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Senate bills are floating in

2011-08-30T21:09:00.000-04:00

posted by khaughney on August, 29 2011 3:59 PM

TALLAHASSEE — With lawmakers set to be in Tallahassee in only a few weeks for a round of committee meetings, lawmakers are starting to file legislation that will be seen in the 2012 legislative session.

We’ll be updating you periodically with legislation being filed. Here are a few that have been filed so far in the Senate.

* Sen. Evelyn Lynn, R-Ormond Beach, wants a 6 percent tax on bottled water. She’s filed the bill before, but it has not gone far with Senate President Mike Haridopolos‘ firm stance against new taxes.

* Sen. Mike Bennett, R-Bradenton, is also pushing his veterans’ court bill again this year. The legislation, if passed, would let veterans convicted of a crime first have a hearing to determine if they were suffering from post traumatic stress disorder. If they are, the veteran would be diverted to some treatment program.

* Sen. Anitere Flores, R-Miami, wants the state to enter a $100,000 contract with an outside entity to conduct a review of the state’s education financing program.

* Sen. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey, has again filed a Public Service Commission ethics bill that puts limits on former commissioners and PSC staff who wish to lobby and makes communications about PSC matters between commissioners and the staff more easily available to the public.

Joe Negron wants ed commish to be a cabinet member (again)

2011-08-30T17:52:00.000-04:00

posted by khaughney on August, 29 2011 3:24 PM

TALLAHASSEE — Sen. Joe Negron, R-Stuart, has filed legislation that would make the education commissioner an elected official and a member of the Cabinet, essentially stripping future governors of any influence he or she may have over the commissioner.

The bill, SB 96, asks voters to amend the state Constitution in the 2012 election and make the education commissioner an elected official. The job previously was an elected office, but a constitutional amendment passed by voters in 1998 made it an appointed position, along with the Secretary of State, and merged the treasurer’s and comptroller’s offices into the Office of the Chief Financial Officer.

In the case of the education commissioner, proponents of the change said that it would ensure that an educator ran the state Department of Education, not a politician. Former Gov. Charlie Crist was the last elected official to run the department.

If the amendment is approved by the Legislature and voters, a race for education commissioner would be held in 2014.

Union Workers Honored During Labor Day Marathon on Sportsman Channel

2011-08-30T10:00:00.000-04:00

Mon. August 29, 2011

Nashville, TN—The Union worker and sportsman will be honored during the inaugural Brotherhood Outdoors Labor Day marathon, which will feature eight back-to-back episodes airing from 1 to 5 p.m. ET. on Monday, September 5 on Sportsman Channel, the leader in outdoor TV for the American Sportsman.

A collaboration between Sportsman Channel and the Union Sportsmen’s Alliance (USA), the marathon will give viewers an intimate glimpse into the lives of these hardworking, blue-collar characters as they join host Tom Ackerman for an exhilarating North American trip of their choice or act as his guide, taking him to their favorite hunting or fishing location.

Between episodes of Brotherhood Outdoors, Ackerman and AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka will join viewers to salute some of America’s most historical and iconic outdoor companies and the workers who help make the gear outdoorsmen and women have come to know and trust.

Episodes Airing on September 5 include:

1 p.m. | Texas Whitetail with a Steamfitter

Jake Lovato is a sportsman, sculptor and UA Local 412 steamfitter who uses his welding skills to make a positive impact, even travelling to Haiti to help rebuild an orphanage after the earthquake. In this episode, Lovato must control his impatience as he watches more deer than he’s ever seen, waiting for the perfect opportunity at that shooter buck.

1:30 p.m. | Illinois Whitetail with a Firefighter

Fire Fighter Captain Bob Barteck of IAFF Local 425 serves people in their darkest hour. His commitment to service goes beyond firefighter/paramedic and is matched only by his passion for hunting and fishing. In this episode, he and host Tom Ackerman confront the challenges of a post-rut Illinois archery hunt, when the bucks seem to have a copy of their playbook – always staying a step ahead.

2 p.m. | Kansas Geese with a Machinist

Brett Graham, an IAM Local 839 machinist, longtime Ducks Unlimited member and waterfowl guide, takes Tom Ackerman on a goose hunt outside Quivira National Wildlife Refuge in Kansas. Waterfowl experts and novices alike will get a thrill out of this epic hunt, which Tom calls the best day of goose shooting he’s experienced.

2:30 p.m. | Montauk Stripers with a Steamfitter

Host Tom Ackerman joins UA Local 638 steamfitter Jay Rodriquez on an exhilarating fishing trip to Montauk Point in Long Island as category four Hurricane Earl is heading toward the coast. Watch as this hardworking dad and autism advocate tries to put Ackerman on the East Coast’s sportiest fish before the storm hits. 3340 Perimeter Hill Dr. | Nashville, TN 37211 | www.UnionSportsmen.org

3 p.m. | Colorado Elk with a Painter

Robin DeHaven, an apprentice glazier, member of IUPAT Local 1778 and a true hero did two tours of duty in Iraq and rescued five people from a building struck by a plane. Some say no good deed goes unpunished, but DeHaven’s good deeds earned him his dream Colorado elk hunt, which comes down to a 5x6 bull at 240 yards.

3:30 p.m. | Missouri Waterfowl with a Sheet Metal Worker

Avid waterfowler and dedicated SMWIA Local 19 sheet metal worker Doug Bachman heads to the Mississippi Flyway with host Tom Ackerman for late season waterfowl action. Hunting guide and retired auto worker Dan Guyer puts his 42 years of waterfowling experience to the test, calling in the wary birds in difficult conditions.

4 p.m. | Wyoming Pronghorn with a Sheet Metal Worker

Todd Heustis, a member of Sheet Metal Workers Local 9 in Denver, is a family man in a big way with 13 children. He gets the whole family involved as he takes host Tom Ackerman on his first quest for the quick and sharp-sighted Wyoming pronghorn on Wyoming’s public land.

4:30 p.m. | (NEW!) Arizona Mule Deer with a Firefighter

A former 101st Airborne Division flight medic, firefighter, master hunting guide and IAFF Local 3066 President, JP Vicente comes from a long line of Arizonian outdoorsmen. In this episode, Vicente guides Tom Ackerman on a challenging archery hunt for monster muleys on Arizona’s often underestimated public lands.

In addition to corporate partners like Buck Knives and Burris Optics, Brotherhood Outdoors is made possible through the generous support of many of America’s leading trade unions and contractor associations, including the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, International Brotherhood of Boilermakers, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, International Union of Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers, International Union of Painters and Allied Trades, National Electrical Contractors Association, Sheet Metal Workers International Association and United Association of Journeymen and Apprentices of the Plumbing and Pipe Fitting Industry and its contractor partners.

For more information, visit www.BrotherhoodOutdoors.tv.

Brotherhood Outdoors Labor Day Marathon (30 sec) from Union Sportsmen on Vimeo.

# # #

About the Union Sportsmen’s Alliance:

The Union Sportsmen’s Alliance (USA) is a Union-dedicated outdoor organization whose members hunt, fish, shoot and volunteer their skills for conservation. The USA is uniting the Union community to expand and improve hunting and fishing access and wildlife habitat throughout North America. For more information, visit www.unionsportsmen.org or www.facebook.com/unionsportsmen

About Sportsman Channel:

Launched in 2003, Sportsman Channel is the only television and digital media company fully devoted to the more than 82 million sportsmen in the United States, delivering entertaining and educational programming focused exclusively on hunting, shooting and fishing activities. Sportsman Channel is now available in HD, check with your local cable or satellite provider. Acquired by InterMedia Outdoors Holdings in 2006, Sportsman Channel reaches 27 million U.S. television households and is a part of the nation's largest multimedia company targeted exclusively to serving the information and entertainment needs of outdoors enthusiasts. Visit www.thesportsmanchannel.com, follow on Twitter, @SPORTSMANchnl (www.twitter.com/SPORTSMANchnl), become a Fan on Facebook, www.facebook.com/sportsmanchannel and download Sportsman App at www.itunes.com/appstore.

More Union/Labor News

2011-08-30T09:20:00.000-04:00

Tuesday, August 30, 2011 by Bob Campbell, Communicator IAM LL731

Here are more Union/Labor websites from the AFL-CIO.

Union & Related Blogs

Laying It On The Line http://blog.aflcio.org/2011/08/25/romney-better-to-raise-retirement-age-cut-benefits-than-fair-share-social-security-tax/

Main Street http://www.workingamerica.org/blog/

Metropolitan Washington Council http://www.dclabor.org/

Milwaukee Labor http://www.milwaukeelabor.org/

NWA Labor News http://nwa-working-families.blogspot.com/

San Francisco Archdiocesan AFT http://sfaft2240.org/

SEIU http://www.seiu.org/blog/

Alliance Members Generate Summer Heat on Social Security, Medicare

2011-08-30T09:02:00.000-04:00

by Mike Hall, Aug 29, 2011

With Labor Day approaching, the Alliance for Retired Americans is wrapping up more than 70 actions in more than two dozen states around the country this summer. The events have ranged from celebrating the anniversaries and successes of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid to holding accountable presidential candidates and lawmakers.

In Las Cruces, N.M., Alliance members told Rep. Steve Pearce (R), who wants to privatize Medicare and force seniors to pay for health care with an underfunded voucher program, that if he really believed in privatization, he should drop his taxpayer-funded, government health coverage he receives as a member of Congress.

On the other hand, Alliance members, including Brenda Kelly Nelum from Dale City, Calif., joined House Minority Leader rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to celebrate Medicare’s 46th anniversary. Said Nelum:

I just thought the public should know that this was the anniversary of a program that, as far as I can see, has been a success. If we didn’t have it, I don’t know if we could even afford our medicines…We would like to see the program there for younger people.

When Rep. Todd Platt (R-Pa.) went home to York, Pa., for the August congressional recess, Alliance members were there to protest his moves to privatize Social Security, cut benefits or raise the retirement age. To mark Social Security’s 76th anniversary, Alliance members and their allies delivered a piece of birthday cake to Platt’s office. Said Tony Eisenhour:

It’s not just about us, it’s about preserving it for future generations.

In San Francisco, several hundred Alliance members and other activists rallied outside Sen. Diane Feinstein’s (D) office to urge her to forcefully come out to strengthen Social Security. Said California Alliance for Retired Americans (CARA) President Nan Brasmer:

We’re here today to ask Sen. Feinstein to tell us, her constituents, that she will support and champion Social Security, and fight against cuts and proposals to privatize the program by Congress, the Super Committee and even by the president, who keeps tossing it out on the table.

Just this past week, Republican presidential candidates Mitt Romney and Texas Gov. Rick Perry were told in no uncertain terms what Alliance members thought of their schemes to raise the Social Security retirement age, cut benefits or privatize the program.

Perry’s photo op at New Hampshire pastry shop went a bit off his staff’s planned tracks, when Alliance members demanded he defend his bizarre claim that Social Security is unconstitutional. He refused.

Romney told a New Hampshire town hall meeting that he was a big supporter of Social Security. But after tough questioning by Alliance members, he admitted he supports raising the retirement age or cutting benefits as opposed to asking all taxpayers to pay a fair share to strengthen Social Security.

Labor Rights Week Kicks Off with Historic Agreement on Immigrant Workers’ Rights

2011-08-30T08:54:00.000-04:00

by James Parks, Aug 29, 2011

Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, center, celebrates the signing of partnership on immigrant labor rights with Guatemalan Ambassador Villagrán De Léon, left, and Nicaraguan Ambassador Francisco Campbell in June.

The ambassadors of El Salvador, Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic joined Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis today to sign an historic partnership to protect the labor rights of migrant workers from these countries who are employed in the United States.

The signing kicks off National Labor Rights Week, Aug. 29-Sept. 5. “Women in the Workplace” is the focus of this year’s Labor Rights Week. Migrant women are at risk of wage theft and safety violations, sexual harassment, workplace violence and gender discrimination.

This week, events are slated in 50 U.S. cities with Mexican and Central American consulates. Consulate officials will work with the Department of Labor, state labor authorities, labor unions, faith leaders and community groups to inform migrant workers about their rights and the resources available if those rights are violated.

Speaking at the signing ceremony today in Washington, D.C., Solis said:

Today, we renew our promise to everyone who does an honest day’s work in America. No matter how you got here or how long you plan to stay, you have rights. You have the right to a safe and healthy workplace and the right to a legal wage.

The partnerships are pledges between the governments to work together to educate migrant workers about their labor rights and prevent abuses in the workplace.

During the past year, Mexico, Nicaragua and Guatemala signed similar agreements and Solis said the Labor Department is pursuing accords with governments from southeast Asia to educate and protect their vulnerable workers as well. She added:

We understand that many migrant workers in America are afraid to report mistreatment because it can lead to more abuse, the loss of their job or deportation. With these partnerships, we seek to remove these fears. The beauty of this program is its simplicity: We’re making it easier for immigrant workers to come forward by partnering with the institutions where they are most likely to go for help—their own country’s consulates.

NFL Players Association Rejoins AFL-CIO

2011-08-30T08:43:00.000-04:00

by James Parks, Aug 29, 2011

When the 2011 National Football League season kicks off next month, the players on the field will again be members of the AFL-CIO. After negotiating a fair and secrure contract and reconstituting their union, the National Football League Players Association (NFLPA) today rejoined the federation. The NFLPA renounced its status as a union in March so the players could take advantage of legal anti-trust action against the owners’ lockout.

“It was the steadfast unity of our players and support from millions that allowed us to reach a fair deal for the working men who risk their health and safety to play professional football,” said DeMaurice Smith, NFLPA’s executive director.

We have a renewed sense of unity that we’re excited to bring to our reaffiliation with the AFL-CIO. As we all face tough economic times, we see what’s possible when we work together.

A huge majority of the players signed union authorization cards and the NFL officially recognized the union as the players’ exclusive collective bargaining representative on July 30. The NFL and the NFLPA successfully negotiated a new 10-year collective bargaining agreement which became effective Aug. 4.

“The strength of working people is in the strength of our collective voice – an we are stronger today with the reaffiliation of the NFLPA,” said AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka.

Just like millions of hardworking Americans, the players used their collective voice to work towards a solution. And as working people work together to create good jobs and rebuild America’s economy, we welcome the NFLPA back into America’s labor movement.

Who Do You Love? Join Our ‘I Heart a Worker’ Labor Day Action

2011-08-30T08:31:00.000-04:00

by Mike Hall, Aug 29, 2011

Starting today you can show a little love for the American worker who, between the economy, jobs crisis and attacks on workers’ rights, has had a real rough year.

So this Labor Day, we’re urging everyone to HEART a Worker via Facebook and Twitter and let the public know how important hardworking women and men are in our daily lives. Starting today on our Labor Day splash page at www.aflcio.org/iheart, you can share a message that answers the question: Who do you HEART this Labor Day?

We’ll offer suggestions such as I HEART Cooks, I HEART Firefighters or, if you’re in the north country, I HEART Snowplow Drivers. You also can customize the type of worker you HEART. After you select the worker you HEART, you can share the message on Facebook and via Twitter with one or two quick clicks.

As we approach the 10th anniversary of 9/11, the I HEART a Worker action also is another way we can honor the many first responders and the thousands who worked so hard in the days and months after the tragedy to care for the injured and do the laborious work needed to restore the Pentagon and World Trade Center sites.

Also on the America Wants to Work Labor Day 2011 page, you can hear what America’s workers have to say with a Labor Day workers’ voices video. You also can sign up for mobile action alerts straight to your phone.

Plus, you will be able to find Labor Day events in your area and download Labor Day FAQs. Click www.aflcio.org and take a visit.

More Union/Labor News

2011-08-29T08:19:00.001-04:00

Monday, August 29, 2011 by Bob Campbell, Communicator IAM LL731

Here are some more Union/Labor websites from the AFL-CIO.

Union Related Blogs

Interfaith Worker Justice http://www.iwj.org/blog/

Joe's Union Review http://www.anti-union.blogspot.com/

Labor is Not a Commodity http://www.laborrightsblog.typepad.com/

Labor Notes http://labornotes.org/

Labor Project for Working Families http://www.working-families.org/

LabourStart http://www.labourstart.org/blogs/

LAUNION http://launionaflcio.org/index.php#

A Big Fish Story: Electrician Lands Possible Record Catch

2011-08-28T09:44:00.000-04:00

by James Parks, Aug 28, 2011

Unlike many other fishermen’s tales, Greg Myerson’s fish story is true and he has the fish and the photos to prove it.

The nine-year New Haven, Conn., journeyman wireman and member of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 90 landed what looks to be a world record 81.8-pound striped bass earlier this month, making him a huge celebrity on the hunting and fishing circuit. He has applied to the International Game Fish Association to certify his catch for the record book. Authentication will take at least 60 days.

Myerson, 43, has been fishing since he was 12. He says, “You fish long enough and, like anything else, you get good at it.”

I have learned about the tides, the moon and the best days to fish. The big ones don’t like to fight tides and only feed for a short time.

The 6-foot-4-inch 275-pound former high school and college linebacker struggled for 20 minutes to reel in the 54-inch trophy during a slack tide in the Long Island Sound off Westbrook, Conn. He told Mama Mia Fishing he knew he had something special on his line:

I noticed the line rising, and I told my buddy, “Watch this, the fish is going to break the surface.” He porpoised out of the water and I got my first look at him. Oh, man, I knew I had something special then. It’s only the big stripers that will jump like that. I was just hoping the hook was stuck good.

Local 90 business manager Frank Halloran says he is not surprised at Myerson’s success and newfound celebrity. He says, “When Greg puts his mind to something, it gets done.”

The New York Post reports that a nearby bait and tackle shop owner says, in the last year alone, Myerson has caught three fish weighing more than 60 pounds, including a 71-pounder he caught and released.

Myerson, who is currently unemployed, plans to keep fishing and, hopefully, return to work with his tools.

More Union/Labor News

2011-08-28T09:26:00.000-04:00

Sunday August 28, 2011 by Bob Campbell, Communicator IAM LL731

Here are more websites where you can get Union/Labor news.

AFL-CIO Union & Related Blogs
American Federation of Government Employees http://afgeunionblog.wordpress.com/

American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees http://www.afscme.org/blog/

Broadcast Union News http://broadcastunionnews.blogspot.com/

California Labor Federation http://www.californialabor.org/

Dignity at Work http://dignityatwork.wordpress.com/

Free Exchange on Campus http://www.freeexchangeoncampus.org/

Green Jobs, Safe Jobs http://www.hazards.org/greenjobs/blog/

More Union/Labor News

2011-08-27T18:29:00.001-04:00

Saturday August 27, 2011 by Bob Campbell, Communicator IAM LL731

Looking for more Union/Labor News? You have several choices: go to a specified Union/Labor website or visit The AFL-CIO http://aflcio.org/

The following are AFL-CIO Allied Groups:
Alliance for Retired Americans http://www.retiredamericans.org/

International Labor Communications Association http://ilcaonline.org/

National Labor College http://www.nlc.edu/

Solidarity Center http://www.solidaritycenter.org/

Union Plus Benefits http://www.unionplus.org/

Working America http://www.workingamerica.org/wa_splash3.cfm

Working for America Institute http://www.workingforamerica.org/

The following are AFL-CIO Constituency Groups
Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance http://www.apalanet.org/

A Philip Randolh Institute http://www.apri.org/

Coalition of Black Trade Unionist http://www.cbtu.org/

Coalition of Labor Union Women http://www.cluw.org/

Labor Council for Latin American Advancement http://www.lclaa.org/

Look for more Union/Labor news links in the coming days.

Mark Pearce Named NLRB Chairman

2011-08-27T17:06:00.000-04:00

by James Parks, Aug 27, 2011

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka today praised outgoing National Labor Relations Board Chairwoman Wilma Liebman and congratulated Mark Pearce on his nomination as chairman.

In a statement, Trumka said workers owe Liebman a “deep debt of graditude” for her service and “unwavering commitment” to enforcing the National Labor Relations Act.

Pearce, who has served on the NLRB since 2010, worked on the NLRB staff for 15 years before moving to private practice

Pirate Attacks Increase, but Fewer Ships Taken

2011-08-27T10:15:00.000-04:00

by Mike Hall, Aug 27, 2011

We’ve brought you several stories on high seas piracy, especially in the Arabian Gulf and the Indian Ocean, and described how the Seafarers (SIU) and global maritime unions are responding, including the “Save Our Seafarers” (SOS), anti-piracy campaign to push governments to do more to protect sailors and ships.

A new report shows attacks totaled 266 in the first six months of 2011, up from 196 incidents in the same period last year. But the pirates have captured fewer ships due to an increased naval presence in the troubled areas, one of the key elements that international seafaring unions pressed for with the SOS program.

Click here to read an update on the problems from the Seafarers LOG and here for more on the SOS program.

IAM Workers' Memorial 2001-2011

2011-08-27T10:08:00.000-04:00

Fri. August 26, 2011

NFL Continues Unreasonable Demands on Players

2011-08-27T10:03:00.000-04:00

by James Parks, Aug 26, 2011

The NFL is continuing to make unreasonable demands on players even after agreeing to a new collective bargaining agreement.

Writing in Phanatic Magazine, Matt Chaney says the players were getting railroaded on testing for recombinant human growth hormone or HGH. and they are refusing to go along any more.

For the last seven years, the players have questioned the accuracy and reliability of the HGH test the NFL seeks to implement. Chaney says the tests are part of the “shady dealings” of the quasi-governmental entities World Anti-Doping Agency and its American arm USADA, which are funded by government and sports groups. Chaney says:

WADA-USADA bureaucrats incessantly promote their closed “science” for dubious synthetic GH detection that’s ripped mercilessly by independent experts worldwide.

WADA has refused for years to provide scientific information justifying the reliability of their HGH test (validation studies, population studies, performance testing between labs, etc.),” according to Chaney. And players are fed up.

Read the entire article “WADA Stonewalls NFL Players on Suspect HGH Test” here.

King’s Dream of Economic Justice Still Far From Reality

2011-08-27T09:58:00.000-04:00

by James Parks, Aug 26, 2011

The Rev. Jesse Jackson said organizing must begin at the grassroots.

Davon Lomax, a member of the Painters and Allied Trades (IUPAT) District Council 9 in New York, hasn’t worked for more than a year. One of his colleagues lost his home and ended up panhandling in the subways.

Katie Hofmann, a teacher in Cincinnati, Ohio, says more and more of her students are homeless. Teachers who have not had a pay raise for five years regularly go into their pockets to buy lunch for children who are hungry and whose families have no money.

King Center President Martin Luther King III recalled the close ties his father had with unions.

Lomax and Hofmann were two of the panelists who spoke at the AFL-CIO and The King Center symposium on “Jobs, Justice and the American Dream” this morning. Participants in the first panel, Jobs and the American Dream, agreed that 48 years after Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his famous “I have a dream” speech at the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, the nation is still far from achieving his vision of a nation where everyone who wants to work has a good job and the freedom to achieve to the best of his or her abilities.

Rep. John Lewis called for working people to “make some noise.”

This morning’s panel on ”Jobs and the American Dream” was the first of two in the symposium. A second panel on “Justice and the American Dream” will follow.

(Watch a replay of the live panel here.)

Martin Luther King III, president of The King Center, echoed that theme, saying economic justice is even more of a concern today than 48 years ago.

Unemployed painter Davon Lomax said it’s time to create more jobs.

We’re here to do the work that must be done to represent what Martin Luther King stood for.

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka reminded the crowd of about 300 that King’s vision was not simply an end to racism. He saw ending racism as part of a larger struggle for human dignity—a larger struggle centered on economic justice.

Jobs with Justice Director Sarita Gupta called for listening to ordinary Americans.

The tragedy of American history in our lifetime is that today, while we have defeated legal segregation and driven open racism from our public life, we live in a country less economically equal than in Dr. King’s time. Jobs are scarcer, it’s harder to go to college and the right to a voice on the job has been largely taken away from America’s workers.

Harvard professor Bruce Western said unions are key to fighting poverty.

To get Americans back to work will require people to come together and “make some noise” and “to get in trouble again” by taking to the streets and demanding that Congress approve the money for a massive national jobs program, said Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), the last living speaker from the 1963 March on Washington.

Both Sarita Gupta, executive director of Jobs with Justice, and Hofmann said organizing and mobilizing ordinary people are key to building the movement that will realize King’s dream of economic equality. Gupta said our leaders must listen to the concerns and the visions of ordinary Americans who know what’s wrong

Cincinnati teacher Katie Hofmann said Ohio workers are stepping up for change.

Hofmann pointed out that there is a passion for change in the country, citing one of her fellow teachers who ran the 100 miles between Cincinnati and Columbus, Ohio, to deliver petitions to get a referendum to overturn Gov. John Kasich’s law that took away public workers’ ability to bargain collectively.

Harvard professor Bruce Western added that unions are the key to creating the kinds of jobs we will need to restore our nation’s economy. He pointed out that the decline of unions coincides with the decline in good-paying jobs and the increase in job insecurity.

AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Arlene Holt Baker summed up the call for good jobs this way:

For months now, the lives of millions of Americans have been shaken up by economic uncertainty. Just as our nation’s capital literally shook this week, we hope that discussions like the one we will have today will shake our elected officials to move with boldness and a fierce urgency of now. We call on our leaders to respond to the desperate cries of the people for jobs and justice

Protecting the Rights of Pregnant Women

2011-08-27T09:23:00.000-04:00

This is a cross-post from MomsRising.org by Vibhuti Mehra from the Labor Project for Working Families.

It’s October 20, 2009. My lab results have just confirmed the news that my husband and I have been eagerly waiting to hear. I am pregnant. I am excited. I am overjoyed. I am nervous. I am anxious. My mind and body are gearing up to experience a plethora of emotions and sensations that will last for nine months and beyond. The first trimester goes without incident. We have just started announcing the news to family and friends. And then, unexpectedly, four months into my pregnancy, I experience bleeding. Memories of a past miscarriage take over the joyous experience. I am fearful. My ob-gyn advises reducing my workload and taking it easy until things settle back into rhythm. I call my workplace and, without much ado, my supervisor and I settle on a work-from-home arrangement until all is well.

Fortunately, all did go well and I gave birth to a healthy baby boy in July 2010. As I recovered from childbirth and later took time off to bond with my child, my union contract guaranteed that I wouldn’t lose pay or my family health coverage for the duration of my leave.

In 2009, Victoria Guillen, a dishwasher at the Grand Hyatt hotel in San Francisco, was pregnant, too. Victoria had a difficult, high-risk pregnancy, was advised by her doctor to take a long leave of absence. However, unlike my experience, Victoria had to struggle with her employers for her rights. Her managers wanted her to return to work three days after her due date or not come back at all. Victoria couldn’t return to work three days after her C-section. She lost her job. She fought back with the support of her union UNITEHERE! Local 2. After months of petitioning, Hyatt gave in and Victoria was allowed to return to her job. (Read Victoria’s story in her own words).

Pregnancy can be the most joyful and the most vulnerable time of a woman’s life. And the risk of complications during pregnancy or childbirth is a very real one. Statistics show that approximately 13 percent of women will have a complication from pregnancy requiring them to be hospitalized before delivery. 20 percent of pregnant women spend a minimum of one week on bed rest during the course of their pregnancy.

Working women make up nearly half of the American workforce. Three quarters of women in today’s workforce will become pregnant while employed. Nearly 30 percent of employed women in the United States take prenatal leave. But for too many women workers, pregnancy leave is simply not affordable. And for low-wage workers like Victoria, it is especially hard.

It is, therefore, important that we have workplace standards that safeguard not only the physical well-being of an expectant/new mother and her child, but also her economic security during the pregnancy and after childbirth. The benefits of pregnancy leave to the health of mothers and their babies are well-documented. Women need access to affordable pregnancy leave so that they can take time off before and after birth without losing pay and benefits.

In California, we are fortunate to have a State Disability Insurance (SDI) program that provides pregnant women and new mothers partial wage replacement while on disability and bonding leave. SDI includes the Paid Family Leave program which researchers recently found benefits both workers and employers.

The California Work & Family Coalition is advocating for an important legislation to protect the health of working mothers and their babies. Existing state law does not require that health insurance coverage be continued for women on pregnancy leave. This puts many pregnant women and new mothers at risk of losing their health coverage at the time they need it most. SB 299 will fix this problem. Learn more about this campaign.

For legal advice about pregnancy leave in California, please call Legal Aid Society-Employment Law Center: (800) 880-8047 or Equal Rights Advocates: (800) 839-4372.

NLRB Says Workers Need to Know Their Rights, Biz World Flips Out

2011-08-27T09:14:00.000-04:00

by Mike Hall, Aug 25, 2011

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) issued a new and simple rule today. It says employers must display an 11-by-17-inch poster informing workers of their rights under the National Labor Relations Act, where they usually post notices to let workers know their rights.

Saying he applauded the new rule, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka says:

Just as employers are required to notify their employees of their rights around health and safety, wages and discrimination on the job, this rule gives clear information to employees about their rights under this fundamental labor law so that workers are better equipped to exercise and enforce them.

Yet from the reaction of the Big Business, the notice is just a step away from the NLRB giving workers the right to drag employers into the street and beat them severely about the head and shoulders.

Keep in mind, this is a just a poster.

The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) calls it an “unprecedented overreach of its authority… a punitive new rule…a new low…a trap for millions of businesses.”

It’s just a poster.

Peter Schaumber, a former NLRB chairman appointed by former President George W. Bush, told Bloomberg News, “It’s arbitrary, it’s capricious.”

It’s just a poster.

On the right-wing website GOPUSA, the new rule is “another disgusting government intrusion into private business.”

It’s just a poster. Just a poster similar to the ones the U.S. Department of Labor requires the thousands and thousands of federal contractors to post.

The NLRB says employers will not be required to distribute the notice via e-mail, voice mail, text messaging or related electronic communications “even if they customarily communicate with their employees in that manner and they may post notices in black and white as well as in color.”

All it needs to say is that employees have the right to act together to improve wages and working conditions, to form, join and assist a union, to bargain collectively with their employer. It also must say, “employees may refrain from any of these activities.” Pretty even handed, huh?

BTW, it won’t cost employers a penny because the NLRB will provide copies for free or employers can download it.

Romney: Better to Raise Retirement Age, Cut Benefits Than Fair Share Social Security Tax

2011-08-27T09:07:00.000-04:00

by Mike Hall, Aug 25, 2011

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney told a group New Hampshire seniors, including members of the Alliance for Retired Americans, that he supports raising the retirement age or cutting benefits as opposed to asking all taxpayers to pay a fair share to strengthen Social Security.

Currently, all workers pay the Social Security payroll tax on the first $106,000 of their earnings. Earnings above $106,000 are exempt from the Social Security payroll tax. That means a grocery clerk or warehouse worker pays a bigger chunk of their income to Social Security than a hedge fund manager.

In a meeting in Lebanon, N.H., Alliance President Charlie Balban asked Romney if he would support raising the Social Security payroll tax beyond its current $106,000 cap to help strengthen Social Security.

One member of the audience told Romney, “We’re just asking that everybody pay at the same rate.”

Romney said he was opposed to having the wealthy pay Social Security payroll taxes on more or all of their income as most workers must. He said he instead would support raising the retirement age or cutting benefits by changing the way the Consumer Price Index (CPI) is calculated. CPI is used to determine cost of living adjustments for Special Security recipients.

Romney is referring to a proposed new inflation formula known as “chained CPI,” which, if implemented, would mean that a worker in 2011 at age 65 will see his or her Social Security benefits slashed by $6,000 over 15 years.

Survey: Teachers Have Big Impact on Students’ Lives

2011-08-27T08:52:00.000-04:00

by James Parks, Aug 25, 2011

Next to immediate family, teachers have the most impact on people’s lives as they grow up, according to a survey by the ING Foundation.

The survey also found a large majority (88 percent) of Americans said they had a teacher who had a “significant positive impact” on their life, and 98 percent said they believe that a good teacher can change the course of a student’s life.

“As our research shows, effective teachers can have a significant influence on their students’ lives, yet their efforts are generally under-appreciated,” said Rhonda Mims, president of the ING Foundation.

Teachers are among the public employees who have come under attack in recent months and have been targeted for massive layoffs by extremist Republican state and local lawmakers. Those attacking teachers should take a look at the ING poll: Fully 83 percent of those surveyed said they had a teacher who helped build their confidence and self-esteem, while 79 percent say they had a teacher who encouraged them to pursue their dreams. Another 75 percent said a teacher served as a mentor or role model, and 54 percent said that a teacher helped them through a tough time.

The survey also revealed:
•Some 87 percent of Americans wish they had told their best teachers how much they appreciated their efforts.
•Teachers are perceived as receiving less gratitude than social workers, nurses, clergy or doctors.
•A whopping 94 percent of Americans agree that we need to do more to recognize our good teachers.

“It’s an unbelievable testament to the profession that Americans so resoundingly believe in a teacher’s ability to transform lives,” Mims said.

Whether sending a student down a path they hadn’t considered or simply ensuring them they are ready for the road ahead, a teacher’s impact can be profound and enduring.

The survey was conducted in conjunction with the annual National Teacher of the Year competition. To learn more, click here.

Hytek Workers Win IAM Representation

2011-08-27T08:28:00.000-04:00

Thu. August 25, 2011

By more than a two-to-one margin, 165 workers at Hytek Finishes in Kent, WA voted to join the IAM. The election capped a four-month organizing effort by Seattle District Lodge 751, initiated by Hytek employees who approached the District for help. The workers specialize in various types of metal finishing and coating for aerospace manufacturers, including Boeing, Lockheed and Bell Helicopters.

“It was a ruthless, half-truth, anti-union campaign,” said District 751 Organizer Jesse Cote. Hytek, a subsidiary of Esterline Corp., hired anti-union professionals to thwart the campaign, held captive-audience meetings and spread false rumors; one being that key customers threatened to pull work from the company if the workers voted to join the IAM.

“The fact that so many people voted in favor of joining the union in the face of those threats speaks volumes about the character and integrity of the workers at Hytek,” said District 751 President and Directing Business Representative Tom Wroblewski. Wroblewski also noted that Esterline turned a profit of $46 million in its most-recent quarter, a 58-percent increase over the same quarter last year.

“Given all that, we feel management can afford to share some of those gains with the workers at Hytek whose hard work helped create those profits,” stated Wroblewski. “We’re proud to have the Hytek workers as part of our union, and we will support them in every way we can.”

The next step for the new Machinists at Hytek will be to negotiate a contract. District 751 has filed information requests with the company, asking for dates when talks can begin.

“The Hytek workers knew where to go when they needed help,” said Western Territory General Vice President Gary
Allen. “They approached the IAM, and now, collectively, have a voice in how they’re treated on the job. Welcome to the IAM, Hytek workers, and congratulations to everyone involved in making this campaign successful.”

WWW Center Welcomes AFSS Negotiators

2011-08-27T08:17:00.000-04:00

Thu. August 25, 2011

Members of the IAM Bargaining Committee representing AFSS specialists employed by Lockheed Martin take part in a mock bargaining session during a week of preparations at the William W. Winpisinger Center.

A highly-skilled group of technicians known as Automated Flight Service Station (AFSS) Specialists met recently at the William W. Winpisinger Education & Technology Center to prepare for upcoming contract negotiations with employer Lockheed Martin.

The committee, representing Specialists at six Lockheed Martin locations, spent most of their week at the Harbor reviewing contract proposals and suggestions provided by fellow AFSS members in a recent bargaining survey. The committee also took part in a simulated bargaining session where the committee tested their skills against seasoned negotiator.

“This training was an eye opening experience,” said Milt Torres from Miami, FL. “I got a whole new perspective on bargaining that our members never see. I’m more enlightened about how difficult the process is and I understand how important it is to be prepared.”

The committee worked late into each evening with legal, financial and communications advisors to develop a strategic plan that will help them stay focused on the issues through negotiations and ratification.

“This is one of the most unified bargaining committees I’ve worked with in a very long time,” said Frank Carelli, IAM Director of Government Employees Department. “They thoroughly understand the issues and are prepared to do whatever it takes to get them resolved.”

The committee included John Schamel from Raleigh, NC, Renee Manon and ADBR Rick Ryan from Princeton, MN, Justin Southward, Marl Kostka and BR Rick Compher from Ashburn, VA, Milt Torres and BR Javier Almazan from Miami, FL, Paul Shepherd and GLR Bud Michel from Prescott, AZ and Ron Mercer, David Villa and BR David Faith from Fort Worth, TX.

Union Plus Helps IAM Welder Cut Health Care Costs

2011-08-27T08:11:00.000-04:00

Thu. August 25, 2011

As a welder and 10-year member of IAM Local 1297, Melvin Reese knows a thing or two about working when the “heat is on,” but when illness kept him off the job, his stress level hit a boiling point. The costs of his wife’s monthly prescriptions were also adding up. Fortunately, Reese discovered the Union Plus Disability Grant and the Union Plus Prescription Discount Card to lessen the financial stress of illness.

“I have carried a Union Plus Credit Card for years and I’m glad I did because it made me eligible to receive a Union Plus Disability Grant. It was a tremendous help to my family,” says Reese, of Cleveland Heights, OH, who received $1,250 in assistance. “I’ve since learned of other Union Plus discounts and benefits available to union members. In addition to enjoying a 15% discount on my AT&T cell phone service, I recently signed up for the Union Plus Prescription Card. The discount card is definitely saving my family money.”

“Union Plus benefits can provide members with help when they need it most, especially during these difficult times,” said IAM General Secretary-Treasurer Warren Mart. “I congratulate Brother Reese and his family, and encourage all IAM members to take advantage of the programs available through Union Plus.”

Union members who have had the Union Plus Credit Card for at least one year, have been out of work for at least 90 days, and who experienced a loss of 25 percent or more of household income due to the illness or disability within the past six months may be eligible for disability assistance.

The Union Plus Prescription Discount Card, which comes at no cost, provides automatic savings of an average of 15 percent off brand name drugs and 40 percent off generic drugs. The card is best for union members who do not have insurance that covers prescriptions or who have household family members with insufficient prescription coverage. Spouses, domestic partners, children, parents, aunts and uncles of union members are all eligible for the no-cost prescription discount card.

To learn about the Union Plus benefits available to IAM members including discounts on AT&T wireless service, college test preparation, car rentals, legal services, health savings and much more, visit www.UnionPlus.org.

Romney Embraces Bosses, ‘Right to Work’ for Less

2011-08-25T10:30:00.000-04:00

by Jeff Hauser, Aug 25, 2011

Californian* Mitt Romney gave his anti-worker corporate backers a big boost when he spent yesterday in New Hampshire getting involved in the state fight surrounding “right to work” for less.

Instead of talking about what working people want to hear—how every politician is going to create jobs—he’s spending his time with partisan political attacks that have no basis in economic reality. If he was focused on the economics, he’d realize that “right to work” for less lowers wages for everyone. In fact, the average worker in a “right to work” state makes about $5,333 a year less than workers in other states ($35,500 compared with $30,167).

Romney ought to beware of associating himself with the more radical elements of the New Hampshire right wing, which has been losing race after race after it began its war on the middle class. Democratic state candidate Jennifer Daler bested anti-working family candidate Peter Kucmas by 16 percentage points in a state House race May 17 in a district where Republicans have held a 7 percent edge over Democrats since 2004. Daler even swept all five towns in Republican Speaker William O’Brien’s home district.

Bob Perry, a 30-year retired union member and Democrat, defeated Honey Puterbaugh by 16 percentage points in the Aug. 9 special election to regain a Republican-held state seat.

Two pro-labor candidates are running in the upcoming election in Rockingham after labor-endorsed firefighter Kevin Janvrin upset a tea party candidate in the Republican primary on July 5. Janvrin will face Democrat Ryan Mahoney Sept. 6.

If Romney can’t figure it out from New Hampshire, maybe he should check out Ohio where Gov. John Kasich’s attack on collective bargaining rights for public employees has resulted in a groundswell of support for public employees—and against Kasich.

* California is where he is quadrupling the size of his current multimillion-dollar mansion, but at different times Romney claims Michigan, Massachusetts and New Hampshire as his “home states,” showing no more certainty of his place of origin than whether he continues to support his old health care plan. Maybe we should ask for his birth certificate.

Perry, Kasich Deny Jobless Workers $731 Million in Jobless Help

2011-08-24T18:33:00.000-04:00

by Mike Hall, Aug 24, 2011

Just in case anybody wondered if Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) and Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R) give a whit about jobless workers in their states, we’ve got an answer. They don’t.

Both let a Monday deadline pass to apply for hundreds of millions of dollars—$555 million in Texas and $176 million in Ohio—in federal funds for unemployment insurance (UI) benefits. The money was part of the 2009 economic stimulus package.

To receive the money, both states would have had to slightly expand eligibility requirements for receiving UI, the Cleveland Plain Dealer reports. But both Perry and Kasich turned their backs on the money and the jobless workers.

Each state had four options in providing more UI help for their unemployed residents and only had to pick two of the ways. The states could have made workers in job training programs or those seeking part-time employment eligible. They could have provided larger benefits for unemployed workers with children or to people who have to leave their jobs because of domestic violence, a spouse’s job transfer or illness of an immediate relative.

At least 33 other states found no problems with the requirements, but Texas and Ohio claimed the modest increase in costs for expanded eligibility was too much to bear.

In Texas, Ed Sills, Texas AFL-CIO communications director, says some high-ranking Perry administration officials believed the state could have easily afforded the small extra costs.

Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst calculated that the higher cost of modestly improved eligibility, which was a condition of receiving the stimulus funds, would have been offset by the $555 million for more than a decade.

Instead, unemployed workers in Texas continue to suffer with a rock-bottom eligibility rate for UI benefits and employers continue to pay much higher taxes.

Employers as well as workers benefit from the federal unemployment funds, through lower unemployment taxes or delays in scheduled hikes.

But Perry and Kasich made their choice and eventually so will voters.

Top Lawmakers Say Proposed NLRB Election Rule Ensures ‘Greater Fairness’

2011-08-24T18:24:00.000-04:00

by Mike Hall, Aug 24, 2011

Workers deserve a “fair, clear system for protecting their rights and making themselves heard in union elections,” four top Democratic lawmakers said in a letter to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) strongly supporting the board’s proposed changes in the way elections to form unions are conducted.

Noting that the current election procedures are “outdated and contain unnecessary delays…that run anywhere from three and a half years to 13 years,” the lawmakers say:

The longer an election is delayed, the more likely it is that workers will face harassment and unlawful retaliation for exercising their rights….In today’s workplace one in five workers who exercise the right to organize is illegally fired. In that environment, workers stop trying to organize, leading to a country where tens of millions of Americans who want a union do not have one.

The four are Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee; Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), chairman of the Employment and Workplace Safety Subcommittee; Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.), ranking member of the Education and Workforce Committee; and Rep. Robert Andrews D-N.J.), ranking member of the Health, Employment, Labor and Pensions Subcommittee.

They wrote that along with ensuring workers’ rights, the proposed changes also “maintain employers’ rights while providing greater certainty and lower litigation costs for employers, workers and the government.”

The current systems delays and red tape encourage labor unrest and erode the rights of employers and employees alike. The new rules will help heal that broken system, bringing greater peace and greater fairness to the American workplace.

Click here for the full letter

Nurses Demand a ‘Main Street Contract for the American People’

2011-08-24T18:11:00.000-04:00

by James Parks, Aug 23, 2011

Nurses across the country, members of National Nurses United (NNU), are calling on elected leaders to enact a “Main Street Contract for the American People.”

NNU Co-President Jean Ross said the contract is a care plan to cure America. The plan is designed to stop economic decline and protect American families. It calls for jobs at living wages, guaranteed health care for all and equal access to quality education, schools, good housing, protection from hunger, a secure retirement for everyone, a clean and safe environment and a fair and just tax system in which Wall Street and those with the most wealth pay their fair share.

You can join with the nurses to tell the leaders we elected to pay attention to working people and not cater to the Wall Street fat cats. Sign and tweet a petition here demanding that Congress pass the Wall Street Transaction Tax, which will make Wall Street pay for the devastation it has caused on Main Street.

The nurses also are planning a Sept. 1 National Nurses Day of Action to Tax Wall Street with dozens of rallies and events across the country. To learn more and find the events in your area, visit www.mainstreetcontract.org.

NNU’s DeMoro Named One of Nation’s Most Influential People in Health Care

2011-08-24T18:00:00.000-04:00

by Mike Hall, Aug 23, 2011

NNU Executive Director RoseAnn DeMoro

RoseAnn DeMoro, executive director of National Nurses United (NNU), has been named one of the 100 Most Influential People in Healthcare. This is the 10th year in a row DeMoro was honored by the health care industry news weekly Modern Healthcare.

She is one of only 10 people in the United States—and the only one representing people who actually provide direct health care to patients—to be named to the list for each of the 10 years it has been compiled. This year, DeMoro was placed at number 31 on the list, which is dominated by government officials and corporate executives.

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), who wants to end Medicare and replace it with underfunded vouchers for private insurance, topped the list. In an interview with Modern Healthcare (click here and scroll down), DeMoro said Ryan and many others on the list believe that corporate medical care is the best approach to care delivery, despite the ongoing health care crisis as a result of skyrocketing costs, quality problems and 50 million uninsured Americans.

The market isn’t magic and it doesn’t trickle down. There’s a role for government—I just wish the people in government would play it. The Paul Ryans of the world actually don’t want a society. They want individuals and corporations to make ungodly amounts of money. There is no society—only individuals and what individuals can do on their own.

Click here to read more from NNU.

MLK Memorial Unveiled on National Mall

2011-08-24T17:24:00.000-04:00

Tue. August 23, 2011

Thousands will converge on Washington, DC, this weekend for a first look at the new Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial. The 30-foot-tall granite statue is now open to the public.

A formal dedication ceremony will be held Sunday, August 28th, the 48th anniversary of Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, delivered during his famous 1963 March on Washington.

“The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom will be forever known as the day that ensured the success of the civil rights movement and launched the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. into the highest pantheon of American champions,” said a recent Washington Post article profiling the march’s chief organizer and key King adviser, Bayard Rustin. “On the 48th anniversary of the march, King will be anointed into that ultra-selective fraternity of national leaders memorialized on the Mall.”

“The IAM salutes Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., his legacy and his dream,” said Diane Babineaux, IAM Chief of Staff to the International President. “We welcome his presence on the National Mall as his memorial befittingly sits between two of our country’s most historic freedom fighters. To his left is the Lincoln Memorial, a tribute to the president who freed the slaves and where Dr. King gave his famous speech. And to his right sits the Jefferson Memorial, a tribute to our former-president and author of the Declaration of Independence.

“As the IAM prepares for the upcoming IAM Human Rights Conference to brainstorm ways to tackle the inequalities still plaguing American workers, we pledge to continue Dr. King’s legacy,” said Babineaux. “May his dream live on inside each and every one of us.”

For more information on the new MLK National Memorial, click here

Members Mark 10th Anniversary of Workers’ Memorial

2011-08-24T17:14:00.000-04:00

Tue. August 23, 2011

IAM International President Tom Buffenbarger, right, and IAM Safety and Health Department Director Mike Flynn, left, and students at the IAM Safety and Health Conference mark the tenth anniversary of the opening of the IAM Workers’ Memorial to honor IAM members who lost their lives on the job or from work-related injuries.

Participants at the annual Safety and Health Conference at the IAM William W. Winpisinger Education and Technology Center marked a special occasion when their class coincided with the tenth anniversary of the opening of the IAM Workers’ Memorial on the grounds of the Winpisinger Center. IAM International President Tom Buffenbarger joined the class to commemorate the anniversary with a special wreath dedicated to the memory of all IAM members who lost their lives on the job or from work-related injuries.

Each year, fallen members are memorialized with bricks with their names inscribed on them. The bricks are placed around the base of the memorial. “It will be a great day when this monument ceases to grow and no more of our members and their families must suffer such great losses,” said IAM President Tom Buffenbarger.

Buffenbarger also acknowledged the work of the IAM Safety and Health Department and the many IAM members who help make workplaces safe. “We are privileged to have the one of the finest Safety and Health Departments in the labor movement. All of the IAM members who work hard every day to ensure our members return home each day are a big part of that outstanding effort.”

“This monument is not only a reminder to always honor our fallen brothers and sisters,” said IAM Safety and Health Director Mike Flynn. “It also serves as a reminder to all of us to work harder to prevent any more of our members from being killed or injured on the job.”

Click here for more information about the IAM Workers’ Memorial.

United Launch Alliance Negotiation Prep

2011-08-24T17:08:00.000-04:00

Tue. August 23, 2011

Members of the IAM Negotiating Committee, representing workers at United Launch Alliance facilities in Florida, Alabama and California, met recently at the Winpisinger Center to prepare for upcoming talks.

Local Lodges at Cape Canaveral AFS, FL, Decatur, AL and Vandenberg AFB, CA are preparing for tough negotiations with the United Launch Alliance. The 900 IAM members build, maintain and launch Atlas and Delta rockets that lift U.S. space vehicles.

The Local Negotiating Committees met at the William W. Winpisinger Center to train, plan and build negotiating strategies for the upcoming talks. The Center’s week-long Negotiation Preparation for Bargaining Committees class fit the bill for the Committee, providing training in proposal analysis, labor law and collective bargaining tactics.

The week culminated in a negotiations simulation. “It doesn’t seem like a simulation,” said Business Representative Nick Mrdjenovich. “It’s tough, and you feel the same as you do in actual negotiations. It’s quite realistic.”

Winpisinger Center Director Chris Wagoner filled the role of company representative.

“The newly-elected members of the Committee now have a feel for what it’s like at the table,” said Aerospace Coordinator John Crowdis. “The Committee developed a plan and strategy for these negotiations during our week at the Harbor, and we’re ready for these important negotiations.”

The Air Capital of the World

2011-08-24T17:01:00.000-04:00

Fri. August 19, 2011

August 19, 2011 - Wichita, Kansas is called the air capital of the world for good reason. Because this is where aerospace lives and thrives.

Click here to view the video.

Tell the NLRB: Workers Support a Level Playing Field

2011-08-18T18:25:00.000-04:00

Thu. August 18, 2011

Corporate giants and anti-worker front groups are flooding the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) with letters to stop the enactment of several new rules that would level the playing field for workers in union representation elections.

The proposed rules would make union representation elections fairer by simplifying procedures, deferring litigation and setting shorter deadlines for hearings and filings. Currently when workers petition the NLRB for an election, it can take months and even years before they can cast a vote. Companies often use this time to threaten, scare and discourage workers from voting. Many hire “union busting” consulting firms who assist the company in deterring employees.

The NLRB is accepting public comments before making a decision on whether the rules should become final. It’s up to working families to make sure our voices are heard in this debate. Send a letter by clicking here. Tell the NLRB you support the rule to level the playing field so workers can decide for themselves whether to form a union.

Machinists Union Infographic Pits Fair Trade vs. Free Trade

2011-08-18T18:10:00.000-04:00

Thu. August 18, 2011

A new IAM graphic details steps to achieving fair U.S. trade policy, as opposed to the unfair, seriously-flawed South Korea, Colombia and Panama Free Trade Agreements now under debate in Washington.

Fair trade puts people and their communities before billionaire CEOs and their transnational corporations who have no loyalty to the workers who made them so successful. Therefore, a sound and fair trade agreement must include:

A comprehensive review of the impact all past trade agreements have had on U.S. jobs and workers BEFORE negotiating any new agreements. All current and proposed agreements would be put on hold until a detailed study is completed;

Adoption of the core labor standards set forth by the International Labour Organization (ILO), including those concerning safety, health and decent pay;

Preservation of U.S. government procurement policies and stronger Buy American laws;

Elimination of investor-to-state dispute resolution mechanisms;
Reform of U.S. tax policy to eliminate and discourage the outsourcing of American jobs;

Rebuilding of the U.S. manufacturing sector;
Reversal of the current $497.8 billion trade deficit;

Renewed commitment toward stronger and more effective enforcement of U.S. trade laws; and

Immediate curtailment of China’s unfairly-valued currency, illegal subsidies, manipulation of “state-owned enterprises” and violations of fundamental human rights.

These principles are reflected in the Trade Reform, Accountability, Development and Employment (TRADE) Act sponsored by Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and Rep. Mike Michaud (D-ME). The IAM is proud to be one of the first supporters of this important legislation.

Stand up for fair trade – not free trade – by clicking “Like” on the IAM Facebook page. Tell Congress to vote “No” on the South Korea, Colombia and Panama Free Trade Agreements!

IAM Preserves Jobs for Workers at Closed Pratt Plants

2011-08-18T18:04:00.000-04:00

Thu. August 18, 2011

Despite the closures of Pratt & Whitney’s Cheshire and East Hartford CARO overhaul facilities in Connecticut, IAM members who worked at those locations still have jobs.

“From the time closing notices were received in July 2009, the members and negotiating committee of District 26 were determined to reach an agreement that would preserve those jobs,” said Jim Parent, IAM chief negotiator and District Lodge 26 Assistant Directing Business Representative.

“The closings affected 497 of our members,” continued Parent. “Seventy took the buy-out that Pratt offered; and because of the contract language negotiated in our last round of bargaining, we were able to place the remaining 427 workers in jobs. Our job-security provisions remain some of the best contract protections in the country.”

A majority of the workers were moved to similar jobs in Middletown or East Hartford. Some are receiving training through a community college machining program and will then go to work as machinists in Middletown. Still others have been given jobs as utility workers and the rest retired.

The CARO (Connecticut Airfoil Repair Operation) shop closed last spring, and Cheshire closed last week. The plant closings are due to Pratt & Whitney moving the work to Georgia and Asia.

Another FAA Shutdown Looming over Rep. Mica’s, Delta’s Union-Busting Scheme

2011-08-18T18:00:00.000-04:00

by Mike Hall, Aug 18, 2011

Workers and allies told Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.) to back off Delta’s union-busting scheme when he arrived at Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport.

If a funding agreement isn’t reached by Sept. 16, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) faces another shutdown like the one Republicans forced in July. That shutdown cost 4,000 FAA workers and 70,000 construction workers two weeks’ pay, halted important airport safety improvements and cost taxpayers some $400 million. It ended Aug. 5 with a temporary FAA reauthorization.

But another shutdown just might happen if Republicans like Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.) continue to carry Delta Air Lines’ baggage by backing a provision in the long-term House FAA funding bill—supported by Delta—to take away democratic union election rights for aviation and rail workers. Flight Attendants-CWA (AFA-CWA) President Veda Shook says Mica is:

acting as Delta Air Lines’ pawn by advancing a union-busting provision and threatening another shutdown of the FAA. Mica’s contempt for workers and the 75,000 people who were out of work due to the partial shutdown of the FAA is feeding Delta’s grossly funded union-busting scheme.

AFA-CWA unions are stepping up the pressure on Mica, his Republican colleagues and Delta—and you can join in. Click here to sign a petition to Delta telling the airline it’s time to cease its support for the “entirely undemocratic” union election provision that would count workers who don’t participate in a union election as “No” votes.

AFA-CWA members are holding rallies and are picketing at airports and congressional district offices, including outside Mica’s home district office. Last week, they rallied at airports in Seattle; Phoenix; Portland, Ore.; Philadelphia; Charlotte; and Atlanta and plan more actions before Congress returns to work next month.

Mica claims he did not orchestrate the July shutdown over the union election rules and says he is “surprised” at the heat he is receiving. But Dana Milbank of The Washington Post writes:

Letting his anti-labor ideology take over, he tried to use the FAA bill to overturn a decision by the National Mediation Board to rescind an old rule that had made it unusually difficult for airline workers to organize. Delta Air Lines furiously lobbied Congress to intervene…Mica, as much as anybody, created a culture of distrust, where staking out bargaining positions leads not to compromise but to warfare. And now he’s surprised?

The Senate version of the FAA reauthorization bill protects workers’ rights. Lawmakers like Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) refused to give in to Mica’s hostage taking of the bill in July and vow to continue to support workers.

Add Your Name to Union Plus Solidarity Map

2011-08-18T17:40:00.000-04:00

by James Parks, Aug 17, 2011

This Labor Day, it is more important than ever to show the strength of working families.

Union Plus, part of Union Privilege, the consumer benefits arm of the AFL-CIO, is inviting all working people to come together online to show America our strength and solidarity. If you support American workers, join other working people and be counted on the Union Plus Solidarity Map. The goal is to have 10,000 participants on Labor Day, Sept. 5.

Click here to show support for all workers in North America by adding your name to the Solidarity Map and here to view the map, which is updated every 15 minutes.

Here are some other ways you can show your solidarity this Labor Day and every day.
•Support your U.S. fellow workers—and their jobs—by buying union-made products and products made in the U.S.A.
•Share these “36 Reasons to Thank a Union” with friends who may not realize what unions have done for every one of America’s workers.
•Share a photo of how you and your family and friends celebrated Labor Day 2011.
•Learn more about the history of Labor Day and the story of the U.S. labor movement.

There’s strength in numbers. So stand up, be counted and encourage others to do the same.

Allstate Agents Vote to Join OPEIU

2011-08-18T17:26:00.000-04:00

by James Parks, Aug 17, 2011

Employees of the American Arbitration Association count ballots as (from left) OPEIU President Michael Goodwin, NAPAA Executive Director Jim Fish and President Robert Isacsen, OPEIU Director of Communication Nicole Korkolis and OPEIU Director of Organization and Field Services Kevin Kistler oversee the count

Members of the National Association of Professional Allstate Agents (NAPAA) voted overwhelmingly today to join the AFL-CIO-affiliated Office and Professional Employees (OPEIU).

Ballots were mailed to all 1,200 members of NAPAA and, when they were tallied, more than 94 percent had voted in favor of affiliating with OPEIU. The vote was administered by the American Arbitration Association.

The NAPAA Board of Directors is expected to meet in the near future to formally approve the affiliation. Once the agreement is approved, NAPAA members will become members in OPEIU, the AFL-CIO and all state federations.

NAPAA will become a guild affiliate of OPEIU and will not have a collective bargaining agreement. By joining OPEIU, NAPAA members will have assistance with promoting legislation and gaining legal expertise.

Currently, agents, who are small business owners, are subjected to unachievable quotas, the specter of reduced compensation and an ever-present threat of contract termination.

OPEIU President Michael Goodwin says:

This is a matter of defending the interests of ill-treated small business owners, and NAPAA members have recognized that OPEIU is the right organization to help them achieve the benefits and protections they deserve.

Still Nickel and Dimed and (Not) Getting by in America

2011-08-18T17:20:00.000-04:00

by Tula Connell, Aug 17, 2011

Congratulations to author Barbara Ehrenreich for the 10th anniversary re-issuance of her classic study of the working poor, “Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America.” Ehrenreich didn’t just write a theoretical study, she based the book on her experiences working as a waitress, a Wal-Mart “associate,” a nursing home aide and a maid employed by a cleaning service. At the time the book came out, Ehrenreich wrote a piece for us based on her experiences. She concluded:

…even in an economy celebrating unequaled prosperity, a person can work hard, full-time or even more, and not make enough to live on.

That was in 2001. The U.S. unemployment rate at mid-year was 4.5 percent. There were 150,400 home foreclosures in the first quarter of that year, as reported in Aug. 17, 2001, by The New York Times, which noted that home sales were on track to make 2001 the second-best year ever.

Today, the 2001 economy seems like a dream. America’s jobless rate has hovered between 9.1 percent and 10.1 percent for more than a year, with foreclosures in July alone totaling 221,763—and that figure is a 44-month low.

Working at low-wage jobs during the dot.com boom when the economy was buzzing, Ehrenreich wrote that while employed as a waitress,

The money I saved on rent was being burned up as gas for commuting. Without a well-stocked kitchen, I couldn’t make up big, economical dishes and freeze them ahead for the week, so I was spending too much on fast food. I began to realize it’s actually more expensive to be poor than middle class: You pay more for food, especially in convenience stores; you pay to get checks cashed; and you can end up paying ridiculous prices for shelter.

Today, millions upon millions of America’s working don’t even have a paycheck. Yet as Ehrenreich points out in an article on CNN today, the nation doesn’t just need jobs—some 12 million, in fact, to make up what’s been lost—it needs good jobs, jobs that support a family.

She also points out that the economic decline of America’s middle class began some 40 years ago, when fewer unionized workers resulted in an increasing gap between wages and productivity. The decline, accelerated in this latest recession, has been non-stop since the 1970s. Ehrenreich describes the “sad trajectory of the American middle-class spirit from the late ’70s to the present day.”

We’ve gone from Johnny Paycheck’s “Take This Job and Shove It” to begging the sleek-suited “job creators” for whatever they can throw our way.

Ten years ago, Ehrenreich stated that after her experiences as a low-wage worker,

if this were my real life, I would become an agitator in no time at all, or at least a serious nuisance.

Today, she sees such signs of hope, some “courageous exceptions” to the notion of groveling for corporate crumbs.

Forty-five thousand Verizon employees are walking picket lines to defend their hard-won union wages and benefits. Thousands of Wal-Mart employees have signed up as members of an association (“Our Walmart”) to demand respect from the company.

Even the most isolated and “invisible” workers—nannies and maids—are organizing themselves into a National Domestic Workers Alliance. As anyone in these groups could you tell: We don’t just need more jobs, we need more jobs that treat employees like humans and pay what you could actually live on.

Verizon Joins Extreme Fringe’s Attack on Middle-Class Jobs

2011-08-18T17:05:00.000-04:00

by Mike Hall, Aug 17, 2011

More than 45,000 Verizon workers are standing strong on picket lines and at rallies and marches for middle-class jobs, as the strike enters its second week. But while the public has rallied for their fight for middle-class jobs—you can sign a petition here—Verizon has lined up with the extremist Scott Walkers, John Kasichs and other far-right elements in attacking working families.

Striking Verizon families have begun receiving letters from the $20 billion company telling them they will lose their health care coverage if the strike isn’t over by Aug. 31.

Communications Workers of America (CWA) has made a commitment to assist striking workers in paying for their health care needs out of the Robert Lilja Members Relief Fund (RLMRF) during their participation in the strike. Click here for more information.

CWA District 9 Vice President Jim Weitkamp told a cheering audience of United Steelworkers (USW) at the union’s convention in Las Vegas yesterday:

Verizon has aligned itself with the ultra right wing in this country, which is determined to destroy collective bargaining in the United States. They have their hand in the pocket of every working class family in this country. We will not stand by and let them mug us in broad daylight.

Click here for his full remarks.

More than 1,000 religious leaders have signed a petition to Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam urging him to bargain fairly and in good faith with the CWA and Electrical Workers (IBEW).

Interfaith Worker Justice’s (IWJ’s) Jonathan Currie says Verizon has become the latest example of how even profitable corporations are demanding concessions from workers during this economic downturn. Verizon has made billions of dollars in revenues in recent years and rewarded its executives with millions.

People of faith in this country are deeply concerned with the way working families are being punished in this economy….There is no reason for a company like Verizon to demand huge cuts in pay and benefits from its workers.

Meanwhile, the IBEW reports that Verizon has been using thousands of inadequately trained replacement workers and managers to try and perform the jobs of the skilled Verizon workers on strike. The results have not been pretty.

Says IBEW Local 2321 Business Manager Ed Starr:

We’re seeing people without the right safety equipment, trying to do the job without doing the proper pre-work safety checks. These are the kind of screw ups that would get any of us written up in a heartbeat. The majority of these replacements have no telecommunications training and someone is going to get hurt bad unless Verizon settles this.

A video captured by Middleboro, Mass., Local 2321 shows IBEW strikers stepping in to prevent replacement workers from causing damage and personal injury to themselves and others. Local 2321 has been documenting unsafe working practices on its Facebook page since the strike began.

CWA Local 2205 President Jerry Rogers told the Newport News (Va.) Daily Press:

They want to see if they can break us and they’re not going to.

For more information on events and how you can support striking Verizon workers all along the East Coast, click here and here for events in New York and New Jersey.

Here are other ways you can show solidarity with the strikers and stand up for middle-class jobs:
•Find a local picket line to support here.
•Download leaflets here.
•“Like” the strikers on Facebook here and change your Facebook and/or Twitter profile picture in solidarity here.
•Click here to sign and tweet an act.ly petition demanding Verizon drop its outrageous concessionary demands.
•To tweet about the strike, use the hashtag #verizonstrike and feel free to direct to @VZLaborfacts.

New York Area Drivers Gather to Organize

2011-08-18T16:48:00.000-04:00

Thu. August 18, 2011

A diverse group of workers from New York and New Jersey met at the Winpisinger Education & Technology Center to plan the next steps to organize not only themselves, but the nearly 10,000 Black Car Drivers in their respective states. District 15 in New York City now represents about 100 drivers in the industry.

The Black Car Drivers provide premium personal transportation services in the New York metro area and most are recent immigrants from all corners of the globe trying to build a good life in the United States. To get started in the industry, they must purchase an upscale vehicle and buy a “franchise” from a “base” for up to $80,000. The “base” provides them with a dispatcher and client contacts. All of the other operating costs, including upkeep, maintenance, insurance, even monthly fees to the dispatchers, are born by the drivers.

Nearly two dozen drivers from different “bases” traveled to the Winpisinger Center for a three day session of basic union orientation, their rights to organize, campaign strategy, tactics, goals and solidarity within the group. “This was very informative for me,” said Yun Li. “I didn’t know anything about my rights or even a union, other than the untruth I was told by my base owners. The only way to find the truth for yourself, is face to face. The training and planning of the past days have shown me what’s right, and now I can see hope for the future.”

“Imagine going to your job day in and day out and not only having to pay to work there, but also paying for the product or service you provide and nearly every cost associated with it,” said District 15 DBR, Jim Conigliaro, Sr. “These drivers can spend up to 15 hours every day on call and not get a single call, and they still foot the operating bill for that day. Many times the lack of a call is punishment from the dispatchers after the drivers try to exercise their basic rights. As a whole, drivers earn less than $25,000 per year with no benefits and a dim future for themselves and their families, at the same time serving some of the wealthiest people on Wall Street.”

“These workers are barely scraping by in an industry patronized by wealthy Wall Street Bankers, who pit these workers against one another to get cheaper rates,” said Eastern Territory GVP Lynn D. Tucker, Jr. “Their working conditions have developed into something unseen in the labor movement for many years. The drivers pay large sums of money to get in the industry, pay fees, fines and penalties that amount to working for the company store, with no way out and no future at the end. The IAM intends to help them change all that.”

State Lawmakers Leery Over Trade Pact Benefits

2011-08-16T16:44:00.000-04:00

Tue. August 16, 2011

State legislators gathered this week in San Antonio, TX for the National Conference of State Legislatures are paying close attention to real-world impact of poorly-negotiated trade agreements.

Many state legislators remain highly skeptical of the free trade agreement’s (FTA) benefits despite three years of intense propaganda, including at least two visits to conference meetings by the U.S. Trade Representative and many visits by his staff and representatives of the U.S. Department of Commerce.

At one conference event titled, “Trade 101,” legislators heard from IAM member Clem Smith, who also serves as a Missouri Democratic State Representative. Smith joined other union activists asking hard questions about the negative impacts of current trade agreements on the American people.

Later in the week, Smith joined John A. Kowalko, Jr., a retired IAM member and member of the Delaware General Assembly, who led a series of progressive policy discussions on Social Security cuts, mine safety, World Trade Organization (WTO) policies and the need for states to have a voice in the granting of any new Trade Promotion Authority.

“IAM members like Reps. Smith, Kowalko and others who serve as elected officials are part of the union’s mission to secure justice on the job while providing service to the community,” said IAM Director of Legislative and Political Action Matt McKinnon. “Their leadership and common-sense recommendations during trade policy debates provided lawmakers at the conference with a choice of progressive policy solutions.”

IAM Salutes Those Who Made the Shuttle Soar

2011-08-16T16:27:00.000-04:00

Tue. August 16, 2011

Near the end of 2009, the Machinists News Network (MNN) ran a story about the IAM members who worked as part of NASA’s shuttle program. These were the men and women who made sure, time and time again, that manned space flight took our breaths away.

Unfortunately, following the government’s decision to outsource the iconic U.S. space program, the shuttle program at NASA is no longer a reality. Private spacecraft maker, SpaceX, announced it will be running a cargo test run to the International Space Station as early as November.

As thousands of people coast to coast wonder what their next step is going to be, the Machinists Union is taking a minute to say “thank you” to all the members of the labor movement who worked as part of NASA's shuttle program over the years. The MNN has reposted the original video “IAM’s Journey to Space,” featuring these great American heroes. Their dedication and service to this great American industry will not be forgotten.

Click here to see the original video.

Join Verizon Workers and Their Fight for Middle-Class Jobs

2011-08-16T04:03:00.000-04:00

by Mike Hall, Aug 15, 2011
This afternoon, members from unions in the Northern Virginia Area Labor Federation are joining striking Verizon workers and Communications Workers of America (CWA) President Larry Cohen at rally in Ashburn, Va.

Meanwhile the Metro Washington Council AFL-CIO is urging workers and community allies to rally with the CWA’s and the Electrical Workers (IBEW) fight for middle class jobs at four area demonstrations this week.
•Tuesday:
12 p.m.: Verizon Strike Demo (MD; Montgomery County) 13101 Columbia Pike, Silver Spring.
•12 p.m.: Verizon Wireless Picketing – DC L Street Verizon Wireless Store; 1744 L St NW
•Wednesday:
12 p.m.: F Street Verizon Wireless Picketing
F Street Verizon Wireless Store; 1314 F Street NW
•Thursday:
12 p.m.: Verizon Wireless Picketing- DC
L Street Verizon Wireless Store; 1744 L St NW.

For more information on events and how can support striking Verizon workers all along the East Coast, click here and here for events in New York and New Jersey.

Victory for Workers’ Rights in Santa Barbara ‘News-Press Mess’

2011-08-16T03:55:00.000-04:00

This is an excerpt from a cross-post at the California Labor Federation by Melinda Burns, Teamsters Graphic Communications Conference.

The National Labor Relations Board last week ordered the Santa Barbara News-Press to reinstate me and seven other reporters who were illegally fired nearly five years ago, after our newsroom voted to unionize. I was the first to be escorted out of the building in October 2006, one month after we voted overwhelmingly to join the union. I was a senior writer, I had been at the paper for 21 years, and I had won local, state, regional and national awards for the paper with my reporting.

Back in July of 2006, the News-Press newsroom faced a crisis. Five top editors resigned, alleging that Wendy McCaw, the multimillionaire owner, was improperly meddling in news coverage, in part by arbitrarily disciplining her own reporters and editors. In September of that year, seeking to protect our professional integrity and job security, we newsroom employees voted 33-6 to join the Graphics Communications Conference of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.

During the past five years, McCaw has proved to be one of the most blatantly anti-union employers in California, if not the whole country. She has racked up more than 25 violations of federal labor law, lost four trials before federal labor law judges, and two out of four appeals so far, with two still pending before the NLRB. One judge cited News-Press management for its “widespread, general disregard for the fundamental rights of the employees.”

Victory is sweet, but it is taking a very long time. Last week, McCaw vowed to appeal the board’s recent decision, a 3-0 vote by two Democrats and a Republican. The NLRB declared the labor law violations at the News-Press to be “serious and widespread.”

McCaw also has been found guilty of illegally harassing, threatening and spying on union members and demanding that reporters remove “McCaw Obey the Law” buttons.

We have tremendous allies in our fight for workers’ rights at the News-Press. The Teamsters have pledged never to abandon us, no matter how long it takes. The union has put its best organizers into our campaign and has spent more than half a million dollars to help bring McCaw to justice. More than 16,000 subscribers have quit the News-Press during the last five years, a drop of nearly 40 percent. We are urging people not to buy or read the News-Press or advertise in the paper until McCaw signs a fair contract with her newsroom.

Thank you to all our brothers and sisters in the labor movement, especially you dedicated Teamsters who have stood up for us all these years. We will not lose this fight. United, we will prevail!

Billionaire Buffett: Tax the Really Rich

2011-08-16T03:45:00.000-04:00

by Tula Connell, Aug 15, 2011

Warren Buffett, one of the world’s richest men, has said repeatedly U.S. taxes should be higher on him and his fellow billionaires and millionaires. Today he lays it on the line in a New York Times op-ed piece.

Buffett points out that he is taxed at only a 17.4 percent rate—while the office workers on his staff are taxed between 33 percent and 41 percent. While tea party Republicans in Congress fought off any moves to help balance the budget through higher taxes on the extremely rich, Buffett has this advice for Congress: Stop coddling the rich. Here’s what he recommends:

…for those making more than $1 million—there were 236,883 such households in 2009—I would raise rates immediately on taxable income in excess of $1 million, including, of course, dividends and capital gains. And for those who make $10 million or more—there were 8,274 in 2009—I would suggest an additional increase in rate.

A special subset of Congress—12 members—will begin meeting after Labor Day to devise a plan that reduces the nation’s 10-year deficit by at least $1.5 trillion. They should listen to Buffett:

My friends and I have been coddled long enough by a billionaire-friendly Congress. It’s time for our government to get serious about shared sacrifice.

Read his full op-ed here.

Support Grows for Striking Verizon Workers’ Fight for Middle-Class Jobs

2011-08-16T03:39:00.000-04:00

by Mike Hall, Aug 15, 2011

The huge crowd outside the Verizon Center in downtown Washington, D.C., Saturday wasn’t there for a basketball game or concert. They came to tell Verizon to stop its attack on middle-class jobs.

The Verizon Center demonstration and dozens and dozens of other actions at Verizon worksites and Verizon Wireless stores are part of the growing support for the 45,000 Communications Workers of America (CWA) and Electrical Workers (IBEW) members forced on strike by Verizon Aug. 6.

The company, with $32.5 billion in revenue in the past three years, is demanding $1 billion in concessions from workers, which amounts to $20,000 per Verizon worker per year. While talks resumed last week, those demands remain on the table. Says CWA Communications Director Candice Johnson:

If wealthy companies like Verizon can continue to cut working families’ pay and benefits, we will never have an economic recovery in this country. This is a fight for all middle-class working families.

Verizon’s demands include outsourcing jobs overseas, gutting pension security, eliminating benefits for workers injured on the job, eliminating job security, slashing paid sick leave and raising health care costs.

CWA filed unfair labor practice charges against Verizon Aug. 12 with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), charging the company with refusal to bargain in good faith.

Union workers and community allies are joining striking CWA and IBEW members on the picket lines. Barbara Smith of CWA Local 1109 In Brooklyn, N.Y., told Labor Notes that when Verizon Wireless pickets are up:

pedestrians stop and thank us because they understand that this fight is about more than Verizon.

While Verizon is demanding that workers take home less, it paid its top five executives more than $258 million over the past four years, including $80.8 million for its former CEO Ivan Seidenberg. Friday night, more than 500 CWA, IBEW members and their allies held a candlelight vigil outside Seidenberg’ West Nyack, N.Y., home.

They carried a coffin to symbolize the death of the middle class. CWA Local 1101 member Ron Canterino, told reporters:

The middle class is dying here, and we’re here to be together as one class, one people—whether it’s union or nonunion working people.

Here are some other actions you can take to support the strikers:
•Find a local picket line to support here.
•Download leaflets here.
•“Like” the strikers on Facebook here and change your Facebook and/or Twitter profile picture in solidarity here.
•Click here to demand that Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam value employees’ work and share his corporation’s success with those who make it possible.
•Click here for a list of picket sites in the New York and New Jersey area. `
•Click here to sign and Tweet an act.ly petition demanding Verizon drop its outrageous concessionary demands.
•To Tweet about the strike, use the hashtag #verizonstrike and feel free to direct to @VZLaborfacts.

Labor Department Seeking Nominations for Anti-Child Labor Award

2011-08-13T10:47:00.000-04:00

by James Parks, Aug 13, 2011

Two million children between 10 and 16 years old are forced to work in hazardous conditions in Uzbekistan’s cotton field.

Iqbal Masih was a Pakistani carpet weaver who was sold into slavery at age four. After escaping from his servitude at 12, he became an outspoken advocate against child slavery.

He told the world of his plight when he received the Reebok Human Rights Award in 1994. He was tragically killed a year later at the age of 13 in his native Pakistan.

Now the U.S. Labor Department is seeking nominations for its annual award named for Masih to honor those who have made extraordinary efforts to combat the worst forms of child labor internationally and raise awareness about child labor.

The nonmonetary Iqbal Masih Award for the Elimination of Child Labor, established in 2009, could honor an individual, company, organization or national government. Nominees are judged by their efforts that contribute to reduction of child labor, the positive international attention they generate to support those efforts, their inspiration to others—including young people—to become champions against child labor and the change they foment regarding labor exploitation of children under great odds or at great personal cost, according to the department.

Read the Federal Register announcement of the award here. Nomination packages must be submitted by Sept. 30.

According to the International Labor Organization (ILO), more than 200 million children, many as young as five years old, work in factories and in fields, up to 15 hours a day, sometimes seven days a week. Matches, rugs, soccer balls, leather goods, paper cups, toys, shoes, fireworks—all of these products are made by tiny hands.

APWU: Crushing Workers Will Not Solve Postal Service’s Financial Woes

2011-08-13T10:40:00.000-04:00

by James Parks, Aug 12, 2011

Crushing postal workers and slashing service will not solve the U.S. Postal Service’s financial crisis, Postal Workers (APWU) President Cliff Guffey said in response to the announcement today that the Postal Service will seek congressional support to cut 120,000 jobs, break its labor contract signed earlier this year and withdraw from the federal health and retirement plans.

“Congress created this mess and Congress can fix it,” Guffey said.

The USPS economic crisis is the result of a provision of the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2006 that requires the Postal Service to pre-fund the health care benefits of future retirees — a burden no other government agency or private company bears.

The legislation requires the USPS to fund a 75-year liability over a 10-year period, and that requirement costs the USPS more than $5.5 billion per year.

Guffey also pointed out that “the federal government is holding billions of dollars in postal overpayments to its pension accounts.”

Congress must address the cause of the Postal Service’s financial crisis so that postal workers can continue to serve the American people and the USPS can continue to act as an important engine of the U.S. economy.

Guffey added than the APWU “will not allow the hard-working men and women of the U.S. Postal Service to be made the scapegoats for the outrageously poor judgment of Congress.”

Click here to read the USPS’s “Workforce Optimization” proposal.

Seniors Fighting to Keep Social Security, Medicare from Budget Chopping Block

2011-08-13T09:41:00.000-04:00

by James Parks, Aug 12, 2011

Members of the Alliance for Reired Americans are sponsoring a series of events nationwide to let their lawmakers know the money working people depend on in Medicare and Social Security belongs to those who contributed to the programs, not to politicians in Washington who want to use it as a piggybank. The events come as Social Security celebrates its 76th anniversary Aug. 14,

Alliance members have so far scheduled 27 events in the next weeks to urge lawmakers to protect Social Security and Medicare, including visits to congressional district offices, rallies and celebrations. Click here to find an event near you.

Yesterday, dozens of people attended a town hall meeting on Social Security in Hazelwood, Mo., outside St. Louis. On Tuesday, Aug. 15, seniors will rally and protest outside Republican Rep. Todd Platts’ district office in York, Pa. Alliance members will rally and present stories from Golden State seniors about the importance of Social Security and Medicare in their lives Aug. 17 at Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s offices in Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Here’s how David Friesner, president of the Ohio Alliance for Retired Americans, sums up the seniors’ mission:

Social Security did not cause our budget deficits, and we cannot allow anyone to use our national debt as a political cover for cutting Social Security for current or future retirees.

Alliance members last month held more than 30 events nationwide to celebrate the 46th anniversary of Medicare and to educate seniors, the public and members of Congress about how crucial these programs are to seniors and express their opposition to any benefit cuts.

Hot Dog! Working Families Bring the Heat to Lawmakers

2011-08-13T09:36:00.000-04:00

by Mike Hall, Aug 12, 2011

Head to West Virginia this weekend if you’re looking for a cheap and tasty meal and an opportunity to tell lawmakers to stop protecting tax breaks for the wealthy and corporations and instead focus on fixing the nation’s job crisis.

The West Virginia AFL-CIO and allied groups are holding 10 “Help the Really Rich Hot Dog Sales” around the Mountain State Saturday and Sunday. In honor of the 76th anniversary of President Franklin Roosevelt’s signing of the Social Security Act, the dogs will go for just 5 cents each—don’t know if chili and slaw are extra.

Larry Matheney, secretary-treasurer of the West Virginia AFL-CIO, says the sales will promote

a tongue-in-cheek solution to raising revenue without asking the really rich or tax-dodging corporations to pay their fair share of taxes… reducing the debt one hot dog a time.

The proceeds will be turned into the “U.S. Bureau of the Public Debt.”

Elsewhere around nation grassroots, community, faith and other groups, including the AFL-CIO union movement, are turning the long congressional recess into a summer of accountability. At townhall meetings, rallies and other events, working families and their allies are holding politicians accountable for their support of tax breaks for the wealthy and corporations and for not working to strengthen the economy and create jobs.

In Colorado Springs, activists gathered outside the office of Rep. Doug Lambron’s (R-Colo.) to tell Lambron—who some conservative organizations call the “most conservative man in America”— that the nation needs jobs, not tax breaks for millionaires or huge cuts to vital working family programs.

At the Lincoln townhall meeting of Nebraska Sen. Mike Johanns (R), the room was packed. As the Lincoln Journal Star reports:

Emotions spilled over during the hour-long session, which sharply veered away from the typical calm of a Johanns town hall. Many of the loudest voices and waving fingers urged Johanns to include tax increases—particularly applied to the wealthiest Americans—as part of the solution to debt reduction.

Jennifer Wendelin told Johanns that additional revenue must be part of the debt reduction solution along with spending cuts.

Big corporations and the rich have to pay their fair share. If we have to bite the bullet, they do, too. We can’t be forced to shoulder the entire burden.

Dozens of people gathered outside Rep. Steve Chabot’s (R) office in downtown Cincinnati to ask him what he intends to do about the tens of thousands of area jobs that have disappeared. Chabot and his staff didn’t bother to meet with the crowd, which included several unemployed workers. Jason Riveiro told WKRC TV:

They campaign on message of creating jobs and bringing America back to glory, yet we are not seeing that happen. In fact, we see benefits go to top 2 percent of country.

It’s All About Jobs, but Washington Doesn’t Get It

2011-08-13T08:19:00.000-04:00

by Tula Connell, Aug 12, 2011

Nearly every day now, we hear about yet another public opinion poll that shows the majority of those surveyed want Congress and the White House to focus on jobs, jobs, jobs.

Constituents across the nation currently are meeting with their congressional lawmakers who are back home and these citizens are conveying one message: jobs, jobs, jobs.

Economists like Heidi Shierholz at the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) and Dean Baker at the Center for Economic and Policy Reserach (CEPR) and many others say the nation should first focus on one thing: jobs, jobs, jobs.

Yet most in Washington don’t get it. As Shierholz says:

Lawmakers have crafted a debt ceiling deal that will slow growth further and make joblessness worse.

Those who aspire to the U.S. presidency don’t get it, either. At last night’s Republican debate in Iowa, would-be presidents ”claimed faithfulness to the Aesop’s Fables version of tax policy,” as a writer on the Akron (Ohio) Beacon-Journal community blog put it.

They insist, without any evidence, that lowering taxes on the rich will create jobs, stimulate the economy. And yet, the evidence of the last 11 years disproves such a faith-based notion. Taxes at the federal level have never been so low…and yet unemployment is rivaling that of the 30’s.

Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson’s ”Clueless in Washington” column today accurately describes congressional Republicans’ “solution” to the nation’s jobs crisis. House and Senate Republicans have sought to ”eliminate jobs rather than create them.”

Last month, the economy added 117,000 jobs — a performance so weak that unemployment changed little. The private sector actually added 154,000 jobs, but the public sector lost 37,000 jobs as Republicans continue to impose an austerity program at an inopportune moment.

The GOP seems to believe that a federal, state or local job somehow isn’t a “real” job. I’ll bet most Americans know otherwise.

This week, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released new data showing there were 4.5 workers for every one job in June, a slight decline from May’s ratio of 4.6-to-1 but “still far too high,” says Shierholtz, who notes the job seeker’s ratio has been above 4-to-1 for two-and–a-half years.

In other words, the jobs crisis has lasted for years, and most of those in Washington still don’t get it.

New App from OSHA Helps Workers Avoid Deadly Heat-Related Illnesses

2011-08-13T07:56:00.000-04:00

by Mike Hall, Aug 12, 2011

When you’re working outside you certainly know when it’s hot. But do you know when it’s so hot that you need to start taking precautions to prevent heat related illnesses? Thousands of workers become ill from heat-related illnesses every year and in 2010, 30 workers died from heat stroke.

This week, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) announced a free app for mobile devices that will enable workers and supervisors to monitor the heat index and take steps to ensure safety.

Labor Secretary Hilda Solis says the new app is one way to get the message out that heat-related illnesses are preventable.

Summer heat presents a serious issue that affects some of the most vulnerable workers in our country, and education is crucial to keeping them safe.

The app, available in English and Spanish, combines heat index data from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration with the user’s location to determine necessary protective measures. Based on the risk level of the heat index, the app provides users with information about precautions they may take, such as drinking fluids, taking rest breaks and adjusting work operations.

Users also can review the signs and symptoms of heat stroke, heat exhaustion and other heat-related illnesses, and learn about first aid steps to take in an emergency. Information for supervisors is also available through the app on how to gradually build up the workload for new workers as well as how to train employees on heat illness signs and symptoms. Additionally, users can contact OSHA directly through the app.

The app is designed for devices using an Android platform, and versions for BlackBerry and iPhone users will be released shortly. To download it, visit http://go.usa.gov/KFE.

For more information about safety while working in the heat, see OSHA’s heat illness webpage, including new online guidance about using the heat index to protect workers

Verizon Workers: ‘We Need To Draw A Line Here’

2011-08-13T06:28:00.000-04:00

by James Parks, Aug 12, 2011

Picket lines are strong and growing at Verizon and Verizon Wireless locations as workers across the country join the more than 45,000 Verizon workers on strike from New England to Virginia. The members of the Communications Workers of America (CWA) and the Electrical Workers (IBEW) are on strike to stop the company’s attacks on the middle class.

Workers in New Hampshire will rally today at a Verizon Wireless store in Manchester. Tomorrow, strikers and supporters will rally in downtown Washington, D.C., at 1314 F Street NW at 11:00 a.m. And on Monday, Aug. 15, workers from across Missouri will rally at the Verizon Wireless Store in Creve Coeur, a suburb of St. Louis. Click here to join the Missouri rally.

In an open letter to union members, the Missouri AFL-CIO said:

The fight for Verizon workers is the fight for all of us. This corporation continues to rake in record profits but is trying to outsource more jobs, demand workers pay more for benefits and undermine workers’ retirement security.

After cancelling several bargaining sessions, Verizon returned to the table this week, but the company is still demanding $1 billion in concessions, which amounts to $20,000 per Verizon worker per year. Those demands have been on the table since bargaining began on June 22.

Workers recognize this is a strike with national significance. As Bob Master, CWA District 1 legislative and political director, explained earlier this week in a conference call with supporters:

This is an enormously profitable company, which we believe is trying to take advantage of an anti-union environment and, in a sense, to replicate at a giant private-sector corporation what the governors of Ohio, New Jersey and Wisconsin have been trying to do to the public sector. Our members feel very strongly that we need to draw a line here.

You can show solidarity with the Verizon workers and “Adopt a Store” to leaflet and educate the public about the importance of this strike by visiting http://cwa-union.org/pages/support_the_strike_adopt_a_store.

Here are some other actions you can take to support the strikers:
•Find a local picket line to support here.
•Download leaflets here.
•“Like” the strikers on Facebook here and change your Facebook and/or Twitter profile picture in solidarity here.
•Click here to demand that Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam value employees’ work and share his corporation’s success with those who make it possible.
•Click here for a list of picket sites in the New York and New Jersey area.`
•Click here to sign and Tweet an act.ly petition demanding Verizon drop its outrageous concessionary demands.
•To Tweet about the strike, use the hashtag #verizonstrike and feel free to direct to @VZLaborfacts.

Eagles Fans Learn About Verizon Greed from Striking Workers, Union Allies

2011-08-13T06:05:00.000-04:00

Liz McElroy of the Philadelphia Council AFL-CIO and AFL-CIO field communications staffer Nora Frederickson send us this report about a Verizon action in Philadelphia.

As 45,000 members of the Communications Workers of America (CWA) and Electrical Workers (IBEW) on the East Coast continue their strike against Verizon to maintain quality, middle-class jobs, union locals in southeastern Pennsylvania decided to take their message directly to the public – at the local ballgame.

More than 500 CWA Local 13000 and Local 13500 members and their allies showed up for the Philadelphia Eagles pre-season game at Lincoln Financial Field in South Philadelphia last night–not to tailgate but to educate Eagles fans about the real reasons behind their strike at Verizon.

Members of the local unions there as elsewhere in New England and south through Virginia, have been on strike since Sunday. Rather than reward the hard work of Verizon employees who have provided the quality service that earned the company more than $32.5 billion in revenue over the past three years, management continues to insist on cuts that total $1 billion. That’s about $20,000 per Verizon family. These workers have played by the rules—and now Verizon wants to break them.

Union members from AFT, AFSCME, NALC, PSEA, PASNAP and UFCW joined the leafleting to show their support. Retired Letter Carriers (NALC) Local 157 member Joe Piette said he joined union members in leafleting because the strike is about more than just their negotiations with Verizon:

Workers are under attack. I’m here to support these strikers because we all need strong unions in this country.

The Philadelphia fans were overwhelmingly supportive of the workers, many stopping to talk with the union members about their strike and what it means for the middle class.

State Representative Bill Keller (D) joined the crowd to express his support for the Verizon strikers and to talk about the bigger picture.

We need to be talking about putting people back to work, not destroying the good middle class jobs we have. Labor is always with me and I’m standing with them.

Back Home, Lawmakers Are Asked: Where Are the Jobs?

2011-08-13T05:56:00.000-04:00

by Mike Hall, Aug 11, 2011

Back home for their long congressional recess, lawmakers are finding out right away what’s on the minds of most Americans today— Jobs. Duluth, Minn., resident Dan Kingsley, a member of Operating Engineers (IUOE) Local 49, says:

So many of these new people that were elected campaigned on jobs, jobs, jobs and we’ve really yet to see that develop and what they’re doing to help develop those jobs.

Kingsley and several dozen union and community activists rallied outside Rep. Chip Cravaavck’s (R-Minn.) district office Tuesday chanting “Jobs. Not Cuts.” Many later attended a town hall meeting in Deer River to hold Cravaavck accountable for his support of tax breaks for the wealthy and corporations instead of working for an economy that strengthens the middle class and creates jobs.

Similar scenes are being played out across the nation this August as part of a summer of accountability aimed organized by grassroots, community, faith and other groups including the AFL-CIO.

In Dunn., N.C., about 30 people gathered outside Rep. Renee Ellmers’ (R-N.C.) office calling for an end to tax breaks for the wealthy and for Congress to focus on the job crisis. Among them, Agnes Batts told WRAL News:

They should be standing up saying, “Tax the rich. Make them pay their fair share.”

While Rep. Lou Barletta (R-Pa.) was meeting with business groups in Wilkes-Barre, more than two dozen union and community activists were outside the private club to present him with a jobs report card.

Unable to meet with the Barletta, they made do with a life size cardboard cutout of the representative, who got a report card most of us would want to hide from our parents;
•Job Creation: F;
•Saving Jobs: F;
•Fair Taxes: F;
•Overall Job Performance: F.

Federal lawmakers aren’t the only ones being held accountable this summer. In Nashua, N.H., about 100 people held a “No Jobs fair” outside the statehouse. The delivered a “New Hampshire needs More Good Jobs Now” petition to the office of House Speaker Bill O’Brien (R). Says New Hampshire AFL-CIO President Mark McKenzie:

We want to draw attention to really what is one of the biggest problems in this country, which is the lack of really good jobs for people. I think whether you’re young or you’re old or you’re middle-aged, I think that’s a problem that faces us all.

Sandra Gagnon, a mother of two college age children facing higher tuition because of state budget cuts to education—including teacher layoffs–told the Associated Press:

When you cut public-sector jobs: teachers or police, firefighters, court workers…it essentially also results in a cut in private-sector jobs because the laid-off public workers now don’t have money to spend in their community.

The Arizona Daily Star reports that an overflow townhall meeting in Tucson “with progressives showing up in force” greeted Sen. John McCain with loud chants of “Where Are the Jobs.” When McCain said he wanted to cut the corporate tax rate, it triggered “a round of angry outbursts.”

As well it should have.

United Airlines Ramp/Fleet Workers Win IAM Representation

2011-08-13T05:46:00.000-04:00

Thu. August 11, 2011

The IAM emerged as the winner today in an election to determine union representation for more than 14,100 Fleet/Ramp workers at the new United Airlines, the carrier formed by the merger of United Airlines, Continental Airlines and Continental Micronesia.

The election, which was conducted by the National Mediation Board (NMB), was between the IAM, which represented 6,800 United Airlines Ramp/Fleet employees and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) which represented 7,300 Flight Ramp/Fleet workers at Continental Airlines and Continental Micronesia.

“The IAM won this election by utilizing an extensive network of highly energized organizers from all three carriers,” said IAM General Vice President Robert Roach, Jr.

While all Ramp/Fleet workers came into this election with existing representation, the quality of that representation became a campaign issue. The IBT negotiated an agreement that allowed Continental to outsource all Ramp/Fleet work, while IAM members at United have a contract that provided job security by guaranteeing work will be performed by United-IAM employees.

“Ramp employees chose the IAM because of the superior representation, compensation, benefits and job security we negotiate into our contracts,” said IAM District 141 President Rich Delaney.

For more information about the IAM’s United Airlines campaign, visit www.voteiam.com.

Voting Rights Still Key to FAA Reauthorization

2011-08-13T05:41:00.000-04:00

Thu. August 11, 2011

The short-term deal to get the FAA back in operation expires on September 16, 2011, and House GOP leaders are vowing to keep up their attacks on transportation worker voting rights that caused the almost two-week shutdown.

House Transportation Committee Chairman John Mica (R-FL) was willing to let the FAA shutdown to block the new democratic election rules put in place by the National Mediation Board (NMB). Mica inserted language to overturn the new rules in the House version of the FAA Reauthorization bill. By insisting on his version even in the face of the FAA shutdown, Mica put thousands of workers on furlough and cost the government hundreds of millions in lost ticket-tax revenue.

The new NMB representation election rules say winners are decided by a majority of people who actually vote, just like all other elections in the U.S. If the old NMB rules that count anyone who doesn’t vote as a “no” vote were applied to federal elections, not a single member of Congress would have won their last election.

The House and Senate must still come up with a final FAA funding bill before temporary funding runs out in September. "The House has made it clear that the anti-worker piece is a priority for them and they also put us on notice that they don't intend to give in," a spokesman for Sen. Jay Rockefeller, (D-WV)., chairman of a committee that oversees FAA, told the Associated Press. "So we are bracing for a new fight in September."

To block Mica’s power-play, voters must demand that the Democratic majority in the Senate stand up for transportation workers. Click here to send a message to Congress to protect worker voting rights in the FAA Reauthorization bill.

Puerto Rico Hosts 2011 LCLAA Conference

2011-08-13T05:36:00.000-04:00

Thu. August 11, 2011

IAM Assistant Political and Legislative Director Rick de la Fuente (left) and Southern Territory GVP Bob Martinez were part of a large IAM delegation attending the 2011 LCLAA Education Conference.

A glancing blow from Tropical Storm Emily failed to dampen the spirit of delegates at the 2011 LCLAA Education Conference, which was held in San Juan, Puerto Rico, on August 4 - 6. The conference was entitled "We Are One - Somos Uno.”

Featured presentations at the conference included a review of Public Laws 73, 7 and 45 in Puerto Rico's Public Sector as well as Strategies for Expanding Latino Union Representation, Green Jobs and Public Health. Additional topics included Educating for Success in the Union Youth movement, Black/Brown Coalitions, Voter Suppression and Emerging Challenges to the Civic Engagement of Communities of Color.

Southern Territory GVP Bob Martinez joined Puerto Rico’s Local 2725 and other IAM delegates for the conference. “It was a great opportunity for the trade unionists of Puerto Rico to host this year’s conference. Puerto Rico has a tradition of a strong labor movement, and we’re proud to be part of that movement,” said Martinez, who serves as LCLAA National Vice President.

U.S. Ratchets Up Pressure on Guatemala to Enforce Labor Laws

2011-08-11T09:11:00.000-04:00

by James Parks, Aug 10, 2011

The U.S. government is seeking arbitration against Guatemala for failing to enforce its own labor laws.

The Obama administration is ratcheting up the pressure on Guatemala to enforce its labor laws. Yesterday, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) announced it was moving forward with arbitration against Guatemala for violating fundamental labor rights under the Dominican Republic-Central American Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA).

Arbitration would be the third step in the process outlined under the DR-CAFTA, to compel a nation to enforce its labor obligations under the agreement. Last May, the United States requested a meeting of the Free Trade Commission—which includes ministers of the member countries—when consultations failed to resolve the dispute. The commission met last June.

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka applauds the decision, saying it protects workers’ safety and voices. Read his full statement here.

[The] announcement is an important milestone in the effort to enforce the obligations made in trade agreements and protect the rights of workers in the U.S. and overseas.

In 2008, the AFL-CIO and six Guatemalan unions filed a complaint with the Labor Department outlining the systemic failure of the government of Guatemala to enforce its own labor laws or to take reasonable action to prevent violence against trade unionists.

In 2009, the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) named Guatemala the second most dangerous country for trade unionists, behind Colombia. Click here to read a Solidarity Center report on workers’ rights in Guatemala.

U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk says, “We need to see concrete actions to protect the rights of workers as agreed under our trade agreement, and we are prepared to act to obtain enforcement of those rights when and where necessary.”

Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis adds:

This is the first labor case brought to dispute settlement by the United States under a free trade agreement. We are committed to ensuring that U.S. businesses and workers compete on a level playing field.

The Obama administration announced the action as it is gearing up to seek approval of the three pending free trade agreements with Korea, Colombia and Panama when Congress returns from the August recess. The three pending agreements all contain improved labor and environmental provisions, but those provisions still are not as strong as workers in the countries would like. The AFL-CIO recently reaffirmed its opposition to the Colombia deal.

JOBS Now!

2011-08-11T08:46:00.000-04:00

Over 31 million Americans need our help! Idled by this Grave Recession, the unemployed, involuntary part-time workers and discouraged job hunters have run out of options. They need JOBS Now!

JOBS Now!, a comprehensive strategy to put millions of unemployed Americans back to work immediately, calls for a second stimulus package, one focused on investing more in the manufacturing and transportation sectors of our economy and providing more skills training.

CareerOneStop, sponsored by the U. S. Department of Labor,Employment and Training Administration, provides important unemployment insurance information.

Tell Congress Support in 2012 Means Help for Jobless in 2011

Focus On Jobs - Not Attacking Unions!

JOBS! Facts:

15.1 million unemployed, 9.2 million involuntary part time workers, 5.6 million workers who looked for a job in the last year but could not find one, and 998,000 workers who dropped out of the workforce since May, 2009 -- that's over 31 million Americans idled by this Grave Recession.

Congress Must Vote "No" on Panama Trade Deal

2011-08-11T08:26:00.000-04:00

Wed. August 10, 2011

The Panama Free Trade Agreement is one of three pending Bush-negotiated free trade agreements (FTAs) lawmakers are now trying to ram through to final passage.

But Congress must vote “No” on the bad trade deal.

Panama is one of the world’s worst tax havens, allowing the rich and an estimated 400,000 corporations, including many U.S. firms, to dodge paying taxes our communities so desperately need. The country has consistently been criticized by tax and financial crime transparency watchdogs like the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Panamanian workers continue to face steep obstacles when it comes to exercising their fundamental rights. And according to the State Department, Panama is a main site of drug money laundering by Mexican and Colombian drug kingpins.

Click here to see the real truth behind this financial crime center.

“Not only does the Panama FTA not resolve these problems, it will make them worse,” explains IAM International President Tom Buffenbarger. “Under the trade deal, corporations registered in Panama would be newly empowered to directly challenge future U.S. anti-tax haven policies. And just like all other trade deals modeled after the failed North American Free Trade Agreement, claims of any real job creation are a complete and total fallacy. This will cost America more jobs and further undermine our country’s ability to pull itself out of economic turmoil.”

Congress must reject the seriously-flawed Panama FTA. Click “Like” on the IAM Facebook page to support fair trade, not free trade!

Wisconsin Working Families Win 2 of 6 in Recall Elections

2011-08-10T09:47:00.000-04:00

by Tula Connell, Aug 10, 2011

Wisconsin working families won two of six recall elections yesterday, ousting incumbent state senators who backed Republican Gov. Scott Walker’s attacks on the collective bargaining rights of public employees. Democrat Jessica King defeated Republican incumbent Randy Hopper in Senate District 18 and Democrat Jennifer Shilling (D) won over incumbent state Sen. Dan Kapanke (R) in Senate District 32. The victories narrow the Wisconsin Republican Senate majority to one.

The districts with recalls are in largely rural areas which have consistently elected Republicans–voters in one have not elected a Democrat since the late 1800s. Although Barack Obama carried Wisconsin by 14 points in 2008, no Democrat won in these disticts. A columnist for the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel examined the party make-up of the districts and concluded that Democrats faced a severe disadvantage. As Craig Gilbert wrote:

Democrats are running “uphill” in five of the six elections Tuesday, trying to capture districts that are more Republican than the state as a whole in their partisan makeup.

The elections are a wake up call for every governor who thinks about giving massive new tax giveaways to the rich while cutting the benefits and rights of hard-working middle-class families and every state lawmaker who tries to ram through pro-Wall Street, anti-community legislation.

More than 12,000 volunteers mobilized for months in recall districts, contacting more than 1 million voters and knocking on 125,000 doors just over this past weekend alone. Wisconsin will go to the polls again Aug. 16, in the final set of recall elections.

One race, which pitted Republican incumbent Roberta Darling against Democrat Sandy Pasche, was not called under early this morning because the vote counting was so slow. The district is partly in Waukesha County, where vote-counting troubles surfaced earlier this year when JoAnne Kloppenburg was defeated by Republican David Prosser in a state Supreme Court race. The Waukesha county clerk has a history of vote-counting errors, and following the Supreme Court race, the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel called for an investigation.

The other three Republican incumbents who held onto their seats are Walker ally state Sen. Robert Cowles (R), who survived a challenge by Nancy Nusbaum (D), incumbent state Sen. Shelia Harsdorf (R) over Sherry Moore (D) and Republican Olson over Luther Clark.

Support Growing for Verizon Strikers

2011-08-10T09:30:00.000-04:00

by James Parks, Aug 9, 2011

The strike by some 45,000 Verizon workers, members of the Communications Workers of America (CWA) and the Electrical Workers (IBEW), continued into its third day today as workers across the country offer support to the strikers, whose struggle reflects the situation for millions of workers.

Rather than reward the hard work of Verizon employees who have provided the quality service that earned the company more than $32.5 billion in revenue over the past three years, management continues to insist on cuts that total $1 billion. These workers have played by the rules—and now Verizon wants to break them.

Verizon’s concession demands would strip away the standard of living workers have gained through bargaining over the past 50 years, workers say.

It is all too common for workers to face the prospect of losing benefits even though you have worked hard and valued your work, IBEW President Edwin Hill says:

This is a company with a $100 billion dividend. The top five company executives were paid more than a quarter of a billion dollars over the past four years. If a company like this is not willing to provide wages and benefits to enable its workers to be part of the mainstream middle class in America, then all who work for a living have reason to fear.

Click here to demand that Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam value employees’ work and share his corporation’s success with those who make it possible. Click here for a list of picket sites in the New York and New Jersey area.

You also can click here to sign and tweet an act.ly petition demanding Verizon drop its outrageous concessionary demands.

To tweet about the strike, use the hashtag #verizonstrike and feel free to direct to @VZLaborfacts.

The company also paid nothing (that’s ZERO) in corporate income taxes. In fact, it actually received nearly $1 billion in tax benefits from the federal government during that time, according to the Citizens for Tax Justice (CTJ).

In fact, if Verizon had paid its corporate income tax at the official rate of 35 percent, it would have owed more than $11 billion, according to CTJ. This alone would have been enough to avoid the recent cuts in the debt deal to student loan programs.

Read updates on the strike at www.cwa-union.org/verizon.

Locked-Out Sugar Workers Call on Company to Negotiate

2011-08-10T09:04:00.000-04:00

by James Parks, Aug 9, 2011

Saying locked-out workers at the American Crystal Sugar Co. want to work and negotiate a fair contract, the local union president urged the company to come back to the bargaining table.

Some 1,300 American Crystal employees were locked out in three states Aug. 1 after the workers, members of Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers (BCTGM) Local 167G, rejected the company’s final offer by a more than nine-to-one margin.

Writing on the INFORUM website, Local 167G President John Riskey says management could stop this lockout immediately.

Union workers have never threatened a work stoppage. All we have asked is to keep working while we negotiate a contract that benefits the company, workers, farmers and the community.

Although the company has proposed wage increases, it also wants workers to pay more for health care insurance, which would negate the wage increases, says Riskey.

The longer the lockout lasts, he says, the worse it is for the local communities that depend on the plants. Read the full column here.

The lockout isn’t just hurting our families, it’s also hurting our local economy and this company’s standing in the community. We want to get back to work and back to the negotiating table.

American Crystal reportedly has hired replacement workers at its seven plants in Minnesota, North Dakota and Iowa. Contract negotiations to replace a seven-year contract began in May. The union has filed an unfair labor practice charge against American Crystal, claiming the company has not bargained in good faith.

Pensions Preserved in Hawker Beechcraft Contract

2011-08-10T08:46:00.000-04:00

Tue. August 09, 2011

Local 733 members in Wichita, KS ratified a new agreement with Hawker Beechcraft by a 69 percent margin. The five-year contract protects jobs and preserves the defined-benefit pension plan for current and future employees.

The contract also includes a new partnership agreement and guarantees job classifications will remain in Wichita, while providing training for workers who have been laid off. The contract covers 2,600 members at the Wichita facility.

“All of our aircraft manufacturing contracts in Wichita have good defined-benefit pension plans for everyone,” said Southern Territory General Vice President Bob Martinez. “We will continue to hold the line on pensions in Wichita.”

Senate Passes Temporary FAA Funding Measure

2011-08-10T08:42:00.000-04:00

Tue. August 09, 2011

The IAM applauds the Senate leadership for rising above the political games on Capitol Hill and passing a bi-partisan compromise to end the partial shutdown of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). As a result, over 4,000 FAA employees and tens of thousands of airport construction workers can go back to work.

The short-term extension expires on September 16, 2011, providing lawmakers with six weeks to resolve their differences with the full FAA Reauthorization bill.

Meanwhile, New Jersey Rep. Frank A. LoBiondo this week introduced the “Furloughed FAA Employees Compensation Act” that would grant the U.S. Secretary of Transportation the authority to pay the salaries and related benefits of those federal employees who were furloughed during the partial shutdown of the FAA.

The IAM strongly urges Congress to complete a final comprehensive FAA bill that provides real safety improvements and protects air and rail workers’ rights to organize.

A special thanks is due to the thousands of IAM members who contacted their Congressional representatives and urged them to end the unnecessary stalemate over the FAA short-term extension.

Buy Union & American Made Products

2011-08-08T12:51:00.000-04:00

Monday August 8, 2011
by Bob Campbell, Communicator IAM LL731

During a period in the mid 20th century American workers made superb, high quality products. But as the cost to make products increased, it cost more to buy the products. However, foreign companies found ways to make similar products cheaper and sell them cheaper to U.S. consumers. Shortly, American companies started to invest overseas to make their products cheaper (wages were and are cheaper overseas - corporate bottom line). The term is "outsourcing."

It makes no difference if it is jobs being done overseas such as call centers for American companies or products being made, in some cases using child labor, and the companies in America can no longeer compete.

American companies can compete. Consumers must change their way of shopping; stop buying foreign made products. If the products aren't selling then the company will stop inporting the products - again corporate bottom line.

When we starting buying American, then more jobs become available. More people working means more products become available. As volume increases prices will start to fall.

How do you know if a product is Union Made or even American Made? I have done research online and provide the following websites for you, the consumer.

What could be more American than beer?
http://www.unionplus.org/union-made/beers

Here are other websites for Union Made and American Made products.

http://www.unionlabel.com/

http://www.theunionshop.org/

http://www.unionmade.com/

http://www.imagepointe.com/store/

http://unionmadegoods.com/

http://www.unionplus.org/union-made/clothing

http://www.unionmadeclothing.com/

http://www.theunionbootpro.com/

http://www.americanaisle.com/

http://www.unionlabel.org/

http://ethixmerch.com/union-made

http://www.unionfriendly.com/

http://greatamericangeneralstore.com/catalog/

http://www.floridasnatural.com/?gclid=CKipsvSRwKoCFQgDbAodzHKvpg

And the granddaddy of them all - a list by category, brand and Union.
http://www.howtobuyamerican.com/content/db/b-db-american-union-made.shtml

Support your Union Sisters & Brothers by Buying Union Made and American Made products only. Let's put America back on its feet and keep YOUR dollars locally and in America.

45,000 Verizon Workers on Strike

2011-08-08T08:36:00.000-04:00

by Tula Connell, Aug 7, 2011

UPDATE: Tomorrow morning, Aug. 8, thousands of striking workers will join mass picket lines and rallies at more than 100 Verizon work locations across New York and New Jersey to push the highly profitable company to back off its sweeping demands. The list of picket lines and rallies is here: http://district1.cwa-union.org/news/entry/verizon_workers_fight_for_middle_class_jobs_-_join_the_picket_line

And in the Washington, D.C., area, you can show your support for striking workers at a mobilization rally Monday at noon at the Chesapeake Complex, 13100 Columbia Pike Silver Spring.

More than 45,000 workers from New England to Virginia went on strike just after midnight today at Verizon Communications. Since bargaining began July 22, Verizon has refused to move from a long list of concession demands. As the contract expired, Verizon, a $100 billion dollar company, was still was looking for $1 billion in concessions from 45,000 workers and families. That’s about $20,000 in givebacks for every family.nearly 100 concessionary proposals remained on the table.

This despite Verizon’s 2011 annualized revenues of $108 billion and net profits of $6 billion. At the same time, Verizon Wireless just paid its parent compny, Vodaphone, a $10 billion dividend. Meanwile, Verizon’s four top executives received $258 mllion over the past four years.

The workers, members of the Communications Workers of America (CWA) and the Electrical Workers (IBEW), say they are striking until Verizon “stops its Wisconsin-style tactics and start bargaining seriously.”

Read updates at www.cwa-union.org/verizon

Verizon already has outsourced some 25,000 jobs. It’s trying to destroy middle-class jobs and the middle-class standard of living that workers have gained over the past 50 years.

Follow the events on Twitter with the hashtag #verizonstrike and direct tweets to @VZLaborfacts.

Black Foreign-Born Workers Have Highest Jobless Rate

2011-08-08T08:28:00.000-04:00

by James Parks, Aug 7, 2011

A new study dispels the myth that immigrant workers are taking good-paying jobs away from American-born workers. According to “The Low Wages of Black Immigrants” released last week by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), black workers, whether they were born in the United States or in a foreign country, have the highest unemployment rate, period.

In the United States, the black unemployment rate in July was 15.9 percent, compared with an overall rate of 9.1 percent. The 12.4 percent jobless rate among black immigrant workers last year was slightly higher than for Hispanic immigrants (11.3 percent) and significantly higher than for white (7.4 percent) and Asian immigrants (7.3 percent).

At the same time, black workers, whether native-born or immigrant, earn significantly less than white workers, the report shows. This is especially true for men. U.S.-born black men earn 19.1 percent less than white men while black immigrant men from English-speaking Caribbean countries earn 20.7 percent less. Haitian men (33.8 percent less) and African men (34.7 percent less) do substantially worse than any other group.

All groups of black women have lower weekly wages than similar U.S.-born white women, but the size of the wage gaps is smaller for women than it is for men.

The report’s co-authors, Patrick Mason, economics professor at Florida State University, and Algernon Austin, director of EPI’s Race, Ethnicity and the Economy program, point out that it’s not a matter of education that cretaes the job and wage gap for blacks. In 2008, more than one-third of African immigrants (36.6 percent) had at least a bachelor’s degree, compared with 29.5 percent of whites. A higher percentage of native-born blacks (32 percent) had high school education than whites (30 percent), according to the study.

The EPI study follows a U.S. Labor Department report released last month that shows African Americans lag behind the rest of the nation in the slow economic recovery. Other studies show that blacks are disproportionately hurt by cuts in public employment and attacks on public workers.

Mason and Austin said their study makes it clear that:

because this disadvantage in the labor market affects both U.S.- and foreign-born blacks, it points to a problem that stems from race and not cultural background.

Read the full report, “The Low Wages of Black Immigrants,” here.

Help Locked-Out American Crystal Workers

2011-08-08T08:18:00.000-04:00

by James Parks, Aug 5, 2011

The 1,300 locked-out employees at American Crystal Sugar Co. in three states need your help. The members of Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers (BCTGM) Local 167G have been locked out since Aug. 1 after they rejected the company’s final offer by a nine-to-one margin.

American Crystal reportedly has hired replacement workers at its seven plants in Minnesota, North Dakota and Iowa. Negotiations to replace a seven-year contract began in May. The union has filed an unfair labor practice charge against American Crystal, claiming the company has not bargained in good faith.

You can help the American Crystal workers, who want to work and who are standing up for workers’ rights by signing a petition here telling American Crystal’s CEO Dave Berg to not turn his back on the community.

You also can contribute to the Sugar Beet Workers fund that will help workers during the hardship faced while being locked out. Make checks out to: Minnesota AFL-CIO, 175 Aurora Ave., St. Paul, MN 55103. In the memo line, print “BCTGM Lockout 2011.”

Republican Shutdown of FAA Over—For Now

2011-08-08T08:12:00.000-04:00

by Mike Hall, Aug 5, 2011

The Republican shutdown for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is over—for now—and the 4,000 furloughed FAA workers will return to work Monday and 70,000 construction workers should be back on the job soon now that airport improvement funds will flow again.

The Senate—even though it was adjourned—approved a House-passed bill that extends FAA funding until Sept. 16. That was possible because it was in what is known as pro forma session. Here’s how The Associated Press described it:

Employing the so-called “unanimous consent” procedure which took less than 30 seconds, two senators were present to approve a House-passed bill extending FAA’s operating authority through mid-September.

Democratic Sen. James Webb of Virginia stood up, called up the bill and asked that it be passed. Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., the presiding officer, agreed and it was done.

The House-passed temporary extension of FAA funding authority eliminated some rural air service subsidies that senators objected to, but news report indicate that the Obama administration will be able to waive or otherwise negate those cuts.

But the real reason behind the Republican shutdown remains. House Republicans want to overturn democratic union election rules for aviation and rail workers. House Transportation Committee Chairman Rep. John Mica (Fla.) admitted the rural air subsidy “poison pill” in the temporary extension was a ploy to pressure to pressure senators to go along with overturning the fair election rules adopted last year by the National Mediation Board (NMB).

Those rules say air and rail elections should be decided by a majority of votes cast. Previously under the Railway Labor Act (RLA), which covers rail and airline workers, each worker who did not cast a vote in a representation election was automatically counted as a “No” vote.

BTW, if Mica ran for Congress under the election rules he wants for rail and aviation workers, he wouldn’t be a member of Congress.

The long-term FAA reauthorization bill in the House would overturn the fair election rules. The Senate version does not. House leaders say they will continue their fight to deny workers the right to a fair election. So Sept. 16, we might be facing another shutdown.

AFL-CIO Calls for End to ‘Fake Political Crises’

2011-08-08T08:00:00.000-04:00

Thu. August 04, 2011

Instead of addressing the real economic crisis taking place in the homes of everyday Americans, Washington has instead chosen to ignore it and continuously distract the American public with fake political crises of their own, says members of the AFL-CIO Executive Council is a statement released Wednesday.

“The United States is in a continuing and severe jobs crisis. Yet Washington is inexplicably focused on measures that will make the situation worse—both in the short and long run,” reads the statement. “Our nation’s leaders are offering working people the choice between bad and worse policies. Instead of addressing our profound economic crisis, they are adding to it an unending series of fake political crises. It doesn’t have to be this way. There are real solutions to the jobs crisis, but real solutions require government action.”

The AFL-CIO Executive Council calls on Washington leadership to act. “Republican congressional leaders have made their agenda crystal clear—paralyze the government and hold our economy hostage until a multitrillion-dollar ransom is paid to their contributors in the form of tax cuts for the wealthy and for multinational corporations. Unfortunately, far too many Democrats have been either silent or complicit in the Republicans’ scheme. We expect Democrats at every level of government to stand tall for progressive principles, working families and the American labor movement. We need their leadership—not their excuses or apologies,” wrote the Council.

Labor leaders say the voice of the labor movement is clear: labor opposes any measure that will take away American jobs and/or further tie the hands of working families. “We oppose any cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid benefits—no matter where they come from and that includes the Oval Office,” said labor leaders. “We need a tax code that asks the rich to pay their fair share. We oppose corporate tax reform that is merely ‘revenue neutral’ amid calls for ‘shared sacrifice.’ We oppose the Korea, Panama and the Colombia free trade agreements. And we will fight with every means we have against those who would take away the right to vote through a new generation of poll taxes and literacy tests.”

For a look at the complete statement, click here.

GVP Roach Named to Succeed GST Mart

2011-08-08T07:56:00.000-04:00

Thu. August 04, 2011

From left, IAM International President Tom Buffenbarger, General Secretary-Treasurer Warren Mart and General Vice President Robert Roach, Jr. at the IAM Transportation Conference after the announcement that GVP Roach will succeed GST Mart after Mart retires.

In keeping with the IAM tradition of reaching into the ranks for leadership and experience, International President Tom Buffenbarger announced at the IAM Transportation Conference that Transportation General Vice President Robert Roach, Jr. will succeed Warren L. Mart as General Secretary-Treasurer when Mart retires at the end of this year.

“Robert Roach has led the Transportation Department through the challenges of de-regulation, bankruptcies and consolidations and has always fought to protect our transportation members,” said IP Buffenbarger. “He will bring that same commitment to his new post as General Secretary-Treasurer.” Roach first joined the IAM when he was a Ramp serviceman for TWA. He held numerous positions in his local lodge, served as a District 142 General Chairperson, a Special Representative, a Grand Lodge Representative and then became the General Vice President for Transportation in 1999.

“Warren Mart is retiring after an extraordinary union career that’s spanned more than four decades. During his tenure as General Secretary-Treasurer, he helped guide this union and its members through some of the biggest economic challenges in a generation,” declared Buffenbarger. “Warren Mart was instrumental in ensuring that the IAM will remain financially secure for the next generation of IAM members. We thank him for his many years of service and wish him a happy, healthy and long retirement.”

Mart has served as General Secretary-Treasurer since 2003. He also serves as the Co-Chairperson of the IAM National Pension Fund and the IAM Health and Benefit Trust Fund. Before becoming GST, Mart served as the General Vice President of the Eastern Territory, was a Special Representative and a Grand Lodge Representative, a Directing Business Representative of IAM District Lodge 153, held numerous offices in affiliated labor organizations in Indiana and a host of positions in his local lodge. Mart first joined the IAM when he worked as a welder at Arkla Air Conditioning in Evansville, Indiana.

Violations Prompt Protest in Flight Attendant Election

2011-07-13T09:35:00.000-04:00

Tue. July 12, 2011

The IAM officially notified the National Mediation Board (NMB), United Airlines and the Communication Workers of America - Association of Flight Attendants (CWA-AFA) that it is protesting the conduct of the recent representation election for Flight Attendants at United Airlines, Continental Airlines and Continental Micronesia.

According to evidence provided by Flight Attendants at United, Continental and Continental Micronesia, the CWA-AFA engaged in at least five major breaches of the NMB’s voting rules. Additionally, United Airlines violated election rules to favor CWA.

“The repeated disregard for NMB election rules and the overt violations by the CWA and United/Continental management have placed the entire election process on trial,” said IAM Transportation GVP Robert Roach, Jr. “The NMB must act to rectify this injustice and restore confidence in its election procedures.”

The IAM’s complete submission to the NMB is posted below. All Flight Attendants are urged to download and review the documents to understand the breadth of the CWA’s violations. There is no set timeframe for the NMB to address the IAM’s protest.

IAM Protest: Document 1, Document 2, Document 3

Voting Underway for United & Continental Fleet Workers

2011-07-13T08:08:00.000-04:00

Tue. July 12, 2011

IAM-represented Ramp workers at United Airlines and Fleet Service workers at Continental and Continental Micronesia - who are represented by another union - began voting this week by phone and internet in a representation election conducted by the National Mediation Board (NMB).

The NMB began mailing voting instructions to more than 13,000 eligible voters on July 7 and the voting period will continue until 2 PM ET on August 11.

After July 12, any eligible voter who has not received or lost their voting instructions and unique VIN and PIN identification numbers can request a new set by mailing a signed request to the NMB.

Simply print and complete this duplicate Telephone and Internet Voting Instructions request form, place it in an envelope, affix the postage and mail it to the address on the form. Forms will also be available from IAM Representatives. The NMB does not accept telephone or fax requests. The NMB must receive your request by August 5, 2011.

The election is the second in a series of representation elections triggered by the merger of United and Continental. The IAM has represented Ramp workers at United since 1948.

IAM, Hawker Beechcraft Begin Negotiations for 2,600

2011-07-13T08:04:00.000-04:00

Tue. July 12, 2011

IAM Local 733 Bargaining Committee: Front Row, L to R: Chief of Staff to the International President Diane Babineaux, District 70 Directing Business Representative Steve Rooney, Aerospace Coordinator Ron Eldridge, Southern Territory General Vice President Bob Martinez, International President Tom Buffenbarger, Headquarters General Vice President Richard Michalski, District 70 Assistant Directing Business Representative Rita Rogers, LL733 Negotiator Marcus German, LL 733 Negotiator Shaun Junkins, LL 733 Negotiator Sam Humble, LL 733 Negotiator Tim Franta.

Back Row, L to R: Southern Territory Communications Representative Bob Wood, LL 733 2nd Shift Plant Chair Joe Kniep, District 70 Secretary-Treasurer Judy Pierce, District 70 Business Representative Becky Ledbetter, District 70 Business Representative Steve Groom, District 70 Business Representative Michael Burleigh, District 70 Business Representative Tony Larkin, Special Representative Mark Love, Strategic Resources Research Associate Andrew Buffenbarger.

Opening remarks by IAM International President Tom Buffenbarger and Hawker Beechcraft CEO Bill Boisture in Wichita, KS set the stage for the negotiations that will lead to a new contract for 2,600 IAM members at Hawker.

Kicking off the negotiations for 2,600 IAM members at Hawker Beechcraft, IAM President Tom Buffenbarger (left) and Hawker Beechcraft CEO Bill Boisture voiced similar concerns about the state of the general aviation industry.

Buffenbarger praised the skill and resolve of workers at Hawker in the midst of the industry’s worst downturn in decades. “We’re not afraid to speak out when we’re attacked,” declared Buffenbarger, who noted the IAM’s aggressive defense of the industry in the face of disparaging comments by President Obama and others about the use of business aircraft.

Hawker Beechcraft CEO Boisture also referenced President Obama’s disparaging remarks about business jets, calling the Obama Administration “no friend to our industry or our working people.”

Wichita’s largest newspaper, The Wichita Eagle, weighed in with an editorial titled ‘Stop the Jet Bashing.’ The editorial cites New York University law professor Richard A. Epstein, who derided the “cheap political populism” and “primitive economics” of the president’s rhetoric.

The general aviation industry supports a $1.2 billion annual payroll and generates an overall economic impact of $150 billion. The proposal to eliminate the depreciation on corporate jets would raise a scant $3 billion in tax revenue over a decade — less than a drop in the bucket of a $14.34 trillion national debt.

Opening remarks from President Buffenbarger and CEO Boisture, as well as a Q&A from media are available are available at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=quhQed334bw.

NLRB Proposes New Union Election Rules

2011-06-24T09:50:00.000-04:00

Thu. June 23, 2011

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has proposed new union representation rules that ensure workers can freely exercise one basic right we hold dear in this country – the right to vote.

The new rules would make union representation elections fairer by simplifying procedures, deferring litigation and setting shorter deadlines for hearings and filings. Currently when workers petition the NLRB for an election, it can take months and even years before they can cast a vote. Companies often use this time to threaten, scare and discourage workers from voting. Many hire “union busting” consulting firms who assist the company in deterring employees.

Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA), Chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, released a statement in response to the NLRB proposal saying the new rules are about fairness and rebuilding the middle class. “A key part of rebuilding the middle class is ensuring that every American worker has the same right that powerful CEOs take for granted—the right to sign a contract ensuring fair treatment on the job,” said Sen. Harkin. “The rules don't encourage unionization or discourage it —workers get to make the decision that is best for them. But preserving this right brings some balance to the system, so that the deck isn’t always stacked against ordinary working people and in favor of the wealthy and the powerful.”

The NLRB will take 75 days to review comments and replies before making a decision on whether the rules should become final.

Unions Respond to Devastating Montana Floods

2011-06-22T09:23:00.000-04:00

AFL-CIO Community Services Director Will Fischer reports on the flood relief efforts unions are mounting in Montana.

Montana has been hit hard by a series of recent severe storms coupled with runoff from mountain snow melt. The combination has caused serious flooding across the state. Forty-eight of the state’s 56 counties have declared flood emergencies and federal disaster declarations have been issued for 31 counties, plus four American Indian reservations.

The central Montana town of Roundup has been completely submerged in floodwaters. In northeast Montana, there is massive flooding in the town of Glasgow. The Crow Indian Reservation in southeastern Montana has been devastated by floodwaters displacing hundreds from their homes, and forcing more than 50 families to live in a gymnasium.

The Montana State AFL-CIO is working with coalition partners Montana Organizing Project, Forward Montana, along with central labor councils and union members throughout the state to coordinate a response effort to bring supplies to those in need and protect homes and other public buildings from water damage.

The Missoula Area Central Labor Council is collecting donations at the union hall from members in the western region of the state. In Great Falls, the Labor Temple in Great Falls is a drop off point for donations as well.

Electrical Workers (IBEW) Region 5 lead organizer Bob Brock is spearheading a volunteer operation in Butte to pick up supplies from donors and delivering them to the Carpenters (UBC) union hall for distribution. Also, Operating Engineers (IUOE) Local 400 is offering the use of its and the Teamsters (IBT) are lending their vans to transport relief directly to the hardest hit communities.

AFSCME members in central Montana have been building earthen berms to help control the floodwaters that are threatening residential areas of Livingston. Union members in Missoula, Helena and Billings have come out in force to help with sandbagging efforts. Fire Fighters (IAFF) union has volunteered countless hours to help neighbors and friends protect their homes. Says Montana State AFL-CIO Executive Secretary Al Ekblad:

So much of what we aim to do when improving workplace standards is anchored in fostering stronger, healthier communities. It’s not surprising that our long tradition of raising standards would be employed by union members as volunteers in their community, long after the workday is over. In a community crisis, we’re just people helping people.

If you wish to donate to the Montana flood relief efforts you may send a check payable to “Montana State AFL-CIO Flood Victims Fund” to Montana State AFL-CIO, 810 Hialeah Court, Helena, MT 59601 or click here to donate online to the Montana State AFL-CIO – Union Community Fund.

NYU Teaching Assistants Move Closer to Union Recognition

2011-06-22T09:13:00.001-04:00

by James Parks, Jun 20, 2011

Research and teaching assistants at New York University (NYU) last week moved one step closer to regaining their rights under federal law to form a union and bargain for improvements at work.

Graduate assistants won a major victory in 2010, when the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ordered a new hearing on a ruling, which had prevented some 1,800 graduate assistants at NYU from voting for union representation. The board based its ruling on a 2004 NLRB decision that graduate teaching and research assistants were not employees and could not form a union.

Last week, in the NLRB-ordered hearing, acting NLRB Regional Director Elbert Tellem accepted the key claim presented by the assistants, members of Graduate Student Organizing Committee/UAW (GSOC/UAW Local 2110), that they are university employees.

“This decision clearly recognizes that we are employees, who work for and receive compensation from NYU,” said Jan Padios, a teaching assistant in NYU’s Department of Social and Cultural Analysis.

We’re glad we got a timely ruling. Now we’re going to take this case to the National Labor Relations Board in Washington, D.C., and claim our rights as workers.

UAW President Bob King praised the NYU employees’ resolve.

Our members at NYU have been an amazing example for all of us in the UAW. A very narrow, very partisan decision by the labor board in 2004 tried to strip them of their rights, but these workers know better. They’re standing firm, and we’re proud to stand with them.

Because of precedent of the 2004 decision, the case now goes to the full NLRB.

The NYU teaching and research assistants have repeatedly demonstrated majority support for their union, most recently verified in April 2010 by the American Arbitration Association. The student employees held a mass rally in April 2010 where a large majority of the students signed the petition to the NLRB (see video above).

Unions Use Paris Air Show Video to Spotlight High-Skilled Washington Aerospace Workforce

2011-06-22T08:50:00.000-04:00

by Mike Hall, Jun 21, 2011

The Paris Air Show—the largest and most prestigious in the world—draws thousands of aviation and aerospace companies looking for new products and technology and, in many cases, new manufacturing locations.

This year, representatives from Machinists (IAM) District 751 and SPEEA/International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers Local 2001—their high-skilled members work at the Boeing Co.—are joining with Washington State officials to showcase the state’s aerospace industry and workforce.

The video above—produced by Kathy Cummings, Washington State Labor Council (WSLC) communications director—will be showing at the Washington State Pavilion at the Le Bourget Airport in Paris. In it union workers talk about the pride they take in producing the world’s best airliners, the skill and education level of the workers not just at Boeing, but throughout the states’ aerospace workforce that numbers about 84,000 people at 650 companies.

SPEEA member Michael Hochberg says that if he was “an aerospace company and wanted to find,”

a large pool of talented people to help me make airplanes or make other aerospace products, I would think the Puget Sound is a great place because we have literally generations of people who have worked in airplanes, kids who have grown up with aerospace…it’s just an amazing place to do business for an aerospace company.

The workers also talk about the positive role unions play making a quality product. Says SPEEA member Jennifer McKay:

I think a union is really an airline customer’s best friend and it’s a shareholder’s best friend. It’s a place that can work with the company’s leaders to make sure the right things happen, so that our products can be efficient and in the most cost-effective manner that we can get them out of here.

New NLRB Rules ‘Modest Step to Election Fairness’

2011-06-22T08:44:00.000-04:00

by Mike Hall, Jun 21, 2011

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) this morning released proposed changes in the way union representation elections are conducted that the NLRB says will “reduce unnecessary barriers to the fair and expeditious resolution of questions concerning representation.”

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka says the proposed changes are a “modest step to remove roadblocks and reduce unnecessary and costly litigation—and that’s good news for employers as well as employees. But he adds:

The proposed rule does not address many of the fundamental problems with our labor laws, but it will help bring critically needed fairness and balance to this part of the process.

Trumka says the rules “appear to be a common sense approach to clean up an outdated system and help ensure that working women and men can make their own choice about whether to form a union.”

When workers want to vote on a union, they should get a fair chance to vote. That’s a basic right. But our current system has become a broken, bureaucratic maze that stalls and stymies workers’ choices. And that diminishes the voice of working people, creates imbalance in our economy and shrinks the middle class.

Because the changes will clean up a system plagued by delays, bureaucracy and litigation, the rule is good for employers, employees and taxpayers who foot the bill.

The proposed changes would:

•Allow for electronic filing of election petitions and other documents.
•Ensure that employees, employers and unions receive and exchange timely information they need to understand and participate in the representation case process.
•Standardize timeframes for parties to resolve or litigate issues before and after elections.
•Require parties to identify issues and describe evidence soon after an election petition is filed to facilitate resolution and eliminate unnecessary litigation.
•Defer litigation of most voter eligibility issues until after the election.
•Require employers to provide a final voter list in electronic form soon after the scheduling of an election, including voters’ telephone numbers and email addresses when available.
•Consolidate all election-related appeals to the Board into a single post-election appeals process and thereby eliminate delay in holding elections currently attributable to the possibility of pre-election appeals.
Make Board review of post-election decisions discretionary rather than mandatory.

Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, says that a key part to rebuilding the middle class “is ensuring that every American worker has the same right that powerful CEOs take for granted—the right to sign a contract ensuring fair treatment on the job.”

The [NLRB’s] modernized election rules take an important step forward in making this right a reality. By giving workers the right to a fair, up-or-down vote, the rules don’t encourage unionization or discourage it —workers get to make the decision that is best for them. But preserving this right brings some balance to the system, so that the deck isn’t always stacked against ordinary working people and in favor of the wealthy and the powerful.

Trumka warns that while the proposed changes are modest, he expects that in “poisonous political environment” there will be a torrent of attacks from politicians and ideologues opposed to any protection of workers’ rights.” Such opposition is pure politics, part of unprecedented attacks on workers’ rights. Whether you’re a teacher, firefighter or nurse’s aide – right-wing legislators and their corporate funders have made it clear that their ultimate aim is to take away workers’ rights on the job

We call on leaders from both sides of the aisle to defend the independence of the NLRB. Political interference with any independent agency sets a dangerous precedent that should not be tolerated.

Click here for a fact sheet and summary of the proposed changes from the NLRB.

IAM Charges GOP Senator with Ethics Violations in Boeing Case

2011-06-22T08:39:00.000-04:00

Tue. June 21, 2011

Lindsey Graham, U.S. Senator, R-SC

The IAM released a letter sent to the Senate Select Committee on Ethics calling for an investigation into South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham’s conduct and statements regarding the National Labor Relations Board’s (NLRB) pending complaint against the Boeing Company.

The IAM letter cites potentially unethical efforts by Sen. Graham and others to pressure NLRB Acting General Counsel Lafe Solomon to drop the law enforcement proceeding against Boeing.

“I believe that prior to the issuance of the Boeing complaint on April 20 th, Senator Lindsey Graham communicated with NLRB Acting General Counsel Lafe Solomon in one or more attempts to pressure him not to do so,” said IAM General Counsel Chris Corson. “I also believe that these communications included threats that the Senator would seek to defund or otherwise adversely affect the funding of the NLRB if the Boeing complaint were pursued.”

The IAM letter also cites a letter from Sen. Graham to President Obama, in which Graham declares he will pursue sanctions against Solomon and the NLRB even if it turns out that the NLRB’s law enforcement action against Boeing is upheld.

“I don’t believe that a Senator or any other politician should be trying to interfere with and prevent a law enforcement trial,” said Corson, who cited possible violation of Senate Rule 43. “Americans expect law enforcement to be there for them when they are victimized by discrimination or other unlawful behavior. When politicians intervene on behalf of a rich businessman or corporation in order to stop law enforcement from doing its job, our Constitution and rule of law are put in jeopardy.”

To view full text of the IAM letter, click here.

Wisconsin Conservative Justices Uphold Walker Budget Bill

2011-06-22T08:32:00.000-04:00

Tue. June 21, 2011

A narrow conservative majority on the Wisconsin State Supreme Court upheld GOP Governor Scott Walker’s union-busting budget bill and cleared the way for its implementation. The court’s decision to vacate an injunction against the bill by lower court judge Maryann Sumi is highly suspect.

The court ignored relevant facts and decided the case the same day it agreed to hear it. “This court gives this important case short shrift. Today the majority announces for the first time that it is accepting this case. And today the majority decides the case,” noted Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson in a stinging dissent.

Abrahamson said the conservative majority on the court “make their own findings of fact, mischaracterize the parties’ arguments, misinterpret statutes, minimize (if not eliminate) Wisconsin constitutional guarantees, and misstate case law, appearing to silently overrule case law dating back to at least 1891.”

A key vote in the conservative majority decision came from David Prosser, who initially lost a re-election bid to progressive candidate JoAnne Kloppenburg in April. More than 24 hours after the polls closed with Kloppenburg in the lead, Republican Waukesha County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus “found” thousands of votes and the race went to Prosser.

Walker’s union-busting budget bill still faces challenges in federal court as several groups, including a coalition of unions, have filed suits against the bill.

UCubed Attends 6th Annual Netroots Nation Convention

2011-06-22T07:45:00.000-04:00

Tue. June 21, 2011

The Union of Unemployed (UCubed) joined thousands of labor activists and progressive bloggers at the 2011 Netroots Nation Convention in Minneapolis, MN.

Dozens visited the UCubed booth for brochures, a chance to see UCubed’s newest online political ad The Game, to ask questions about UCubed’s 21–point Hire US, America plan and to receive free JOBS Now! t-shirts.

The sixth annual gathering included speeches, workshops and panels led by national and international experts, including a keynote address by Minnesota Sen. Al Franken. “Our movement is about putting the concerns of working families at the forefront of our national agenda,” said Sen. Franken. “I urge you all to stand up for the America our movement helped to build. Stand up for the principle that we should grow together, instead of growing apart. Stand up for the principle that we all do better when we all do better. We have a tough fight ahead, but it’s one that we have to win.”

Other speakers included AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler who called out the conservative agenda for its attack on workers and showed how the decline in union membership is correlated to a decline in the middle class. “No individual worker. No single union. No one progressive activist or one single blogger alone can counter the entrenched, money-drenched power of corporations and the wealthy,” said Shuler. “But together, we have a chance. That’s the one thing I hope I leave you with. Together, we actually have a chance.”

Former Wisconsin Senator Russ Feingold, Rep. Debra Wasserman-Schultz (D-FL) and White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer also spoke to convention attendees. For a complete recap of the week’s events, click here.

Photo Contest Deadline Extended to July 8

2011-06-22T07:37:00.000-04:00

Tue. June 21, 2011

Don’t miss your chance to have your photo featured in the 2012 IAM Calendar! The deadline for the IAM Photo Contest has been extended to July 8, 2011. The annual IAM Photo Contest showcases IAM members and the many jobs they do. Photos should be of IAM or TCU members in good standing and taken by an IAM or TCU member in good standing. Winning photos will be featured in the 2012 IAM Calendar. Click here for the official call, contest rules and entry forms. Click here to see the winners of the 2010 photo contest.

Supreme Court sides with Wal-Mart in major sex-discrimination case

2011-06-20T11:02:00.001-04:00

Breaking News Alert: Supreme Court sides with Wal-Mart in major sex-discrimination case
June 20, 2011 10:31:32 AM
----------------------------------------

The Supreme Court has ruled for Wal-Mart in its fight to block a massive sex discrimination lawsuit on behalf of women who work there.

The court ruled unanimously Monday that the lawsuit against Wal-Mart Stores Inc. cannot proceed as a class action, reversing a decision by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. The lawsuit could have involved up to 1.6 million women, with Wal-Mart facing potentially billions of dollars in damages.

http://link.email.washingtonpost.com/r/X109GB/ZBVIEP/72UKLG/63W1PV/RXHBG/FW/h

Check Out Our New Collective Bargaining Site

2011-06-18T06:32:00.001-04:00

by Mike Hall, Jun 17, 2011

This morning, we launched a new website—Collective Bargaining: Real people. Real Impact—that serves up facts, fun and real-world stories about what the power to bargain means to working people. The site features a trio of videos we produced with Laughing Liberally to convey the importance of collective bargaining with humor, showing just how bad things can get if workers don’t have a voice at the bargaining table. Pay cuts, benefit attacks and “Paid Child Fun Time” are just some of the schemes hatched by bosses who have the table to themselves—and not even a pizza party makes those any easier to swallow.

Until Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, Ohio Gov. John Kasich and Republican politicians in a dozen other states set out to eliminate collective bargaining rights for public employees, the public didn’t hear much about that bedrock of unionism. Now there is a growing movement to defend this fundamental right, and Collective Bargaining: Real People. Real Impact helps spread the message.

Collective bargaining enables working people who are union members to negotiate with their employers to determine their terms of employment, including pay, benefits, hours, leave, health and safety policies, ways to balance work and family and more. Bottom line: It gives working people a voice at the table.

On the website, working men and women tell what collective bargaining means to them in another series of videos. AFGE member Michael Gravinese says collective bargaining is important because:

It provides a vehicle in the workplace for fairness and equity for all. What I’ve gained from collective bargaining is the ability to have a voice in the workplace, a structured voice. Without that, a collective bargaining agreement, in essence management dictates.

There’s an old saying that says a rising tide lifts all boats and that’s what happens when you have a collective bargaining agreement. All workers, members, nonmembers, they benefit from that collective bargaining agreement, it lifts all of them.

Virgilio Aran and Linda Oalican talk about how collective action can improve the lives of domestic workers and Racine, Wis., firefighter Mike DeGarmo discusses the fight against Walker’s assault on collective bargaining.

The attack on workers and collective bargaining has been so outlandish this year, sometimes it’s hard to figure out if what you are hearing is real or not. Find out with our “Real or Not” quiz.

Click here to explore the new site at CollectiveBargainingFacts.com and be sure to share it with your friends on Facebook and Twitter.

IAM Charges GOP Senator with Ethics Violations in Boeing Case

2011-06-18T06:23:00.000-04:00

Fri. June 17, 2011

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Washington, D.C., June 17, 2011 – The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) today released a letter sent to the Senate Select Committee on Ethics calling for an investigation into South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham’s conduct and statements regarding the National Labor Relations Board’s (NLRB) pending complaint against the Boeing Company.

The IAM letter cites potentially unethical efforts by Sen. Graham and others to pressure NLRB Acting General Counsel Lafe Solomon to drop the law enforcement proceeding against Boeing.

“I believe that prior to the issuance of the Boeing complaint on April 20th, Senator Lindsey Graham communicated with NLRB Acting General Counsel Lafe Solomon in one or more attempts to pressure him not to do so,” said IAM General Counsel Chris Corson. “I also believe that these communications included threats that the Senator would seek to defund or otherwise adversely affect the funding of the NLRB if the Boeing complaint were pursued.”

The IAM letter also cites a letter from Sen. Graham to President Obama, in which Graham declares he will pursue sanctions against Solomon and the NLRB even if it turns out that the NLRB’s law enforcement action against Boeing is upheld.

“I don’t believe that a Senator or any other politician should be trying to interfere with and prevent a law enforcement trial,” said Corson, who cited possible violation of Senate Rule 43. “Americans expect law enforcement to be there for them when they are victimized by discrimination or other unlawful behavior. When politicians intervene on behalf of a rich businessman or corporation in order to stop law enforcement from doing its job, our Constitution and rule of law are put in jeopardy.”

To view full text of the IAM letter, click here.

The IAM represents more than 25,000 Boeing workers and is among the largest industrial trade unions in North America, with nearly 700,000 active and retired members in dozens of industries. For more information about the IAM, visit www.goiam.org.

Choose Union: Raise a Glass for the Working Class

2011-06-17T07:59:00.000-04:00

by Manny Herrmann, Jun 16, 2011

When you’re out with friends on a beautiful summer Thursday night in Minneapolis, Minn., supporting good union jobs might not be the first thing that comes to mind. At the Netroots Nation Conference, we’re working to change that. One glass of beer at a time.

Here at the conference, all you have to do is take actions that support workers’ rights, like signing up for Working America and taking our Real or Not Quiz, to get free union-made beer to wash down your union-made Pop Tarts (distributed the Alliance for American Manufacturing booth).

Today, I washed down my frosted brown sugar cinnamon Pop Tarts (made by the United Steelworkers) with two excellent union-made beers: Schnell’s Zommerfest from New Ulm, Minn., a local farming community just under two hours from Minneapolis, and Leinenkugel’s, from Chippawa Falls, Wis.

Wish you were here? Well, soon you’ll soon be able to sign up for Netroots Nation 2012. But until then, I’d recommend you sample these great union-made beers.

New Jersey Union Members Arrested Protesting Bill to End Collective Bargaining

2011-06-17T07:49:00.000-04:00

This is a cross post from the New Jersey State AFL-CIO.

Thousands of working men and women protested the New Jersey Statehouse today against legislation that would effectively eliminate public employee collective bargaining rights over health care benefits. Chanting “Kill the bill” and “Worker rights are human rights,” 25 union members, including New Jersey State AFL-CIO President Charles Wowkanech and Secretary-Treasurer Laurel Brennan were arrested for disorderly conduct.

“It is with a heavy heart that we even had to be here today to testify against a piece of legislation that would destroy collective bargaining rights for thousands of taxpaying working men and women,” Wowkanech said.

…we had to stand up for the right to collectively bargain, just as we did for project labor agreements, paid family leave, prevailing wage and card check in the public sector.

Only through collective bargaining do workers have a voice – and those who vote for this legislation will be voting to silence the voices of approximately 500,000 workers,” Wowkanech warned the state Senate budget committee as the voices of chanting protesters outside filtered into the hearing room.

“If legislative leadership has the ability to sit down with the governor and negotiate, why shouldn’t we?” he demanded.

Wowkanech noted that the current negative economic conditions were not created by middle class workers. They were created by the greed of Wall Street profiteers, but workers are being blamed.

Click here to read Wowkanech’s testimony and here to view a video of the arrests.

Great Labor Arts Exchange Kicks Off June 17

2011-06-17T07:43:00.000-04:00

by James Parks, Jun 16, 2011

Don’t miss the explosion of arts and activism at the 2011 Great Labor Arts Exchange June 17-19 at the National Labor College (NLC) in Silver Spring, Md.. The three-day festival brings together union and social justice activists who combine union mobilization and outreach with songs, skits, art, poetry, theater, posters, cartoons and film.

The festival will be topped off Sunday June 19 with a public gala concert with conference participants and national and international artists, such as Anne Feeney, Bev Grant, Pam Parker and Charlie King. Members of four labor choruses—D.C., New York City, Solidarity Notes, and Charm City— and others will perform in the concert in the NLC Auditorium.

Also check out the the Creative Organizing Conference, where activists discuss the best ways to use art to help spread the union message.

For more information on either event, click here.

Sponsored for more than 30 years by the Labor Heritage Foundation, the Great Labor Arts Exchange celebrates the rich cultural heritage of working people and serves as a forum that brings together talented labor artists, activists, cultural workers, educators and students.

New this year is Camp Solidarity, designed to bring the arts and cultures of the union and progressive movements to a new generation.

Advice From The Field

2011-06-17T07:34:00.000-04:00

Thu. June 16, 2011

As the Largest Union in the defense industry, it was an honor and a privilege for the Machinists to hear from a war hero on their last day in Toronto as part of the National Staff Conference. Click here to watch the video.

Par For The Guide Dogs

2011-06-17T07:32:00.000-04:00

Thu. June 16, 2011

It was straight down the fairway for Guide Dogs this year at the 15th Annual Dave Ritchie Golf Invitational. Click here to watch the video.

Just The Beginning

2011-06-17T07:29:00.000-04:00

Wed. June 15, 2011

These are the voices and ideas of the next generation of Machinists who were brought together here at the National Staff Conference in Toronto. Click here to watch the video.

2011 IAM National Staff Confernce Opening Day

2011-06-17T07:26:00.000-04:00

Wed. June 15, 2011

Whether the topic is embracing technology, securing pensions, or protecting the next generation of workers. A look at the future is the machine behind this year's National Staff Conference in Toronto. Click here to watch the video.

At Last: Case Against Boeing Goes to Trial

2011-06-17T07:21:00.000-04:00

Wed. June 15, 2011

A courtroom in Seattle, WA was the setting for the opening day of a highly anticipated legal showdown between the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and the Boeing Company over charges that Boeing violated federal labor law when it moved 787 Dreamliner production from Puget Sound to South Carolina.

The case, which will be heard by an Administrative Law Judge, is expected to continue for at least several months and gets underway in the wake of an extraordinary campaign by conservative politicians and pundits determined to hijack the dispute.

In the weeks leading up to the trial, Boeing and its allies have attacked the NLRB, smeared its representative and dismissed the decades-old law that protects workers’ rights as arcane, unnecessary and anti-American.

NLRB Acting General Counsel Leif Solomon, who filed the complaint against Boeing, has been the subject of unprecedented political pressure. Ten Republican Senators have linked his 39-year career to the Boeing case, while the GOP-controlled House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform threatened to subpoena Solomon to appear before a thinly-veiled partisan hearing titled, “Unionization Through Regulation: The NLRB's Holding Pattern on Free Enterprise.”

IAM attorney David Campbell responded to the politicization of the case. “In my 28 years of practicing law, I have never seen an employer use these types of overtly political tactics to avoid a legal proceeding,” said Campbell. “This tactic shows all too clearly how desperate the Company is to avoid litigating the merits of a case it knows it will lose.”

The actual dispute involves Boeing’s decision to establish a 787 assembly line in North Charleston, SC, and is based on federal labor law that prohibits retaliation against union-represented employees. In repeated public statements, senior Boeing executives cited lawful work stoppages by IAM members in Puget Sound among the reasons for their decision to locate the 787 facility in South Carolina.

IAM Fair Trade Campaign Gains Momentum on Facebook

2011-06-17T07:18:00.000-04:00

Wed. June 15, 2011

Hundreds have joined the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers’ (IAM) Facebook campaign to stop the pending unfair trade deals with South Korea, Colombia and Panama.

Countering GOP demands for the passage of the three seriously-flawed trade deals, the targeted, informational ad campaign on Facebook unveils the truths behind each proposed agreement and the effects each will have on the U.S. jobs deficit. The campaign began last week with the release of an infographic detailing the North American Free Trade Agreement’s (NAFTA) failed trade policies as a foreshadowing of what is to come.

“This is a campaign to save American jobs,” explains IAM International President Tom Buffenbarger. “NAFTA has already cost the U.S. 682,900 jobs. The pending free trade agreements are projected to cost even more.

“Before passing any new trade deals, Congress must first establish a new and fair U.S. trade policy that puts the interests of workers first. Sound trade policy must be based on fundamental human rights and not provide more incentives for U.S. corporations to move our work to other countries.

See the IAM’s new ad campaign on Facebook.

Anti-Sweatshop Movement Profiled at Staff Conference

2011-06-17T07:11:00.000-04:00

IAM members taking part in workshops at the Young Machinists Symposium provided concrete suggestions about how the IAM can train and involve the next generation of union leaders.

Wed. June 15, 2011

Among the high points of the 2011 National Staff Conference was an up close and personal presentation from IAM Assistant General Counsel Maria Roeper, who helped organize the United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS) and the Workers Rights Consortium (WRC).

Roeper came to the labor movement by way of the “Code of Conduct” campaign to persuade colleges and universities to write labor rights standards into the licensing contracts for college-branded hats, sweatshirts and other material. While the codes aren’t as detailed as a union contract, they set basic labor standards.

“We saw Codes of Conduct as a first step to changing an international race-to-the bottom economy that benefited a few and exploited many,” said Roeper. “Strategically, we thought if we got enough of our campuses to write these codes into licensing agreements, the companies would have to change and improve working conditions. And if we could change the lives of poor workers in the developing world maybe, just maybe we could improve the lives of workers everywhere.

“I’ve seen countless students get introduced to labor rights through international anti-sweatshop work, and then move on to support domestic workers and I feel confident when I say that youth can bring a lot to our labor movement,” said Roeper, who urged delegates to reach out to youth, “not just because they are the future of our union, but reach out to them because I assure you, they have some fresh ideas and new energy. When we join together, it makes our union stronger.”