Labor & Employment Law

Treasury?s Refusal to Call China on Manipulation Draws Bipartisan Ire

Posted on July 09, 2010
The Treasury Department’s announcement that it will not designate China a currency manipulator ignores the overwhelming evidence that the Chinese government has systematically kept the renminbi undervalued, causing the U.S. trade deficit to skyrocket and contributing to the loss of millions of jobs, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said...

Chamber Lobbyist Spins its 2?1 Advantage in Political Spending

Posted on July 08, 2010
    Chamber pot.         The Huffington Post adds up what the groups on the right have pledged to spend on the 2010 election and comes up with at least $200 million committed so far. No surprise, but the biggest chunk is from the U...

Two More Trade Union Members Killed in Colombia

Posted on July 08, 2010
      Two trade unionists were killed in Colombia last month, a grim reminder to free-trade-at-all-cost supporters in the White House and Congress it’s a bad idea to sign a trade deal with the deadliest country in the world for union members...

Kentucky Union Members Take Fight for Jobs, Jobless Aid to McConnell?s Doorstep

Posted on July 08, 2010
Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) and his Senate cohorts who have flipped off long-term jobless workers by blocking unemployment insurance (UI) extensions and jobs legislation are enjoying a pleasant week off, with pay. Meanwhile, 250,000 workers this week and 1...

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Trumka: Time to Raise Our Voices for Good Jobs Now

Posted on July 08, 2010
       Working Americans are outraged over the jobs crisis. Ben from Augusta, Ga., says the economy is not doing as well?and describes feeling hopeless and scared because he doesn’t know what’s going to happen next. In Washington, D...

75th Anniversary of National Labor Relations Act: Unions the Answer Then and Now

Posted on July 07, 2010
    Labor Secretary Hilda Solis addressed the AFL-CIO Executive Council in March.         In this crosspost from Huffington Post, U.S. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis reaffirms the importance of the National Labor Relations Act, which gave workers freedom to form unions...

WaPo Whopper on Trumka, Social Security and Taxes

Posted on July 07, 2010
Here?s a great way to save some Social Security money. Let more folks die before they can get a check.  Cold? Maybe. But pretty darn effective according to Washington Post columnist Ruth Marcus. Marcus seems to have taken offense at AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka?s objection to raising the retirement age and his call for the better-off among us to pay the Social Security tax on all their income, just like the rest of us do...

Minnesota Nurses Ratify New Contract

Posted on July 07, 2010
      After more than three months of tense negotiations that included a 24-hour strike, some 12,000 nurses in Minnesota?s Twin Cities yesterday voted to ratify a new three-year contract with 14 area hospitals. The new pact contains no concessions or give-backs and maintains the pension plan...

Join Trumka, Sebelius for Health Care Reform Webinar Today

Posted on July 07, 2010
If you are a union member with questions about what the new health care reform law means for you and your family, the place to be this afternoon is www.hhs.gov/live. From 4 to 5  (EDT), AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka and Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius will host a live webinar on the Affordable Health Care Act...

Trumka: Arizona Suit a First Step, But Not Enough

Posted on July 07, 2010
       The Obama administration?s suit to stop Arizona from implementing the anti-immigrant law, known as SB1070, is an important first step towards protecting the fundamental civil rights of working people in the state, but does not go far enough, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said...

LabourStart Conference to Explore Global Worker Solidarity

Posted on July 06, 2010
      Stuart Elliott, from the Wichita/Hutchinson Labor Federation of Central Kansas, reports on the upcoming LabourStart Global Solidarity conference in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. LabourStart, the global online labor news service, will hold its 2010 Global Solidarity conference at a time when workers are caught in an economic tsunami and employers are using the crisis as an excuse to trample workers? rights...

Striking Shaw?s Workers Pick Up Support

Posted on July 06, 2010
       Striking workers at the Shaw?s supermarket warehouse in Methuen, Mass., are gaining the support of political, community and religious leaders and union members across New England. The 310 workers, members of Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 791, walked out March 7 after Shaw?s management demanded workers take on the full burden of paying increased costs for health care...

USW: Oil Safety Issues Must be Negotiated

Posted on July 06, 2010
 The United Steelworkers (USW) wants to sit down with the oil industry to discuss health and safety issues. The public?s awareness of the lack of oil industry safety has been heightened by the tragic BP/Deepwater Horizon explosion that killed 11 workers, set off the largest oil spill in Gulf history and put thousands of people out of work...

AFT Members Help Children Before Getting Down to Convention Business

Posted on July 05, 2010
      Before delegates to AFT?s national convention get down to business July 8 in Seattle, they will do what teachers do best and give of themselves, their time and energy to help children. One day before the convention opens, the teachers will help AFT members in Seattle who work with young children by joining together for a day of community service...

Union Values: Made In America

Posted on July 04, 2010
Dave Johnson writes for the Campaign for America’s Future and adapted this post for us. Our country was born out of a fight to cast off colonial rule by a wealthy elite and govern ourselves as We, the People. This fight continues, and nothing more clearly represents this American effort to lift each other up than organized labor...

Rand Paul and the Right to Work for Less

Posted on July 03, 2010
The Rand Paul for Senate campaign says their guy was glad to get $2,500 from the National Right to Work Committee (NRTWC) because the group “supports candidates best suited to protect Americans from labor union abuses.” Jeff Wiggins isn’t surprised that the viciously anti-labor group is backing Paul, who wants to be Kentucky’s next Republican senator...

Study: Recession Has Hit More than Half of Us

Posted on July 02, 2010
      Since the recession began 30 months ago, more than half of all adults in the workforce?55 percent?say that they have either been unemployed, taken a pay cut, had their work hours reduced or have become involuntary part-time workers, according to a new survey by the Pew Research Center’s Social and Demographic Trends Project...

HHS Launches ?Helpdesk? for New Health Care Reform Law

Posted on July 02, 2010
If you have any questions about the new health care reform law?from ?What are my health insurance options?? to ?How do I get coverage with a pre-existing condition???HealthCare.gov is the place to go. Think of it as the nation?s ?Helpdesk? for health care decisions...

Arizona Court Says Secret Ballot Measure Unconstitutional

Posted on July 02, 2010
Opponents of the Employee Free Choice Act were dealt a blow June 30 when an Arizona state court judge struck down as unconstitutional a proposed state constitutional amendment that sought to restrict how workers can vote in union representation elections...

Website Supports Access to Gulf Spill Information

Posted on July 02, 2010
      Concerned about reports that members of the media are being denied access to people and places they need to cover the largest oil spill in U.S. history, the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) has launched a new website...

Sign Up For Southern School for Union Women

Posted on July 02, 2010
      Sign up now for the Southern School for Union Women at the National Labor College (NLC) in Silver Spring, Md., August 19?22. The school is open to union and community activist women who support the advancement of women in the union movement...

12,000 Minnesota Nurses Reach Tentative Agreement with Hospitals

Posted on July 02, 2010
      With the help of federal mediators, members of the Minnesota Nurses Association (MNA) reached a tentative agreement yesterday with 14 Twin Cities hospitals. Last week the 12,000 nurses voted to strike if there was no agreement by July 6...

Economy Loses 125,000 Jobs in June

Posted on July 02, 2010
      For the first time in six months, the economy lost jobs in June. The 125,000 job loss was due in part to a drop in the number of temporary employees working on Census 2010. Private-sector job growth remained anemic, with only 83,000 jobs added last month, according to a report released this morning by the U...

Mine, Workplace Safety Bill Introduced in Congress

Posted on July 01, 2010
Tuesday, we reported that mine and workplace safety legislation with stronger enforcement tools, tougher penalties and broader workers? rights was set for introduction in  Congress in response to recent mine, refinery and other disasters that have claimed the lives of more than 50 workers this year...

Attacks on Jones Act, Gulf Clean Up, Attack Unions and Our Allies

Posted on July 01, 2010
Right-wing radio gabbers, anti-worker Republican politicians and conservative think tanks are at it again. This time they charge that the Jones Act, a U.S. maritime law, is the culprit standing in the way of Gulf clean-up efforts. The Jones Act says that ships operating between U...

Delaware, Nation Need Manufacturing Strategy

Posted on July 01, 2010
Between 2008 and 2009, Delaware lost more than 4,300 manufacturing jobs. Since 2003, the state’s job loss totals nearly 7,000. As Delaware AFL-CIO President Sam Letham told a Keep it Made in America Town hall meeting June 29: What we need in Delaware and the rest of this country is a true manufacturing strategy...

Trumka at CNN: Undocumented Workers Need Legal Rights

Posted on July 01, 2010
       In a global economy in the 21st century, the United States cannot afford to have millions of hard-working people without legal protections, shut off from economic gain?and that means we must face head-on our own contradictions, hypocrisy and history on immigration, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka says in an opinion piece at CNN?s website...

Ron Heintzman Named ATU President

Posted on July 01, 2010
    Ron Heintzman         The Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) executive board appointed Ron Heintzman as the union?s president, succeeding Warren George, who retired after seven years as the union?s leader.   Heintzman, who was the union?s executive vice president, takes office today...

House OK?s Wall Street Reform: Senate After July 4

Posted on July 01, 2010
The House last night gave its final approval to a package of sweeping Wall Street reform measures that is an important step to changing the rules of the game that caused the financial meltdown, for which working families are still paying the price. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif...

WTO Rules Airbus Subsidies Are Illegal

Posted on June 30, 2010
The World Trade Organization (WTO) today confirmed what U.S. workers and aerospace manufacturers have been saying for years: The subsidies the European Union (EU) and its members give to the Airbus are illegal.  In a decision released today, a WTO dispute panel found that $20 billion in aid provided by certain EU nations for new Airbus aircraft over the past 40 years, as well as other subsidies, caused adverse effects to the interests of the United States aerospace industry and therefore violated WTO rules...

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