Proposed NLRB Rule Change Draws Wide Support
The National Labor Relations Board’s (NLRB’s) modest, common-sense proposed rule to remove roadblocks for workers who want to vote on whether to form a union has drawn praise from working men and women, political leaders and activists around the country. Here’s a sample of the comments:
Electrical Workers (IBEW) President Edwin Hill:
By eliminating delays, the board is not only bringing some balance. It is also saving money for taxpayers who foot the bill because of unnecessary litigation.
Communications Workers of America (CWA) President Larry Cohen:
Workers at T-Mobile USA and nearly every other company know firsthand how U.S. corporations use delay to keep workers from making a fair choice about union representation. The changes proposed by the National Labor Relations Board are a first and modest step toward ending some of that delay.
Building Star Can Create 185,000 Green Jobs This Year
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In the current recession, no sector has been harder hit than the construction industry, which has lost more than 2 million jobs. The unemployment rate in the construction industry is a staggering 27 percent, almost triple the overall unemployment rate.
You can help put building and construction trades workers back on the job by contacting your senators and representatives and urging them to support Building Star—H.R. 5476 and S. 3079. The legislation would provide building owners rebates and low-cost financing options for energy-efficient renovations in existing buildings.
It would, says the Sheet Metal Workers (SMWIA):
mobilize building owners, construction firms, the building trades and manufacturers and distributors of building supplies to create jobs NOW in 2010, not later. Building Star will put sheet metal workers back to work retrofitting existing buildings, and would do so fast.
Trumka: Green Jobs OR Good Jobs a ‘False Choice’
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With the oil platform explosion that killed 11 workers now is spilling millions of barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico as a sobering background, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka told delegates to the 2010 Good Jobs, Green Jobs National Conference:
“Never before has the need been so urgent to produce clean energy, to use energy more efficiently, to prevent climate change and to protect our natural environment.
And not since the Great Depression have so many Americans needed new and better jobs with secure benefits and promising futures–jobs that can’t be off-shored, downsized or downgraded into temporary or part-time positions.”
In its second day, the conference brings together union members, environmentalists, business leaders, lawmakers and administration officials to map out a path to a green economy that creates good jobs, reduces global warming and preserves America’s economic and environmental security. It concludes tomorrow with a Green Jobs Advocacy Day Capitol Hill. Read the rest of this entry »
Jobless Benefits Extended After Sen. Bunning Relents
The U.S. Senate passed a desperately needed extension of unemployment insurance (UI) and COBRA health care benefits last night after Sen. Jim Bunning (R-Ky.) ended his one-man roadblock to the legislation.
Bunning began a filibuster last Friday that halted a UI extension for millions of America’s jobless workers. By blocking the UI bill, Bunning caused the furlough of 2,000 transportation workers, halted construction on 41 economic recovery projects in 17 states, forced doctors to take big cuts in Medicare payments and left 200,000 jobless Americans without COBRA.
After Bunning ended his filibuster, the Senate passed the legislation by a 78-19 margin and President Obama signed the bill into law last night. The bill already had passed the U.S. House.
Bunning to Jobless Workers: ‘Tough Sh*t’
Sen. Jim Bunning (R-Ky.) has a message for the 1.2 million jobless workers who will lose their unemployment insurance (UI) benefits and COBRA health coverage in March when the two programs expire Feb. 28.
“Tough sh*t”
Bunning has single-handily blocked a vote on a 30-day extension by being the only senator to oppose a unanimous consent motion to vote on the bill which was passed earlier by the House.
For hours last night, Bunning refused to budge and according to Politico, when Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) urged Bunning to relent, his response was, “Tough sh*t.”
Shuler in Oregon: The Sharks We Defeated Are Still Circling
At the Oregon AFL-CIO convention, AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler, who got her start organizing in Oregon, spoke yesterday to hundreds of delegates from across the state and encouraged them to start now on educating and mobilizing union members. Shuler told delegates:
Last year, you helped transform our country. And everything you did in 2008, we must do from now to 2010—and here’s why. The sharks you defeated last November are still circling out there. They’ve never given up. They’re just as vicious now, and they want to destroy everything you won. Don’t let them do it.
You have a big job next year: electing a governor who’s pro-working family, pro-union, pro-us; making sure we re-elect the representatives who stand up for what’s right; and beating back the two initiatives that our right-wing pals have dreamed up for 2010….So it’s not too early to get ready.
Unemployed Worker: We Need Help Now
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Liz Freeberg knows how devastating the economic collapse can be for the average American family. In the past two and half years, she and her husband both lost their jobs, they are losing their home and they can’t afford health insurance.
Freeberg, who lives in Circle Pines, Minn., a suburb of the Twin Cities, is a member of Working America, the AFL-CIO’s community affiliate. She came to Washington, D.C., to implore Congress to help her and millions of other average Americans by passing President Obama’s economic recovery package. In a Capitol Hill press conference Thursday, Freeberg said:
With so many American’s continuing to struggle, we must do something to get our economy moving. This economic recovery package will help create much-needed jobs that would benefit families like mine.
Welcome, New Members of Congress!
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| Sen. Kay Hagen, who defeated Elizabeth Dole in North Carolina, and Rep. Paul Tonko of New York are among the new members of Congress who joined members of the AFL-CIO union movement at a reception in their honor. |
Before getting down to the serious business of fair pay legislation, the Employee Free Choice Act, economic recovery and a whole host of other issues to change the nation’s stumbling direction after eight years of Bush rule, dozens of new members of Congress, and some veterans, got together with the labor movement last night.
At the AFL-CIO-sponsored reception at a Capitol Hill hotel, lawmakers, union leaders and legislative representatives mingled and talked about how a larger working family majority in both houses will impact upcoming legislative battles. In his welcoming remarks, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said:
We know what our priorities are and we know how committed each and everyone of you are, as is the president of the United States, to the working family agenda.
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) told the crowd:
On behalf of the speaker [Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.)] and myself, we will never forget, we will look forward to going forward shoulder to shoulder, paycheck to equitable paycheck. I will tell you this as well, when people say they want to be a member of a union and sign up, we’re going to make sure that they have the ability to be a member of a union.
