Union Workers Protest Abrupt End to Fuel Subsidies in Nigeria
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Elizabeth Boomer of the AFL-CIO International Affairs Department sends us this report.
Protestors rallied outside the World Bank building in Washington, D.C., yesterday in support of Nigeria’s nation-wide strike opposing the soaring price of fuel. After the government ended fuel subsidies Jan. 1, prices doubled overnight. Today in Nigeria, tens of thousands marched in the streets across the country.
The Washington action was aimed at the international financial institutions that have long argued against domestic fuel subsidies in Nigeria where long-term mismanagement and corruption have forced it to import 70 percent of its fuel, even while it is the 10th largest producer of crude oil in the world.
The sudden removal of fuel subsidies in Nigeria, where the majority of people live on less than $2 a day, affects workers’ and families’ core economic decisions, including whether to pay for their children’s school fees this term or to go to the doctor this month. Higher fuel costs are also expected to raise food prices in Africa’s most populous country, an issue that could affect an entire region that is suffering from food price volatility. Read the rest of this entry »
Demand Strong Mortgage Abuse Settlement with Big Banks
Tell your state attorney general to demand real accountability from the Big Banks for the collapse of the housing market by clicking here. The action, sponsored by the AFL-CIO community affiliate, Working America, comes as state and federal officials are negotiating a settlement with the Big Banks for their role in driving the U.S. economy into a ditch and often recklessly defrauding consumers seeking mortgages.
The wreckage in the wake of the banks’ actions includes 7.5 million home foreclosures with another 4.8 million teetering on the brink.
It’s time hold those banks accountable, but news reports say the proposed settlement may amount to nothing more than a slap on the wrist. California’s attorney general withdrew from the negotiations in September because he said the proposed terms failed to provide sufficient relief to the state’s homeowners and released the banks from too many claims.
Any settlement must reflect the harm done to homeowners and provide large-scale relief for homeowners.
Banker’s ‘Nightmare on Wall Street’
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With a nod to “The Twilight Zone’s” Rod Serling, National Nurses United (NNU) unveiled a new and frightening—if you’re a banker or Wall Street fat cat—video to push for a financial transaction or Robin Hood tax on Wall Street speculation.
In “Nightmare on Wall Street,” a Wall Street executive on his way to work encounters the retirees who have lost their pensions, families foreclosed out their homes, workers who lost their jobs and other victims of Wall Street’s reckless actions that crashed the nation’s economy. They chase him through Manhattan’s concrete canyons yelling, “Tax Wall Street, Not Main Street. Tax the 1 percent!”
The AFL-CIO, NNU and others have called for a Robin Hood Tax on Wall Street to raise funds for job creation and to mend the economy that Wall Street broke. Economists say that along with generating jobs, the tax would help reduce the complicated, risky financial practices and products such as derivatives, short-term investment strategies and other speculation that fueled the economy’s crash.
Check out the video and then visit the NNU’s website, www.ProtestIntheUSA.org, to sign a petition to support a robust financial transaction tax on Wall Street, and check out more videos.
Republicans Douse ‘Light of Democracy’ and Ram Through RTW Bill
The Republican-controlled Indiana House Employment, Labor and Pensions Committee, muzzled Democrats and, in a five-minute “charade” of a hearing this morning, passed a so-called right to work (RTW) bill by an 8-5 vote.
Not only were Democrats barred from offering any amendments, no discussion of the bill was allowed and, immediately after the vote, the hearing was adjourned. Rep. John Bartlett (D) told reporters that he’d “never seen a charade like this in my life.”
Said Rep. Clyde Kersey (D):
I think the light of democracy just went out in the Indiana House.
Daniels Protects Secret Donors Behind RTW Ads
Indiana’s airwaves are being saturated with ads featuring Gov. Mitch Daniels (R) promoting his “right to work” for less legislation that Republican lawmakers are trying to ram through the legislature. But Daniels continues to refuse to reveal who is bankrolling the media barrage.
The ads are funded by a shadowy group that calls itself the Indiana Opportunity Fund. Public records show the group has spent $600,000 on the “right to work” for less propaganda. But, the group—founded by Republican party activist Jim Bopp—is not required to divulge the source of the cash and Daniels has ignored requests from Hoosier working families, the media and others to disclose whose deep pockets he is dipping into for the advertisements.
He also claims in those commercials that a third of all companies that consider locating in the state decide not to because of the lack of a so-called “right to work” law. But Daniels refuses to back up that claim with any names and administration officials have not been able to substantiate lost-jobs claim.
Texas AFL-CIO Honors Volunteer Firefighters in Summer’s Blazes
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Texas AFL-CIO communications director Ed Sills sends us this report.
The Texas AFL-CIO donated $150 gift cards to nine Central Texas volunteer fire departments that battled the rash of summer blazes.
Texas AFL-CIO President Becky Moeller and Director of Human Relations Lee Forbes praised the departments for their bravery during the long struggle to protect life and property in blazing summer heat. Bastrop and many other Texas counties were declared federal disaster areas following the fires.
At a meeting of volunteer departments in Cedar Creek where the cards were presented, Moeller said:
The generosity of union members and friends in setting up the Wildfire Relief Fund made a difference to many working families who received gift cards to buy work tools and other necessities that might otherwise have fallen through the cracks in the aftermath of losing homes and, in some cases, livelihoods. As always, the labor movement makes disaster response a high priority in our operations. We hope the wait for such activity is very, very long, but we must always be prepared. Read the rest of this entry »
Chicago Nurses Overwhelming Vote for NNU
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In landslide (94-16) victory Friday, registered nurses at Chicago’s Jackson Park Hospital voted to join National Nurses United (NNU). Says RN Leshaun Williams:
This is a victory for the nurses and the South Side of Chicago. Together we realized unity is the best way to advocate for our patients and preserve respect for the registered nurse.
Safe staffing and respect for the RNs were key issues for 150 nurses. The hospital has been in the news lately for charges of harassment against RNs, and recently settled an employment racial discrimination suit with the U.S. Equal Opportunity Employment Commission for making African American female workers perform assignments their male counterparts were not required to do. Says RN Patricia Drake:
The election was long overdue and with NNU we will have a voice with collective bargaining to enable RNs to deliver the best quality care possible for our patients.
The election win is one in a recent series in the Chicago area. NNU now represents nearly 4,200 RNs in greater Chicago, including nurses at the nearby University of Chicago Medical Center, where RNs last year won their first NNU contract with significant gains in patient care protections and RN standards.
RTW: ‘Bad Economics and Cynical Politics’
A New York Times editorial hit the mark Sunday when it castigated Republican lawmakers for pushing so-called right to work (RTW) laws in states like Indiana and correctly connected this anti-worker agenda with a similar assault on voting rights. Both moves are financed by a little-known organization funded by extremists like the Koch brothers.
Many Republican leaders are adopting model legislation proposed by the American Legislative Exchange Council, a national corporate-financed conservative organization that is also assisting the Republican push to require voter identification cards to suppress the vote of minorities, young people and other constituencies that tend to favor the Democratic Party.
The editorial points out how the assault is one that undercuts workers’ most valuable asset: their strength in numbers to bargain collectively for a fair deal at the workplace and to mobilize together to elect lawmakers who will back working families. RTW laws undermine all that and, in doing so, cut at the economic underpinning of America’s middle class.
Indiana Republicans Continue RTW Fast Track Attack
With several thousand Indiana workers inside and outside the statehouse, a state Senate committee this afternoon approved a so-called right to work bill. The 6-4 vote included one Republican who voted against the bill.
The vote followed more than five hours of testimony, but in their drive to ram the bill through the legislature, Senate Republicans did allow the usual practice of offering amendments. The House committee did not vote on the bill because House Democrats continue to filibuster the legislation.
Democrats have called for a series public hearings on the legislation in communities throughout the state, but in an effort to rush the bill through—possibly for a final vote next week—leaders in the Republican-controlled legislature have refused. Indiana AFL-CIO President Nancy Guyott says “when there’s an issue that is complicated or controversial, local public hearings are standard practice.”
While the motivations of “right to work” pushers aren’t that complicated—it is a raw power grab and meant to give political payback to CEOs and special interest groups – the issue is certainly controversial. Open public hearings are appropriate and necessary. Citizens of Indiana should have a say about the decision to put one bill ahead of all the business of the state, including education and the state budget. Read the rest of this entry »
Arkansas Ag Firm Agrees to $1.5 Million in Back Wages for Guest Workers
An Arkansas agriculture company has agreed to pay $1.5 million in back wages to 1,500 guest workers in a settlement with the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). The group filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of the workers in 2007.
Jim Knoepp, the lead SPLC attorney on the case, says:
This settlement sends an important message that guest workers have rights. Companies treating guest workers as disposable labor should take notice. They will be held accountable.
The guest workers—in the country under the federal H-2A agricultural guest worker program—harvested and packed tomatoes for Candy Brand in Bradley County, Ark., from 2003 to 2007. The 2007 lawsuit alleged that the company failed to pay its guest workers federally mandated minimum wages and failed to pay overtime wages for work in its packing sheds.
To cover travel expenses and applications for visas, Candy Brand’s workers paid up to $500 simply to work for the company during eight-week harvests. The SPLC lawsuit alleged the company refused to reimburse workers for the travel, visa and other fees they paid to obtain the jobs—a problem commonly faced by guest workers.
