2,000 City Workers Ratify Pact with Milwaukee—and More Bargaining News
AFSCME members ratified a new contract with the city of Milwaukee, and more news from the “Bargaining Digest Weekly.” The AFL-CIO Collective Bargaining Department delivers daily, bargaining-related news and research resources to more than 1,200 subscribers. Union leaders can register for this service through our website, Bargaining@Work.
SETTLEMENTS
AFSCME, City of Milwaukee: Members of AFSCME Council 48 ratified a new contract with the city of Milwaukee. The 2,000 city employees agreed to a pay freeze for 2010 and 2011 in return for a no-layoff guarantee.
43,000 New Jersey Communications Workers Ratify Pact, and More Bargaining News
Some 43,000 New Jersey Communications Workers of America ratify a revised contract—and more updates here from the “Bargaining Digest Weekly.” The
AFL-CIO Collective Bargaining Department delivers daily, bargaining-related news and research resources to more than 1,100 subscribers. Union leaders can register for this service through our website, Bargaining@Work.
SETTLEMENTS
CWA, New Jersey: More than 43,000 workers in the largest union representing New Jersey state workers, the Communications Workers of America (CWA), ratified a revised contract that defers a raise and swaps furloughs this year for future vacation days. “During these hard economic times, nothing is more important than protecting vital public services and the jobs of working people,” said Hetty Rosenstein, CWA’s New Jersey area director.
Wyden Wants to Tax Health Care Benefits
Last year, in his failed run for the presidency, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) proposed taxing working families’ health care benefits as part of his deeply flawed plan for health care reform.
The reaction was direct and swift. “No!” said unions, health care reform advocates and consumers. Candidate Barack Obama blasted the McCain proposal.
But today, the idea of taxing health care benefits has resurfaced, and from an unlikely source: Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), who for most of his career has been a good friend of working families. His call to tax your health care benefits is buried in legislation (S. 391) that he introduced this year and is now being considered by the Senate Finance Committee as one of several possible ways to finance health care reform.
AFL-CIO, Change to Win Agree on Joint Immigration Framework
The AFL-CIO and Change to Win (CtW) today announced a historic joint unity framework for immigration reform. The joint announcement and proposal is a critical sign of support for the Obama administration and Congress to address immigration reform and to ensure that the issue remains a priority. It also signals that immigration reform is an important part of economic recovery.
The framework for comprehensive reform was developed with the guidance of former Secretary of Labor Ray Marshall and the Economic Policy Institute.
In a statement, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said:
Our nation’s broken immigration system isn’t working for anybody—not immigrant workers who are routinely exploited by companies and not U.S.-born workers whose living standards are being undermined by the creation of a new “underclass.”
As a part of broad-based economic recovery, we need a comprehensive solution—and soon. The development of a unified labor position, a position centered on workers’ rights, puts us on the path to a legislative solution.
Small Business Owners: Employee Free Choice Good for Our Workers and Us
Corporate leaders are making a lot of unfounded claims that the Employee Free Choice Act would be bad for small businesses. But when you ask many small business owners and entrepreneurs across the country, you’ll hear a different story. They understand the Employee Free Choice Act will help create a stronger economy, with a better-trained workforce and a more economically stable customer base.
During a conference call today hosted by the worker advocacy group American Rights at Work, some of these small business owners spoke up to explain why they support the Employee Free Choice Act.
Ruth Schepp is a business owner in West Fargo, N.D., who employs six people and sees their membership in the Machinists (IAM) union as a way to cooperate with them to build a stronger firm.
The Best Gift We Can Give: Ourselves
 |
||||
|
||||
The Rev. Nelson Johnson is pastor of Faith Community Church and executive director of the Beloved Community Center, in Greensboro, N.C. He is the recent past national co-president of Interfaith Worker Justice and, this summer, joined in prayer with tobacco workers and Baldemar Velásquez, president of the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC). The Rev. Nelson reminds us here how fundamental to the union movement are the ways in which we give of ourselves.
The fullness of Christmas is upon us. For tens of millions, Christmas is the most significant holiday of the year. In fact it’s more than a day: Christmas is an entire season. Perhaps no other holiday season involves us in such a range of activities and emotions. Christmas is a season of sharing gifts with loved ones and being charitable toward total strangers; it is a season for gatherings of family, co-worker and religious entities. It is a period of reflection and commitment. Christmas is a season of renewed hope and new possibilities, proclaiming peace on earth and good will (or justice) to all.
