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A Thousand Philly Marchers Tell BofA: It’s Time to Pay |
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More than a 1,000 Pennsylvania union members, laid-off workers and community allies rallied outside a downtown Philadelphia Bank America office, hundreds streamed through the bank lobby along with a delegation carrying a $145 billion check. Shouting, “No jobs, no future,” they demanded BofA endorse the check and help finance creation of the 11 million jobs Wall Street gambled away.
After all: Wall Street’s Big Six-Bank of America, Citibank, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase, Morgan Stanley and Wachovia-Wells Fargo-received $145 billion taxpayer bailout funds.
Kelle Sallard, an unemployed Verizon worker and member of the Communications Workers of America (CWA) member from Verizon, told the crowd she lost her medical benefits but doesn’t qualify for free health care.
While the CEO of Verizon makes 18 million and gets lifetime free health care, I lost my job at Verizon, lost my benefits and make too much on unemployment to qualify for free health care. How is that fair?
Trumka: Temple Takes Taxpayer $$, Should Treat Workers Better |
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In Philadelphia this morning, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka joined Pennsylvania AFL-CIO President Bill George in pledging the union movement’s support for an impending strike by Temple University Hospital’s 1,500 nurses and professional and technical employees. Shortly before the press event, the Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals (PASNAP) delivered a 10-day strike notice to the hospital.
The employees have been without a contract since last September, and Bill Cruice, Executive Director of PASNAP, said “Temple is on a reckless path.”
They are willing to spend more money on imported strikebreakers than it would take to settle a fair contract. We know from other healthcare strikes that patients’ lives will be put at risk by the strikebreakers, who are flown in from all around the country in search of quick money.
Trumka put it this way:
We will not allow Temple Hospital, an institution supported by taxpayer funds, to thumb their noses at these workers or the union movement. And we’re going to enlist the help of political leaders who consistently support Temple’s repeated requests for additional funding.
CLUW Honors 11 Union Women for ‘Extraordinary Achievements’ |
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In honor of Women’s History Month, the Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW) last night presented its first annual Working Women’s Awards to 11 women who have left their mark on and helped build the labor movement.
The ceremony, at the AFL-CIO in Washington, D.C., honored the women for their
extraordinary achievements, leadership, and for being exemplary models for working women who seek to advance in their workplace, union and community.
AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler, who received one of the awards, said it was thanks to the work and success of many of the women in attendance that she has been able to walk down the path they pioneered. Read the rest of this entry »
Health Care Reform Makes Us ‘More Decent’ Nation |
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This morning, The New York Times op-ed columnist Paul Krugman presented the straight-forward, reasoned and no-hype case why the U.S. House this weekend should pass health care reform.
For one thing, he writes, the bill would end abuses like those of a South Carolina health insurance company that had “a systematic policy of revoking its clients’ policies when they got sick.”
What is on the table, ready to go, is legislation that is fiscally responsible, takes major steps toward dealing with rising health care costs, and would make us a better, fairer, more decent nation.
Read Krugman’s entire column here and then call 1-877-3-AFLCIO and tell you representative to vote this Sunday to pass health care reform.
After 60 Years, Time to Say ‘Yes’ to Health Care Reform |
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This afternoon, the AFL-CIO Executive Council said waiting 60 years for health care reform is long enough. Council members agreed to actively support President Obama’s health care bill and called on Congress to pass the legislation, which the U.S. House is set to vote on this Sunday.
Nearly every president since Harry Truman has sought health care reform. But powerful opposition from the insurance industry and others has scuttled each attempt. In a video message to working families, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka says:
We can’t miss this opportunity. We’ve been fighting for health care for 60 years. When I look at the years we have put into fighting for health care and what it means to working families to start down the path of comprehensive reform, I know the time to step forward is now.
Register Now for Good Jobs, Green Jobs Conference |
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The 2010 Good Jobs, Green Jobs National Conference is set for May 4-6, in Washington, D.C., and you can click here to register. The conference brings together union members, environmentalists, business leaders, elected and administration officials to map out the path to green economy that creates good jobs, reduces global warming and preserves America’s economic and environmental security.
United Steelworkers (USW) President Leo W. Gerard says the conference “comes at a pivotal time.”
America is working to build a green economy. Now, it’s time to ensure that we create good jobs that support our families and our communities—revitalizing the American economy and protecting the environment for future generations.
NUMMI Workers Ratify Plant Closing Package |
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Some 4,500 UAW Local 2244 members have ratified a closing agreement for the Fremont, Calif., plant with New United Motor Manufacturing Inc. (NUMMI). In today’s ratification vote, members of Local 2244 approved the agreement by a margin of 90 percent.
UAW Vice President Jimmy Settles praised members of the Local 2244 bargaining committee for their hard work and solidarity.
We are all deeply saddened to see these operations come to an end. While this is not the outcome we had hoped for, the terms of this agreement will certainly help cushion the impact for our members.
Seattle Construction Workers Demand ‘Jobs Now!’ |
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David Groves at the Washington State Labor Council reports on the area union movement’s second Make Wall Street Pay rally in Seattle this week.
More than 600 building and construction trades workers from the Seattle metropolitan area rallied downtown on St. Patrick’s Day to demand the “green-lighting” of major job-creating public-works investments being delayed by political wrangling.
“We want jobs NOW!” chanted the workers the same day that new Washington State unemployment numbers showed construction payrolls fell by another 3,200 jobs in February and have dropped 32 percent in the past 20 months. The Seattle-area construction industry is suffering from unprecedented unemployment rates of 35 percent—even higher in some trades.
New Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn, an environmental advocate who has frustrated both business and labor interests with his proposals to change, review or otherwise delay major infrastructure projects, addressed the crowd. As he discussed his support for good family-wage jobs, union members repeatedly interrupted him by shouting:
But we need jobs NOW!
Lincoln Attacks Arkansas Working Families; Families Don’t Blanche |
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Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) who this week launched a television ad slamming working families as “outside interests” is continuing her descent into “yet another hypocritical, flip-flopping D.C., politician,” says Arkansas AFL-CIO President Alan Hughes.
Lincoln in recent months has piled up a Senate record opposing working families–including voting to send jobs overseas via bad trade deals, reversing her initial support for the Employee Free Choice Act and opposing health care reform legislation with a public health insurance option. Arkansas unions now have endorsed Lt. Gov. Bill Halter (D.) in the upcoming U.S. Senate primary. Says Hughes:
Lincoln has ignored the interests of working people in Arkansas too many times. It’s easy for her to try to paint opponents as outsiders, but working-class voters in Arkansas can see as well as anybody that she has turned her back on us. Read the rest of this entry »
Senate Passes Jobs Bill, Obama Signature Next |
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The U.S. Senate today passed a jobs bill that AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka calls a ”good start” in helping the nation’s workers climb out of the 11-million-deep jobs hole dug by the Wall Street greed that propelled the economy’s nosedive.
But he says the bill—which is on its way to the White House for President Obama’s signature—must be the first step of a broad and intensive effort to rebuild the economy.
Much more needs to be done. We need to restore the jobs that were lost to the financial debacle, and Wall Street should pay to create them. We must invest in rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure and in the green jobs of the future. We have to maintain funding for vital services by state and local governments and prevent destructive cuts in education, police and fire protection and more.
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