Channel: In the States
Labor On the Air Around the Nation and World
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Looking for the latest in international labor news? Now it’s just a click away with the launch of RadioLabour.net and its Solidarity News program. The weekly podcast will focus on union and workers’ activities and issues from around the world with special emphasis on emerging market and developing countries.
A new report, hosted by labor educator Marc Belanger, debuts each Monday morning. RadioLabour reporters will provide regular weekly presentations, and the audio cast will feature reports from unionists on particular events.
For union activists interested in learning more about progressive podcasting, be sure to check out the Labour Podcasting group on UnionBook.
Jobless Construction Workers to Delaware Lawmakers: ‘Walk in Our Shoes’
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Staging a symbolic soup and bread line and carrying shoes to encourage state legislators to walk a mile in a jobless worker’s shoes, some 500 Delaware Building and Construction Trades Council (BCTC) workers rallied for jobs legislation in Dover last week.
The rally at the steps of the state Capitol spotlighted the tremendous loss in construction jobs throughout the recession. Although state unemployment stands at 9 percent, construction unemployment is more than twice that and more than 2,100 construction and trades jobs vanished in 2009.
Delaware BCTC President Harry Gravel says the state legislature needs to move on jobs legislation, such as a stalled bill to allow casinos that some estimate could create thousands of jobs.
I support jobs period. If it’s a casino, good. I don’t care if it’s Jack in the Box, a Wendy’s, a school or an outhouse, we want to build it. We’re out of work, we need to go work, we’ll build it, period.
Wisconsin NEA Local Partners with State Fed in Solidarity Agreement
The 840 members of the Janesville (Wis.) Education Association (JEA) voted to affiliate with the Wisconsin State AFL-CIO and the Rock County Central Labor Council.
JEA President David Parr calls the affiliation “an exciting new partnership.”
Through the Wisconsin State AFL-CIO and the Rock County Central Labor Council, Janesville educators are standing in solidarity with other working people on the issues that impact our community. We intend to take an active role within both organizations.
Report: Union Membership Benefits Workers in Every State
Joining a union would be good for workers in every state in the nation because union members receive better pay and benefits than nonunion workers, according to a new report.
“The Unions of the States,” released today by the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR), studied union membership rates, size of the union workforce and wage and benefit advantages for union workers in each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia. Click here to read the report.
The report found union membership rates vary widely, from more than 25 percent of workers in New York and Hawaii to fewer than 5 percent in North Carolina and South Carolina. California has the most union members, with 2.6 million, and Wyoming the least, with just about 20,000.
Minnesota AFL-CIO Calls for Bold State Action to Create Jobs
Workday Minnesota editor Barb Kucera reports on the Minnesota AFL-CIO’s job creation strategy unveiled Monday. For more on how unions and their allies on the state and local levels can mobilize for legislation and policies that create jobs and boost the economy for working families, click here.
Responding to the dramatic need to get Minnesotans back to work, the Minnesota AFL-CIO called on state lawmakers to enact a series of bold proposals to create jobs and stimulate economic growth.
At a news conference Monday at the Capitol, Minnesota AFL-CIO President Shar Knutson urged elected officials to quickly pass a bonding bill, support private investment in construction jobs, enact a wage subsidy program and raise revenue as part of solving the state’s budget crisis.
Winners Picked in IBEW Photo Contest
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The image of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 369 apprentice Sam Simms climbing to the top of an electrical pole, as a cloud-breaking sun provides a ragged pink halo above, was the top vote-getter in the 2009 IBEW Photo Contest.
Nearly 4,000 online votes were cast for the 15 finalists—out of more than 300 submissions.
The first place winner—shot with an iPhone by Danny Doss of IBEW Local 317 in Huntington, W.Va.—captures the Louisville, Ky., apprentice as he is earning his Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) wood pole certification. Says Doss, who trains new workers:
“I was in the right place at the right time. I never expected to win.”
Dave Gable of IBEW Local 160 in Minneapolis nabbed second place with his colorful shot of windmills at sunrise on the Minnesota-South Dakota border. Voters awarded third place to Vacaville, Calif., Local 1245 member Don Porter for his photo of the Fort Churchill power plant in Mason Valley, Nev., at sunset.
Workers Across Nation Choose a Voice with AFL-CIO Unions
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County workers, professional employees, bakery workers, airborne pilots and “ghost” pilots and sheriff’s deputies are among the latest workers to choose a voice at work with AFL-CIO unions.
In Utah, more than 400 Salt Lake County workers won a union voice with AFSCME Local 1004. The 408 county employees—skilled trades, maintenance and service workers—could vote for union representation only after AFSCME fought and won passage of a county collective bargaining ordinance last year.
John Farrer, a Highway Department worker, says:
This is definitely a positive thing for workers, and that’s why they voted it in. With all that’s happened, the wage cuts, benefits going down and insurance going up, we need a strong union voice to represent the interests of working families.
AFL-CIO Unveils 2010 State Jobs Agenda
Last night in his State of the Union message, President Obama called on Congress to pass a jobs bill to help put millions of Americans back to work. But the U.S. Congress is not the only lawmaking body that can fuel job creation. State legislatures have important roles to play.
The AFL -CIO has developed a State Jobs Agenda that union and community allies and working family lawmakers can use as a guideline in developing legislation and policies to protect and create jobs, address budget issues and protect the safety net.
The agenda offers dozens of innovative and effective ways to develop job-centric laws and policy that put working families first.
New High-Speed Rail Projects Put People to Work
Today in Tampa, Fla., President Obama is announcing $8 billion in high-speed rail grants that will save or create tens of thousands of jobs in areas like track-laying, manufacturing, planning and engineering.
Edward Wytkind, president of the AFL-CIO Transportation Trades Department (TTD), says the commitment to develop high-speed rail “couldn’t come at a better time.”
Investing in America’s passenger transportation systems and infrastructure not only builds a lasting contribution to future generations of travelers, it puts people to work at a time when so many Americans are jobless.
Oregon Voters Tell Corporations, Wealthy: ‘Pay Your Fair Share’
Oregon voters, faced with a $727 million budget deficit that threatened severe cuts in education, health care, public safety and senior services, voted Tuesday for two “fair share” measures that raise taxes on the state’s wealthiest families and boost a minimum tax on businesses that had been set at just $10 since 1931.
Oregon AFL-CIO President Tom Chamberlain says the victory on both these measures “sends a strong message on how we value education and other vital working family services.”
Oregon unions, community allies and progressive groups led the fight against the deep-pocketed corporate community that preached economic doom if the tax measures passed.
