Archive for October, 2006
Bargaining Digest Weekly
The AFL-CIO Collective Bargaining Department delivers daily, bargaining-related news and research resources to more than 800 subscribers. Union leaders can register for this service through our website, Bargaining at Work.
Steelworkers are ready for a long strike with Goodyear. Wall Street responded to the possibility of a long strike by putting Goodyear on a negative watch. Goodyear strikers quietly protested a University of Akron lecture by Goodyear CEO Robert Keegan on Friday. Goodyear sent a letter to employees last week—read it here. Following Standard & Poor’s lead, the Goodyear strike has Fitch reviewing Goodyear’s financial rating following it’s $1 billion loan.
‘Stickler Recess Appointment Disregards Workers’ Safety’
We noted this morning that since President Bush couldn’t get his nomination of coal executive Richard Stickler to head the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) through Congress, he gave Stickler a recess appointment.
Mine Workers (UMWA) President Cecil Roberts said today the recess appointment “has demonstrated that the pleas of coal miners throughout the land for him to appoint a strong advocate for their safety to that position have fallen on deaf ears.”
Letter Intimidating Latinos: One More Reason Why We Need Voter Protection
The evidence just keeps growing that efforts such as the AFL-CIO Voter Protection Program are critical to making sure that voters aren’t disenfranchised and every vote will count on Election Day.
Earlier this week, we noted that a Spanish-language letter had been sent to Latinos in Orange County, Calif., warning they could be jailed or deported if they vote in the November election. Now the Los Angeles Times is reporting that Orange County Republican leaders are urging their own congressional candidate to withdraw from the race after he acknowledged his campaign was involved in sending out the letter to 14,000 registered Latino voters in Santa Ana, Garden Grove and Anaheim. The congressional district is 35 percent Latino.
7 Days @ Minimum Wage: ‘Breaking My Back for $35’
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Video: At the end of the day I’m looking at $35 and pretty much broke my back. The minimum wage is just too low. Gas and food and housing, everything is going up and the minimum wage is staying the same. No, that’s not right.
Describing his exhausting jobs as a laborer working near the minimum wage, Paul Greg Valdez premieres with his partner, Susan Windham, in the first installment of “7 Days @ Minimum Wage.” The Oct. 23–30 video blog (vlog) event, sponsored by the AFL-CIO and ACORN, features interviews with seven workers describing life at or near the federal minimum wage, which has been frozen at $5.15 an hour since 1997 (see excerpt of first vlog at left).
The AFL-CIO union movement has spearheaded America Needs a Raise campaign to raise the minimum wage at the state and federal level. The campaign has provided momentum to put the issue of raising the minimum wage on the Nov. 7 ballot in six states: Arizona, Colorado, Missouri, Montana, Nevada and Ohio. (Congress will be in session for a few days after Nov. 7. Tell your lawmakers: It’s time for a real vote to raise the minimum wage. Send an e-mail here.)
Working Women Get Angry and Take Action
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A Stirring the Pot dinner in New Orleans. |
When a pot full of water is first put on the stove, it seems like it will never boil.
But turning up the heat can make it happen a lot faster. And turning up the heat on political mobilization is what took place Oct. 10, when women in 49 states joined in more than 350 AFL-CIO “Stirring the Pot” events determined to take back the 2006 election campaign dialogue for working women and their families.
BREAKING: Bush Recess-Appoints Former Coal Exec as Mine Safety Chief
President Bush just put former coal industry executive Richard Stickler in charge of the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA)—a job the U.S. Senate twice refused to grant him. Since Bush couldn’t get his appointment through Congress, he gave Stickler a “recess appointment” while members of Congress are out of town.
Air Traffic Controllers: FAA Seeks More Cutbacks at Expense of Safety
So, it’s not enough that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) imposed a contract on air traffic controllers over the Labor Day weekend that the National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA) union says poses real and potentially dangerous consequences for the safety of airline passengers and crews.
In yet another misguided attempt to cut funding for critical services while throwing away taxpayer money on tax cuts for the extremely wealthy, Bush’s FAA now plans to eliminate on-site meteorologist positions at 21 traffic control centers across the nation. NATCA says cutting staff from these Center Weather Service Units would leave air traffic controllers without the ability to obtain and relay vital weather information in a timely manner to aircraft experiencing difficulty and would have an adverse effect on safety.
Next Step for Homeland Security Workers: Keep Bush from Gutting Workplace Rights
In September, the Bush administration announced it would not appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court a ruling that barred its attempt to gut the workplace rights of 160,000 federal workers in the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). This week, AFGE asked the judge who ruled on that decision to retain jurisdiction and maintain her injunction barring the Bush administration from imposing its new personnel rules. AFGE represents federal workers, including the largest constituency of Homeland Security workers in the coalition of unions opposing the Bush administration rules.
23 Million Stand Up Against Global Poverty
Cricket fans in India did it. So did school children in Gaza and the West Bank and crowds at a concert in Zimbabwe and in Times Square in New York City. In just a 24-hour period Oct. 15–16, a breathtaking 23.5 million people in more than 100 countries around the world literally stood up and set a new Guinness World Record for the largest number of people to “Stand Up Against Poverty.”
Voter Guides for People of Faith
To hear the Republican Party tell it, their members are the only ones who have religious values and the only ones whose values matter in the political arena. They have used that political voice to promote the Bush administration’s narrow anti-worker agenda.
