by Mike Hall, Jan 1, 2008

In November, thousands of workers around the country marched against the Bush National Labor Relations Board’s years of anti-worker rulings.

From a new Congress taking the reins on Capitol Hill in January to the AFL-CIO’s first-ever global organizing conference in December, working families have seen significant victories, unfortunate setbacks and a lot of unfinished business this year. We take a look back at 2007 in a series of posts, ending today with a quick glance at top items from October through December. Click here to read Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3.

October

* After watching the Bush administration’s National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) issue anti-worker, pro-employer decisions time after time, systematically reducing workers’ freedom to join unions, the AFL-CIO sought international assistance. We filed a complaint with the U.N. organization, the International Labor Organization, charging the NLRB with denying workers’ rights in violation of international labor standards. Said AFL-CIO President John Sweeney: “Under Bush, America’s labor board has so failed our nation’s workers that we must now turn to the world’s international watchdogs to monitor and intervene.”

* Throughout October, union members in Kentucky and Virginia volunteered their time to make thousands of phone calls and house visits to talk with fellow union members about the November elections. In Virginia, working families had a chance to retake the state Senate (and they did), while in Kentucky, they worked to elect (and did) pro-worker Democrat Steve Beshear to the governor’s office.

* In New Jersey, union members continued their impressive run for public offices, with 51 union members on the November ballot for various local and state offices. Since the New Jersey AFL-CIO began its union candidate program offering training and support to union members 11 years ago, 440 union members have been elected to public office in New Jersey. With the aid of impressive statewide get-out-the-union-vote mobilization, 76 percent of the grads win their election.

* Two of the few helping hands U.S. workers have when their jobs are shipped overseas because of flawed trade agreements are the Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) program and federal and state unemployment insurance. With a large bipartisan vote, the House passed a bill to improve both. President Bush issued another of his increasingly frequent veto threats.

* More than 6,000 Fire Fighters (IAFF) spent around-the-clock shifts on the fire lines from Santa Barbara to the Mexican border as Southern California was hit by a series of massive wildfires that burned more than half a million acres, destroyed some 1,500 homes and forced 1 million to evacuate.

* A new report from the Alliance for Retired Americans found that drug companies are engaged in extreme price gouging, making billion in profits at the expense of seniors. Said Alliance President George Kourpias: “What is shocking is the extreme extent of price gouging by pharmaceutical companies—and the direct effect it is having on retirees.”

Here some other October headlines:

• Unsafe Toys: Report Says Conservative Trade, Regulatory Policies at Fault

• Workers Mourn Death of UAN President Cheryl Johnson

• Drug Industry Paying Big Bucks for Sneaky Ads

• Deja Vu: Bush Promises Veto After House Passes New Child Health Care Bill

• AFL-CIO Backs Bill to Curb Mortgage Lending Abuses

• ILCA Convention Shines Light on Real New Orleans

• Bush Kills Report on Air Passenger Safety. Traffic Controller Staffing Levels Tank

• Krugman: ‘Union Resurgence’ a Vital Part of ‘New New Deal’

• Burger King: You Can’t Have It Your Way

• NLRB Ruling ‘Cuts Voluntary Recognition off at the Knees’

November

* Thousands of workers took to the streets to protest the NLRB and its ongoing assault on workers’ rights. They marched in more than 20 cities, including Washington, D.C., where more than 1,000 marched on the NLRB’s national office. The protest were organized after a sweeping series of NLRB decisions in September cut to the core of workers’ freedom to form unions and bargain collectively. Those rulings followed years of anti-worker actions by the NLRB since Bush took office.

* The union movement’s week-after-week, get-out-the-vote effort in Virginia, Kentucky, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio and elsewhere paid off big time for working families on Election Day. Kentucky working family voters threw out an anti-worker governor. In Virginia, union family voters helped take back the state Senate from extremist Republican control, and 33 New Jersey union members won public office.

* The union movement continued to come together around the struggle by nearly 700 nurses at Appalachian Regional Health Care on strike since Oct. 1 to fight for better patient care. Nurses from coast to coast rallied in Lexington, Ky., the AFL-CIO has donated tens of thousands of dollars and union members donated $20,000 in an e-activist online campaign, the AFL-CIO Community Services Network donated $10,000 with of food to strikers in Beckley, W.Va., and AFSCME and the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee each pitched in with $10,000. Other unions and their members are supporting the nurses as well. The strike continues and you can help. Click here to make a secure donation to help these brave workers in their time of need.

* The leading Democratic presidential candidates threw their support behind CBS News writers who have been without a contract at the network since 2005. The presidential hopefuls said they would not cross a picket line if the workers struck before a scheduled Dec. 10 debate. Shortly after, the Democratic National Committee canceled the debate and said the right to organize and collectively bargain is one of our most fundamental rights, and the organization is “proud to stand with the working men and women in the labor movement.”

* President Bush’s veto war on working families continued when he vetoed an appropriations bill to fund vital children’s and veteran’s health care, education, worker training, Medicare, Medicaid and other important family programs.

* Members of the Writer’s Guild were forced out on strike after television and movie producers walked out on contract talks. The writers are seeking a fair contract and pay for their work when it is broadcast on the Internet, downloaded to iPods or cell phones or distributed via DVD, all hugely profitable new media for producers. Talks have been sporadic since the strike began and it continued through December.

Here are some more November headlines:

• Marchers to Burger King: We Will Not Be Turned Back

• Don’t Blame Yourself for the Economy. Blame Bush and His Corporate Cronies

• Broadway Lights Back on After Striking Stagehands Reach Tentative Agreement

• Ed Mayne Dies: Led Utah AFL-CIO for 30 Years

• So Much for ‘Remaking’ Its Image: Wal-Mart Sues Brain-Damaged Worker

• Miami Vice: AFL-CIO Files Civil Liberties Suit

• Mine Agency Skipped Safety Inspections. Senate Panel Subpoenas Crandall Canyon CEO

• International Day of Action Shines Light on Abuses by Big-Box Retailers

• Globalization Degrading Work, Springing Human Trafficking Trap

• Britney Spears or Health Care?

• Missing in Action on Mine Safety: Sen. Mitch McConnell

December

*Some 220 top global union leaders from more than 63 countries came to Washington, D.C., as the AFL-CIO hosted the first-ever global summit on organizing at the National Labor College (NLC) in Silver Spring, Md. During the two-day conference, they mapped strategies to restore the balance between working people and powerful corporations that ignore national boundaries and rules in search of the greatest profit. In addition, they took a message of global solidarity for the Employee Free Choice Act to congressional hearing on workers’ rights.

*With the holiday on the horizon, President Bush played Grinch once again when, for the second time, he vetoed a bill that would provide health coverage to nearly 10 million low-income children. This version of the State Children’s Heath Insurance Program (SCHIP) was a compromise crafted to meet Bush’s and some Republicans’ objections to the first bill.

*More than 90 union delegates, including 20 from U.S. labor unions, attended the U.N. Climate Change Conference in Bali. In dispatches from delegates from the United Steelworkers (USW), Boilermakers (IBB), Transport Workers (TWU) , IUE-CWA, the Oregon AFL-CIO and national federation, we learned how jobs and workers can be part of the solutions to global warming and climate change.

*In a joint House and Senate hearing, NLRB Chairman Robert Battista essentially admitted the Republican-dominated board is pursuing an ideological agenda that favors employers. Wilma Liebman, one of two Democrats on the board, and a dissenter in the NLRB’s pro-employer rulings, said: “Virtually every recent policy choice by the board impedes collective bargaining, creates obstacles to union representation, or favors employer interests.”

Here are more December headlines:

• Candidates’ Letters Help New Hampshire TV Workers Win at WMUR

• ‘Economy That Works For All’ Equips Workers to Turn Nation Around

• Iowans Call on Candidates to Support Fair Trade

• Jingle Bells, Toxic Toys, Santa’s on the Way

• Bush Threatens to Furlough 100,000 Defense Dept. Civilian Workers

• The SEC Takes a Step Backward for Corporate Accountability

• Yet Another Report Shows Bush’s FAA Endangering Air Passenger Safety

• Union Members, Union Leaders—Union Women

• Greenwash: The 21st Century Environmental Whitewash

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