Archive for February, 2007
Eight of Nine Dems Talk with AFSCME Union Members
Eight of the nine Democratic presidential candidates spoke on the need for universal health care, the freedom of workers to form unions, protecting the middle class and ending the war in Iraq before an audience of more than 800 AFSCME members yesterday.
The Carson City, Nev., forum gave the candidates, who appeared separately, a chance to make a brief opening statement and answer three questions submitted from the audience and asked by forum moderator and ABC News commentator George Stephanopoulos.
‘Employee Free Choice Act Sticks to Values We Care About’
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West Virginia workers rally for the Employee Free Choice Act.
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Hotel maids in Minnesota, graduate teaching assistants in New York City and all types of workers in Detroit and Los Angeles have one thing in common: They are taking the case for the first major revision of the nation’s labor laws directly to members of Congress in a weeklong series of events.
In Rochester, Minn., Rep. Tim Walz (D-Minn.), one of the 233 co-sponsors of the Employee Free Choice Act, rallied with union members outside the local Holiday Inn Express yesterday, where 18 workers, all union supporters, were fired three days before last Christmas when a new owner took over the hotel.
Got the Jet Blues? Fly Union Instead
Recent air travel in the icy Northeast made me glad of one thing: I wasn’t flying JetBlue.
Instead, I was flying on a carrier where the pilots, staff, flight attendants and mechanics are unionized—which they are not on JetBlue. I got to my destination in time to watch TV reports showing stranded JetBlue passengers crowd in airports along the East Coast.
While JetBlue chairman, CEO and founder David Neeleman was shocked, shocked, that his low-cost (read: underpaid) airline could leave passengers stranded for hour after horrible hour on the tarmac, he shouldn’t be so surprised. He asked for it.
Unions Needed to Stop the American Dream from ‘Slipping Away’
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In the early 1970s, no one in this country was asking about income inequality—because it didn’t exist to the extent it does now, says economist Paul Krugman. But an array of forces—including growing imports, the falling real value of minimum wage and slower unionization—have contributed to an unequal distribution of wealth gap that Krugman says translates into unequal opportunity for millions of America’s workers.
Krugman, a professor of Economics and International Affairs at Princeton University, delivered the keynote speech today at the second briefing of the Agenda for Shared Prosperity, a network of more than 50 progressive U.S. economists, policy analysts and academics sponsored by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI). Today’s event, held on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., featured top-name leaders spearheading the fight for workers and their families. Although they spoke on a variety of topics, their comments shared a common theme: The American dream is slipping away for many hard-working families, and one of the key ways to restore that dream is by enabling workers who want to join unions to do so.
Teachers Unions Worse than Nuclear War, Says Extremist Radio Talking Head
Over the years, we’ve all learned that we can count on sophisticated, nuanced and well-reasoned deliberations and arguments from extremist talking heads and radio hosts—the Ann Coulters, Rush Limbaughs and Laura Ingrahams of the world.
Just kidding. Some of their rants are so off the wall and weird, it stuns you.
There was such an episode the other day. It made you stop and think to yourself, “Astonishing! How did he come up with that? What a mind!”
Students Want to Make Justice Fashionable for Garment Workers
You see their handiwork on the backs of fashionable people all over the United States and Europe. But what you don’t see are the sweatshops in developing countries where workers toil long hours for little or nothing to produce that new jacket or overpriced pair of jeans.
But a growing coalition of student activists, community groups, unions and people of conscience are taking up the cause of those workers and demanding respect, along with decent wages and working conditions, from the companies that profit from their labor. They also are demanding that these companies, many of them headquartered in this country, use their power to enforce standards of conduct among subcontractors that violate workers’ rights.
Pelosi: Employee Free Choice Act a Top Priority
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) vowed today that passage of the Employee Free Choice Act will be a top priority when Congress returns from the Presidents Day recess.
In a press conference in San Francisco, Pelosi said House Democrats, as part of their first 100 hours agenda, passed an increase in the minimum wage and now it’s time to restore the right of American workers to join a union without harassment from employers.
The San Francisco event was part of a weeklong series of actions around the nation as workers met with members of Congress and community leaders to push for passage of the Employee Free Choice Act (H.R. 800).
Momentum Building Across the Nation for Workers’ Freedom to Form Unions
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Rep. Gwen Moore (D-Wis.) joined union members to pledge to continue her support of the Employee Free Choice Act.
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Workers explain to Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and workers’ rights board in Burlington, Vt., why the Employee Free Choice Act is needed.
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In New Hampshire, Pittsburgh, Pa., Vermont and across the nation, momentum continues to build for the Employee Free Choice Act.
This morning in Nashua, N.H., Scott Hazzard and Jason Modeski, who work for WMUR-TV in Manchester, explained their long struggle to get a union and a first contract. Although all eligible workers signed a card saying they wanted to be represented by the Electrical Workers, the company still forced a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) election, in which the workers overwhelmingly chose the union in 2004.
Even after voting for the union, the workers still faced another fight with their employer: Reaching a first-contract agreement. The WMUR employees contacted Democratic presidential candidates slated to participate in a 2004 debate at the station and got each one to pledge not to participate unless the company reached agreement with the workers. Only then did the station agree to a contract.
Hazzard and Modeski shared their stories with a roundtable of reporters and elected officials, including Rep. Paul Hodes (D-N.H.), and described how the Employee Free Choice Act would have made it much easier to get that first contract.
The New Hampshire roundtable was part of a weeklong series of actions around the nation as workers met with members of Congress and community leaders to push for passage of the Employee Free Choice Act (H.R. 800). In nearly 100 cities, at news conferences, worker roundtables, rallies and other gatherings across the country, workers and union and community leaders are connecting with more than 130 members of Congress—thanking those who support the Employee Free Choice Act and demanding better from those who don’t. Click here to find an Employee Free Choice Act event near you.
Watch AFSCME’s Presidential Forum Today
Where do the Democratic candidates for president stand on issues that affect working families? You can see and hear them answer questions that are on the minds of America’s workers in a televised forum sponsored by AFSCME.
More than 500 AFSCME members and retirees will attend the forum in Carson City, Nev. The forum will be moderated by ABC commentator George Stephanopoulos and will include Sens. Joseph Biden (Del.), Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.), Christopher Dodd (Conn.), former Sens. John Edwards (N.C.) and Mike Gravel (Alaska), Rep. Dennis Kucinich (Ohio), Gov. Bill Richardson (N.M.) and former Gov. Tom Vilsack (Iowa). The other announced candidate, Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.), is in Iowa today.
Employee Free Choice Act Important for LGBT Workers
The Employee Free Choice Act would give all workers the freedom to make their own choice about whether to join a union, but for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) workers, the bill has special importance.
In 32 states, LGBT workers can be fired for no reason unless they are protected by a union contract, says Nancy Wohlforth, co-president of the AFL-CIO constituency group Pride At Work. In a new video (left), Wohlforth urges LGBT workers to join in the week of action to support the Employee Free Choice Act.
