Archive for February, 2008
America In Solidarity Offers College Scholarships
Thanks to Todd Iverson of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 23 for letting us know about America In Solidarity’s scholarship program.
America In Solidarity, endorsed by the Washington State Labor Council, is again sponsoring an essay contest, and the winners will receive a college scholarship. In the past year, the group has provided more than $5,000 in college scholarships.
America In Solidarity is a grassroots effort of working Americans to focus our country’s politics and economics on the necessity of job security, workplace safety, health care, wages and protection of the American worker from corporate greed.
Click here to learn more about the scholarship contest rules and deadlines.
McCain’s Health Care Plan: Higher Taxes, Less Coverage
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In a time of uncertainty and economic risk, people are more and more concerned about whether they’ll be covered in the event of a medical problem. As we’ve seen from the responses to the AFL-CIO’s 2008 Health Care for America Survey, those of you who have secure health care through your jobs know how lucky you are—and those whose employers have cut health care benefits are facing serious challenges.
Mary Anne, in Greenfield, Wis., has seen this dynamic firsthand:
As the Benefit Administrator in a mid-sized organization for many years, I have seen health insurance issues balloon into a truly ugly monster. Today, health insurance premiums are second only to wages in employer expenses. The premium costs to employers has skyrocketed, which in turn, has caused employers to pass on those huge increases to their employees by having the employee pay a percentage of the monthly cost. Not only have premiums increased dramatically, the benefits have decreased. Now employees must pay out-of-pocket expenses which can run into the thousands. These are the best-case scenarios. These are the lucky folks. I know many Americans who can afford little or no health insurance; they work; they have jobs, but are not covered by their employer. We need a change and soon.
Workers to Tell U.N. Our Labor Laws Discriminate Against People of Color
Next week, the Bush administration will have to defend the nation’s record on eliminating racial discrimination before a United Nations panel. While the official report will portray the United States as making great progress in ending bias, working people plan to tell the U.N. the American ideal of a colorblind society does not apply to the world of work.
In a blog on Huffington Post, Rebecca Smith of the National Employment Law Project (NELP) says:
This conviction of color-blindness is especially true in our attitude towards work: We have laws against race discrimination at work, so we think everyone has an equal chance to prosper. This view overlooks, however, an unfortunate reality: Our system of workplace protections is riddled with holes that have a decidedly harmful racial undertone. Through exclusions, exemptions and lax enforcement, our labor laws deny basic protections to millions of Latino and African-American immigrant workers.
Bush Administration Cries ‘Uncle’ on Gutting Workers’ Rights at Homeland Security
The Bush administration’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has cried “uncle” after its lengthy fight to drastically limit the workplace and collective bargaining rights of some 160,000 employees. In a filing with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, Homeland Security officials said they would abandon efforts to implement anti-worker rules and “proceed with labor relations pursuant to applicable law.”
Wow! What a concept! Obey the law!
More to the point, Homeland Security backed down after being faced with a federal appeals court ruling against the personnel system it unilaterally imposed on the workers in 2005, along with a congressional ban on spending any funds on new worker rules. Not to mention a ticking clock for the Bush administration.
AFGE General Counsel Mark Roth union says workers are “ecstatic” that they were able to beat back the Bush administration’s effort to eliminate collective bargaining.
Workers Revved Up to Take Colorado Back in 2008
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With out-of-state special interests pushing an anti-worker agenda for the November election in Colorado, union activists are coming together to take back the state. Thanks to Mike Cerbo, executive director of the Colorado AFL-CIO, for this blog about a political training session last weekend in Denver.
Last weekend, you could hear the beginning of a righteous noise rumbling across Colorado, as nearly 200 union members packed into the Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 68 hall for a two-day political training for the Colorado Labor 2008 campaign.
Local union leaders, coordinators, potential release staffers and rank-and-file activists from 24 unions or union-related groups from across the state participated in the training in Denver, attending workshops on recruiting and retaining volunteers, moving volunteers to activism, member-to-member mobilization and much more.
Bush Administration Kills the (Economic) Messenger
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UPDATE: The Bush administration now has agreed to keep the Economic Indicators site open free of charge, following public opposition generated by blogs and news reports. Sen. Charles Schuumer (D-N.Y.) sent a letter to Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez urging him to keep the site open, the Center for America Progress reports today. According to the site, “given the feedback ESA received, the decision has been made to continue the site and improve its functionality.”
Boilermakers Endorse Obama for President
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The Boilermakers today endorsed Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), who now has three AFL-CIO affiliated union endorsements in the Democratic presidential race.
Newton Jones, president of the 65,000-member Boilermakers, says Obama stands out in a strong field of candidates:
Clearly, we have been offered the finest field of superbly qualified candidates that we could have hoped for in this primary process. Sen. Edwards, Sen. Biden, Sen. Dodd, Gov. Richardson, Sen. Clinton and all of those who have spoken their hearts in this campaign have contributed greatly to America’s debate and our decision. But one stands out now.
In our view, Barack Obama is the best answer to America’s need for a leader who can unite our nation and who can truly inspire us again with a message of hope and promise for fundamental change in our government’s policies and the working relations of our two political parties.
Colombian President Uribe Confirms U.S. Unions’ Fears
Last week, a delegation of AFL-CIO union leaders undertook a two-day, fact-finding trip to meet with leaders of major Colombian unions to hear firsthand the dangers and challenges faced by Colombian trade unionists. They also met with Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, telling him the U.S. union movement cannot support the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement until real progress is made to protect the lives and rights of trade union members.
United Steelworkers (USW) associate general counsel Dan Kovalik traveled with AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Emerita Linda Chavez-Thompson and Communications Workers of America (CWA) President Larry Cohen. In this cross-posting from Huffington Post, Kovalik says that during the meeting with the three, Uribe claimed that some of the murdered trade unionists were actually guerrillas who had infiltrated the union movement and thus were fair game for the military. Kovalik says those discredited claims are a chilling reminder of why just a handful of these killers have ever been brought to justice.
Last week, the AFL-CIO sent a delegation of trade unionists, including representatives of the United Steelworkers, on a fact-finding mission to Colombia, South America—the most dangerous country in the world for trade unionists. Approximately 2,300 unionists have been killed in Colombia since 1991, including 470 since the current president, Alvaro Uribe, took office in 2002. Five have been killed already this year.
Sweeney: Nation Needs to Literally Build a Better Future
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The best hope for creating an economic stimulus blueprint to rebuild the nation’s crumbling bridges, roads, waterways, rails and schools is aligning organizations with diverse interests behind a comprehensive plan, says AFL-CIO President John Sweeney.
“We all have a stake in this—every one of us—and we all have different motives for wanting action. For the AFL-CIO, it’s good jobs. For others, it is something different. We also depend on our infrastructure to keep our families and our communities, health, comfortable and safe, and to keep our country moving. We should be able to put some of our parochial concerns aside and come together behind a comprehensive long-range infrastructure plan.”
Sweeney’s address capped off a daylong conference on “Infrastructure: A Pathway to Prosperity” at Sweeney’s alma mata, Iona College, in New Rochelle, N.Y. Yesterday’s conference brought together unions, business, government and academic leaders to explore the hows and whys of revitalizing the economy by rebuilding an aging and failing infrastructure.
Remembering James Orange: He Spent His Life Standing Up for Others
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AFL-CIO Organizing Director Stewart Acuff remembers his friend and colleague, the Rev. James Orange, who died Feb. 16. Before joining the national AFL-CIO staff, Acuff headed the Atlanta AFL-CIO and worked closely with Orange for a decade on major efforts to bring justice and dignity to workers across the South.
Last Saturday evening, Feb. 16, America lost one of our greatest warriors for social justice, and I lost one of my best friends. The Rev. James Orange died at Crawford Long Hospital in Atlanta after being hospitalized for gall bladder-related issues.
During the 1960s and 1970s, Rev. Orange was a key field organizer for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. More than that, he was a member of Dr. Martin Luther King’s inner circle. He joined Dr. King during the Birmingham movement where he organized the demonstrations of school children who were fire-hosed and attacked by police dogs. Those images broadcast across the nation helped turn public opinion to support the civil rights movement.
