‘Time for Working Class to Have A Voice’ in Budget Debate
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AFL-CIO Field Communications staffer Cathy Sherwin sends us this report.
Fed up with inaction and partisan-political game playing in Washington, Kentuckians gathered in Louisville to call upon Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell to stop the partisan politics and pass a budget that works for all working families, not just millionaire CEOs. They called out their senator for putting the 2012 elections ahead of the needs of his own constituents who would be impacted by deep cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.
A delegation that included Rev. Charles Elliott, local voters and United Mine Workers (UMWA) President Cecil Roberts attempted to visit McConnell’s office, but when all but two were turned away by security, Roberts joined the crowd marching around the federal building while Rev. Elliott and a local senior citizen met with staff.
In nearly 100 degree heat, the crowd prayed and sang, marched and rallied for a humane federal budget with sane priorities while the pair met with Sen. McConnell’s staff. Roberts said “It is time for the working class to have a voice in this debate.” He called upon McConnell as well as Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul to stop holding the economy hostage. Even as the rally was coming to a close, another round began arriving on their lunch hour, with signs calling for no cuts to the critical programs that Kentucky families need. Read the rest of this entry »
Women’s Law Center Provides State-by-State Look at Social Security and Women
In the upcoming budget debate, congressional Republicans have said they are more than willing to trade off huge cuts to programs that are vital to working families—especially to women and children—such as Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and other key family helping programs in exchange for tax breaks for corporations and the wealthy.
One of their biggest targets is Social Security. The National Women’s Law Center (NWLC) now has put together new fact sheets about the impact of Social Security on women and their families in all 50 states.
The fact sheets paint a picture of just how essential Social Security is for women and their families, including how many women and children receive Social Security in each state, average benefits for women and men, and Social Security’s role in lifting residents out of poverty
In Ohio, home to House Speaker John Boehner (R) who wants to raise the retirement age, 91 percent of residents who are 65—the current retirement age—receive Social Security benefits, and the majority are women. Nearly 160,000 Ohio children receive Social Security benefits because of the loss of a parent’s income due to death, disability or retirement. Read the rest of this entry »
Coffee, Tea or Workplace Safety?
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Back when flight attendants were stewardesses and airline ads promoted their good looks and winsome smiles to get you on board, these hardworking airline employees had no job safety and health protection. Today, flight attendants still are not covered by the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) and Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and most of his Republicans colleagues want to keep it that way, just like the old days.
The Flight Attendants-CWA (AFA-CWA), Machinists (IAM) and Transport Workers (TWU) have launched campaigns to fight back. Here’s the latest video from TWU that notes, “Times have changed” and Paul’s efforts put both flight attendants and the flying public at risk.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) bill now in the Senate provides OSHA protection to flight attendants and other air crew. Paul has offered an amendment to cut those protections from the FAA bill, in effect putting both workers and passengers at risk.
Considering the high rate of workplace injuries and the impact on the flying public, flight attendants are speaking out about why this is a serious mistake. Sanitation, air quality, temperature and humidity levels, noise and blood-borne pathogens are just a few of the hazards that go unchecked for flight attendants in their workplace—the aircraft cabin.
What’s next, passenger parachutes for landing?
Paul Taps Longtime Anti-Union Group Exec. as Top Aide
When the Republican majorities—especially the newly elected extreme right-wing members—take control of Congress in January, they likely will quickly take aim at workers and their unions. One of the people who might be calling those shots has a long history of trying to undermine workers’ rights.
Senator-elect Rand Paul (R-Ky.), the poster child for the Republican tea party, appointed Doug Stafford, vice president of the slyly named National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, as his chief of staff . Described as a “long time Republican operative in Washington,” Stafford will serve as Paul’s guide to the ins and outs of Congress and help develop and set his agenda.
American Rights at Work describes the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation as part of
the country’s oldest organization dedicated solely to destroying unions. Its network consists of four organizations that share leadership, offices, resources and staff, all with the common goal of undermining workers’ freedom of association….The Foundation consistently wages litigation to weaken workers’ rights to form unions.
Working Families Vote: Election 2010 Thread
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10:27: Looks like Ken Buck won’t be going to the tea party. The Denver Post has just projected Sen. Michael Bennet (D) the winner over the arch conservative Buck in the Colorado U.S. Senate race.
Nov. 3: Sen. Majority Harry Reid of Nevada defeated Sharron Angle with a big boost from working family voters, who provided his margin of victory.
- Some 270,162 union members voted for Reid by 69 percent, with 29 percent voting for Angle. Among non-union members, Reid lost 49-44.
Also, another former CEO needs to check her business plan. Sen. Barbara Boxer defeated former Hewlett-Packard chief executive Carly Fiorina because, reports the Times, Boxer was able to turn “Fiorina’s record at the company against her, accusing the former CEO of outsourcing jobs and laying off 30,000 workers.” It certainly is about jobs.
Union members voted for Brown by a 36 point margin and gave Boxer by a 34 point edge. Some 30,000 union volunteers knocked on 413,000 doors, helped make 4.1 million calls and distributed 2.94 million worksite fliers.
Be sure and check back tomorrow for late results and other election news. Read the rest of this entry »
Rand Paul Supporters Attack Satirical Protester
Looks like Rand Paul supporters can’t take a joke, but they sure can stomp somebody in the head.
Last night before a debate between Paul, who has the strong backing of corporate interests and corporate money, and Democratic Senate candidate Jack Conway, Lauren Valle attempted to present Paul with an “Employee of the Month” certificate from “RepubliCorp.”
RepubliCorp is MoveOn.org’s “business,” a satire of an organization created by a merger of the Republican Party and Big Business. Click here for a closer look at the site, Buying Democracy One Race at a Time.
Vale was surrounded by Paul supporters who then pushed her to the ground and one man stomped on her head. You can see in this video from Fox41.com, that Valle is forced to the ground by a man as another man holding a Rand Paul sign steps forcefully on her head. Media Matters has documented right-wing violence this year against progressives. Read the list here.
Valle told the New York Daily News:
They tried to grab me and chased me around Rand Paul’s car. And once I’m in front of the car, they take me down….I remembered someone stomping my head in the ground.
‘Tenthers’ Would Abolish Wage and Child Labor Laws, Social Security, Medicare and More
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Most cults are based in some sort of skewed spiritual vision or the worship of a charismatic leader, but there is a re-emerging cult that bows down at the feet of the 10th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Many of them want to bring their cultish beliefs to the halls of Congress and are running for election this fall.
They’re called the “tenthers” and they say federal laws and rules like the minimum wage, Medicare, Social Security, unemployment insurance, the Department of Education, even child labor laws and a laundry list of other federal laws and programs are unconstitutional.
Their rationale—irrationale would be a better word—is that if a federal power is not specifically spelled out in the Constitution, well the government doesn’t have it, according to their view of the 10th amendment.
It’s a view that has long been discredited, but reappears from time to time, such as during FDR’s New Deal era and after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled school segregation unconstitutional in the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education.
Here’s Think Progress in today’s Progress Report:
Union Activists Getting Out the Vote Around the Country
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Here’s a quick look at some upcoming AFL-CIO Labor 2010 actions in Nevada, Connecticut and Florida and reports on recent activity in Wisconsin, Ohio, Kentucky and Pennsylvania.
On Saturday, AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler will join Connecticut union activists in get-out-the-vote (GOTV) neighborhood walks to convey how Republican Senate candidate Linda McMahon thinks Congress should consider lowering the minimum wage.
Early next week, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka will be in Nevada, where extremist and tea party favorite Sharron Angle is opposing U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. Among other outrageous positions, Angle wants to phase out and privatize Social Security and Medicare. Trumka will join union workers in Reno and Las Vegas for worksite leafleting and other actions.
Among other stops, AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Arlene Holt Baker will be in Florida for a “twofer”—GOTV activities in Miami and Palm Beach and she’ll throw a jab at mostly Florida resident John Raese, who’s running as a Republican for the Senate in West Virginia and has sparked controversy over his recruitment of “hicky” blue-collar workers for his campaign ad.
Activists Tell Pa.’s Toomey, ‘Hands Off Social Security’
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At a rally last night, Pennsylvania senior, community and worker activists condemned Republican Senate candidate Rep. Pat Toomey’s call to privatize Social Security.
Pat Worrell of the community group Action United says the action, outside Philadelphia’s National Constitution Center prior to a debate between Toomey and Rep. Joe Sestak (D), was called to tell Pat Toomey, in no uncertain terms, that
Pennsylvanians oppose his reckless suggestion to divert taxpayer dollars from Social Security to Wall Street. The recession has made it clear that the last thing we need is our Social Security exposed to the insecurity of the stock market.
During the debate, Sestak, who has the backing of the Keystone State’s unions, asserted his support for strengthening, not privatizing, the nation’s most successful social program.
Rand Paul: Bloodhounds on His Trail
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Rand Paul is sticking to his new campaign strategy: Head for the hills when you see union folks with video cameras.
Kentucky’s tea party-tilting Republican U.S. Senate candidate recently stopped in Paducah and Princeton for “meet and greet” sessions with voters.
But he pulled another speak-and-scram when he spotted a camera-armed contingent of the Kentucky State AFL-CIO’s Bloodhound Brigade, an informal group of union volunteers whose mission, says Nate Byer, AFL-CIO communications director in the Bluegrass State, is to provide information
to voters about when and where they will have the opportunity to engage this candidate for this very important office. Rand Paul says the tea party represents an “open mike.” But it turns out you are only given a voice if you share Rand Paul’s radical agenda that would devastate Kentucky’s working families.
