Search Results for 'NLRB'
Legislation & Politics, Organizing & Bargaining |
Feb 9 |
Senate Dem. Nelson Joins Republican Filibuster Against Obama’s NLRB Choice
With the nation’s capitol under two-plus feet of snow, Nebraska’s Sen. Ben Nelson (D) appears to have come down with a case of snow madness–a delirium that sometimes manifests itself in bizarre and illogical actions and speech.
Nelson announced yesterday that he would back a Republican-led filibuster against President Obama’s nominee to the National Labor Relations Board, Craig Becker. The vote is scheduled for later today. Call your senators today and tell them to stop obstructing President Obama’s nominees, starting with Craig Becker.
Nelson says he believes Becker, the Obama administration’s choice for the NLRB, “would pursue a personal agenda there, rather than that of the administration.”
As Michael Whitney on FireDogLake writes:
How does that make any sense, when it’s the Obama administration that nominated him twice?
Legislation & Politics, Organizing & Bargaining |
Feb 4 |
Republicans First Slime, Then Maneuver to Block Labor Board Nominee
Republican Senate leaders are so frightened that a member of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) might actually have an open mind about workers’ rights, that in two purely partisan maneuvers, they’ve blocked a majority vote on one of President Obama’s nominees for an NLRB seat.
Craig Becker is a highly respected and experienced labor law practitioner and scholar. He has an impressive 27-year record of advocating for and representing workers, especially low-wage workers. He is currently an associate general counsel for the AFL-CIO and SEIU.
That experience—as opposed to being the type of management stooge favored by the Bush administration—is what has driven Republicans into a mouth-foaming frenzy.
Organizing & Bargaining |
Feb 1 |
Unions Save Jobs, Wages in New York
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Here are two examples of why it’s good to have a union.
The National Labor Relations Board’s (NLRB’s) regional office in upstate New York announced it will seek an order requiring Momentive Performance Materials to undo its one-year-old “restructuring” that cut 400 workers’ pay by an average of 25 percent and restore wages and other contract provisions.
The NLRB action comes after IUE-CWA Local 81359 filed charges of contract violations against the company. Management announced Dec. 3, 2008, it was cutting the pay of the 400 workers to help cope with “the current severe economic recession.”
The company employs nearly 1,000 people at its Waterford, N.Y., plant.
In the States, Organizing & Bargaining |
Jan 15 |
L.A. Carwash Workers Detail Abuses at Workers’ Rights Hearing
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Chloe Osmer of the Clean Carwash Campaign in Los Angeles sends this report on yesterday’s National Workers’ Rights Board hearing investigating the abuse and harassment faced every day by carwash workers.
Several Los Angeles area carwash workers yesterday told a National Workers’ Rights Board hearing that they had been cheated out of wages, harassed and fired for trying to form a union and forced to work in dangerous conditions.
Along with the testimony from workers, board members heard from community and labor leaders (including Steelworkers President Leo Gerard), academics, and health, safety and environmental experts on the deplorable and often dangerous conditions that continue to plague Southern California carwash workers.
Organizing & Bargaining |
Jan 13 |
Nurses, Donut Workers Join AFL-CIO Unions
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Nurses in Connecticut and Dunkin’ Donuts bakery workers in Illinois recently voted for a voice at work and formed unions with AFT and the Office and Professional Employees (OPEIU).
Both groups of workers had to fight against the type of employer intimidation, harassment and other anti-worker tactics that the Employee Free Choice Act would eliminate.
Nurses at Rockville General Hospital overcame intimidation by hospital management in an unsuccessful May election and in December voted to join AFT Connecticut.
Sandy Lambert, a nurse at Rockville for 22 years, told the Hartford Courant that during the earlier campaign, she wore a pro-union button to work and was warned by a manager that the company was keeping a list of button-wearers among the 140 nurses.
Corporate Greed, Organizing & Bargaining |
Jan 12 |
Illegally Fired Workers Must Get Jobs, Pay Back
Nearly 150 workers at a Michigan auto parts manufacturer could be getting their jobs back—along with back pay—after a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) administrative law judge (ALJ) ruled they were illegally fired.
In early 2008, the workers, members of UAW Local 822, were in negotiations for a new contract with Douglas Autotech Corp. in Bronson. In May, according to a press release from the NLRB, the union called a brief strike
but quickly realized that the strike was not lawful because certain timely notice was not given….The union made an unconditional offer to return to work on the third day of the strike.
Corporate Greed, In the States |
Dec 22 |
L.A. Drivers: Carwash Workers May Live on Tips
Drivers in Los Angeles are getting the message: Carwash workers often are being exploited by their employers.
As KCET-TV reported in recent days:
“The next time you visit a carwash, think twice about how much you tip the person who wipes down your vehicle. That may be the only pay he receives. Correspondent Angie Crouch investigates widespread labor violations at Southern California car washes.”
The investigation of the workers’ plight comes more than a year after carwash workers in the area joined together to win basics rights at their workplaces—like actually getting paid. The Community-Labor-Environmental Action Network (CLEAN) Carwash Campaign, a coalition of community, religious, environmental and immigrant rights organizations, formed in March 2008 to aid Los Angeles carwash workers in their efforts to form a union with the United Steelworkers (USW).
Organizing & Bargaining |
Dec 14 |
Pratt & Whitney Ships 1,000 Jobs Overseas Despite State Incentives—and More Bargaining News
Pratt & Whitney ships jobs overseas despite incentives, and more news from the “Bargaining Digest Weekly.” The AFL-CIO Collective Bargaining Department delivers daily, bargaining-related news and research resources to more than 1,200 subscribers. Union leaders can register for this service through our website, Bargaining@Work.
WORK STOPPAGES AND OTHER ACTIONS
IAM, Pratt & Whitney: The Machinists (IAM) are applauding Connecticut’s full congressional delegation for sending a letter to President Obama urging him to help prevent Pratt & Whitney from moving 1,000 jobs out of the state and out of the country. IAM and the state of Connecticut worked together to offer huge incentives if the company remained in the state, but the aircraft engine manufacturer refused.
In the States, Organizing & Bargaining |
Dec 2 |
Workers Give Rite Aid CEO the Raspberry for Union-Busting
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Workers at Rite Aid’s Lancaster, Calif., distribution center have been fighting for justice and a voice at work for years. Here’s the latest report on their battle from Rand Wilson, AFL-CIO Organizing Department communications specialist. For more background on the workers’ fight, click here, here and here.
A Rite Aid drugstore worker from California and enthusiastic supporters in New York City upstaged a corporate banquet where former first lady Laura Bush came to honor Rite Aid CEO Mary Sammons and other executives at a midtown hotel last night.
Protesters held signs and banners outside, and several went inside attempting to offer Sammons a free plane ticket if she would agree to visit 600 workers at the company’s regional distribution center in Lancaster, Calif., where continuing labor violations have drawn Rite Aid into a bitter nationwide conflict. For more than two years, workers at the distribution center have united in the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) trying to achieve better pay and working conditions.
Organizing & Bargaining |
Oct 28 |
Rite Aid Workers Win Big Victory from NLRB
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Robert Masciola in the AFL-CIO Organizing Department writes about a victory in the three-year struggle by Rite Aid workers to join a union.
In March 2008, nearly 700 workers at Rite Aid’s distribution center in Lancaster, Calif., overcame a vicious two-year anti-union campaign to gain a voice on the job by voting for International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) Local 26.
The workers sought union representation to put an end to punishing production quotas and mandatory overtime piled on top of 10-hour shifts. They work in hot desert summers with no air conditioning in their work areas, with no job security.
As we enter the fall of 2009, workers are still fighting hard to win a first contract. But it has been hard given the employers’ conduct.
