Archive for March, 2008
Act Now to Stop Slave Labor in Florida’s Tomato Fields
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More than 100 years after our nation ended slavery, the mostly immigrant workers who today pick tomatoes for the fast-food industry still are being treated like slaves. They are among the most exploited workers in the country, sometimes held against their will, beaten and forced to work for little or no pay. Thousands more are trying to survive on poverty wages with no sick leave and no freedom to join unions for a better life.
They are fighting back, demanding to be treated fairly, and they need your help. The workers are reaching out to 1 million people to sign a petition demanding that Burger King and food industry leaders work with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) to improve the wages and conditions for the workers who pick tomatoes.
Got a Job, Can’t Afford Health Coverage
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More than 47 million people in this country have no health insurance. Yet the vast majority of those who have no health insurance are employed—a travesty that sometimes ends with tragic consequences, as Sharon from Michigan told the AFL-CIO/Working America 2008 Health Care for America Survey.
My mother-in-law was employed in a low-wage job that did not provide health care coverage. She became ill and could not afford to go to a doctor on her own. My husband and I urged her to go, stating we would pay for the visit.
By the time she got to the doctor, she had pneumonia and required hospitalization. The pneumonia placed so much stress on her system that she ended up dying. If she had had health care coverage and been able to go to the doctor for treatment earlier, she likely would not have died.
Don’t Believe Wall Street Hype About Social Security
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Earlier this week, the Social Security Board of Trustees released the 65th annual report on the program’s financial status.
And on cue, the Bush administration and the Wall Street-knows-best crowd—now joined by Sen. John McCain (who acknowledges ” economics is something I’ve never really understood as well as I should”)—used the occasion to push for privatizing Social Security. You know, turning over seniors’ retirement security to the stock market’s financial wizards who supposedly will show a bit more fiduciary acumen than the folks who presided over Bear Stearns’ crash and burn.
Denver Union Members Greet McCain, Who Has ‘No Plan’ to Address Foreclosure Crisis
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Mike Cerbo, executive director of the Colorado AFL-CIO, describes how he and area union members greeted Sen. John McCain outside a ritzy fund-raising event, demanding to know why McCain’s plan to fix the nation’s mortgage crisis is to blame homeowners.
Hearing chants of “Stop Foreclosures,” John McCain passed a group of 50 union activists on his way to a $1,000-a-plate fund-raiser at the Petroleum Club in Denver. Holding giant “Turn Around America” signs, dozens of union members from AFSCME, AFGE, APWU, ATU, CWA, IBEW, SMWIA, UA and USW greeted the senator from Arizona.
The crowd heard from Denver resident Linda Donna, 55, who has been severely impacted by the foreclosure crisis. She was a victim of a “bait and switch” tactic—she originally was promised a lower interest rate, but at the last minute, the lender raised it.
IBEW Building New Partnerships to Meet Utility Industry Challenges
The demand for energy is growing rapidly as the number of utility workers is declining and infrastructure is aging—even as concerns grow over global climate change. To more effectively meet these new challenges, the Electrical Workers (IBEW) is forging an unprecedented labor-management partnership in the utility industry.
In an innovative initiative, the IBEW, which represents 250,000 utility workers across the United States and Canada, is urging members to foster excellence in their skills and performance at work while also seeking a more cooperative relationship with management.
Across California, Union Members Confront McCain
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Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) spent much of this week in California, holding closed-door, big-dollar fundraisers with his corporate cronies—but he got more than he bargained for. Union members were at each event, calling him out on his anti-worker record.
In addition to successful events held this week across Southern California, union members turned out strongly yesterday to confront McCain in Pebble Beach and San Francisco. Enthusiastic members of the Monterey Bay Central Labor Council and the San Francisco Labor Council held signs, chanted and let their fellow Californians know that McCain is wrong for working families—all part of the AFL-CIO’s national McCain Revealed campaign.
Workers’ Political Strength Helps Stall NLRB Assault on Rights
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Instead of protecting the rights of workers to join unions and bargain for a better life, a Republican-dominated National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) in recent years took away the rights of millions of workers to be represented by unions, made it harder to form unions through majority sign-up, limited the ability of illegally fired workers to recover back pay and allowed employers to discriminate against union supporters in the hiring process.
In recent months, our allies on Capitol Hill joined our campaign for a fair NLRB that does its job to protect workers’ freedom to join a union. Last November, workers across the country protested the ongoing assault on worker rights by the Bush-appointed NLRB, saying until a pro-worker labor board is appointed, the agency should be “closed for renovations.”
Now, it seems, workers have successfully stalled, if not derailed, the NLRB’s assault on workers’ rights until a new president can appoint new board members.
Two Anti-Worker Ballot Measures Dead in Nevada
Two proposed Nevada ballot measures—thinly veiled attacks on workers and unions backed by secret out-of-state donors—bit the dust this week when the front group for the initiatives announced the measures would be withdrawn.
Nevadans for Nevada, a coalition of unions and community, civil rights and other groups filed suit challenging the two measures last week.
Time to CLEAN Up the Car Wash Industry
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No city loves its cars like Los Angeles, and keeping those cars looking good is big business. The city of Los Angeles has more car washes—430—than any other metropolitan area in the country.
According to the Western Carwash Association, an industry trade group, car washes in Southern California average about $1 million gross annual income and can have a profit margin of up to a whopping 29 percent. But if you are one of the thousands of workers who shampoo, wax, dry and detail cars, you don’t see any of that profit—in fact, you may not get paid at all. You also may have to work long hours in 100-degree heat, with no lunch break, no fresh water to drink and risk getting sick by being exposed constantly to harsh and dangerous chemicals.
Struggle for Health Care Making Us Sick
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There was a time in the not too distant past when the nation’s health care system seemed to work pretty well for a lot of people. That was before, says Caroline, a 61-year-old from California, the private insurance companies became the heart—though certainly not the soul—of health care in America.
Every time I see an insurance high rise building, I become a little livid knowing that they own those buildings with the blood and deaths of the rest of us. There was a time when hospitals were nonprofit…when doctors made a good living without gouging, when doctors had time for their patients instead of filling out insurance forms and waiting for the company to okay the procedure…with denials and delays, the patient now is either broke, sicker or dead.
