Labor & Employment Law

NFL Players Back Indiana Workers

Posted on March 09, 2011
The NFL Players Association (NFLPA) today issued a statement of support for the working families in Indiana who are under assault by Gov. Mitch Daniels and a conservative majority in the legislature. In the statement, the players said:  The NFLPA stands together with the working families of Indiana and organized labor in their fight against this attempt to hurt them by targeting unions...

Europe Passes Tax on Speculators, U.S. Should Do the Same

Posted on March 09, 2011
Heather Slavkin, a senior legal and policy adviser for the AFL-CIO Office of Investment, reports on a victory for the global union movement. Earlier this week, the European Parliament voted by an overwhelming majority in favor of a financial speculation tax?a tiny tax on financial speculation that can raise hundreds of billions of dollars for much-needed public services...

Poll: Americans Support Public Employees

Posted on March 09, 2011
A Bloomberg National Poll just out finds that 64 percent of Americans, including a plurality of Republicans, oppose Republican-led efforts to take away the right of workers to bargain for good middle-class jobs. The poll also finds public employees are viewed favorably by a large majority: 72 percent, compared with 17 percent who have an unfavorable view...

Ohio Workers Determined to Stop Anti-Worker Bill

Posted on March 09, 2011
Several thousand people rallied yesterday outside the Ohio state Capitol. Ohio?s working people served notice that they are more energized than ever to defeat S.B. 5, Gov. John Kasich?s anti-worker bill that takes away bargaining rights from public employees...

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Author Stephen King: Why Aren?t the Rich Like Me Paying More Taxes?

Posted on March 09, 2011
  As 15,500 people rallied in 30 cities across Florida yesterday to protest Gov. Rick Scott’s budget, author Stephen King made a surprise appearance at the rally in Sarasota. A resident of Sarasota, King said maybe he should write his next horror novel about Rick Scott...

Buy a Book, Help a Laid-Off Union Member

Posted on March 09, 2011
This from Alfonso Nevarez in the AFL-CIO Collective Bargaining Department. Powell?s Books in Portland, Ore., is in the process of laying off 7 percent of its workers due to declining sales. International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) Local 5 units at Powell?s Burnside and Beaverton stores, as well as the Hoyt Street and Northwest industrial warehouses, will be affected by the layoffs...

Attacks on Workers Threaten Public Safety, Economy, Democratic Values

Posted on March 08, 2011
The initiatives by some governors and state legislators to dismantle workers? rights threatens our economy and the democratic values that built it, working people and experts told a congressional panel today. In a hearing before the Democratic Steering and Policy Committee, workers from Wisconsin, Ohio and Indiana said it is clear that politicians in their states are intent on destroying the middle class...

Wis. Gov. Walker?s Rapidly-Sinking Ship Takes on More Water

Posted on March 08, 2011
This from AFL-CIO Political Communications Director Eddie Vale. Just one day after a media stunt that blew up in his face, further uniting Senate Democrats and Wisconsin?s working families against him, Scott Walker is facing the prospect of mass defections as Senate Republicans are no longer willing to tolerate his extreme power grab and bear the albatross of a Walker disapproval number–which threatening to crack 60 percent...

LGBT Organizations Back Public Employees

Posted on March 08, 2011
Nearly 50 national organizations for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people have signed a labor solidarity statement sponsored by the AFL-CIO constituency group Pride at Work. The statement supports the rights of public employees to bargain...

Ohioans Protest Kasich?s State of State Address

Posted on March 08, 2011
  Thousands of laborers, teachers, firefighters and police officers rallied and protested outside and inside the state capitol today as Ohio Gov. John Kasich delivered his State of the State address. This is the fourth week of protests against Kasich?s plan to take away public employees? right to bargain for a better life...

Asian Pacific American Groups Announce Support for Public Employees

Posted on March 08, 2011
The National Council of Asian Pacific Americans (NCAPA), representing a wide range of Asian Pacific American communities, pledged support for public employees in a historic and unified gesture of solidarity. The Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance (APALA), a constituency group of the AFL-CIO, is one of the 29 member organizations of the coalition and currently sits on the Executive Committee...

20,000 Expected for ?We Are Indiana? Rally

Posted on March 08, 2011
    More than 1,000 people rallied to save Indiana?s schools this past Saturday.          As many as 20,000 people are expected to converge on the Indiana Statehouse March 10 to join a ?We Are Indiana? protest against Gov. Mitch Daniels? anti-worker agenda...

Register Now for the Summit on Jobs and America?s Future

Posted on March 08, 2011
The Campaign for America’s Future is bringing together key leaders and grassroots activists for a critical Summit on Jobs and America’s Future March 10 to tell the truth about what it will take to get America working and to discuss solutions to the economic crisis...

International Women?s Day: U.S., South African Union Women Share Strategies

Posted on March 08, 2011
       The problems facing working women extend across national boundaries, and today, International Women?s Day, women organizers on opposite sides of the world shared ideas and inspiration. In a live teleconference, AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler and four young women organizers in the United States talked with a roomful of women organizers in Johannesburg, South Africa...

Show Solidarity with the Women Working at T-Mobile

Posted on March 08, 2011
In recognition of International Women’s Day, the Communications Workers of America (CWA) and unions around the world are standing in solidarity with the women of T-Mobile USA. As part of  the global campaign, CWA is collecting messages of strength and support on its website and Facebook page?messages to encourage them as they go to work each day under harsh and unfair conditions...

Wis. Republicans Flee Public Meeting Filled with Supporters of Public Employees

Posted on March 08, 2011
  Seems some Wisconsin Republicans don’t want to hear what the majority of their constituents believe: Gov. Scott Walker is wrong to try and take away the right of public employees to collectively bargain for middle-class jobs. Late yesterday, U...

Wis. Workers to Walker: Stop the Lies and Come to the Table

Posted on March 08, 2011
Despite his posturing at a press conference yesterday, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker is unwilling to engage in good-faith negotiations with Democrats who are standing up for nearly three-fourths of Wisconsin voters who oppose his budget proposal. In a statement, the Wisconsin State AFL-CIO said Walker? s declaration that he will not compromise with unions ?demonstrates clearly he has no interest in compromising, just creating the illusion of compromise as his polling numbers sink to record-low levels...

On April 4, Stand in Solidarity with Working People

Posted on March 07, 2011
  Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated on April 4, 1968 in Memphis where he was standing with sanitation workers demanding their dream of a better life. Today,  the right to bargain collectively for a voice at work and a middle class life are under attack as never before...

UAW Members Ratify Caterpillar Contract

Posted on March 07, 2011
Members of the UAW ratified  a new six-year contract with Caterpillar Inc. covering 9,500 workers at plants in Colorado, Illinois, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee. ?This ratification is particularly pleasing as it may have finally put the troublesome relationship between the UAW and Cat right where it belongs: behind us,? UAW Secretary-Treasurer Dennis Williams said in a statement...

Workers Under Attack Will Tell Their Stories to Congressional Hearing

Posted on March 07, 2011
Workers from the front lines of the corporate-led assault on America’s middle class, including working people from Ohio, Indiana and Wisconsin, will be on Capitol Hill tomorrow to describe their struggles to keep their bargaining rights so they can bargain for a middle class life...

70 Young Union Members ?Organize Our Future?

Posted on March 07, 2011
       Rosa Blumenfeld, an organizer at the Greater Boston Labor Council (GBLC), sends us this report. What do you hear from your friends, family and fellow workers when you say the word “union”? What can we do, as young people, in the Boston area to create change? How do we talk to our co-workers about the union? How do we move them to take action for social and economic justice? These were the questions that more than 70 young union members (35 and under) gathered to address this past Saturday, Feb...

Farmers Launch Tractorcade in Solidarity with Wis. Public Employees

Posted on March 07, 2011
    This tractorcade in 2007 is just a small example of the mass statewide tractorcade protest this weekend in Madison, Wis.          This weekend, thousands of Wisconsin farmers will not be working in the fields or milking cows. They will be driving their tractors in a mass tractorcade in support of public employees at the state Capital in Madison...

UNITEHERE! Reaches Tentative Deals with Hilton Hotels

Posted on March 07, 2011
After many months of bargaining, UNITEHERE! and Hilton Worldwide have reached tentative agreements at hotels in three major markets?Chicago, San Francisco and Honolulu. The tentative agreements cover nearly 4,000 workers. While terms of the settlements vary in each city, the contracts include wage increases, improved job stability language and reduced workloads for housekeeping staff and others...

Wis. 14 Offer to Meet with Walker to Discuss Bipartisan Solution

Posted on March 07, 2011
Wisconsin Senate Democratic Leader Mark Miller this morning offered to meet in person with Gov. Scott Walker and Senate Republican Leader Scott Fitzgerald to discuss how to reach a ?bipartisan solution to our differences.”  In a letter hand-delivered by Miller?s office to Walker and Fitzgerald, the Democratic leader said: Over the past several weeks we have witnessed an unprecedented public debate in Wisconsin over the value of public workers and the importance of collective bargaining rights...

Join the Fight to ?Save Collective Bargaining? on Facebook

Posted on March 07, 2011
This is a cross-post from the New Jersey State AFL-CIO. In New Jersey and across the nation collective bargaining rights are under attack, working families are being blamed for an economic disaster manufactured on Wall Street, and the assault on collective bargaining threatens the foundation of our middle class...

Congressional Black Caucus: Public Employees Deserve a Seat at Table in Wisconsin

Posted on March 07, 2011
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s proposal to eliminate bargaining rights for public employees is “blatantly un-American” and “jeopardizes the viability of the people during these tough economic times,”  say Reps. Emanuel Cleaver  (D-Mo...

?America Is Not Broke,? Michael Moore Tells Cheering Thousands

Posted on March 07, 2011
  This is a cross-post from the Wisconsin Labor History Society. Film producer Michael Moore captivated the thousands of protesters at the state Capitol Saturday, March 5, with his speech, “America Is Not Broke.” He said, the “country is awash in cash...

Washington Hospital Center Nurses Locked Out

Posted on March 07, 2011
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka marched with nurses on the picket line during their one-day strike March 4.    Nurses at Washington Hospital Center, the largest hospital in the nation?s capital, have been locked out until March 9 following their one-day strike for better patient care last Friday...

Standing Strong Around the State

Posted on March 07, 2011
       This is a cross-post from the Wisconsin State AFL-CIO. Working families have been standing up against Gov. Scott Walker?s extreme attacks on the middle class for more than three weeks now. Poll after poll has shown that the American public opposes Gov...

New Poll: Wisconsin Voters Like Teachers, But Not Gov. Walker

Posted on March 07, 2011
  Yet another poll in Wisconsin shows the public is strongly opposed to Gov. Scott Walker’s attacks on public employees’ freedom to bargain for good middle-class jobs.  The latest poll, commissioned by a conservative think tank, the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute (WPRI), shows 51 percent of voters disapprove of Walker’s plan, and nearly two of three (65 percent) say he should compromise on his budget proposal and its anti-public employee union provisions...

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