Job Creation Key to Ending Economic Crisis
As Congress considers whether to renew unemployment insurance (UI) for long-term jobless workers and extend COBRA to help unemployed workers maintain health care, they should take time to find out about the experiences of workers beyond the Washington, D.C., beltway.
Richard Duncan, who works for the Tennessee AFL-CIO technical assistance program, has met many unemployed workers. The assistance program helps union workers who have been laid off (see video above).
I’ve traveled the state of Tennessee and seen an enormous number of union brothers and sisters lose their jobs. Since 2006, I’ve seen the same people. They lose their job at one facility. Then they go to another facility, then there’s an additional layoff and they lose their job again.
The extensions for UI and COBRA expire Feb. 28. Click here to tell your lawmakers it’s time to act.
Wisconsin NEA Local Partners with State Fed in Solidarity Agreement
The 840 members of the Janesville (Wis.) Education Association (JEA) voted to affiliate with the Wisconsin State AFL-CIO and the Rock County Central Labor Council.
JEA President David Parr calls the affiliation “an exciting new partnership.”
Through the Wisconsin State AFL-CIO and the Rock County Central Labor Council, Janesville educators are standing in solidarity with other working people on the issues that impact our community. We intend to take an active role within both organizations.
Minnesota AFL-CIO Calls for Bold State Action to Create Jobs
Workday Minnesota editor Barb Kucera reports on the Minnesota AFL-CIO’s job creation strategy unveiled Monday. For more on how unions and their allies on the state and local levels can mobilize for legislation and policies that create jobs and boost the economy for working families, click here.
Responding to the dramatic need to get Minnesotans back to work, the Minnesota AFL-CIO called on state lawmakers to enact a series of bold proposals to create jobs and stimulate economic growth.
At a news conference Monday at the Capitol, Minnesota AFL-CIO President Shar Knutson urged elected officials to quickly pass a bonding bill, support private investment in construction jobs, enact a wage subsidy program and raise revenue as part of solving the state’s budget crisis.
Oregon Voters Tell Corporations, Wealthy: ‘Pay Your Fair Share’
Oregon voters, faced with a $727 million budget deficit that threatened severe cuts in education, health care, public safety and senior services, voted Tuesday for two “fair share” measures that raise taxes on the state’s wealthiest families and boost a minimum tax on businesses that had been set at just $10 since 1931.
Oregon AFL-CIO President Tom Chamberlain says the victory on both these measures “sends a strong message on how we value education and other vital working family services.”
Oregon unions, community allies and progressive groups led the fight against the deep-pocketed corporate community that preached economic doom if the tax measures passed.
Union Plus Will Match Your Haiti Relief Donation
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You can double the power of your contribution to Haiti relief. Click here and Union Plus will automatically match your contribution to the Solidarity Center’s AFL-CIO Earthquake Relief for Haitian Workers’ Campaign. You do not need to use a Union Plus credit card for the matching donation.
You also can take action now to help the Haitian survivors by clicking on the AFL-CIO Haitian Disaster Relief site here.
Union Plus has committed $100,000 through this dollar-for-dollar donation match to help Haitian earthquake relief efforts. Says Union Plus President Leslie Tolf:
Despite the millions of dollars raised already, the people of Haiti continue to have an ongoing need for our help. That’s why we are committing $100,000 to double the donations made by union members to the Solidarity Center.
Ironworker Sworn in as N.J. State Senate President
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Steve Sweeney, a member of Ironworkers Local 399 and one of the early graduates of the New Jersey State AFL-CIO’s Labor Candidates School, was sworn in last week as president of the New Jersey State Senate.
Sweeney, who was first elected to the State Senate in 2001, is the first union member to serve as president of the upper chamber.
He said at his swearing-in ceremony:
“I accept this task with great humility and an ironclad belief that New Jersey’s best days are ahead of us. I will bring the work ethic here that I did in my career as an ironworker.”
Working Families Getting out the Vote in Massachusetts Special Election
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Today, Massachusetts working families are going to the polls to help put Martha Coakley in the U.S. Senate in a special election.
The election day get-out-the-vote drive follows a long Martin Luther King Jr. weekend that saw thousands of union members working at phone banks in local union halls, knocking on doors of other union members and talking with their co-workers at jobs sites across the Bay State.
Massachusetts AFL-CIO President Robert Haynes says Coakley will continue the legacy of Ted Kennedy in fighting for working families.
This election is all about working families. That’s who the late Senator Kennedy spent his life fighting for.
Massachusetts Working Families Mount Big Push for Coakley
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Massachusetts working families are on the phones, doorsteps and worksites–mobilizing a get-out-the-vote drive for Martha Coakley in today’s special election for the U.S. Senate.
Coakley, the Bay State’s attorney general, has a long record of supporting working families. As attorney general, she vigilantly enforced prevailing wage, overtime, employee misclassification, independent contractor and workplace discrimination laws. She has earned the support of the Massachusetts AFL-CIO.
As a U.S. senator, Coakley says she will be a strong advocate for job creation and the Employee Free Choice Act. She vows to continue the late Sen. Ted Kennedy’s legacy of fighting for working families.
Her opponent, Scott Brown, strongly opposes the Employee Free Choice Act. Like an echo from the Bush-Cheney days, Brown believes the answer to the economic crisis is to give more tax cuts to the wealthy.
Airline Pilots, AFSCME Come to Haiti’s Aid
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Wherever there is a need for help, union members are quick to respond. With estimates as high as 100,000 killed and 40,000 buried during this week’s earthquake in Haiti, three crews of pilots and flight engineers of the Canadian airline First Air, all members of Air Line Pilots (ALPA) Councils 240 and 241, are flying relief supplies to the Caribbean for the U.S. Agency for International Development.
The First Air crews, who normally work in the arctic, are flying two Hercules aircraft, which have 6,000 cubic feet of capacity and can carry more than 45,000 pounds of cargo. First Air said it also will send a Boeing 767-223 Super Freighter this weekend to deliver relief provisions from Toronto to Haiti. The Super Freighter can haul 98,700 pounds.
Massachusetts Working Families Gearing Up GOTV for Coakley
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Working families in Massachusetts are mobilizing for a huge get-out-the-working family-vote drive for Tuesday’s special U.S. Senate election where Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley is running for the seat left vacant by Sen. Edward Kennedy’s death last year.
As Robert Haynes, president of the Massachusetts AFL-CIO, says, “This election has been all about working families.”
Martha Coakley has a proven record of fighting for working families, including vigilantly enforced prevailing wage, overtime, employee misclassification, and independent contractor enforcement laws in order to ensure that an honest day’s work would result in a fair paycheck with real benefits.
