Climate Change Talks a Tough Climb
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AFL-CIO Industrial Union Council Director Bob Baugh, a member of a global union delegation led by the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), sends us another in a series of reports on the new round of United Nations climate change negotiations taking place now in Durban, South Africa.
Dorje Khati, a Sherpa and trade union member, has carried the ITUC climate message to the top of the world. After a 15-hour ascent to the top of Mount Everest on May 22, he planted the ITUC flag on the summit of the world’s highest mountain to represent the hopes and dreams of millions of workers for a global climate agreement.
Dorje is here in Durban with the flag and using it to inspire ITUC delegates and governments alike.
Mountaineering shares a lot in common with climate change talks: Reaching your goal can be a hard climb. The first week was filled with stories of hardened positions and dire predictions of failure. But a Saturday Day of Action march for climate justice helped inspire our global delegation.
Unions on World AIDS Day: We Won’t Turn Away from People with AIDS
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AIDS and HIV remain a major public health issue around the world, and so does workplace discrimination against people with AIDS/HIV.
As we mark World AIDS Day, it’s worth noting that the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) is renewing its effort in the workplace to focus on and promote action on AIDS and HIV, and the Communications Workers of America (CWA) local unions continue to raise funds for the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation—more than $7 million to date.
CWA has focused on the fund since 1990, when Elizabeth Glaser spoke at the CWA national convention about the devastating effects of pediatric AIDS. Glaser knew the subject intimately. She contracted HIV from a blood transfusion during childbirth in 1981 and unknowingly passed the disease on to both her children. You can read more about her story here.
Climate Change Talks Need to Address Investing in Good Jobs
AFL-CIO Industrial Union Council Director Bob Baugh, a member of a global union delegation led by the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), sends us the first report on the new round of United Nations climate change negotiations taking place now in Durban, South Africa.
The 17th annual meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP 17) opened in Durban with a speech by South African President Jacob Zuma that stressed the need for dialogue, green jobs and investment. As trade unionists, we are here in force to ensure that these goals are met and that any climate agreement includes workers’ voice.
At COP 16, unions made a breakthrough by getting language about a Just Transition, a social and economic perspective on investment in good jobs and decent work, adopted as a part of the Long Term Cooperative Agreement. Now we are here to breathe life into that language. Our primary focus will be on finance, workers’ skills and accountability for meeting Just Transition goals.
At G-20 Summit, Union Leaders to Demand ‘Robin Hood’ Tax on Speculators
As world leaders head to France for the the G-20 economic summit in Cannes, labor leaders from around the globe will gather nearby to represent the needs of the world’s workers. Among their demands is a Robin Hood tax on banks and financial institutions that would exact a nano-percentage of each financial transaction to the tune of 0.5 percent. (See video.) That’s one half of 1 percent on every bond or derivative traded, stocks sold and a host of other “financial instruments” bought and sold by the very institutions bailed out by the world’s taxpayers.
Also known as a financial speculations tax, or a financial transactions tax, the idea is catching on in the United States through the activism of unions, especially the National Nurses United (NNU), which has been joining with Occupy protesters to support the Robin Hood tax. The idea has already gained significant momentum across the pond, where British activists are using creative means, such as this video, to sell the public on the Robin Hood tax.
Sharan Burrow, general secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), explains it this way:
Global Union Leaders Demand Fair Treatment for T-Mobile
Teresa Casertano in the AFL-CIO Organizing Department’s Global Campaigns section sends us this report.
Some 50 leaders from communications and information and technology unions around the world took time out from a global conference to sign a letter to Deustche Telecom CEO Rene Obermann, demanding that Deutsche Telecom end its assault on workers’ rights at T-Mobile USA. T-Mobile USA, the largest Deutsche Telekom subsidiary, is waging a vicious anti-union campaign against workers who have chosen to join the Communications Workers of America (CWA).
Strongly objecting to DT’s behavior in the United States, the leaders stated:
Today we demand that Deutsche Telekom end its systematic messaging assault against T-Mobile workers who choose to participate in union organizing. We also demand that DT take concrete steps to demonstrate respect for workers’ rights by implementing a policy in which management agrees not to oppose the organizing efforts of T-Mobile USA workers and to allow the workers the freedom to participate in union activities without fear of reprisals or job loss.
Participants at last week’s UNI Global Union ICTS global conference in Mexico City also pledged Read the rest of this entry »
T-Mobile Workers Defy Anti-Union Tactics, Vote for CWA
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A group of T-Mobile technicians in Hamden, Conn., are the first T-Mobile workers to win a voice at work with the Communications Workers of America (CWA) after yesterday’s vote in the 15-worker unit.
While T-Mobile’s parent company Deutsche Telekom (DT) respects workers’ right to bargain collectively in Germany, T-Mobile’s U.S. management has fought workers’ organizing attempts with campaigns of delaying tactics and interference to intimidate workers. CWA Local 1298 President Bill Henderson says:
This vote made history, with T-Mobile workers fighting back to beat the odds and win the union voice they want. It showed the desire of people to have a union and an even playing field. Hopefully this will mean a new direction for all working people.
Locked-Out BCTGM Workers Fight Union-Busting
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Locked-out workers from Roquette America’s Keokuk, Iowa, plant took their fight for justice to French-owned multinational corporation’s just-opened Geneva, Ill., facility yesterday. And the global labor movement is lining up behind the locked-out workers.
The members of Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers (BCTGM) Local 48 G were joined by allies, including Jobs with Justice, at the grand opening and first customer workshop of Roquette America’s so-called innovation center. But as the fliers the workers handed out and signs they carried said:
There’s Nothing Innovative About Union Busting.
The workers had one basic request: Return to the bargaining table and bargain in good faith.
BCTGM local 48G President Steve Underwood says the lockout of the 240 workers since September “has been devastating for Keokuk families and our local economy.”
Roquette has heard repeated pleas from our members and supporters all across Iowa, but they haven’t listened. Our only option is to take the next step and move our campaign to other locations until the company decides to live up to its own commitments and return to the bargaining table.
The World Watches and Supports Wis. Workers
The world is watching Wisconsin. Because it’s clear if Gov. Scott Walker and Republicans in the state legislature succeed in their attacks against the middle class there, it can happen across the United States.
The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) is outraged over the assault by Walker and other Republican Party state governors on the good, middle-class living standards. Nothing less than democracy, fundamental rights and freedom are at stake.
Says ITUC General Secretary Sharan Burrow:
Violating these fundamental democratic rights in other countries such as China, Egypt, Guinea or Mexico is rightly condemned by the U.S., so what are people to make of such abuse of power in the U.S. itself? The rights to organize and bargain collectively for fair wages and conditions are cornerstones of any democracy, and removing these rights means democracy itself is under attack.
Moreover, the economic and employment crisis will not be fixed by taking away workers’ incomes. These moves will destroy, not create jobs, as household incomes fall and economic demand falls even further.
Congress Looks at Job Safety, Unions Worldwide Observe Workers Memorial Day
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With Workers Memorial Day and the recent deadly workplace tragedies that have claimed dozens of workers lives, two congressional committee hearings focused on job safety and strengthening worker protections.
This morning, the House Workforce Protections Subcommittee explored ways to protect workers who blow the whistle on unsafe and dangerous workplace conditions from retaliation, harassment and even dismissal by employers.
The hearing room was packed with workers who have been victims of on-the-job injuries and surviving family members of workers killed on the job, including many families of the 12 coal miners killed in the 2006 Sago (W.Va.) Mine explosion.
AFL-CIO General Counsel Lynn Rhinehart told the panel that “workers see firsthand the hazards posed by their jobs and their workplaces.”
But in order for workers to feel secure in bringing hazards to their employer’s attention, they must have confidence that they will not lose their jobs or face other types of retaliation for doing so.
Chavez-Thompson Running for Lt. Gov. of Texas
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Big shout out to AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Emerita Linda Chavez-Thompson who yesterday announced her candidacy for lieutenant governor of Texas, her home state.
The “Draft Linda” movement swept through Texas, pulling our much-admired former executive vice president out of semi-retirement and onto the Democratic Party slate for state leadership. The first hurdle is the March 2 primary, where she will run against Democratic candidates Ronnie Earle, a former county district attorney, and Austin delicatessen owner Marc Katz.
Ed Sills, communications director of the Texas AFL-CIO, says at her campaign launch, Chavez-Thompson’s campaign made it clear she is running to make changes in Texas, not against the Democratic opponents:
Chavez-Thompson discussed her journey from the cotton fields of West Texas to national office in the labor movement and how the hard work and leadership skills that drove her will translate to a state leadership role. She spoke of the need to emphasize education, health care and other basic priorities.
