L.A. Transit Agency Program Will Create 260,000 Construction Jobs
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Working people are applauding the Los Angeles County Metro Board of Directors vote last week in favor of a sweeping, agency-wide program that will create 260,000 construction jobs. Officials said the program will dramatically increase the number of workers hired from communities near upcoming transit projects and special attention will be given to applicants who live in areas of high unemployment.
The Construction Careers Policy covers Metro transit construction projects for the next 30 years, including projects funded under Measure R, the half-cent sales tax recently approved in 2008 by voters to fund transportation upgrades.
California Grocery Workers Reach Tentative Agreement
After six months without a contract, the employees and management at three California supermarket chains reached a tentative agreement today. The agreement came just hours after a deadline set by the employees to strike if no progress had been made in contract talks.
The 62,000 grocery workers have been working without a contract since March, while in discussions with negotiators for The Vons Cos. Inc.; Ralphs Grocery Co., a subsidiary of The Kroger Co.; and Albertsons, owned by Supervalu Inc.
Maria Elena Durazo, executive secretary-treasurer of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, said in a statement:
This could not have happened, first and foremost, without the willingness of rank and file grocery workers to go on strike. Read the rest of this entry »
20,000 March for the Middle Class in L.A.
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Nearly 20,000 working people marched through downtown Los Angeles Saturday, making it clear they will fight any attempt to launch a Wisconsin-like attack on workers in cash-strapped California. The march stretched for several blocks and included nurses, telephone technicians, electricians, truckers, screenwriters, actors, longshoremen, teachers and others. This is the largest action by Los Angeles workers in recent history.
The Wisconsin bill eliminates the freedom of state employees to bargain for a better life. Speaking at the Los Angeles rally, Mahlon Mitchell, president of the Professional Fire Fighters of Wisconsin, said even though the bill exempts firefighters, his union still opposes the law. He said the law is a direct attack on all unions and the entire middle class.
Maria Elena Durazo, executive secretary treasurer of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, told the crowd:
In Los Angeles, we’re not going to sit back and watch Republican governors and their right-wing corporate backers roll back the freedoms of working people in this country. We support Wisconsin and any other state where those freedoms are under attack.
At the rally, Mitchell gave a rousing speech connecting Wisconsin to LA.
This is about an attack on me. This is about an attack on you. This is an emergency we have in Wisconsin and across the U.S. This is about an attack on the middle class. We need to reclaim our moral outrage … because we are in the battle of a lifetime.
Union Members Share with Those in Need
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The unemployment rate among building and construction workers in Los Angeles County is nearly 40 percent, which means many families face a bleak holiday. But one thing the workers can be thankful for is that they belong to a union and their union brothers and sisters will be there for them.
The Los Angeles County Federation of Labor selected unemployed construction workers and their families as this year’s recipients of its annual holiday “Turkeys and Toys” campaign, which helps out working families in need. The federation and its affiliated unions bought the makings of Thanksgiving dinner with all the trimmings, including a turkey, for 4,000 unemployed building trades workers.
More than 40 different unions contributed to the Thanksgiving turkey and food distribution, including grocery workers, truck drivers, hotel workers, sanitation workers, teachers and school employees, firefighters, college faculty, costume designers, telecommunications workers, courtroom clerks and more. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa (D) also helped distribute food to the workers.
Thousands Rally in Los Angeles for Jobs, Candidates Who Will Create Jobs
More than 6,000 union members and allies rallied Friday in Los Angeles for a massive jobs action to tell California candidates for public office that the state needs leaders who can create and save jobs, not corporate-backed millionaires like gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman and Senate candidate Carly Fiorina.
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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.
Thousands to Rally in Los Angeles Friday for Jobs
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With a critical election less than three months away and jobs foremost among voters’ concerns, thousands of working people will join community and labor leaders from across the country Friday in Los Angeles to let our elected leaders and political candidates know we need real action, not campaign rhetoric, on creating good jobs that can’t be outsourced.
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa (D), Letter Carriers (NALC) President Fredric Rolando, Maria Elena Durazo, executive secretary-treasurer of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor and community and labor leaders will speak at a massive rally in front of city hall, starting at noon PT.
Five New Members Named to Executive Council
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The AFL-CIO today elected five new members to the Executive Council. The Council also voted to add two seats to the council to promote and establishing diversity as well as giving a greater role to state and local labor leaders.
The council is meeting this week in Washington, D.C., to discuss plans for a major push in the fall elections, the union movement’s ongoing strategy to address the jobs crisis and efforts to reach out to young workers. President Obama will address the council today.
The new members of the Executive Council include: UAW President Bob King, UAW Vice President General Holiefield, AFSCME Secretary-Treasurer Lee Saunders, North Carolina State AFL-CIO President James Andrews and Los Angeles County Federation of Labor Executive Secretary-Treasurer Maria Elena Durazo.
The Council also honored two departing members—former UAW President Ron Gettelfinger and former United American Nurses President Ann Converso for their service to working people. Former UAW Secretary-Treasurer Elizabeth Bunn announced her retirement from the Council in March to become AFL-CIO organizing director. Holiefield was elected to fill that vacancy.
Community Programs Offer New Vision for America
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In 2008, the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor joined with the Teamsters, the city administration and the Port of Los Angeles to create the innovative Clean Truck Program to combat the toxic emissions that had caused spikes in asthma, cancer and mortality rates among children, truck drivers, the elderly, dockworkers and residents near Southern California’s transportation corridors.
The Clean Truck Program is a prime example of the ways workers and community leaders can work together to rebuild our economy and create a new vision for the future, Northeastern University professor Joan Fitzgerald told a forum on “Rebuilding America From The Bottom Up” at the America’s Future Now conference, which ends today.
Maria Elena Durazo, executive secretary-treasurer of the Los Angeles County Federation, praised the Clean Truck Program in a statement last year:
“Small and large companies alike have seen the economic advantages of environmental stewardship, and have invested over $500 million in low-emission fleets. Over 60 percent of the cargo that arrives at our shores is now moved to American stores by professional, hard-working drivers in clean trucks—three years ahead of schedule to meet emission-reduction targets.”
While national policy issues remain important, in our nation’s cities, rural areas and regions, workers and community leaders are creating and testing new and innovative ideas to turn the country around. In the process, progressives are finding support from liberals and conservatives for a new vision of America, Fitzgerald and other panelists said.
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.
