Labor & Employment Law

1,100 NYC Sewage Workers Get First Raise in 15 Years?and More Bargaining News

Posted on April 19, 2010
Some 1,100 New York City sewage workers get their first raise in 15 years, and more news from the “Bargaining Digest Weekly.” The AFL-CIO Collective Bargaining Department delivers daily, bargaining-related news and research resources to more than 1,200 subscribers...

Court Upholds OSHA?s Power to Protect Workers

Posted on April 19, 2010
In a major win for workers’ safety on the job, a federal appeals court upheld the power of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to determine how to craft and enforce workplace safety rules.  The saga began when Eric Ho, a contractor in Houston, hired 11 immigrant workers in 2003 to remove asbestos from a building but did not train them or provide them with respirators...

Union Sportsmen/Triton Boats Partner for Bass Boat Giveaway

Posted on April 18, 2010
      Union Sportsmen Alliance’s (USA’s) Kate Cywinski sends us the latest on a special offer for union members that could also put a new bass boat in the water for a lucky union sportsman or sportswoman. Triton Boats founder and president Earl Bentz is widely acknowledged as one of the most creative individuals in the fiercely competitive sports fishing boat industry...

Stars Light Up Broadway to Fight AIDS

Posted on April 17, 2010
       The cast of three Hollywood-based daytime soaps recently came to the East Coast to show off their singing and dancing chops to help people living with HIV/AIDS.  Over the past six years, the show, “ABC Daytime Soap & Soapanet Salute Broadway Cares,” has raised more than $1...

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Limbaugh Lies About Big Branch Mine: No, Rush, It Wasn?t Union

Posted on April 16, 2010
It was Sen. Al Franken (D- Minn.) in his previous incarnation as an author and comedian who called Rush Limbaugh “A big fat liar.” Well, others can address the first part, but Limbaugh himself has again offered solid evidence about the liar part...

U.S., Canada Workers Rally for Locked-Out California Borax Miners

Posted on April 16, 2010
      Workers in five cities and two nations protested in front of British consulates today to demand justice for nearly 600 members of  International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) Local 30, who were locked-out Jan. 31 at Rio Tinto’s Borax mine in Boron, Calif...

MSHA Report: Massey Mine Had ?Significant? History of Safety Violations

Posted on April 16, 2010
The Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) says Massey Energy Co.’s Upper Big Branch Mine where 29 West Virginia coal miners were killed in an explosion April 5, was a mine with a significant history of safety issues, a mine operated by a company with a history of violations, and a mine and a company that MSHA was watching closely...

At American, Passengers Pay for Bags, Execs Get Bonuses, Workers Get Shaft

Posted on April 16, 2010
Passengers are paying fees for bags, blankets and maybe someday for those tiny restrooms at the back of the plane, but top executives at AMR, parent company of American Airlines and American Eagle, are set to rake in millions in bonuses next week...

Lasting Memorial for Slaughtered Miners: Criminal Liability for Reckless Owners

Posted on April 16, 2010
As at Upper Big Branch, a coal dust and methane explosion ripped through the Westray mine in Plymouth, Nova Scotia, early in the morning. As at Upper Big Branch, rescuers discovered bodies, but toxic air forced them out before they could account for all missing miners...

Short-Term Jobless Aid Breaks Republican Stranglehold, Obama Signs

Posted on April 16, 2010
After a nearly monthlong tantrum by Republican senators that cost hundreds of thousand of workers their unemployment insurance (UI), the U.S. House and Senate last night finally approved legislation to extend UI benefits through June 2 and President Obama immediately signed it...

It?s April 15: Time to Tax Wall Street. We Need Good Jobs Now

Posted on April 15, 2010
      Allison Fletcher Acosta, Communications & Technology coordinator at Jobs with Justice, is joining activists who are calling on Congress today to tax Wall Street and make it pay for jobs for the rest of us. Today, Jobs with Justice activists and allies are protesting at banks and post offices in 40 cities across the country to highlight the need for good jobs?and a way to pay for them...

Global Unions Call on T-Mobile to Respect Workers? Rights

Posted on April 15, 2010
    Protestors march outside the German Embassy in Washington, D.C., in 2007 to demand justice for Deutsche Telekom workers.         In many countries around the world, T-Mobile USA’s parent Deutsche Telekom (DT) follows internationally recognized labor and human rights, including the freedom of association and the freedom to join a union...

Obama Orders Mine Safety Crackdown, Six Massey Mines on Serial Violators List

Posted on April 15, 2010
President Obama today ordered a federal safety blitz on coal mines with a history of safety violations, like Massey Energy Co.’s Upper Big Branch where 29 miners were killed April 5. He also called for stronger enforcement of current mine safety laws and closing loopholes “that permit companies to shirk their responsibilities...

Tax Bite Not as Sharp This Year with Recovery Act?s Tax Cuts

Posted on April 15, 2010
Julius Cesar got his on the Ides of March and many Americans think they get stuck every April 15. But this  tax day is actually leaving most working family taxpayers with more money in their refunds and pockets because of the tax cuts in the economic stimulus bill passed last year...

Study: Union Construction Jobs Help Economy

Posted on April 15, 2010
      A new study shows union construction jobs not only provide workers with a good middle-class income, but the benefits extend to the communities and states where they live. The report, “The Socio-Economic Impacts of Construction Unionization in Massachusetts,” by Maria Figueroa and Jeff Grabelsky of Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations, found the earnings of union construction workers in Massachusetts added $4...

Trump: Tax China, Create Jobs in America

Posted on April 15, 2010
      Donald Trump knows a few things about making money. The first step: You need a job. But a job is something more than 17 million of America’s workers don’t have. In a recent CNN interview, Trump says one big way this country can create jobs is by heavily taxing China’s exports, which would result in the creation of much-needed manufacturing jobs here at home...

U.S. Unionists Demand End of Saddam-era Labor Law in Iraq

Posted on April 14, 2010
When the United States invaded Iraq in 2003, “we were told democracy would be built in Iraq” says Stan Gacek of the AFL-CIO’s International Affairs Department. But speaking at a rally today outside the Iraqi consulate in Washington D...

Mine Workers President Roberts: Massey?s Blankenship Should Be Jailed

Posted on April 14, 2010
Mine Workers (UMWA) President Cecil Roberts says that Massey Energy Co.’s continued inaction on safety violations at its Upper Big Branch Mine, where 29 West Virginia coal miners died in an April 5 explosion, should send Massey CEO Donald Blankenship to jail...

Blanche Lincoln Got $1.3 Million from Wall Street

Posted on April 14, 2010
       Speaking yesterday to members of the Machinists, Arkansas Lt. Gov. Bill Halter didn’t mince words about why Big Banks haven’t been held accountable by Congress: Washington insiders like Arkansas Sen. Blanche Lincoln have failed to pass financial reform legislation because they owe Wall Street...

Report: Whirlpool Closing Will Cost Indiana Millions of $$$

Posted on April 14, 2010
    Doris Nevill, a Whirlpool worker, says she cried all day about losing her job at the Evansville plant.         Whirlpool’s decision to abandon U.S. workers and send 1,100 production jobs out of Evansville, Ind., to a new plant in Mexico will create a ripple effect that will cost thousands of jobs and millions of dollars in lost income, according to a report released today...

Trumka: Don?t Let Wall Street Go Back to Business As Usual

Posted on April 13, 2010
Wall Street has not learned its lesson from the nation’s economic crisis. Far from it: CEOs have gone back to business as usual and the American people must stand up and take the economy back, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said today. During a live webcast announcing the launch of the 2010 AFL-CIO Executive PayWatch, Trumka said the nation’s Big Six banks helped destroy 11 million jobs and they should start paying to restore those jobs...

Retired Teacher Marches for California?s Schools and State?s Future

Posted on April 13, 2010
      Gavin Riley taught in California’s public schools for 37 years. Today, the retired California Federation of Teachers member is in the 40th day of a 48-day, 250-mile March for California’s Future. Riley wants nothing less than to save the school system that educated him in the 1950s and 1960s, and where he in turn taught thousands more...

Obama Project Labor Order Implemented Today

Posted on April 13, 2010
During his first month in office, President Obama issued an executive order encouraging agencies to require the use of project labor agreements (PLAs) on large-scale construction projects. Today, the Federal Acquisition Regulatory Council (FAR) issued the final rule that implements the order...

Refinery Blast Claims Sixth Victim

Posted on April 13, 2010
A sixth worker has died after an April 2 explosion at a Tesoro refinery in Anacortes, Wash., where five United Steelworkers members died in the blast. A seventh worker remains hospitalized. Lew Janz, 41, died last night. He was a supervisor who had been a longtime union member...

Court Blocks Hikes Sought by Massachusetts Health Insurance Corps.

Posted on April 13, 2010
A Massachusetts court yesterday blocked premium increases?some as high as 40 percent?sought by six state health insurers. The action by the Suffolk Superior Court was the second time the insurance companies’ bid to boost rates was rejected. The state Division of Insurance rejected the rate hikes last month, calling them “excessive...

Richard Trumka Live on PayWatch

Posted on April 13, 2010
The 2010 AFL-CIO Executive PayWatch highlights six Wall Street corporations using taxpayer money for big bonuses and lobbying and updates info on CEO pay data. We’re tweeting AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka live as he discusses the PayWatch info and talks about the union movement’s campaign to hold Wall Street accountable...

2010 PayWatch Exposes Corporate Lobbying on Financial Reform

Posted on April 13, 2010
      The nation’s biggest banks helped create the current financial crisis that required a $700 billion taxpayer bailout. In return, the banks cut back on lending to consumers and small businesses but paid out a record $145 billion in total compensation in 2009...

Senate Ends Republican Filibuster Against Jobless Benefits

Posted on April 13, 2010
Each day while Congress was on its two-week spring break, some 30,000 long-term jobless workers ran out of unemployment insurance (UI) benefits because of Republican Sen. Tom Coburn (Okla.), who blocked a vote to extend UI benefits. Yesterday, the Senate’s first day back from vacation?and with more than 400,000 workers now out of benefits?Coburn was at it again, taking to the Senate floor to continue the filibuster against helping the jobless...

Methane, Coal Dust Violations Cited at Massey Mine Before Deadly Blast

Posted on April 12, 2010
The awful disaster last week at Massey Energy Co.’s Upper Big Branch coal mine that killed 29 miners has prompted several in-depth looks at Massey’s overall safety record and the Mine Safety and Health Administration’s (MSHA’s) enforcement practices...

Alliance for Retired Americans Re-Elects Easterling, Burks

Posted on April 12, 2010
    Barbara Easterling             Ruben Burks         Alliance for Retired Americans President Barbara Easterling and Secretary-Treasurer Ruben Burks were re-elected during the Alliance’s national convention in Las Vegas last week...

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