Labor & Employment Law

Ayers: Employee Free Choice Act a ?Win-Win? for Workers, Business

Posted on July 02, 2009
      Cutting 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, 2009
      If 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, 2009
In 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, 2009
      The 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...

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Covanta Complaint Shows Need for Employee Free Choice Act

Posted on July 01, 2009
Here’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, 2009
Richard 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, 2009
      UPDATE 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, 2009
More 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, 2009
      Six 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, 2009
The 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, 2009
      We’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, 2009
      The 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, 2009
Two 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, 2009
    George 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, 2009
A 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, 2009
As 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, 2009
      The 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, 2009
      Today, 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, 2009
    Cathy 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, 2009
Rachelle 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, 2009
As 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, 2009
One 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, 2009
The 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, 2009
      Rite 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, 2009
    Bricklayers 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, 2009
Two 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, 2009
Sen. 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, 2009
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Thousands Rally, Say We Can?t Wait for Health Care Reform

Posted on June 25, 2009
      Coming 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, 2009
More 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...

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