Obama to Address AFL-CIO Convention
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President Barack Obama will address our AFL-CIO Convention in Pittsburgh on Sept. 15, marking a major shift in the relationship between the union movement and the White House. For the past eight years, the Bush administration waged war on America’s workers, and union members took a big step toward taking back America by playing a major role in electing Obama and a Democrat-controlled Congress.
Obama will address a convention that will make history by electing a new leadership team. AFL-CIO President John Sweeney is retiring after 14 years at the helm.
Along with Obama, the Sept. 13-17 convention will hear from many prominent political and union leaders, including Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Caroline Kennedy and NAACP President Benjamin Jealous.
Winning Together—NEA and the AFL-CIO
Congratulations to the seven lucky National Education Association (NEA) members who today won top prizes in the AFL-CIO Winning Together Contest by displaying their knowledge of the power of union solidarity.
The contest was sponsored by the federation’s Unity Partnerships project and was open to NEA members and staff attending the NEA Representative Assembly Expo in San Diego this week.
To enter the contest, participants answered a question about the combined voting strength of NEA and AFL-CIO active and retired households in their home states. Those who answered correctly were eligible for the grand prize and three second prizes. Everyone who submitted an answer was eligible for one of three third prizes.
In today’s drawing, Carol Sampsel of State College, Pa., won the grand prize of a $1,000 Costco gift certificate. Sampsel says, “I Just got a new place to live, so this will come in handy!”
CWA Delegates Back Employee Free Choice, Health Care and Unity
More than 2,500 members of the Communications Workers of America (CWA) delivered a message to their representatives on Capitol Hill yesterday: It’s time to pass the Employee Free Choice Act and real health care reform.
The Capitol Hill lobby day is part of the union’s four-day convention in Washington, D.C., which ends today. Delegates will go back to the Capitol today to join thousands of workers in the mass rally in support of health care reform.
Part-Time Faculty at Two New York Colleges Join AFT
Part-time and adjunct faculty teaching at two private colleges, the Manhattan School of Music (MSM) and Cooper Union (CU), voted recently to join the New York State United Teachers, an affiliate of AFT and the National Education Association. The faculty members at both schools are all accomplished artists and working professionals who perform outside the college as well as teach.
The 150 part-time and adjunct faculty who teach in the MSM precollege program work on year-to-year contracts and make about half the pay of the regular faculty. In 2002, management cut off the precollege faculty’s access to health insurance that once had been available to all MSM teachers who taught at least 10 hours.
Horowitz’s Latest Attack on Higher Ed ‘Inaccurate, Distorted’
Free Exchange on Campus, a coalition of 23 unions, faculty and student organizations and progressive policy groups, is setting the record straight about the shoddy research and erroneous conclusions in David Horowitz’s latest book, “One Party Classroom.”
As he does in his previous books, Horowitz, an extremist right-winger, attacks public universities and claims they brainwash students and turn them against their parents and country.
In “Facts Still Count,” the coalition says Horowitz’s outlandish claims are based on misrepresentations and distortions of the work of faculty members. The report says he has used this fallacious evidence to push an agenda that has the potential to chill the free exchange of ideas on college campuses. Click here to download the report.
Montana College Faculty All Union, and More Organizing News
All faculty in public colleges and universities in Montana now are union members after the faculty at Montana State University-Bozeman voted yesterday to join the Montana Education Association-Montana Federation of Teachers (MEA-MFT), the state affiliate of the AFT and the National Education Association.
MEA-MFT President Eric Feaver says:
All Montana public college and university faculty are now MEA-MFT. No exceptions. This could well be a unique event among public state colleges and universities across the nation. All of us here at MEA-MFT are excited and proud of our new members.
AFL-CIO Urges Stricter Bank Bailout Process, Hails NEA Affiliations
The AFL-CIO Executive Council wrapped up its winter meeting in Miami today, calling for stricter regulation and oversight of the financial industry, urging President Obama to ensure that taxpayers get “fair value” for any additional funds used to bail out the nation’s banks, authorizing continuation of discussions on unifying the labor movement and urging adoption of a global charter of rights for working women.
Also today, the AFL-CIO and the National Education Association (NEA) announced that three more NEA local chapters, with more than 3,000 members, have affiliated with the AFL-CIO under the Solidarity Partnership program. The program is supported by AFT, a long-time AFL-CIO affiliate.
Says AFL-CIO President John Sweeney:
These affiliations show that we are unified and committed to fighting for quality education in our nation’s classrooms.
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.
Hundreds of Union Members to March in Inaugural Parade
For the first time in recent memory, hundreds of America’s working men and women will join representatives from across the country and our armed forces to participate in the official inaugural parade for Barack Obama. Some 265 union workers (15 on the float and 250 marchers) will include members from the AFL-CIO, Change to Win and the National Education Association.
Marchers will carry a banner, “America’s Workers: United for Change,” along with flags that represent the issues most important to working families: an Economy that Works for All, Great Public Schools, Good Jobs Green Jobs and Health Care for All. The overall theme of the labor float is “Honoring America’s Workers.”
Educators Praise Obama’s Choice of Duncan as Ed. Secretary
The leaders of education unions today praised President-elect Barack Obama’s selection of Arne Duncan, superintendent of the Chicago school system, as education secretary in the new administration. AFT President Randi Weingarten, Jill Levy, president of the School Administrators (AFSA), and National Education Association (NEA) President Dennis Van Roekel said Duncan has shown genuine commitment to the key priorities for an incoming education secretary.
In a statement, Weingarten says:
There may be times when we will differ, but we believe we will agree fully that America’s students and teachers need an education secretary committed to focusing on real solutions for closing the achievement gap and providing every child with a rigorous, well-rounded education that prepares him or her for college, work and life.
