Archive for June, 2007
Kennedy Tells Senate: It’s Time to Support Employee Free Choice
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The Senate is debating the Employee Free Choice Act today, leading up to a likely vote on cloture tomorrow.
Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), who sponsored the legislation, along with 46 others, laid down the gauntlet to his colleagues today in the Senate:
The system today is broken. Workers know it. Employers know it. Too many of them (employers) want to keep it that way. We have a chance to change that. The time to act is now. If we want a stronger economy, a fair economy. It’s the right thing to do and the time to do it.
Tomorrow the Senate will vote on a measure, known as a cloture motion, which will determine if the Senate is even allowed a straight up or down vote on the Employee Free Choice Act.
Small Business Owner Speaks Out for Employee Free Choice
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Opponents of the Employee Free Choice Act have misrepresented the bill, to put it politely, claiming it will destroy secret ballot elections. The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB), a lobbying group for small businesses, is one of those organizations that has mischaracterized the legislation to members, using the same talking points from Big Business and the GOP.
But John Rose, CEO of Liberty Cookies Inc. in Sonoma County, Calif., and a member of NFIB, wants to set the record straight. In a letter to IndyMedia, Rose says:
“Most small business do not have sufficient interstate commerce to fall under federal labor regulations. However, the Employee Free Choice Act will encourage our scofflaw national competitors like Wal-Mart to heed the rights of employees to discuss wages and work conditions as a group.”
A Diverse Union Is a Strong Union
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A diverse union movement is a strong union movement. But building that diverse union movement will require commitment of the leadership and education of all workers, participants in the third of four Power in Diversity dialogues said.
Some 190 union leaders and activists meeting June 23 in Detroit looked at concrete ideas on how to increase diversity in the leadership of their unions. In the first and second diversity dialogues held earlier in Atlanta and Philadelphia, participants began a series of frank discussions about the best ways to ensure that the leadership of the union movement is as diverse as its membership.
During these diversity dialogues, local and regional union members, elected leaders and activists, members of AFL-CIO constituency groups and central local body and state federation leaders are pinpointing problems that exist in attaining diversity.
109 National Labor College Graduates Report to Front Lines—of Union Movement
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| The National Labor College Class of 2007 includes 109 students who have gained a bachelors or masters degree. | |
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| Susan Schurman | |
It’s been said that an employer’s greatest fear is an educated union member. Today, there are 109 more educated union members ready to work for economic justice on the job.
These union leaders and members and staff from across the country received their degrees June 23 at the ninth annual National Labor College (NLC) commencement in Silver Spring, Md.
The 2007 graduates received 91 Bachelor of Arts degrees and 18 master’s degrees through the NLC’s partnership programs with the University of Baltimore and the American University.
Ceremonies at the NLC campus featured keynote speaker Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), who was awarded an honorary degree along with retiring NLC President Susan Schurman.
Several graduates received special honors, including Christopher J. Valverde, a member of the Sheet Metal Workers (SMWA) from San Jose, Calif., who won the Bert and Annabel Seidman Prize for advancing social policy. Valverde won the prize for a research paper on the failure of union members to vote in the best interests of themselves and their unions in national elections, despite knowledge that doing so could put their health care and secure futures at risk.
Another Reason Why America’s Workers Need Free Choice
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| Bob Boyle | |
The Employee Free Choice Act (S. 1041) is being debated in the Senate today, and we’ll provide updates this afternoon.
America’s workers need the Employee Free Choice Act for many reasons, and Bob Boyle describes one big one. Boyle was fired after 17 years from his job at Oesterling’s Sandblasting & Painting in Butler, Pa., for supporting a union. Boyle and his co-workers wanted a union because they felt they didn’t have any job security or respect on the job. As painters, Boyle and the other employees were forced to pay for their own respirators necessary to do their work safely.
Progressive Policies @ Work
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More often than not, mainstream economists, analysts and commentators—especially those dog-paddling in the reactionary mainstream—scoff at the policy ideas and suggestions offered by the progressive community.
It might be health care, jobs, corporate responsibility or education, but if any city or state—or heaven forbid, federal government—would be foolish enough to look for progressive answers, it would be (with apologies to R.E.M) the end of the world as we know it.
But a new study, Lessons from the Market Place: Four Proven Progressive Policies, by the Drum Major Institute for Public Policy, shows there are progressive answers to serious problems that work.
Check Out Machinists’ Video of Employee Free Choice Rally
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The Machinists put together a great video that really captures the spirit, excitement and determination of the 4,500 people who rallied Tuesday on Capitol Hill for the Employee Free Choice Act.
The video offers highlights from the speakers—including senators, union leaders and workers—who shared their experiences when seeking to form unions. Feel for yourself the growing momentum for this important piece of legislation and take a look.
It’s not too late to act to help pass the Employee Free Choice Act. The Senate is expected to vote on the bill in the next day or two.
Click here to urge your senators to vote for passage of the Employee Free Choice Act.
Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act Now in Congress
This just in: Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.) and top Democrats just introduced the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act.
Congressional leaders are following up on their promise to take immediate legislative action after last month’s Supreme Court 5-4 decision requiring workers to file discrimination lawsuits within 180 days after the discrimination occurs. Prior to the May 30 ruling, many courts allowed workers to sue for pay discrimination years after the initial discrimination because the courts considered each new paycheck a new discriminatory act.
Senate Debate Highlights How Employee Free Choice Act Benefits All Workers
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| Sen. Lautenberg |
With a vote in the U.S. Senate on the Employee Free Choice Act likely early next week, three more co-sponsors of the bill spoke strongly in favor of it yesterday, saying it would benefit all workers, whether they belonged to a union or not.
Forty-six Democratic senators are co-sponsoring the bill, along with its chief sponsor, Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) Get the full list of senate supporters here and click here to urge your senators to vote for passage of Employee Free Choice.
Construction Workers Assaulted by Water Truck
At first, the images seem like documentaries from the civil rights marches in the 1960s. But they’re not: The video clips filmed in June 2007 show construction workers peacefully protesting their working conditions—when suddenly they suddenly and repeatedly are assaulted with high-pressure water from a water truck.
The construction workers were protesting at a Pulte Homes construction site in Florence, Ariz., last month demanding that the giant homebuilder and its subcontractors pay decent wages and provide safe working conditions. (See video.)
