Hate the Pay Gap? Take the App Challenge
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If you’re frustrated about the wage gap that persists between male and female workers, you can channel your energy into a new contest sponsored by the U.S. Department of Labor and President Obama’s National Equal Pay Task Force.
The Equal Pay App Challenge invites the public to create innovative software applications that use the department’s data to educate users about the pay gap, and provide tools to combat it.
Women earn about 80 cents for every dollar earned by men doing comparable work—and the gap is wider for Latinas and African American women. Over a lifetime, the pay gap results in lost wages, reduced pensions and diminished Social Security benefits.
Of course, unionized women do better than their unrepresented sisters, thanks to the power of collective bargaining. Data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that union women earn nearly 34 percent more than nonunion women.
Software apps that “improve the accessibility of pay data broken down by gender, race and ethnicity, and provide coaching on early career pay, pay negotiation or career mentorship” are among the goals of the challenge. March 31 is the deadline and prizes will be awarded around Equal Pay Day in April. Find development tools here.
This Is So Cool!
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You’ve got to check this out…it’s meant for kids, but, really, how can you go wrong at a website that rocks noisy engine revs, animated potato chips and full-color awesomeness?
It’s a new site, ManufacturingIsCool.com, and it’s the definition of fun-while-learning.
Produced by the Society for Manufacturing Engineers, the site uses an interactive “desk” to send kids on a journey through everything from how paper, Pringles and bike helmets are made, to the ins and outs of building a concept car—and way, way beyond.
Our friends at the Alliance for American Manufacturing (AAM) sent us the link, and we agree—it’s great to get kids excited about manufacturing. AAM is a partnership of the United Steelworkers and a group of leading manufacturers with a mission to strengthen manufacturing in the United States.
In Bastrop, Texas, a Union Member Steps Up
Autumn has come and gone in Bastrop, Texas, but many of those who lost homes and possessions in the raging late-summer wildfires there still need help. This week, Philip Lawhon jumped at the chance to use his skills as an electrician to keep the Bastrop relief effort humming.
Lawhon is director of member development for the 1,150-member Local 520 of the Electrical Workers (IBEW). He put on his tool belt when the Texas AFL-CIO—working with the Capital Area United Way in Austin—sent out a call for help wiring and lighting a temporary distribution center for the Bastrop County Wildfire Relief Center.
The center had been operating without power since October, trying to keep displaced residents supplied with the basics as they put their lives back together. Said Lawhon: Read the rest of this entry »
Union Workers Protest Abrupt End to Fuel Subsidies in Nigeria
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Elizabeth Boomer of the AFL-CIO International Affairs Department sends us this report.
Protestors rallied outside the World Bank building in Washington, D.C., yesterday in support of Nigeria’s nation-wide strike opposing the soaring price of fuel. After the government ended fuel subsidies Jan. 1, prices doubled overnight. Today in Nigeria, tens of thousands marched in the streets across the country.
The Washington action was aimed at the international financial institutions that have long argued against domestic fuel subsidies in Nigeria where long-term mismanagement and corruption have forced it to import 70 percent of its fuel, even while it is the 10th largest producer of crude oil in the world.
The sudden removal of fuel subsidies in Nigeria, where the majority of people live on less than $2 a day, affects workers’ and families’ core economic decisions, including whether to pay for their children’s school fees this term or to go to the doctor this month. Higher fuel costs are also expected to raise food prices in Africa’s most populous country, an issue that could affect an entire region that is suffering from food price volatility. Read the rest of this entry »
Demand Strong Mortgage Abuse Settlement with Big Banks
Tell your state attorney general to demand real accountability from the Big Banks for the collapse of the housing market by clicking here. The action, sponsored by the AFL-CIO community affiliate, Working America, comes as state and federal officials are negotiating a settlement with the Big Banks for their role in driving the U.S. economy into a ditch and often recklessly defrauding consumers seeking mortgages.
The wreckage in the wake of the banks’ actions includes 7.5 million home foreclosures with another 4.8 million teetering on the brink.
It’s time hold those banks accountable, but news reports say the proposed settlement may amount to nothing more than a slap on the wrist. California’s attorney general withdrew from the negotiations in September because he said the proposed terms failed to provide sufficient relief to the state’s homeowners and released the banks from too many claims.
Any settlement must reflect the harm done to homeowners and provide large-scale relief for homeowners.
Banker’s ‘Nightmare on Wall Street’
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With a nod to “The Twilight Zone’s” Rod Serling, National Nurses United (NNU) unveiled a new and frightening—if you’re a banker or Wall Street fat cat—video to push for a financial transaction or Robin Hood tax on Wall Street speculation.
In “Nightmare on Wall Street,” a Wall Street executive on his way to work encounters the retirees who have lost their pensions, families foreclosed out their homes, workers who lost their jobs and other victims of Wall Street’s reckless actions that crashed the nation’s economy. They chase him through Manhattan’s concrete canyons yelling, “Tax Wall Street, Not Main Street. Tax the 1 percent!”
The AFL-CIO, NNU and others have called for a Robin Hood Tax on Wall Street to raise funds for job creation and to mend the economy that Wall Street broke. Economists say that along with generating jobs, the tax would help reduce the complicated, risky financial practices and products such as derivatives, short-term investment strategies and other speculation that fueled the economy’s crash.
Check out the video and then visit the NNU’s website, www.ProtestIntheUSA.org, to sign a petition to support a robust financial transaction tax on Wall Street, and check out more videos.
Republicans Douse ‘Light of Democracy’ and Ram Through RTW Bill
The Republican-controlled Indiana House Employment, Labor and Pensions Committee, muzzled Democrats and, in a five-minute “charade” of a hearing this morning, passed a so-called right to work (RTW) bill by an 8-5 vote.
Not only were Democrats barred from offering any amendments, no discussion of the bill was allowed and, immediately after the vote, the hearing was adjourned. Rep. John Bartlett (D) told reporters that he’d “never seen a charade like this in my life.”
Said Rep. Clyde Kersey (D):
I think the light of democracy just went out in the Indiana House.
Daniels Protects Secret Donors Behind RTW Ads
Indiana’s airwaves are being saturated with ads featuring Gov. Mitch Daniels (R) promoting his “right to work” for less legislation that Republican lawmakers are trying to ram through the legislature. But Daniels continues to refuse to reveal who is bankrolling the media barrage.
The ads are funded by a shadowy group that calls itself the Indiana Opportunity Fund. Public records show the group has spent $600,000 on the “right to work” for less propaganda. But, the group—founded by Republican party activist Jim Bopp—is not required to divulge the source of the cash and Daniels has ignored requests from Hoosier working families, the media and others to disclose whose deep pockets he is dipping into for the advertisements.
He also claims in those commercials that a third of all companies that consider locating in the state decide not to because of the lack of a so-called “right to work” law. But Daniels refuses to back up that claim with any names and administration officials have not been able to substantiate lost-jobs claim.
Texas AFL-CIO Honors Volunteer Firefighters in Summer’s Blazes
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Texas AFL-CIO communications director Ed Sills sends us this report.
The Texas AFL-CIO donated $150 gift cards to nine Central Texas volunteer fire departments that battled the rash of summer blazes.
Texas AFL-CIO President Becky Moeller and Director of Human Relations Lee Forbes praised the departments for their bravery during the long struggle to protect life and property in blazing summer heat. Bastrop and many other Texas counties were declared federal disaster areas following the fires.
At a meeting of volunteer departments in Cedar Creek where the cards were presented, Moeller said:
The generosity of union members and friends in setting up the Wildfire Relief Fund made a difference to many working families who received gift cards to buy work tools and other necessities that might otherwise have fallen through the cracks in the aftermath of losing homes and, in some cases, livelihoods. As always, the labor movement makes disaster response a high priority in our operations. We hope the wait for such activity is very, very long, but we must always be prepared. Read the rest of this entry »
Chicago Nurses Overwhelming Vote for NNU
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In landslide (94-16) victory Friday, registered nurses at Chicago’s Jackson Park Hospital voted to join National Nurses United (NNU). Says RN Leshaun Williams:
This is a victory for the nurses and the South Side of Chicago. Together we realized unity is the best way to advocate for our patients and preserve respect for the registered nurse.
Safe staffing and respect for the RNs were key issues for 150 nurses. The hospital has been in the news lately for charges of harassment against RNs, and recently settled an employment racial discrimination suit with the U.S. Equal Opportunity Employment Commission for making African American female workers perform assignments their male counterparts were not required to do. Says RN Patricia Drake:
The election was long overdue and with NNU we will have a voice with collective bargaining to enable RNs to deliver the best quality care possible for our patients.
The election win is one in a recent series in the Chicago area. NNU now represents nearly 4,200 RNs in greater Chicago, including nurses at the nearby University of Chicago Medical Center, where RNs last year won their first NNU contract with significant gains in patient care protections and RN standards.
