Trumka: ‘We’re Going to Rebuild America With Jobs’
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In the political showdown between Wall Street and Main Street, California is a key battleground. With the third highest jobless rate in the country and a towering budget deficit, California needs leaders who can create and save jobs, not just spout ”more of the same corporate bull,” AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka told a crowd of thousands at a mass jobs rally in Los Angeles today.
“How are we going to rebuild America? With jobs! Who’s going to rebuild America? Working people with jobs!”
The choice for voters is clear in California, said Art Pulaski, executive secretary-treasurer of the California Labor Federation. The Republican candidates for governor and U.S. senator, respectively, Meg Whitman and Carly Fiorina, are mirror images of each other.
Both are failed CEOs. Both slashed thousands of jobs to make themselves richer. And both have a dangerous agenda that will douse any hope for economic recovery. They want to slash jobs. Eliminate pensions. Scale back overtime pay and meal breaks for workers. They’re part of the greed is good crowd. I think it’s pretty clear that’s the wrong direction.
Workers Protest Mexican President’s Anti-Worker Policies
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Some 160 members of the United Steelworkers (USW), union staff and supporters from around Washington, D.C., today protested Mexican President Felipe Calderon’s visit to the nation’s capital and condemned his government’s repression of workers’ rights in Mexico.
The USW and the AFL-CIO have both denounced the Mexican government’s four-year-long campaign to destroy the independent mine workers’ union, Los Mineros. Members of Los Mineros have been on strike since July 2007 at the Cananea mine in Northern Mexico over health and safety and other contract violations.
Maria Elena Durazo, executive secretary-treasurer of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, told the crowd:
I am here to say that we in the labor movement fight equally for workers in Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, in Mexico and all across the globe. We will not let borders divide us and pit us against each other, and we’re serious when we say that an injury to one worker is an injury against all workers.
Solidarity Results in Tentative Pact for Rio Tinto Miners
The combination of worker solidarity and the strong support of their neighbors helped workers at Rio Tinto’s borax mine in Borax, Calif., take on one of the world’s largest mining companies. Today, they won a tentative agreement on a new six-year contract that protects their jobs, calls for raises and maintains protections against discrimination and favoritism.
The 570 workers, members of International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) Local 30, will vote on the tentative deal tomorrow, May 15.
ILWU President Robert McEllrath said:
Local 30 President Dave Liebengood, the negotiating committee and all the members deserve credit for standing up and sticking together to make this victory possible.
State and Local Leaders Honor Sweeney, Discuss Labor’s Future
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| IUPAT President Jimmy Williams and AFL-CIO President John Sweeney share a laugh at the state and local conference. |
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| Christine Trujillo, president of the New Mexico Federation of Labor, addresses the state and local conference today in Pittsburgh. |
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| Participants at the state and local conference discussed strategies for building a stronger labor movement in our communities. |
The AFL-CIO state federations and local central labor councils are the keys to reviving the union movement in communities across the country. They prove their value every day by building political power from the ground up, training new leaders, supporting organizing drives and creating coalitions with groups who share our goals.
Today, more than 250 state and local leaders met in advance of the AFL-CIO’s 26th Constitutional Convention to discuss the best ways to build a stronger union movement in our states and communities. The State Federation, Area and Central Labor Council Conference offers a forum for local union leaders to discuss strategies and share best practices to build on the political and organizing successes since the last convention four years ago.
Retiring AFL-CIO President John Sweeney, who was honored for his leadership over the past 14 years and commitment to strengthening the movement’s grassroots, told the local leaders they had pulled the federation through some difficult times.
You all proved that a unified labor movement at the grassroots is what workers need.
You’ve played a key role in all the progress we’ve made from passing so many minimum wage and living wage laws, to supporting our organizing campaigns that have brought in an average of 450,000 new members every year, to leading our crusade for diversity, inclusion and full participation of women and minorities.
When so many in the media wrote us off politically, you put the wheels on the strongest political program in our history.
But there is still plenty of work to be done. Postal Workers (APWU) Secretary-Treasurer Terry Stapleton, vice chair of the Executive Council Committee of State and Local Strategies, told the group:
We are here to change the labor movement, to strengthen the labor movement and to change the United States for working people.
Ohio Workers Make Voices Heard On Health Care
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Union members in Ohio made it clear yesterday at two meetings that working people want real health care reform and they want it now. These and other workers are fighting back against the lie-filled campaigns by extremist groups—some funded by corporate donations and backed by extremist Republican leaders who are vowing to kill health care reform.
In Cleveland, most of the 450 people at a regular report to constituents meeting hosted by Democratic Rep. Marcia Fudge supported health care reform. Outside the hall, more than 115 union members and health care reform activists drowned out about 25 opponents, some singing in German and carrying signs characterizing Obama as “Adolf Hitler.”
