Archive for March, 2009
Business Owners, Elected Leaders Support Employee Free Choice
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Over the past week, union members have made more than 4,000 calls and sent more than 8,000 letters to members of Congress urging them to support the Employee Free Choice Act to protect workers’ freedom to form unions and bargain.
Meanwhile, more and more small business owners, community members and lawmakers are indicating their support for the proposed legislation, which would level the playing field for workers seeking to form unions.
Events with entrepreneurs and business owners are taking place around the country as hundreds of business leaders are coming out in support of the Employee Free Choice Act. One such business leader is Ray Kohl, owner of Goldenrod Printing in Lincoln, Neb.
The Employee Free Choice Act is important to me because I think employees need some control over their working environment. I think it’s really important that they have a say in their conditions that they work under, the benefits and pay that they receive for their work.
Obama Honors César Chávez’s Birthday
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What a difference a year makes. While the Bush White House tried to thwart workers’ rights and all that the late César Chávez fought for, Barack Obama adopted Chávez’s rallying cry as his campaign theme.
Today, on what would have been Chávez’s 82nd birthday, President Obama issued a statement hailing the former Farm Workers president as “an educator, environmentalist, and as a civil rights leader who struggled for fair treatment and fair wages for America’s workers.”
Chávez’s rallying cry, “Sí Se Puede”—”Yes, We Can,” was more than a slogan, it was an expression of hope and a rejection of those who said farm workers could not organize, and could not take on the growers. Through his courage, César Chávez taught us that a single voice could change our country, and that together, we could make America a stronger, more just, and more prosperous nation.
Last-Ditch Bush Rule Would Threaten Retirement Security
In a last-gasp effort to reward its corporate friends, the Bush administration—on the very day of Barack Obama’s inauguration—proposed a new regulation that could reduce Americans’ retirement security by allowing firms to give financial advice to workers who participate in their 401(k) plans on products where they have a financial interest.
Current laws prohibit such conflicts of interest and the Obama administration has put the regulation on hold.
At a congressional hearing last week, Rep. Robert Andrews (D-N.J.), chairman of the House Education and Labor’s Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor and Pensions, said:
If workers receive investment advice, it should be independent and free of conflicts of interest. During a time where American workers have already lost $2 trillion in assets due to last year’s market downturn, exposing their hard-earned retirement savings to greater risk by allowing advisers to offer them conflicted advice is irresponsible and imprudent.
‘The West Wing’ Cast Joins Workers to Support Employee Free Choice
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Barack Obama is not the only U.S. president who supports the Employee Free Choice Act: America’s most famous fictional president is in Washington, D.C., today to stand alongside workers in support of the freedom to form unions.
As part of the union movement’s “Faces of the Employee Free Choice Act” campaign, workers like Dan Luevano and Asela Espiritu were joined by members of the cast of “The West Wing” in a rally in support of the Employee Free Choice Act on Capitol Hill this morning. Martin Sheen, who played fictional U.S. President Jed Bartlett in the long-running show, came to Washington along with actors Bradley Whitford and Richard Schiff.
After this morning’s rally, workers traveled around Capitol Hill to visit U.S. senators and ask them to quickly pass the Employee Free Choice Act, which would protect workers from management abuses and give employees, not their bosses, the choice about how to form a union and bargain for a better life.
House Hearings: Green Jobs Offer Opportunity to Rebuild Middle Class
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President Obama’s economic recovery plan sets aside $50 billion in grants and tax incentives to promote efficient and renewable energy. But the nation also must focus on training workers and rebuilding our manufacturing industries to take advantage of the growth in green jobs, experts told a congressional panel today.
Jerome Ringo, president of the Apollo Alliance, told the U.S. House Education and Labor Committee’s Subcommittee on Workforce Protections that potential for a clean energy economy offers huge opportunities to revive American manufacturing and rebuild the nation’s economy. But “what’s not evident is whether we have the human capital or the political will to ensure the jobs are American.”
We don’t make most of the systems involved in producing clean energy. Fully half of America’s existing wind turbines were manufactured overseas. And we rank fifth among countries that manufacture solar components, even though the solar cell was born in America.
Six Republican Governors Rather Play Politics than Aid Jobless Workers
With U.S. unemployment at the highest level in more than a quarter century, six Republican governors would rather play politics with the lives of their citizens than help them make ends meet.
President Obama’s economic recovery plan provides $25 more per week and extends benefits for those who are jobless and struggling to feed their families. But as Karen Nussbaum, director of Working America, the AFL-CIO community affiliate, writes on Huffington Post:
If you live in Alabama, Alaska, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina or Texas, you are laid off and left out.
When AIG defrauded investors and the government, employees there took home millions in bonuses. Elsewhere, people are living unemployment check to unemployment check through no fault of their own, laid off because everyone is tightening their belts and job growth is nonexistent. Shoring up the unemployment insurance safety net is fundamental fairness.
Student Week of Action Focuses on Employee Free Choice
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This week, Jobs with Justice’s Student Labor Action Project (SLAP) kicks off a week of action in support of the passage of the Employee Free Choice Act and the freedom to form unions and bargain cooperatively to create a strong economy.
As part of SLAP’s week of action, held each year to honor Martin Luther King Jr. and Farm Workers founder César Chávez, students in 28 states and the District of Columbia are getting involved in the campaign for the Employee Free Choice Act. In coordination with the student week of action, Jobs with Justice will hold a “Resistance and Recovery” week of events.
You can find out about student actions in your area here.
Technology Alone Can’t Deliver Better Health Care
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With the federal government poised to invest billions of dollars in health information technology as part of comprehensive health care reform, the AFL-CIO joined with Kaiser Permanente and the Alliance for Health Reform to show how the efficient use of new information systems and involvement of all caregivers—doctors, pharmacists, nurses and others—in health decisions can lead to better health care. In fact, Kaiser says its pilot program is using technology in new ways to cut cardiac deaths by 73 percent.
During a briefing Friday in Washington, D.C., Kaiser Permanente CEO George Halvorson pointed out how the company’s practitioners in Colorado used Kaiser’s trademarked health information system to deliver better care to cardiac patients. The Collaborative Cardiac Care Service program uses integrated nursing and pharmacy teams that work collaboratively with heart disease patients and their doctors. The team is connected by technology that helps them deliver care. Activities such as lifestyle modification, medication management, patient education, laboratory results monitoring and management of adverse events are all coordinated through the program, which helps guide the patient through both short- and long-term care decisions.
Former Pilots President Nominated to Head Federal Aviation Administration
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Capt. Randy Babbitt, who spent 25 years in the cockpit beginning with Eastern Airlines and served two terms as president of the Air Line Pilots (ALPA), was nominated last week by President Obama to take over the controls of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
Current ALPA President Capt. John Prater says he is confident that as FAA administrator, Babbitt will develop a flight plan to
guide the FAA into the future….Capt. Babbitt’s decisive leadership will position the FAA to take aggressive action to modernize our country’s antiquated airspace in the face of air traffic demand that is sure to escalate as the economy improves.
The White House announcement of his appointment said Babbitt is a
nationally recognized leader in the field of aviation safety and policy, and labor relations with almost 40 years of experience in the industry.
AT&T Workers Authorize a Strike, and More Bargaining News
Workers at AT&T authorize a strike, and more updates here from the “Bargaining Digest Weekly.” The AFL-CIO Collective Bargaining Department delivers daily, bargaining-related news and research resources to more than 900 subscribers. Union leaders can register for this service through our website, Bargaining@Work.
WORK STOPPAGES AND JOB ACTIONS
CWA, AT&T: Workers at AT&T, represented by the Communications Workers of America (CWA), gave leaders the authority to call a strike as part of negotiations for new contracts covering 112,500 workers. Several worker contracts, covering the landline division, expire on April 4.
