Archive for November, 2006
Buy Union Week Begins Today
With America's consumers set to spend as much as $60 billion for holiday gifts, the AFL-CIO and its affiliated unions want to make sure that shoppers know where they can find quality union-made gifts of apparel, computer and related equipment, consumer electronics, books and hundreds of other products.
That’s why the Union Label and Service Trades Department (UL&STD) launched an early preview of the ShopUnionMade website just in time for the holiday shopping season. The UL&STD launched the website, which lists union-made products and services, to coincide with the beginning of Buy Union Week, Nov. 24–Dec. 3.
Latinos Plan Ways to Build Political Strength
Latino voters played a big role in the Nov. 7 election results that ended control of Congress by Big Business special-interest Republicans and returned working family-backed candidates to the majority.
U.S. Census figures show Latinos make up at least 10 percent of the population in 11 of the 28 congressional districts that switched from Republican to Democratic.
A Healthier Climate for Improved Job Safety and Health Legislation
What’s in store for safety and health legislation with a new Democratic majority set to take over Congress in January? One thing’s for sure—it’s bound to be better than the past several congressional sessions.
Worker health and safety issues have been back-burnered for years under the watch of congressional Republican leadership and the Bush administration—except, that is, for their efforts to weaken workplace safety laws.
Another Bad Trade Deal: Colombia Pact Signed Today
Jeff Vogt, global economic policy specialist in the AFL-CIO Legislation Department, describes how once again, the Bush administration is signing a trade agreement that ignores workers' fundamental rights.
The United States and the Republic of Colombia today are signing the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement (FTA), despite urgent calls from leading Democrats to renegotiate the agreement to strengthen labor protections.
Once again, the portion of the FTA on worker protections is insufficient to ensure respect for labor rights, particularly in light of the extreme conditions in Colombia–where industrial conflicts are at times “resolved” by torture or murder. In fact, two years of intense negotiations did not result in improved language on workers' rights, did not change a single labor law, or even make a commitment to take truly effective measures to prevent the murder of or threats to trade unionists and end impunity for those labor-related crimes.
New Congress to Bring Fresh Wind to Trade Issues
We’ve noted trade was a key issue that helped Democrats gain control of Congress in the 2006 elections. Now, Mark Gaffney, president of the Michigan State AFL-CIO, points out in a column in The Detroit News that in a significant shift, many rural voters chose Democrats because of the trade issue.
For the manufacturing worker it’s “will my job be outsourced next?” For the farmer it’s “will another trade agreement put yet another crop into worldwide price-cutting competition?” And for the rural small business person the worry is “when my customers suffer, how long before I am next?”
Academic Freedom Alive and Well in Pennsylvania
Good news for everyone who values academic freedom: Pennsylvania just became the 21st state to reject government intervention in higher education’s teaching and learning process.
The Pennsylvania House Select Committee on Academic Freedom in Higher Education today rejected legislation to restrict what the state's higher education faculty can teach and what their students can learn in the classroom.
Bush OSHA Tries to Scapegoat Scientist for Doing His Job
Officials in the Bush Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) are trying to make a scapegoat of a longtime federal employee to deflect heat from the auto industry over an Internet safety bulletin about asbestos in brakes, according to a report in the The Baltimore Sun.
Sun reporter Andrew Schneider reports that OSHA officials are threatening to suspend Ira Wainless, an OSHA scientist, for what they say was his failure to study the full scope of scientific evidence on the dangers of asbestos in a safety and health bulletin. The AFGE, which represents Wainless, says the scientist, who has worked at OSHA for 32 years, did gather the arguments for and against publishing the safety bulletin to justify his conclusions. The union has presented documents that show he had given all this material to his boss 15 months ago!
AFL-CIO Calls on Bush to Shut Down School of Americas
Amy Masciola of the AFL-CIO Organizing Department sends us this blog about the annual vigil and protest at the School of the Americas in Fort Benning, Ga.
Union supporters and organizers are routinely killed throughout Latin America and many of them are victims of graduates from the School of the Americas (SOA) operated by the U.S. Department of Defense at Fort Benning, Ga., according to investigations by several human rights groups.
Goodyear Strikers Take Struggle to a Store Near You
Striking Goodyear workers took their struggle for justice to the front doors of the tire makers’ stores this past weekend.
The 15,000 members of the United Steelworkers (USW) were forced out on strike after the company refused to budge on its demands to close a manufacturing plant in Tyler, Texas, and to cut back on retiree benefits.
Over the weekend, the USW kicked off an international effort to educate the public about the ongoing labor dispute at 15 North American Goodyear plants.
Striking workers and their supporters rallied and handed out informational fliers at Goodyear stores in 14 cities in the United States and Canada, including Akron, Ohio, and Toronto, headquarters for the company's U.S. and Canadian operations. Talks between the two sides broke off Friday, and no new talks are scheduled.
AFSCME Katrina Feature Wins Labor Communicators’ Top Prize
International Labor Communications Association (ILCA) Media Coordinator Alec Dubro took part in ILCA’s annual meeting at the AFL-CIO building in Washington, D.C., and describes some of the top winners among labor communicators.
Jon Melegrito walked off with the top prize, the Max Steinbock Award, awarded during the ILCA Media Awards Luncheon on Friday. Melegrito, a staff writer at AFSCME, spent weeks in the Gulf Coast area after Hurricane Katrina and published “Victimized by Water, Wind & Politicians” in the November/December issue of the AFSCME magazine Public Employee.
