Executive Council Focuses on Jobs, Election, Workers’ Rights
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In the midst of the worst jobs crisis since the Depression, the AFL-CIO Executive Council laid out a road map for how the Obama administration and Congress can fundamentally revamp the nation’s economy so that it puts workers first. President Barack Obama, who addressed the Council on Aug. 4, seemed to get it when he said that making things in America is at the heart of the economic recovery. The Council also laid out plans for the critical fall elections.
In a series of statements, Council members reaffirmed the need for immediate adoption of the AFL-CIO’s five point plan to create new jobs and warned that reducing the deficit must come after we create more revenue-producing jobs. You can check out all the new Executive Council statements here.
Five New Members Named to Executive Council
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The AFL-CIO today elected five new members to the Executive Council. The Council also voted to add two seats to the council to promote and establishing diversity as well as giving a greater role to state and local labor leaders.
The council is meeting this week in Washington, D.C., to discuss plans for a major push in the fall elections, the union movement’s ongoing strategy to address the jobs crisis and efforts to reach out to young workers. President Obama will address the council today.
The new members of the Executive Council include: UAW President Bob King, UAW Vice President General Holiefield, AFSCME Secretary-Treasurer Lee Saunders, North Carolina State AFL-CIO President James Andrews and Los Angeles County Federation of Labor Executive Secretary-Treasurer Maria Elena Durazo.
The Council also honored two departing members—former UAW President Ron Gettelfinger and former United American Nurses President Ann Converso for their service to working people. Former UAW Secretary-Treasurer Elizabeth Bunn announced her retirement from the Council in March to become AFL-CIO organizing director. Holiefield was elected to fill that vacancy.
Nurses Back Franken Bill to Eliminate Heavy Lifting
Direct care registered nurses are injured at a higher rate than laborers, movers and truck drivers because they reposition, move and lift patients, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. A proposed bill would protect the health of RNs, ensure patients get the care they need and decrease work injuries, say leaders of the United American Nurses (UAN) and the Minnesota Nurses Association (MNA).
The Nurse and Health Care Worker Protection Act of 2009 (S. 1788), introduced by Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.), requires the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to develop and implement a standard to eliminate, as much as possible, manual lifting of patients through the use of mechanical devices. The bill is a companion measure to H.R. 2381, introduced this session in the House by Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.).
Professional Workers Form Coalition to Protect Public Interest
A coalition of 19 organizations representing professional employees today announced the creation of Professionals for the Public Interest: Associations and Unions Defending Professional Integrity (PftPI) to defend the ability of professionals to do their jobs right, despite outside pressures from bosses, politicians and others.
According to the AFL-CIO Department for Public Employees (DPE), polling over many years has shown that for professionals, the ability to do the job right is a priority as important as, or more important than, compensation and benefits. Professionals choose what they want to do, invest in extensive education and training and value the latitude to meet professional standards.
Yet professionals face extensive financial and political pressures that endanger their ability to turn out quality work and, as a result, endanger the public they serve, DPE says. For example, scientists found that the Bush administration regularly twisted the results of their research to fit a political agenda. Nurses are engaged in ongoing struggles to provide better service by safe staffing, and teachers seek to reduce class sizes.
Obama Reverses Bush Executive Orders, Creates Middle Class Task Force
President Barack Obama today reversed three Bush-era anti-worker executive orders and created a Cabinet-level task force to rebuild the nation’s middle class. In a White House ceremony this morning attended by AFL-CIO President John Sweeney and other union leaders, Obama signed three executive orders that reverse a series of orders by then-President George W. Bush, which govern the way federal contractors deal with unionized workers.
The three new executive orders:
- Require federal service contractors to offer jobs to current workers when contracts change.
- Reverse a Bush order requiring federal contractors to post notice that workers can limit financial support of unions serving as their exclusive bargaining representatives.
- Prevent federal contractors from being reimbursed for expenses meant to influence workers deciding whether to form a union and engage in collective bargaining.
