Thinking Globally, Acting Domestically in Copenhagen
Bob Baugh, executive director of the AFL-CIO Industrial Union Council and co-chair of the AFL-CIO Energy Task Force, sends us this report from the climate change talks in Copenhagen, Denmark, where 40 U.S. union members are part of a 400-member global union movement delegation led by the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC). Read our previous blogs on the climate change talks here, here, here, here, here and here.
In the time-compressed atmosphere of Copenhagen, it is difficult to have an opportunity to meet with key government officials and to be able to use an international message as a bridge to discussing our real issues at home.
SAG President Joins AFL-CIO Executive Council
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The AFL-CIO Executive Council today welcomed a new member, Ken Howard, president of the Screen Actors (SAG). Howard, who was elected to lead the actor’s union in September 2009, replaces former SAG President Alan Rosenberg.
Convening for a one-day meeting in Washington, D.C., the council heard from Ron Bloom, senior counselor to President Obama for manufacturing policy and a former staff member at the United Steelworkers (USW). The council and union leaders have repeatedly called on the Obama administration to quickly enact a national industrial policy to foster and sustain growth in the nation’s manufacturing industries. Increasing our manufacturing capacity is critical as the world prepares to move toward a green economy.
Pollster Celinda Lake also shared the results of polling on the economy and the political implications of a protracted jobs crisis.
Obama Tells AFL-CIO He’s ‘Fired Up’ for Health Care, Rebuilding America
Saying he was “fired up and ready to go,” President Obama challenged working people to join in building a future of prosperity out of the nation’s economic mess. The president vowed to pass health care reform, reaffirmed support for the Employee Free Choice Act and laid out a plan to rebuild the middle class.
Speaking at the 23rd annual Cincinnati AFL-CIO Labor Council Labor Day picnic, Obama reminded the crowd of nearly 5,000 that in tough times, America’s working men and women are ready to roll up their sleeves and get back to work. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney and AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka joined Obama in the Queen City.
Trumka told the crowd in Cincinnati:
This is a unique moment in American history—and we can make it labor’s moment. This can be our moment to build the labor movement we need to create the country we want: …A nation where every worker has a job with a future and where all of us can step into the winner’s circle.
Bloom in Line for Administration Manufacturing Post
The Obama administration likely will name Ron Bloom, who heads the White House’s auto task force, to help develop policies to revive the U.S. manufacturing industry, according to reports by Bloomberg News.
The administration wants to create a new position to enable the White House to craft a policy that coordinates trade, labor and tax issues. He would report to Lawrence Summers, the president’s top economic adviser.
Short-sighted U.S. economic policies that encouraged companies to move offshore have created a crisis in manufacturing. Since 2001, some 40,000 U.S. manufacturing plants have closed, resulting in the loss of millions of family-supporting jobs. From 2001 to 2007, some 2.3 million jobs were lost just to the huge U.S. trade deficit with China.
Bloom to Head Auto Task Force
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The Obama administration’s efforts to revive the auto industry will now have a union member at its helm. Ron Bloom, a senior adviser in the U.S. Treasury Department for auto industry restructuring, has been named to head the administration’s auto task force.
Bloom succeeds Steven Rattner, a former investment banker, who resigned after less than six months on the job.
Before moving to Treasury, Bloom served as an assistant to United Steelworkers (USW) President Leo Gerard. As USW’s director of corporate research, he helped revive and restructure 50 companies in bankruptcy.
Bloom began his career negotiating union contracts for low-wage workers under AFL-CIO President John Sweeney when he was president of SEIU.
With an MBA from Harvard and experience as a vice president at the investment banking firm of Lazard Freres & Co., and his own firm Keilin and Bloom, he has extensive experience in corporate finance. While at the USW, Bloom’s restructuring plans were recognized for preserving thousands of manufacturing jobs and health care benefits for workers and retirees alike.
USW’s Bloom Takes Senior Auto Rescue Post
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During his time as the United Steelworkers’ (USW’s) director of corporate research, Ron Bloom helped revive and restructure 50 companies in bankruptcy. Now as special assistant to USW President Leo Gerard, Bloom is taking on a new assignment as senior adviser in the Treasury Department for U.S. auto industry restructuring.
Bloom began his career negotiating union contracts for low-wage workers under AFL-CIO President John Sweeney, when he was president of SEIU. Before he joined the USW, he specialized in dealing with corporations facing financial difficulties or undertaking corporate transactions. With an MBA from Harvard and experience as a vice president at the investment banking firm of Lazard Freres & Co., and his own firm, Keilin and Bloom, he has experience in corporate finance. While at the USW, his restructuring plans were recognized for preserving thousands of manufacturing jobs and health care benefits for workers and retirees alike.
Gerard says President Obama selected the “perfect negotiator, expert and innovative thinker when he chose Ron Bloom.”
Ron is very passionate in his belief that manufacturing is essential to a healthy economy. The auto industry relationship to manufacturing is as important as Goldman Sachs or Citibank is to the financial community. Ron knows this.
