Labor & Employment Law

12,000 Alaska State Workers Reach Tentative Contract?and More Bargaining News

Posted on April 12, 2010
Some 12,000 Alaska state workers will vote soon on a tentative contract, 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...

Forum to Examine Ways to Defend Patient Care

Posted on April 12, 2010
      A panel of health care experts will discuss how health care professionals?from nurses and therapists to social workers and physicians?can defend quality care when managers and policymakers make decisions these workers know will hurt patient care...

Green Jobs Must Remain in This Country

Posted on April 12, 2010
      We need to develop strong policies promoting clean energy, train workers in green technologies and ensure that the green jobs of the future are good jobs that remain in this country, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said Friday. Trumka told the crowd at Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations (ILR): We need the same strategic planning as our economic competitors to make sure that technologies invented here in America are commercialized here in America by companies here in America with plants here in America with workers trained here in America...

Wrongful Fatalities, Failed Worker Protections

Posted on April 12, 2010
In both cases?the five fatalities in a Washington oil refinery on April 2 and the 29 deaths in a West Virginia coal mine the following Monday?news reports described the explosions that killed workers as industrial “accidents.” When an explosion occurs at a refinery or mine that has been repeatedly fined for heath and safety violations, one question that ought to be asked is just how unexpected was the event...

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Wall Street?s Lobbying On Financial Reform Can?t Duck 2010 PayWatch Spotlight

Posted on April 12, 2010
      Be sure to be here tomorrow when the 2010 AFL-CIO Executive PayWatch shines its spotlight on Wall Street’s Big Six: Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo/Wachovia. The six banks, which received billions of dollars from the Treasury Department’s Troubled Assets Relief Program, now are spending millions of dollars to lobby on financial reform in Congress...

Newest Green Labor Journal Now Online

Posted on April 11, 2010
      Check out the latest issue of Green Labor Journal, a monthly online journal that examines issues of green jobs, sustainability, clean energy and climate change from a labor movement perspective. The Green Labor Journal is a joint effort of the National Labor College (NLC) and the AFL-CIO Center for Green Jobs...

Australian Spoof Takes Top Prize in LabourStart Video Contest

Posted on April 10, 2010
      The envelope, please….The winner of LabourStart’s first labor video contest is “What have Unions Ever Done for Us?” a Monty Python-esque look at a scowling CEO and his minions as they prepare to bring a union to its knees...

Missing Miners Found Dead

Posted on April 10, 2010
Rescue workers searching the Upper Big Branch coal mine near Montcoal, W.V., located the bodies of four missing miners, officials announced early this morning. Their deaths bring the toll from a massive explosion April 5 at the troubled Massey Energy mine to 29--making this the worst coal mining disaster since 1970...

In Financial Reform Fight, It?s Banks? Billions vs. People?s Anger

Posted on April 09, 2010
The fight to win strong and effective financial reform legislation is a “David vs. Goliath” match that pits Wall Street’s bazillions of dollars against the public’s deep and growing anger, Heather Booth, executive director of the coalition Americans for Financial Reform said today...

Hey, Blanche Lincoln: We Take Care of Working Families and We?re Union

Posted on April 09, 2010
              In Arkansas, where Sen. Blanche Lincoln has been attacking working families and their unions in her re-election for the Senate seat, working families are coming out strongly for Lt. Gov. Bill Halter as their choice in the Democratic primaries...

Tune In to Live Webcast of Pennsylvania AFL-CIO Convention Next Week

Posted on April 09, 2010
      The Pennsylvania AFL-CIO celebrates its 50th anniversary next week, April 12-15, at the state federation’s 39th Constitutional Convention in Pittsburgh. You can be there, thanks to “The Rick Smith Show” and the Head On Radio Network, which will provide video and audio coverage from gavel to gavel...

Half Price on Union-Made Apparel as The Union Shop Closes

Posted on April 08, 2010
      Now’s the time to get a bargain on union-made, made-in-America apparel, such as hats, jackets, shirts, sweatshirts and more. The AFL-CIO’s The Union Shop OnlineTM has it all?for half price. Take advantage of this great 50 percent-off deal now: The offer is good only while supplies last and many of the shop’s most popular items are already sold out...

45 Deaths Show Massey?s Safety Problems Not Confined to Upper Big Branch

Posted on April 08, 2010
This week’s disaster at Massey Energy Co.’s Upper Big Branch Mine that killed 25 miners, with four still unaccounted for, means 45 coal miners have died at Massey operations since 2000. Mine Workers President (UMWA) Cecil Roberts says the “grim statistics that are associated with Massey and the mines under its control,” cannot be ignored...

2010 PayWatch: Spotlights Wall Street?s Effort to Block Financial Reform

Posted on April 08, 2010
Think you’re angry now about CEO bonuses, bailouts and the wheeling and dealing of Big Banks on Wall Street? Just wait until Tuesday, April 13. The AFL-CIO 2010 Executive PayWatch launches that day, and it will spotlight Wall Street’s Big Six: Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo/Wachovia...

The Shocking Truth: Newt & Co. Lie About Health Care Reform

Posted on April 08, 2010
Pop quiz time. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is making claims about the new health care reform law that are: Wildly inaccurate. Stemming from a partisan analysis based on false assumptions. An outright misrepresentation. All of the above. The answer to the question about Gingrich’s claims, like those of so many radio blabbers, tea pot stirrers and even “mainstream” (if any are still around) Republicans, is ”all of the above...

Trumka Warns ?Forces of Hate? Fanning Flames of Workers? Economic Anger

Posted on April 08, 2010
An economy that seems to work for just a privileged few, 11 million vanished jobs and a bailout for banks and Wall Street?but not working families?is fueling justified anger in workers. Speaking last night at the Institute of Politics at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka told an audience about the “forces of hate” and “radio voices” that are frantically fanning the flames of that justified anger to divide working people...

?We Want Paychecks, Not Unemployment Checks?

Posted on April 08, 2010
      Workday Minnesota editor Barb Kucera reports on the Minnesota AFL-CIO’s job action yesterday. Cement mason Jessica Keeley had a message for lawmakers Wednesday at the state Capitol: We want to collect paychecks?not unemployment checks! Keeley was among hundreds of workers and union leaders who rallied to urge the Minnesota Legislature and Gov...

25 Coal Miners Died, but Massey CEO Calls Mine ?Safe?

Posted on April 07, 2010
As mine rescue teams wait for more ventilation bore holes to be drilled into Massey Energy Co.’s methane gas-filled Upper Big Branch Mine , the company CEO claims that hundreds of mine safety law violations don’t mean the mine is unsafe. On Monday, 25 miners died in an explosion and four remain unaccounted for in the mine...

?The Kids Aren?t Alright?: Young Workers Hit Hard in Bad Economy

Posted on April 07, 2010
      We all know the nation’s jobless rate?with more than 16 million U.S. workers unemployed?is really, really bad. In fact, overall unemployment increased by 4.7 percentage points from December 2007, when the recession began. Yet the situation is even worse for young workers, worsening by more than 7...

Watch Trumka Live Tonight at Harvard Event on Workers and the Economy

Posted on April 07, 2010
Tonight at 8 p.m. EST, you can watch a live webcast of AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka with an audience of students, academics and union activists at the Institute of Politics at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government.  During the online presentation, Trumka will share the frustration and anger of working people trying to survive in a fractured U...

Union Members Keep Marching for California?s Future and Economic Justice

Posted on April 06, 2010
On March 5, Irene Gonzalez, a Los Angeles juvenile probation officer and AFSCME Local 685 member, set out with a diverse group of other union members for 250-mile, 48-day March for California’s Future. Sponsored by the California Federation of Teachers (CFT), AFSCME and a coalition of labor, education and faith groups, the march is drawing attention to the state’s budget crisis and the devastating impact of budget cuts on Californians now and into the future...

Iraqi Workers Need Your Help

Posted on April 06, 2010
Erin Radford, program officer at the Solidarity Center, sends us this request for action to support Iraqi union leaders in their struggle for bargaining and other workplace rights. Iraqi workers across the country have faced harassment, threats and even criminal charges for forming unions despite their hopes for democracy...

Massey Mine Cited for 450+ Safety Violations Before Deadly Blast

Posted on April 06, 2010
The Massey Energy Co. mine where 25 coal miners were killed and four remain unaccounted following an explosion yesterday, was assessed nearly $1 million in fines for safety violations last year including violations concerning escape routes and ventilation, according federal records and news reports...

5 Refinery Workers Killed, Industry Group Lauds Its Safety Record

Posted on April 06, 2010
After an explosion at a Tesoro refinery in Anacortes, Wash., killed five United Steelworkers (USW) members and severely injured two other workers, the petroleum industry claimed its safety record is exemplary. Says USW President Leo W. Gerard: It’s incredible this industry brags about its safety record just after five people were killed in a refinery explosion...

W.Va. Coal Mine Blast Kills 6, 21 Miners Missing

Posted on April 05, 2010
An explosion at a Raleigh County, W.Va., coal mine late this afternoon killed six miners and 21 other coal miners remain unaccounted for, according to news reports. The Associated Press reports that the blast occurred at Massey Energy’s Upper Big Branch mine Mine rescue crews, including those from the Mine Workers (UMWA), were dispatched to the mine...

More NNU Nurses Answer Call to Help Haitian Quake Survivors

Posted on April 05, 2010
      Another contingent of National Nurses United (NNU) nurse volunteers is on its way to Haiti to help provide much needed medical care to the earthquake survivors. The 10 RNs are part of NNU’s RN Response Network (RNRN). This group includes intensive care, medical/surgical and pediatric nurses from California, Massachusetts and Texas...

New Labor Dept. Drive Sets to Stop Wage Theft

Posted on April 05, 2010
      In a 180-degreee turn from a Labor Department under the Bush administration that tried to gut overtime rules for millions of workers, Labor Secretary Hilda Solis has unveiled a new campaign to inform workers about their pay rights and to put a stop to wage theft...

1,500 Temple Health Care Workers on Day 6 of Strike?and More Bargaining News

Posted on April 05, 2010
The 1,500 striking Temple health care workers want the hospital to document the credentials of their replacements, 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...

Respect Workers? Rights When Rebuilding Haiti

Posted on April 04, 2010
    Dominican union truck drivers carry supplies to Haitian workers in Port-au-Prince.         This week, trade unionists from around the world will meet in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, to draft a road map for rebuilding Haiti...

Proud of Union Past in Paducah, Ky.

Posted on April 03, 2010
More than a century of local labor history is painted on the floodwall in Paducah, Ky. Says local labor leader Jeff Wiggins: Union labor built a lot of Paducah, including this floodwall. It’s appropriate that our history is here for everybody to see...

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