Labor & Employment Law

U.S. Income Inequality Grows?Public Thinks It?s Not So Big

Posted on September 28, 2010
While the 1930s Depression raged and breadlines stretched for blocks in city after city, a poll found that the majority of the American public nevertheless identified themselves as “middle class.” Uh, no. But the myth of income equality, or near equality, persists even today...

Knocking on Doors, Winning Votes

Posted on September 28, 2010
      On Saturday, Joseph Portman, a member of United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW), spent the day door-knocking on union members? doors in Louisville, Ky., talking with them about the vast differences between union-backed U.S. Senate candidate Jack Conway (D) and Tea-Party-endorsed Rand Paul (R)...

AFT?s ?Not Waiting for Superman? Site Tells the Whole Story

Posted on September 28, 2010
       The movie ?Waiting for Superman? has spurred a conversation about our nation?s education system. But the movie doesn?t tell the real story about what?s happening in our nation?s schools. The AFT is not waiting for Superman?its members are telling the whole story now...

Avondale Workers Rally to Save Their Shipyard

Posted on September 27, 2010
      Hundreds of union members, elected officials and community leaders joined workers from the Avondale shipyard near New Orleans last Friday to cheer the  Navy?s actions to keep the shipyard working until 2014 and to reaffirm the need for a long-term solution...

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Most Oppose Health Reform Appeal. Two Guides Navigate the Law

Posted on September 27, 2010
The Republican “pledge” to repeal health care reform if that party wins a congressional majority may play well with their tilt-to-the-right base. But according to a new poll from the Associated Press, Americans who think the law should actually have done more outnumber those who think the government should stay out of health care by 2-to-1...

New Jersey Health Professionals Ratify Contract?and More Bargaining News

Posted on September 27, 2010
Health professionals at Meadowlands (N.J.) Hospital ratify a 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 1,300 subscribers...

Join the Discussion on Life on the U.S.-Mexico Border

Posted on September 27, 2010
      Join author Tyche Hendricks and Arturo Sarukhan, Mexico?s ambassador to the United States, for a lively discussion of the dynamics at work on the U.S.-Mexico border and the implications for future immigration policy. Hendricks and Sarukhan will headline a special presentation, ?Border or Borderlands? The U...

Trumka: Working-Class Anger Fueled by Right?s ?Deeply Dishonest? Message

Posted on September 27, 2010
      With the economy continuing to stagger and job creation not moving quickly, ?working people are justifiably angry and frustrated? as they approach the Nov. 2 elections, says AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka. Trumka and Working America Executive Director Karen Nussbaum, New York Times columnist Bob Herbert, Eric Alterman, journalist and senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, and moderator Katrina vanden Heuvel, editor and publisher of the Nation, led a panel discussion?Which Way for the Working Class? Elections 2010 and Beyond?Friday afternoon in New York City...

Cooperation, Not Condemnation, Is Key to Improving Schools

Posted on September 26, 2010
Imposing a one-size-fits-all ?business model of performance on our schools? is as ill advised as it is ill suited for solving the problems we confront,? says School Administrators President (AFSA) Diann Woodard. In a recent Huffington Post column, Woodard says management techniques that amount to telling us, “Get in line and march,? are not the answer to improving the nation?s schools and student performance...

Celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month Sept. 15-Oct. 15

Posted on September 25, 2010
       AFT and the National Education Association (NEA) have compiled a variety of resources to help educators celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month, Sept. 15?Oct. 15,  and to teach a new generation about the contributions Hispanics have made to this nation...

Kentucky Retirees Mobilize to Make Sure Election Night?s Not Fright Night

Posted on September 24, 2010
Rand Paul, the Kentucky Republican U.S. Senate candidate and Tea Party poster boy, ?scares the you-know-what out of Roy H. Streeter, an IUE-CWA retiree. Rightfully so, too. Paul, who wants to phase out and privatize Social Security and Medicare, said yesterday that seniors need to pay more for whatever form Medicare would be left after he sliced the heart out of it if elected to the Senate...

Confessed Union Buster Shares Trade Secrets with Delta Flight Attendants

Posted on September 24, 2010
Martin Jay Levitt spent 19 years ?on the dark side,? running 250 union-busting campaigns for corporations around the country. He was good at it too, losing  a mere five. Today in this video, ?Confessions of a Union Buster? Levitt is sharing his experience, trade secrets and tips with Delta?s more than 27,000 flight attendants who will begin voting Sept...

Buffalo Community Rallies with WIVB-TV Staff for Fair Contract

Posted on September 23, 2010
      Amy Masciola, AFTRA Strategic Campaigns coordinator, sends us this report. Some 50 supporters of anchors and reporters who work for WIVB-TV Channel 4 in Buffalo, N.Y., turned out today for a lively rally in front of the station. The anchors and reporters?-represented by the American Federation of Radio and Television Artists (AFTRA)–return to the bargaining table with WIVB owners LIN Media next week for the first time in 10 months...

Avondale Rally to Spotlight Need for Permanent Shipbuilding Solution

Posted on September 23, 2010
      Workers, unions and lawmakers successfully mobilized to keep open Northrop Grumman?s Avondale, La., shipyard after the company announced plans to end its shipbuilding operations, with the U.S. Navy saying last week it will accelerate shipbuilding plans that will keep the yard open to 2014...

Senate Republicans Fail to End Majority Rule in Union Elections

Posted on September 23, 2010
Senate Republicans today lost their bid to block new democratic election procedures for workers in the aviation and rail industries who want to form unions and bargaining collectively. Earlier this year, the National Mediation Board (NMB) issued a rule that says air and rail union elections must be decided by a majority of votes cast...

Working Families Benefit from New Health Care Rules Effective Today

Posted on September 23, 2010
Today marks the six-month anniversary of the day President Obama signed the landmark health care reform law and also is the start date for several important provisions that will make quality health care more accessible and affordable for working families...

Resorting U.S. Manufacuturing Vital to National Security

Posted on September 22, 2010
The days when the United States could mobilize hundreds of factories and trainable workers to quickly produce what the nation needs to fight a war are gone. Thousands of factories are sitting idle and the workers who make our ammunition, GPS systems and build our planes are nearly all overseas...

Big Pharma, Big Lies, Big Ad Campaign

Posted on September 22, 2010
A Big Pharma front group that battled the new health care reform law with a let?s-scare-the living-daylights-out-of-seniors campaign is using the same tactics in more than a dozen congressional races to try to elect Republicans who have vowed to repeal health care reform...

Republican Senators Can Block, but Not Kill, the DREAM

Posted on September 22, 2010
Ava Avendano, assistant to AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, writes that immigrant workers, unions and advocates for justice will not stop fighting just because Republican senators blocked the DREAM Act  yesterday. In another revealing display of their party’s true colors, Senate Republicans yesterday blocked passage of the DREAM Act...

Door to Door in Denver to Get Out the Vote

Posted on September 22, 2010
      Kate Rosenbarger, communications field coordinator for Colorado, sent us this report. There are many doors to knock on and many union members to talk with?and Colorado workers know there is no time to waste to get out the vote for the November elections...

Cross-Border Solidarity in Honeywell Lockout

Posted on September 22, 2010
    Canadian USW Local 13173 President Chris Leavitt with locked-out Honeywell workers Bruce George, Brad Dunningan, Butch Bray and Nancy Hogancamp.         It was 8 p.m. local time when the four Canadian steelworkers finally rolled into Metropolis, Ill...

Massachusetts AFT?s Jennifer Berkshire Wins Steinbock Media Award

Posted on September 22, 2010
      Jennifer Berkshire is the winner of the 2010 Max Steinbock Award, the highest honor given by the International Labor Communications Association (ILCA). Berkshire, who writes for the Massachusetts AFT Advocate, won for her story, ?We Wanted a Voice...

Indiana Union Members Greet Painters? Jobs Bus

Posted on September 22, 2010
      Jade Mendoza, Indiana State AFL-CIO Field Communications director, sends us this report. More than 100 union members gathered outside the Painters and Allied Trades (IUPAT) building in Indianapolis as Johnny Alderman, IUPAT secretary-treasurer of District Council 91, welcomed the arrival of the IUPAT jobs bus...

Social Security?s a Vital Lifeline for Older Women

Posted on September 22, 2010
The Alan Simpsons and John Boehners of the world talk about raising the retirement age and cutting Social Security benefits for ?greedy geezers.? If they have their way and the federal budget deficit commission?of which Simpson is co-chairman?ends up recommending raising the retirement age, cutting benefits or even privatizing Social Security, women will be the hardest hit...

Gordon Gekkos Running for Office All Over Ohio

Posted on September 22, 2010
      Andy Richards, AFL-CIO Field Communications director in Ohio, sends us this report. Some of you may remember Gordon Gekko, the unscrupulous Wall Street trader from the 1987 Academy Award-winning film “Wall Street.” Gekko?played by Michael Douglas and returning this Friday in a new sequel “Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps”?uses unethical and deceitful tactics to amass an immense amount of wealth on the backs of working families...

Restoring U.S. Manufacturing Vital to National Security

Posted on September 22, 2010
The days when the United States could mobilize hundreds of factories and trainable workers to quickly produce what the nation needs to fight a war are gone. Thousands of factories are sitting idle and the workers who make our ammunition, GPS systems and build our planes are nearly all overseas...

Study: Teachers Working So Hard That Merit Pay Doesn?t Work

Posted on September 21, 2010
A new study released today knocks down one of the falsehoods spread by the anti-public school crowd. The study found that offering teachers annual bonuses of up to $15,000 had no effect on student test scores. The reason: Teachers already were working so hard that the extra money was not an incentive...

Seniors: Join Biden in Medicare/Health Care Reform Conference Call

Posted on September 21, 2010
Vice President Joe Biden and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius will host a conference call Thursday, Sept. 23, at 11:30 a.m. EDT to talk about how the new health care reform law helps seniors on Medicare. The law lowers the cost of prescription drugs and provides free preventive benefits in Medicare as of Jan...

Insurers Set to End Sick Kids? Policies

Posted on September 21, 2010
      This Thursday, Sept. 23, several key components of the health care reform law go into effect, including a ban on denying coverage to children with pre-existing conditions. But just this week, several large health insurers began an end-run around the law when they announced that rather than cover kids, they?ll get out of the business of selling children?s  policies...

Call Senate Now for Paycheck Fairness

Posted on September 21, 2010
      Before Congress adjourns to go home for the 2010 elections, the Senate needs to step up and pass the Paycheck Fairness Act (S. 182) to help close the wage gap between women and men. The House passed the bill last year, but it has been bottled up in the Senate by Republican obstructionists...

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