Archive for October, 2008
After Four Years, Pace University Faculty Get First Contract
Here’s another example of why America’s workers need the Employee Free Choice Act.
This week, the adjunct faculty at Pace University in New York City and on Long Island finally has a tentative contract—after four years of stalling by university management.
Four years.
In May 2004, the professors voted 308–165 to form the Union of Adjunct Faculty at Pace (UAFP), an affiliate of AFT. Their key issues included wages, a lack of benefits and a lack of respect. As Pace Physics professor Chris Williams puts it:
I would starve to death if I had to rely on my wages from Pace.
Holt Baker Energizes Bluegrass Workers to ‘Ditch Mitch’
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The tight Kentucky Senate contest has been dubbed the “second most important race in the country.” Bluegrass working people have mobilized in a big way to unseat Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a nemesis of working people in the upper house and one of the most virulent opponents of workers’ rights in the Congress.
Yesterday, AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Arlene Holt Baker spent the day in Louisville, Ky., energizing union members to make a strong push in the final four days before the election to get out the vote to elect Sen. Barack Obama president and to “Ditch Mitch” by sending Democratic Senate candidate Bruce Lunsford to Capitol Hill.
Lunsford has a good chance to defeat McConnell and led the filibuster that prevented the Employee Free Choice Act from passing the Senate this year. As minority leader, McConnell has actively opposed every piece of pro-worker legislation to come to the floor.
Biden, Sweeney Rally Workers in Ohio
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In the battle to send Barack Obama and Joe Biden to the White House, few factors are more critical than a strong union turnout in the swing state of Ohio
Today in Kettering, Ohio, in the competitive Dayton area, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney introduced Biden at a rally with 1,500 enthusiastic supporters. Sweeney is one of many labor leaders making sure there’s a strong turnout among union members on Tuesday.
Ohio is at the center of this election in many ways. Closely fought in 2004, the state has borne heavy costs from the Bush-McCain economic agenda. Bad trade deals, the housing crisis and unemployment have hit Ohio’s working families particularly hard—the jobless rate in the state hit a 15-year high of 7.2 percent over the summer and has climbed to 7.4 percent in recent months.
Forget Dracula. The Bush Economy Sends Chills up Our Spines
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This Halloween has to be the scariest ever. And not because of the costumes.
* The Washington Post, long in denial about a U.S. recession, today runs an item on tanking consumer spending leading to a decline in the U.S. gross domestic product by saying:
The freight train of American consumption has been derailed.
* AIG, bailed out twice with taxpayer money—despite reports that its top executives spent the money, in part, on a lavish California retreat and fox hunting in the English countryside—already has used three-quarters of the $123 billion we loaned it.
* The total numbers of jobs lost this year stands at 684,000, with October’s jobless figures likely to make the total much worse.
World War II Resistance Fighter Prays for Obama, Mark Warner to Win Nov. 4
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Julie Hunter, Labor 2008 Virginia communications director, sends us this great story of 93-year-old Margaret Stanton, a retired social worker and AFSCME member. Hunter shows just how communicating with union members and retirees about politics can make a big impact.
Margaret Stanton is a retired social worker and AFSCME member who lives in Front Royal, Va. After receiving a mail piece from the Virginia AFL-CIO explaining that Sen. Barack Obama and former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner were our endorsed candidates, she decided to write a letter.
In her letter, Margaret, 93, explained that she read both of Sen. Obama’s books and her daughter in Connecticut is working on Obama’s campaign.
Margaret believes that the current policies in Washington are “killing the middle class” and hopes and prays Obama becomes president.
Get Out the Vote NOW
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Here we are: the final four days. Months of hard work have led up to this. But we can’t let up now.
Union members who want to be part of this historic effort can download a spreadsheet here that lists locations and contact info for hundreds of get-out-the-vote events in 25 key states.
We have the chance to elect a president and vice president who understand the importance of unions and want to make the economy work again for everyone: Sens. Barack Obama and Joe Biden.
We have the chance to get to 60 pro-worker votes in the Senate, to break the grip of obstruction and corporate power and pass the Employee Free Choice Act. (You can help by contributing to candidates in key Senate races through ActBlue.) We have the chance to send dozens of new representatives to Congress who will listen to workers on issues like health care, trade and Social Security.
Kudos to AFSCME Ohio Housing Inspector, Unionist Bill McEntee
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Abandoned houses with windows broken, doors hanging by a hinge and yards knee-deep in grass, eventually are boarded up and the yards mowed. But for too many years in Dayton, Ohio, that duty fell to the city because a tangled web of banking laws made it nearly impossible for city officials to determine just who was responsible for the properties.
That is, until John Carter, AFSCME Local 101 member and a city housing inspector, began to untangle this web of banking bureaucracy. Thanks to his deft detective work, the city is now saving more than $50,000 a year in boarding costs and Carter has been named one of the eight “Public Officials of the Year,” chosen by Governing magazine.
In a post on AFSCME’s website, our colleague Clyde Weiss writes that once the houses were foreclosed and abandoned:
Banks would take ownership, Carter explains, “But you couldn’t locate anybody who would take responsibility” for boarding up a foreclosed house, or cutting the grass. So it became the city’s responsibility by default.
Economy, Consumer Spending Sink. We Need a Recovery Package Now
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The U.S. Commerce Department’s announcement today that the U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) declined by 0.3 in the third quarter—the worst such decline since 2001—is more proof America’s working families need Congress and Bush to move a genuine economic recovery package. Says AFL-CIO President John Sweeney:
Such a package must provide relief for the one million unemployed workers who will exhaust their unemployment benefits before the end of the year; aid state and local governments so they can continue to provide needed services and jobs; and jump-start infrastructure investments to create jobs quickly and rebuild our crumbling schools, bridges, and roads.
Painters, Steelworkers, Machinists, Sheet Metal Workers in Election Flurry
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The Machinists (IAM), Painters and Allied Trades (IUPAT), Sheet Metal Workers (SMWIA) and United Steelworkers (USW) are helping make history for Sen. Barack Obama and working families.
The USW has set a new record this election season, marking its largest political mobilization in history: More than 10,000 USW members have volunteered to take part in phone banks, walks and other events. In a special video message, USW President Leo Gerard congratulates the thousands of union members who have turned out and says we need to keep up the efforts for the final days. The stakes are too high, Gerard says, to let the election slip away and let countless hours of hard work go to waste.
A Toast: To Union Volunteers and the 2008 GOTV
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| This mailer from the Communications Workers of America is among a wide range of union fliers, local TV and radio ads and other media outreach. |
The election numbers are in and the winner is….
America’s working families.
Even before the Nov. 4 results are tallied, the nearly yearlong election mobilization throughout the union movement is a victory for the thousands of union volunteers who have dedicated their scarce free time in get-out-the-vote efforts. Without them, we could not have reached the millions of union members critical to reversing the misery of the Bush years. These volunteers, and all the union members they reach, join with many other communities—especially our compatriots in the progressive blog world—in helping create a future we can be proud to pass on to our children.
We’re now entering the “Final Four,” when our get-out-the-vote (GOTV) efforts reach maximum intensity.
