Labor & Employment Law

Politics as Usual Targets Workers in States

Posted on January 26, 2011
In Minnesota, they want to end the jobs of 15 percent of the men and women in the state workforce. In Tennessee, they want to take away the right of teachers to join unions. In Ohio, they want to eliminate collective bargaining rights for home health care and child care workers and restrict the bargaining rights of police officers and firefighters...

AFL-CIO?s Holt Baker: Banks Must Modify Mortgages to Staunch Foreclosures

Posted on January 26, 2011
Brandon Rees, deputy director of the AFL-CIO Office of Investment, is traveling with Holt Baker today and sends us this report. AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Arlene Holt Baker is meeting today with two of the Big Banks to discuss the foreclosure crisis and the ?robo-signing? of foreclosure documents by bank executives...

Trumka: Obama?s Focus Must Be on Health of Middle Class, American Economy

Posted on January 25, 2011
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka issued the following statement on President Obama’s State of the Union message tonight. Tonight President Obama called on the nation to look forward and spoke to our nation?s prospects and vulnerabilities: we are faced with opportunities for progress, but paralyzed by weak job growth and an economy that is increasingly out of balance for middle class families...

Keep the Focus on Jobs at the World Economic Forum

Posted on January 25, 2011
       On the same day the International Labor Organization warned that worldwide unemployment is still a crisis, the global union movement issued a statement calling on participants in the World Economic Forum to keep their focus on jobs. The labor delegation to the forum, which includes AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, said, ?policymakers must stay focused on stimulating enough economic demand to achieve full employment...

To access this complete feed in the blog feed reader login or register for free.

Too Much Money Can Make the Boss Mean

Posted on January 25, 2011
Here?s another reason to do away with runaway CEO pay.  A study shows bloated CEO pay can make the boss mean. The study examined the corporate behavior of 261 companies and found a close correlation between pay inequality and poor treatment of workers...

Take a Look at Proposed Budget Cuts and Shudder

Posted on January 25, 2011
      Just what would it mean if the massive spending cuts the new House majority is clamoring for were actually made? It would mean a scary and dangerous future. The latest proposals by the Republican Study Committee (RSC) call for cutting nondefense federal discretionary spending back to 2006 levels, or more than 40 percent  for education, environmental protection, law enforcement, medical research, food safety and many other key services...

ILO: Global Unemployment Still A Crisis

Posted on January 25, 2011
       As the world?s top business and government leaders gather in Davos, Switzerland, for the annual economic forum, the International Labor Organization (ILO) today released a new report showing that despite some improvements in the global economy, unemployment remains at crisis levels...

Republican Transportation Cuts are Job Killers

Posted on January 24, 2011
This is crosspost from the National Journal?s Transportation blog by AFL-CIO Transportation Trades Department (TTD) President Edward C. Wytkind. It is ironic that the Republican Study Committee?s (RSC) proposal to slash vital transportation investments was unveiled on the very day that we learned that Americans spend as many as 70 hours?or nearly three solid days? year stuck in traffic...

World?s Unions Call for Democracy in Tunisia

Posted on January 24, 2011
The global union movement is reaffirming its strong support for the General Tunisian Workers? Union (UGTT) and the Tunisian people in their courageous struggle for equality, social justice, political freedom and democracy. The popular revolt was triggered by the Dec...

Machinists Sue S.C. Gov. Haley for Opposing Unions?and More Bargaining News

Posted on January 24, 2011
The Machinists union is suing South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley for remarks she made about keeping unions out of a Boeing plant, 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 1,300 subscribers...

Dying to Work

Posted on January 24, 2011
This is a crosspost from The Huffington Post by Stewart Acuff, Utility Workers (UWUA) chief of staff and assistant to the president. It is 9 p.m. on a very cold Philadelphia night as I sit down to write this. I’ve just returned from a closed casket viewing of my 19-year-old union brother Mark Keely who was blown up in a gas main explosion three nights ago...

Report: Protecting the Public from Privatization Schemes

Posted on January 24, 2011
       In response to the fiscal crisis, many cash-starved state and local governments are considering privatizing core public assets, potentially costing thousands of jobs and decreasing the quality of service to the public. A new report shows workers and interested community leaders how to make sure the public interest is protected and advanced when officials propose privatization schemes...

Nurses? Video Urges Obama to Stand Up to Corporate Power

Posted on January 24, 2011
In a new video, National Nurses United (NNU) brings nurses and citizens across the country together to say, “Stand Up, President Obama! We’re looking for the president we voted for.?  They’re urging him to stand up to corporate power and monied interests...

Act Now to Ask Obama About What?s on Your Mind

Posted on January 24, 2011
Here’s an opportunity for working Americans to ask President Obama a question. After the State of the Union address tomorrow, the president is conducting a special YouTube interview at the White House, in which he will answer questions. If you have a question you want to ask the president, go to youtube...

IBEW Photo Contest Winners Announced

Posted on January 23, 2011
      Blaine Logan?s picture of a fellow Electrical Workers (IBEW) member clad in a fire retardant suit and face shield as he reaches into a tight spot to place a weld on a carbon steel refinery conduit was the runaway winner in the 2010 IBEW Photo of the Year contest...

Global Unions Unite to Help Workers at Multinationals

Posted on January 23, 2011
The global union movement came together in Washington, D.C., last week to kick off a joint initiative to help workers at multinational companies join unions. Members of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) and the Council of Global Unions met with U...

Report: Unions Are Big Advantage for Asian American/Pacific Islander Workers

Posted on January 22, 2011
       Asian American and Pacific Islander workers who belong to unions enjoy a large wage and benefit advantage over their nonunion counterparts, according to a new report by the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR). The report, ”Unions and Upward Mobility for Asian American and Pacific Islander Workers, ” using the latest data from the U...

Union Plus Can Help with Debt, Credit Problems

Posted on January 21, 2011
    Patti Schlittenhart           Jennifer Wright Dorr at Union Plus sends us this feature examining Union Plus credit and debt counseling services for union members.  Desperately wishing to be free of debt, America’s workers too often turn to unscrupulous and ineffective debt reduction companies for help...

Global Unions Push for Economic Stimulus

Posted on January 21, 2011
More than 90 trade union leaders from all parts of the world met this week in Washington, D.C., with senior officials of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to push for continuing economic stimulus to jump-start the global economy...

Give the Gift of Football

Posted on January 21, 2011
       On Super Bowl weekend, not all eyes will be on Cowboys Stadium in Dallas. On Feb. 5, the day before the big game there, the NFL Players Association (NFLPA) and the AFL-CIO will host a special all-star football game at San Antonio’s Alamodome...

Ryan?s Budget Plan: Millionaire Gain, Middle Class Pain

Posted on January 20, 2011
If new House Budget Committee Chairman Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) gets everything on his budget-cutting wish list, it would be, says a new analysis from the Economic Policy Institute (EPI): a massive transfer of wealth from the middle class to wealthy Americans and corporations and a wholesale dismantling of the social programs that all Americans rely on, including Medicare and Social Security...

Public Employee Bashing ?More Like Class War?

Posted on January 20, 2011
Around the country, public employees are under attack by Republican governors, state legislatures and right-wing conservative commentators who are blaming them for state and local government budget problems. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) is leading the charge...

$93 Million Upgrade Will Save GE Plant and 700 Jobs

Posted on January 20, 2011
  Workers at a General Electric?s (GE’s) refrigerator plant in Bloomington, Ind., have been fighting to keep the facility viable in the cutthroat global economy. Now, two years after the company said it was going to shutter the plant, workers are celebrating a new day...

Protestors Demand to Know How Pulte Spent Bailout Funds

Posted on January 19, 2011
       Ben Horowitz, a researcher for Painters and Allied Trades (IUPAT) District Council 15, reports on a protest this morning demanding accountability from homebuilding giant PulteGroup. PulteMortgage CEO Debra Still came face to face today with workers from the Building Justice campaign and their allies, demanding to know how her company is spending the public?s money...

MSHA Says Deadly Massey Upper Big Branch Blast Was ?Preventable?

Posted on January 19, 2011
The April coal mine explosion at the Massey Energy Co.?s Upper Big Branch (W.Va.) mine that killed 29 miners ?was preventable? if the mine had been in compliance with federal safety rules, Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) officials told the families of the victims last night...

NFL Players File Complaint Against Owners?and More Bargaining News

Posted on January 19, 2011
The NFL Players Association charged team owners with collusion to restrict thelr rights, 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 1,300 subscribers...

Petty Bickering Trumps Jobs Need as Republicans Vote to Repeal Health Care Reform

Posted on January 19, 2011
      The nation is in its 20th straight month with unemployment above 9 percent. The electorate in November told lawmakers to ?focus less on petty partisan bickering and more on jobs, jobs, jobs,?says AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka. But in their first significant action since taking majority control of the U...

SAG and AFTRA Approve New Three-Year Deal

Posted on January 19, 2011
      Members of the Screen Actors (SAG) and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) overwhelmingly approved a new three-year contract covering theatrical and television production workers. The two unions jointly negotiated the agreement with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP)...

Trumka: Nation?s Future ?Begins and Ends? with Jobs

Posted on January 19, 2011
The debate about America?s future ?begins and ends concretely with the question of jobs,? AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said this morning in a speech outlining a working families? vision for the nation. In the address at the National Press Club in Washington, D...

$400 Million Investment Will Save 3,750 Jobs at Ford Plant

Posted on January 19, 2011
The UAW applauded Ford Motor Co.?s announcement yesterday that it will invest $400 million in its Kansas City, Mo., assembly plant over the next two years, which will save at least 3,750 jobs at the plant plus thousands of other supporting jobs. Ford plans to produce a new line of next-generation vehicles at the plant...

Bloggers, promote your law blog by nominating your blog for inclusion in USLaw.com's Law Blog Directory and RSS Reader. Benefits described.