Archive for December 3rd, 2008
Union Card Raises Wages for Women as Much as Year in College
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A new study confirms the union advantage for working women. After controlling for several factors apart from union membership (education, age, industry and state), women who belong to unions earn, on average, 11.2 percent more—about $2 an hour—than their nonunion peers. That’s equivalent to what a woman worker would gain by spending a year in college.
In addition, women in unions in 2007 “were about 19 percentage points more likely to have employer-provided health insurance and about 25 percentage points more likely to have an employer-provided pension,” according to the study, Unions and Upward Mobility for Women Workers, by the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR
Auto Crisis Threatens Entire Economy; Union Ready to Do Its Part—Again
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If Congress does not soon approve emergency loan legislation to keep Detroit’s Big Three automakers operating as they ride out the nation’s financial crisis, job losses will ripple not just through the auto industry but through the entire economy, warned UAW President Ron Gettelfinger.
At a news conference today following an emergency meeting with UAW local and regional leaders, Gettelfinger said the union is willing to “take the extra step” to aid the industry. Union leaders, he said, have agreed to delay automakers’ payments to a union-administered health care fund and to modify the union’s job banks program that provides laid-off workers with a portion of their wages and benefits.
But he reiterated that UAW members already have agreed to wage and benefit concessions that have lowered labor costs at the Big Three.
Martin Misses in Hard-Fought Georgia Senate Runoff
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In yesterday’s runoff election for Georgia’s U.S. Senate seat, working family-friendly candidate Jim Martin made a strong effort but wasn’t able to unseat incumbent Sen. Saxby Chambliss. Chambliss won with 57 percent of the vote, while Martin took 43 percent.
Martin’s presence in the runoff and the votes he won last night are thanks, in part, to the efforts of hundreds of union volunteers who have been working hard contacting active and retired members around the state. Union volunteers knocked on 100,000 doors, sent 300,000 pieces of union mail and leafleted more than 150 worksites. Union phone bankers made more than 300,000 phone calls, and Martin himself took part in a union phone bank as the election approached.
Throughout the race, union volunteers identified and mobilized union voters. Though they weren’t successful this time, they’ll be ready to turn out votes in future Georgia races.
Newspaper Investigation Reveals Lax Enforcement of Child Labor Laws
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On a typical day, more than 400 workers younger than 18 are hurt on the job in the United States and one is killed every 10 days. At the same time, the number of federal child labor investigations has declined by half since the Bush administration took office eight years ago.
In a two-part series last week, the Charlotte Observer revealed that employers are ignoring federal child labor laws and getting away with it. As part of its investigation, the Observer interviewed more than 20 current and former House of Raeford Farms workers who said the North Carolina-based poultry company often hired underage workers. Click here and here to read the series.
North Carolina Gov. Mike Easley (D) told the Observer:
It’s hard to believe that’s going on in this century and in this state….You’re really talking about a form of child abuse here.
