhance national security, union leaders and Obama administration officials said this week. Federal border guards, immigration and customs and Federal Protective Service employees are already union members...

Jobless Rate Still Bleak, with 15.4 Million Workers Unemployed

Posted on December 04, 2009
      The nation’s unemployment rate moved from 10.2 percent to 10 percent in November, with 15.4 million American workers unemployed, according to U.S. Department of Labor data released this morning. But when both unemployed and underemployed workers are counted, there still are some 26 million people without jobs or full-time work...

Jobs Creation or Deficit Reduction? The Public Has Decided

Posted on December 04, 2009
      Stop by any corner grocery store and ask the people standing in line: What do you worry about most?jobs or the nation’s budget deficit? If they don’t choke up laughing, chances are real high they’ll give the same response as did the public in two recent polls: Priority #1: Jobs...

At Roundtables, Workers Demand Health Care Reform

Posted on December 04, 2009
  This week, the grassroots movement for health care reform centered on working family roundtables where dozens of participants in key states testified about the need to fix the nation’s broken health care system.  In Gary, Ind., more than 50 attendees, including union members, faith leaders and civil right activists, came together last night to discuss the changes we need to make health care accessible and affordable...

Northampton, Mass., City Council Backs Living Wage

Posted on December 04, 2009
With working families trying to stretch every dollar to make ends meet, the City Council in Northampton, Mass., last night unanimously gave final approval to a resolution defining a living wage as a human right. The nonbinding resolution also states the city will attempt to do business with employers that pay living wages and will encourage people to patronize those businesses...

Trumka on MSNBC: Jobs Summit a Good Step

Posted on December 03, 2009
      AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said tonight on MSNBC’s “The Ed Show” he was encouraged by the White House Jobs Summit earlier today and that he’s looking forward to working on the urgent goal of job creation.  Trumka told host Ed Schultz that in the discussions among President Obama, administration officials, economists and business leaders, there was a broad consensus that we need to fix an economy that has shed millions of jobs...

Live Coverage of Trumka on ?The Ed Show?

Posted on December 03, 2009
    Seth Michaels is posting live from Washington, D.C. Tonight, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka is following up his participation in this afternoon’s White House Jobs Summit with a visit to MSNBC’s “The Ed Show.” Trumka will discuss the jobs summit with host Ed Schultz and describe the AFL-CIO’s five-point plan to create jobs and turn around our economy...

Minnesotans Urge Lawmakers: ?Put People Back to Work?

Posted on December 03, 2009
Barb Kucera, editor of Workday Minnesota, reports on a roundtable discussion on the jobs crisis. Liz Freeberg, a Circle Pines resident who is one of thousands of unemployed Minnesotans, has a message for those gathered Thursday at President Obama’s White House jobs summit: Keep focusing on the fact that this is about putting people back to work...

Family and Medical Leave Extended to Flight Crews

Posted on December 03, 2009
Airline flight crews will soon have the same family and medical leave coverage other working Americans have enjoyed since 1993. The House of Representatives approved legislation yesterday amending the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) to allow airline pilots and flight attendants to qualify for leave...

Labor Department Launches Major Attack on Black Lung

Posted on December 03, 2009
The Department of Labor’s Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) today launched a major initiative to end new cases of black lung among the nation’s coal miners. MSHA’s initiative includes more focused enforcement, targeted education and training, rulemaking and collaboration with stakeholders...

California Union Members Host First-Ever Economic Recovery Summit

Posted on December 03, 2009
      California Labor Federation Communications Director Steve Smith tells us how California union members are taking the lead in moving the state toward economic recovery. The solution to California’s unprecedented economic crisis can be summed up in three words: jobs, jobs, jobs...

Watch the White House Jobs Summit Live

Posted on December 03, 2009

Showdown in Chicago: Thousands Protest Bankers

Posted on October 27, 2009
More 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, 2009
      Leo 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...

Reid: Public Option Will Be in Health Care Bill

Posted on October 26, 2009
      Senate 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, 2009
    CLUW 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, 2009
      Chole 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, 2009
After 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, 2009
With 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, 2009
   A 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, 2009
      We 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...

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