Labor & Employment Law

BREAKING: Wis. Assembly Passes Walker?s Assault on Collective Bargaining, Good Jobs

Posted on February 25, 2011
Democratic Assembly members in Wisconsin chant ?Shame? after Republicans pushed through a vote taking away the right of public employees to bargain for good jobs.    Early Friday, the Wisconsin Assembly passed Gov. Scott Walker’s (R) bill taking from most public employees the right to bargain collectively for good jobs, according to numerous news sources...

Breaking News: Boeing Wins $35 Billion Tanker Contract

Posted on February 24, 2011
    The NewGen Tanker demonstrates its ability to refuel two aircraft.         The Air Force has given a major boost to U.S. job creation by awarding a $35 billion contract to build the next generation of air refueling tankers to Boeing Co...

USW Rally Hits Attack on Public Service Workers

Posted on February 24, 2011
Hundreds of working Americans overflowed the lobby of United Steelworkers (USW) headquarters today into the streets of Pittsburgh, in a rally to show solidarity with teachers,  nurses and other public service workers  in Wisconsin, Indiana and Ohio whose freedom to bargain for a better life is under attack...

Vets Group Tells Walker, Other Govs, ?Don?t Punish Workers?

Posted on February 24, 2011
  The veteran?s group VoteVets.org has launched a new video and petition to support Wisconsin public employees in their fight against Gov. Scott Walker?s (R) attempt to eliminate their rights to bargain for middle-class jobs and in support of workers engaged in similar battles in other states...

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Walker Has Long Record of Trying to Intimidate Workers

Posted on February 24, 2011
  When Wis. Gov. Scott Walker (R) appears in public, he tries to come across as a reasonable man–he says it?s all about the budget, not workers or unions or political paybacks. We all know that?s?well let?s put this way, there?s a lot of it across Wisconsin?s farms...

Solidarity With Wisconsin Public Employees Growing

Posted on February 24, 2011
    Working people rally in the Capitol rotunda in St. Paul, Minn.          Some 2,000 working people rallied at the Minnesota state capitol in St. Paul Tuesday to make it clear that Wisconsin-like attempts to destroy collective bargaining will not succeed in their state...

Religious Leaders Speak Out Against Walker?s Plan

Posted on February 24, 2011
Religious leaders across Wisconsin and the nation are speaking out in solidarity and support of that state’s public employees. Bishop Stephen Blaire, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops? Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development, expressed his ?support for and solidarity? on the rights of workers...

Continuing the Fight for Freedom

Posted on February 24, 2011
The following is a cross-post from The Huffington Post by AFSCME President Gerald McEntee. The tens of thousands of Wisconsinites who have marched and protested at the state Capitol and throughout the state this past week are American heroes. It is not often in this country that thousands gather to fight for the dignity and the rights of their fellow citizens...

Report: New U.S. Jobs Are Low-Wage

Posted on February 24, 2011
       More than a million private-sector jobs were added to the U.S. economy during the past 12 months, but they were mainly middle and lower-wage jobs, a new report from the National Employment Law Project (NELP) finds. The heavy growth in industries like temporary employment services, restaurants and retail and in nursing and residential care facilities, which pay median wages below $13 an hour, suggests that not only are there  fewer job opportunities overall now than before the recession, there are fewer well-paying jobs...

Local Officials in Wisconsin Say Walker?s Plan Hurts Their Budgets, Not Helps

Posted on February 24, 2011
  More than 200 mayors, school board presidents and other local officials urged Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) to halt his attack on public service workers and middle-class jobs. At a news conference and in a statement the group, representing more than 20 cities, 41 towns and 22 counties, said Walker?s proposal to eliminate workers’ bargaining rights harms their ability to find common ground with municipal and county employees during the budget process...

Ohio Taxpayers Will Lose Millions Under Kasich Plan

Posted on February 24, 2011
Republican Ohio Gov. John Kasich, like Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, is willing to cost state taxpayers millions in lost revenue solely to advance their personal political vendetta against working families and their right to bargain for good middle-class jobs...

Madison Chief Police Says Walker?s Talk of Using Provocateurs ?Troubling?

Posted on February 24, 2011
  Madison [Wis.] Chief of Police Nobel Wray says that Gov. Scott Walker?s (R) admission that he  had discussed planting troublemakers to provoke protestors in the peaceful crowds in Madison is ?very unsettling and troubling.? Earlier this week, Walker believed he was on the phone with right-wing, extremist billionaire David Koch...

Not a Billionaire? Use This Scott Walker Hotline

Posted on February 24, 2011
  ?I?m sorry, Gov. Walker?s on the line with one of his favorite billionaires. At the tone, please don?t bother to leave a message because Gov. Walker doesn?t really give a hoot what you think.? Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) was pranked the other day into taking a call from someone he believed was right-wing, extremist billionaire David Koch...

?No Room for Anti-Worker Effort in Maryland?

Posted on February 24, 2011
  Working people from across Maryland rallied yesterday at the state capital in Annapolis to show solidarity with public employees in Wisconsin who are fighting a plan to deprive workers of the freedom to bargain for a decent living. The rally was organized by the Maryland State and District of Columbia AFL-CIO...

Thousands Take a Stand in Sacramento for Workers? Rights in Wisconsin

Posted on February 24, 2011
      This is a cross-post from the California Federation of Labor by Communications Director Steve Smith. When Wisconsin?s new right-wing governor decided to make it his personal mission to eliminate the rights of teachers, nurses, bus drivers and other public servants, he probably thought it would be a cakewalk...

Democracy on the Line in Wisconsin

Posted on February 24, 2011
  John August, executive director of the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions and a native Wisconsinite, sends us this on events there. The coalition is an alliance of 29 local unions representing 90,000 health care workers. This past weekend, between 80,000 and 100,000 people gathered outside the state Capitol building in Madison, Wis...

Students, Workers United in Wisconsin

Posted on February 23, 2011
  Maricela Aguilar writes a first-hand account of the events in Wisconsin in this cross-post from United We Dream. I have been to my fair share of rallies and protests. I was there for Reform Immigration For America’s (RIFA?s) March for America alongside 250,000 other comprehensive immigration reform supporters; I was there for Milwaukee?s May Day Rally in 2010, which drew more than 65,000 Wisconsinites in support of workers? and immigrant rights; I was there for Immigrant Youth Justice League?s 2010 Coming Out of the Shadows Rally, which had one of the largest turnouts for a coming out rally in the nation...

Walker?s Attack on Middle Class Could Hurt State?s $20 Billion Forestry Industry

Posted on February 23, 2011
  Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker?s crusade to attack the middle class to pay back the politicians who supported him in the election could  jeopardize the state?s $20.5 billion forest products industry, three key state legislators said this week. In a press release, three members of the state Assembly Committee on Forestry, said Wisconsin?s forests and forest sector companies support more than 300,000 jobs...

Indiana Deputy AG Fired

Posted on February 23, 2011
Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller this afternoon fired the deputy attorney general who tweeted that ?live ammunition? and ?deadly force? should be used to disperse protesters in Madison, Wis. The Indianapolis Star reports that Jeff Cox was dismissed late this afternoon...

TWU Video Captures Great Wisconsin Spirit

Posted on February 23, 2011
Our friends at the Transport Workers Union (TWU) have produced this great five minute recap of the action in Madison, Wis., during the past several days where tens of thousands of workers are battling back against Gov. Scott Walker?s (R) attack on middle class jobs...

Wisconsin State Employees Inspire Other Workers

Posted on February 23, 2011
    Nurses at a vigil in Sacramento show solidarity with public employees.          The strong stand for the middle class by workers in Wisconsin is drawing support and inspiring workers across the country. In Detroit, members of the striking Detroit Symphony Orchestra linked their protest last night at Mayor Dave Bing’s State of the City address to the struggles in Wisconsin, Ohio, Michigan and other states...

Iowa Gov. Won?t Launch Wisconsin-Like Assault on Rights, But Other Threats Remain

Posted on February 23, 2011
Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad (R ) says he will not mount an all-out attack on public workers? right to bargain for middle class jobs like his fellow Republican governors Scott Walker in Wisconsin and John Kasich in Ohio. ?This is not Wisconsin. It?s Iowa,? he told reporters...

?Live Ammunition? Comments by Indiana Deputy AG Spark Probe

Posted on February 23, 2011
  The Indiana deputy attorney general who reportedly tweeted that ?live ammunition? and ?deadly force? should be used to disperse protesters in Madison, Wis., demonstrating against Gov. Scott Walker?s (R) move to eliminate public service workers? right to bargain for middle-class jobs is under investigation...

AFT?s Weingarten Hits Home Run for Wis. Workers on ?Colbert Report?

Posted on February 23, 2011
      AFT President Randi Weingarten knocked the ball out of the park last night on Comedy Central’s ”The Colbert Report.” In a one-on-one with host Stephen Colbert, Weingarten gets in some good points for public employees in Wisconsin between the laughs...

Fox Lies on Workers? Right Poll

Posted on February 23, 2011
      There were some burning trousers at Fox News this morning. In a segment of “Fox & Friends,” the faux news network apparently didn?t like the results of a USA Today/Gallup poll that showed that 61 percent of Americans oppose measures like Wisconsin Gov...

Show Your Support for Embattled Workers

Posted on February 23, 2011
  There are lots of ways you can show support for embattled state and local workers. Please join in and pass these along. Add ”We Are One” Facebook and Twitter avatars to show your solidarity with state workers. Click here for icons...

Breaking News from Indiana: ?Right to Work? Withdrawn

Posted on February 23, 2011
  The Indianapolis Star reports that Republican lawmakers have withdrawn a so-called ?right to work? bill that drew thousands of Indiana workers to the Capitol in protest this week and spurred Democratic lawmakers to boycott state Senate proceedings to prevent a vote on the anti-worker bill...

Workers Thank Packers? Woodson for Support

Posted on February 23, 2011
      Over the weekend, Green Bay Packers cornerback Charles Woodson came out in strong support for Wisconsin public service workers who are battling back against Gov. Scott Walker?s (R) attack on their right to bargaining for middle-class jobs...

Walker Won?t Bend, But Calls for Flexibility?

Posted on February 23, 2011
  Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) claims that it just isn?t enough that Wisconsin?s nurses, teachers, snowplow drivers and other public service workers have agreed to his proposed economic concessions to help fix the state?s budget. Nope, he still wants to eliminate their right to bargain for middle-class jobs, claiming the state and localities need the ?flexibility? that ending workers? rights would bring...

Boston Workers Rally in Support of Wis. Public Servants

Posted on February 23, 2011
  Across the country and around the world, workers, community and faith activists are standing in solidarity with nurses, firefighters and other public employees in Wisconsin, Ohio and around the nation in their fights against a coordinated attack on middle-class jobs...

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