Maine GOP State Legislator Supports Employee Free Choice Act, and Other Highlights from Around the Country
Guess who’s joining the campaign for the Employee Free Choice Act in Maine?
It’s state Rep. Jim Campbell, a Republican who is defying the expectations of pundits and corporate shills by supporting workers’ freedom to form unions and bargain. He has appeared at public events around the state and written in local news outlets to show his support for the Employee Free Choice Act.
Here’s what Campbell says about the need to pass the Employee Free Choice Act and its importance to rebuilding the economy:
Common-sense solutions should be used to create good jobs that can support a family and put money back into our economy. Historically, no institution has been as effective at improving the quality of life for working families as membership in a union. Union members earn better wages, have better health care coverage and can count on a more secure retirement than nonunion workers.
Read the rest of this entry »
Minnesota Supreme Court Rules Franken Winner in Senate Race
 |
|
UPDATE 4:41 p.m.: Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty has announced he will certify the election.
UPDATE 4:02 p.m.: Former Sen. Norm Coleman has conceded. Al Franken will be the next senator from Minnesota.
**********
The Minnesota Supreme Court, after nearly eight months of counting and appeals, has ruled that Al Franken won the election to be Minnesota’s next U.S. senator.
Franken was endorsed by the AFL-CIO last year and union members worked hard on his behalf.
In the ruling, available here, the five state Supreme Court justices unanimously agreed:
For all of the foregoing reasons, we affirm the decision of the trial court that Al Franken received the highest number of votes legally cast and is entitled under Minn. 32 Stat. § 204C.40 (2008) to receive the certificate of election as United States Senator from the State of Minnesota.
UPDATE: Here’s what AFL-CIO President John J. Sweeney had to say about this important decision:
America’s workers congratulate Al Franken—and the people of Minnesota who have gone 226 days without a second Senator—for their unanimous victory today in the Minnesota Supreme Court.
How Do We Build an Enduring Progressive Voting Majority?
At the America’s Future Now conference, nearly all of us are focused on one Big Picture question: How can we build on the progressive election victories of 2008 so we can make long-lasting change that improves people’s lives?
At one of the day’s sessions, “A New and Enduring Progressive Majority?” experts agreed that, while demographic trends are pointing in the right direction for progressives, it’s important to give constituencies the information and the tools they need—not only during the election cycle but also during battles over policy and governance.
One of the panelists, Karen Nussbaum, executive director of Working America, the AFL-CIO community affiliate for workers who don’t have a union on the job, spoke about ways to reach voters who have deep economic concerns but who don’t have the advantage of being a union member to help mobilize them as a voting constituency.
Union members have access to two things that their neighbors don’t—good, reliable information and a sense of power in the economy.
Big Business Blocks Working Family Bills by Keeping Franken’s Senate Seat Vacant
 |
||||
|
||||
It’s April 2009 and we’re still checking back in to see who won in Minnesota’s hard-fought 2008 Senate race between incumbent Norm Coleman and AFL-CIO-endorsed challenger Al Franken—because corporate front groups are dumping money into delaying and dragging out the process.
When last we visited Minnesota, the state was just beginning to recount the votes in the excruciatingly close race. The recount was an exhaustive, transparent process, with every step open to the public and examined closely by Minnesota’s judiciary. And this week, a three-judge panel—in a 68-page decision issued after extensive consideration—ruled that Franken “received the highest number of votes legally cast” and is “entitled to receive a certificate of election.”
Yet Franken can’t be seated, because ex-Sen. Coleman is planning to appeal to the Minnesota state Supreme Court. Although election-law experts suggest that Coleman’s arguments are unlikely to have any more effect on the state Supreme Court than they did in front of judges from around the state who have heard them throughout this long process, Coleman is still keeping his team of lawyers busy and well-paid. And who’s paying for those mounting legal bills? The same corporate front groups bankrolling the fight against the Employee Free Choice Act.
Minnesota Electricians Harness Renewable Energy
 |
||||
|
||||
This cross-post from the April 2009 edition of the Electrical Worker newspaper demonstrates again how union workers are taking the lead in preparing for the green jobs of the future.
Darryl Thayer, a member of the Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 292 in Minneapolis, hardly received a visionary’s welcome when he addressed the Minnesota legislature in 1968 about the need to develop solar energy and wean the state from fossil fuel-based sources. Worse yet, says Thayer, many of my fellow workers “thought I was nuts.”
Forty-one years later, the legislature has a green energy task force. Now Thayer, a 53-year member, who teaches solar classes at Local 292’s apprenticeship training center, is a hero to folks like Ray Zeran. He’s one of 600 unemployed IBEW members who are looking to benefit from billions of dollars of state funds and federal stimulus money focused on renewable energy projects.
CWA Members Welcome Middle Class Task Force to St. Cloud Plant
 |
||||
|
||||
Barb Kucera, editor of Workday Minnesota, describes the second meeting of Vice President Joe Biden’s Middle Class Task Force at a clean fuel manufacturing plant.
Members of Communications Workers of America (CWA) Local 7304 welcomed Vice President Joe Biden and members of the administration’s Middle Class Task Force for a town hall meeting Thursday at their workplace, the New Flyer Bus Co. plant.
New Flyer manufactures buses for some of the largest transit agencies and cities in the United States and Canada and is a leader in the production of hybrid and low-emission vehicles.
Workers at the St. Cloud plant chose union representation through a majority sign-up—the method that would become an option for all workers if Congress passes the Employee Free Choice Act. President Obama said passage of this law, which would make it easier for workers to join unions, is a priority for his presidency.
Writing, Rallying and Podcasting for Employee Free Choice
 |
||||
 |
||||
|
When every employee in a workplace asks to be represented by a union, it should be a simple matter. They should get a union and be able to bargain for a better life. For workers at one Minneapolis company, however (see video), these basic freedoms were thwarted by their bosses. And all too often, what happened here takes place in workplaces across the country when employees seek to form a union.
Andy Aldrich, a fire safety worker, was one of the workers who, faced with arbitrary changes in pay and workplace rules, tried to form a union and negotiate with management for better work conditions and consistent pay.
That’s why we went for a union. We were looking for some fair and balanced treatment across the board, for every single employee.
Instead of accepting the wishes of the workers, management refused to recognize the union and instead pushed for a delayed election. Despite coercive one-on-one management meetings with employees, the company wasn’t able to block their wishes and the workers won their election for a union. But the fight wasn’t over. After seven months of negotiating, the employees still don’t have a contract. In the meantime, three of the workers who voted for a union have been fired.
Rep. Ellison Shows How to Support Employee Free Choice
As the new Congress kicks off its first week and we prepare for the inauguration of President-elect Barack Obama, now is the time for political leaders to speak out for the freedom of workers to form unions and bargain for a better life.
Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) is a great example of how a political leader can educate the public and fight for workers as we work to pass the Employee Free Choice Act.
Ellison and other pro-worker members of Congress have come under fire from deep-pocketed Big Business lobbyists and corporate front groups that are expending millions on disinformation and false attack ads to scare voters and elected officials alike. But Ellison, an Employee Free Choice Act co-sponsor, doesn’t scare so easily.
Rep. Ellison Joins Faith and Labor Leaders in Urging Release of Jailed Workers
 |
||||
|
||||
Barb Kucera, editor of Workday Minnesota, follows up on the Indian guest workers who this past spring and summer waged a hunger strike for justice. The welders and pipe fitters had been lured from their native India to the United States with promises of green cards and good jobs at Signal International’s shipyard in Pascagoula, Miss. Once there, they found themselves held in modern-day forced labor, victims of a human-trafficking scheme under the guise of the H-2B guest worker program. Now, 23 of the workers have been jailed by federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Community leaders in Minnesota—including Congressman Keith Ellison and the Rev. Craig Johnson, bishop of the Minneapolis Area Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America—issued a call for the release of 23 workers from India held in the Fargo, N.D., jail by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Help Locked-Out Workers Get Through the Holidays, and More Bargaining News
Workers locked out at Progress Casting in Minnesota need your help for the holidays—and more news here from the “Bargaining Digest Weekly.” The AFL-CIO Collective Bargaining Department delivers daily, bargaining-related news and research resources to more than 900 subscribers. Union leaders can register for this service through our website, Bargaining@Work.
WORK STOPPAGES AND ACTIONS
GMP, Progress Casting: Many workers locked out since Oct. 27 from Progress Casting in Plymouth, Minn., are struggling to make ends meet as the holidays approach—and their health care coverage has been cut. Please support our brothers and sisters in their battle. The workers are represented by the Glass, Molders, Pottery, Plastics and Allied Workers (GMP) Local 63B, and the union has set up a fund to assist members. Donations may be sent to “GMP 63B Relief Fund,” 2520 Kennedy St., N.E., Minneapolis, MN 55413. Supporters also are asked to write Progress Casting to urge an end to the lockout. Send letters to Bill Bieber (owner) or Tim Meador (general manager), Progress Casting, 2600 Niagara Lane N., Plymouth, MN 55447.
