Asian Pacific Americans Tell Their Stories at First National Workers’ Rights Hearing
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Ricky Lau, an electrician with the Electrical Workers (IBEW) and a Chinese immigrant, worked for 10 to 12 hours a day, six days a week for his former employer, a contracting company. He and his mostly immigrant co-workers, many of whom did not speak English, were ripped off, he says. While they worked 60 to 70 hours, their weekly time cards read 16 to 20 hours. They had no benefits and no health care coverage.
Fed up, he and three other co-workers left the company and joined IBEW. With the help of his union, Lau and the other workers have been able to assert themselves. Now the four workers are suing the company in a class-action suit for back wages.
Health Care Fight Moves to the Senate, and Other Health Care News
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The U.S. House passed historic health care reform legislation on Saturday, and now the next step in the process is for the U.S. Senate to consider its own health reform bill. Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.), the Senate’s majority leader, says he hopes to introduce a bill for consideration on Monday.
The challenge in the Senate is that while bills only need a simple majority to pass, a minority of senators can engage in procedural tactics to block a vote, essentially killing legislation even if it’s favored by the majority. So members of the Senate need to hear from you. Union volunteers across the nation are making calls, writing letters and rallying across the country to let their senators know what real health care reform means for them—and that we can’t wait any longer. These union members have made more than 240,000 phone calls and sent more than 380,000 letters to Congress this year, and we can’t stop now. Click here to take action.
Shuler to IBEW: Let’s Fight for Jobs
At this week’s Electrical Workers (IBEW) conference, AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler said we must focus on creating jobs and building a strong, sustainable and fair economy for the future.
Shuler, who rose to leadership as an IBEW organizer, congratulated the union’s members on their efforts in mobilizing and contacting members of Congress on behalf of health care reform and other key issues.
We still have a long way to go before we can truly have economic recovery, Shuler said, noting that as she travels around the country, the word she hears most often is “jobs.” The AFL-CIO worked hard for the economic recovery package passed by Congress, but the union movement still has much to do to address the massive unemployment and underemployment around the nation, she said. The AFL-CIO is pushing for more stimulus dollars to invest in energy, transportation, communications and school construction—for investment in green jobs and for more aid to state and local governments that have been slammed by biggest budget hits in decades. Most critically, Shuler said, if the union movement doesn’t push to make this happen, no one will.
Shuler said extending unemployment benefits was an urgent priority that will prevent further damage to our economy. With 26 million people looking for work, or discouraged entirely from the job market, and long-term unemployment at its highest level in more than 25 years, it’s critical to give some relief, she said.
Green jobs and a new energy economy have the potential to revitalize the country, Shuler said, but only if those jobs are good jobs, with fair wages and benefits. We can protect the environment and build a more prosperous future, she said, by getting a headstart on new technologies and increasing energy efficiency.
Shuler also laid out her vision for the policies we need to build a stronger economy—including health care reform, the Employee Free Choice Act and financial reform.
CWA Cautions Frontier Shareholders on Verizon Transaction
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| CWA member Elisabeth Choate, fourth from right, warned shareholders about Frontier’s transaction with Verizon. |
Robert Masciola of the AFL-CIO Organizing Department describes how workers at Frontier Communications are calling attention to a deal with Verizon that workers say is bad for shareholders and workers.
Shareholders for Connecticut-based Frontier Communications and its top executives heard from an employee about how the proposed deal to acquire Verizon’s assets in West Virginia and 13 other states “may be good for Verizon, but will leave Frontier a much weaker company.”
With support from CWA Local 1298 in Connecticut and the AFL-CIO, Elisabeth Choate traveled to Stamford, Conn., to attend the Frontier special meeting where shareholders voted to approve the deal.
A movement in West Virginia and 13 other states led by CWA and the Electrical Workers (IBEW) opposes the deal—and the unions are not alone. Fran Hughes, chief deputy attorney general for West Virginia, doesn’t believe Frontier has the ability financially to live up to the commitments it has made to the West Virginia Public Service Commission.
Bye, America
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In this cross-post from the Alliance for American Manufacturing, Steve Capozzola highlights a fun and educational children’s book that shows why it’s important to buy American-made products.
Alliance for American Manufacturing (AAM) Field Coordinator Rachel Bennett Steury has forwarded information on a new book that explains the importance of Keeping it Made in America:
“Bye, America”
Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 688 President Lance Biglin in Mansfield, Ohio, has taken a creative approach to help educate Americans on the importance of buying American. Biglin, together with his wife, has published a children’s book, “Bye, America” to help teach children, and in some cases their parents, why it is important to buy American-made products.
Shuler: We Need to Let Young People Know About Unions
Nearly 300 young activists and students came to Washington, D.C., last week for the A Better Deal 2009 conference, and AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler was on hand to let these young people know that the labor movement is here to fight for them.
Sponsored by Demos and an array of youth and progressive organizations, A Better Deal 2009 looked at jobs, debt, education, health care and other issues facing young people in a challenging economy. The Electrical Workers (IBEW) were there as well and have a great new video on the conference and young people’s concerns about building a strong economic future.
Here’s what Shuler has to say on the need to make the union movement accessible, relevant and attentive to the next generation:
I think now is the perfect time to reach out to young people, because of the economic devastation that we’ve been experiencing. I think young people have been disproportionately affected, and we need to connect the dots for them and make sure they know that the labor movement is the best answer to their economic troubles.
Settlement of 20-Year-Old Anti-Union Hiring Cases Shows Need for Employee Choice
In a case that clearly illustrates the need for real labor law reform, four construction unions have reached a settlement with Fluor Daniel over the company’s practice of discriminating against union organizers who apply for work. It took nearly 20 years for the cases to be resolved and some of the original workers in the cases have died.
Fluor, one of the nation’s largest engineering and construction companies, will pay $12 million in back pay and interest to 167 union members who were denied jobs. Each member will receive between $8,000 and $217,000.
The settlement ends several cases before the National Labor Relations Board, brought by three of the unions—Boilermakers, Electrical Workers and Plumbers and Pipe Fitters. The United Brotherhood of Carpenters is also a party to the litigation. Some of the cases date back to the early 1990s.
More Than 1,000 March in Boston for Jobs, Corporate Accountability
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After the new U.S. jobless figures came out Friday, union activists in Massachusetts took to the streets to demand jobs and corporate responsibility, an action highlighted here in this cross-post from the Massachusetts AFL-CIO.
On the same day it was announced that unemployment had reached a 26-year high, more than 1,000 union members, unemployed workers and community activists gathered on Boston Common and marched through downtown Boston to protest layoffs and continuing unemployment, call out rampant corporate greed and demand an economy that works for all.
Social Media: New Tools Aid in Organizing
They’re tweeting in Northern California about the Employee Free Choice Act, sharing about health care reform on Facebook in Montana and posting organizing messages on My Space for workers in York, Pa.
Across the country, union members are using the new social media to mobilize workers and share information.
Steve Selby, an Electrical Workers (IBEW) organizer in York, Pa., knows the value of social media. He urgently needed to reach 300 workers at a local Comcast office. Rather than standing outside the office and handing out a flier with different information each day, Selby taught himself how to set up a MySpace account. He handed out one flier directing workers to his MySpace page, where he shared information the workers needed to know.
2,000 City Workers Ratify Pact with Milwaukee—and More Bargaining News
AFSCME members ratified a new contract with the city of Milwaukee, 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.
SETTLEMENTS
AFSCME, City of Milwaukee: Members of AFSCME Council 48 ratified a new contract with the city of Milwaukee. The 2,000 city employees agreed to a pay freeze for 2010 and 2011 in return for a no-layoff guarantee.
