CWA, German Telecom Union Create Alliance to Help T-Mobile Workers
To better fight the inequity between T-Mobile employees in the United States and those who work in Germany, the Communications Workers of America (CWA) and ver.di, the German telecommunications workers union, announced today they are forming a special alliance to create TU—a union for T-Mobile workers.
CWA President Larry Cohen told a press conference in Washington, D.C., this morning unions must develop unique partnerships like this one to operate in a global economy dominated by multinational companies. TU will give T-Mobile USA employees, who do not have a union, greater strength to fight the company’s anti-worker practices.
Aldo Wilhelm, the ver.di employee representative on T-Mobile’s supervisory board in Germany, said the company operates differently in Europe than it does in the United States. T-Mobile’s parent, Deutsche Telekom, respects workers’ rights and collective bargaining in Europe, he said.
AFT Fights Exploitation of Foreign Teachers
The growing number of overseas-educated teachers in U.S. schools has put many talented educators in classrooms, but the trend also has led to a host of concerns about exploitation, questionable hiring practices and harmful effects in the countries that are losing their most qualified teachers.
An estimated 19,000 migrant teachers work in U.S. schools, according to a recently released report by AFT. ”Importing Educators: Causes and Consequences of International Teacher Recruitment” examines the growing number of allegations that recruiting agencies have intimidated teachers, forced them into housing contracts, misrepresented their pay, charged them exorbitant fees and threatened to pull their visas. These practices continue because the international teacher recruitment industry is almost entirely unregulated, according to teacher union leaders.
Report: Unbalanced Immigration Enforcement Hurts All Workers’ Rights
 |
||||
|
||||
When Josue Diaz, an immigrant worker and his co-workers protested the inhumane and illegal working conditions at a construction site in Texas, their employer called local police and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), a division of the Department of Homeland Security. But the law enforcement officials didn’t enforce the workers’ rights or penalize the employer. They arrested the workers.
Diaz’s experience is not unusual. According to a new report released today, the federal government’s immigration enforcement in recent years—including a heavy reliance on raids and often inadequately trained enforcement agents—has severely undermined efforts to protect workers’ rights, which in turn harms both immigrant and native-born workers alike.
The comprehensive report, “ICED OUT: How Immigration Enforcement Has Interfered with Workers’ Rights,” was prepared by the AFL-CIO, American Rights at Work and the National Employment Law Project (NELP). Drawing on case studies like Diaz’s from across the country, the report examines a series of alarming incidents between 2005 and 2008.
Help Create a New Army of Progressive Journalists
 |
|
Powerful corporate interests like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce are spending millions to block real change in health care, climate change policies and workers’ rights. They are aided by the corporate-controlled media and its budget slashing for reporting and investigative staff.
Workers are fighting back against the lack of real news by looking for ways to preserve investigative journalism and get the truth out to the public. Recently, the Huffington Post launched its Investigative Fund to hire seasoned journalists who have been laid off or forced into early retirement. Bloggers and citizen journalists also are valiantly trying to fill the media vacuum.
Now, the Institute for Southern Studies (ISS) is launching the Freedom Journalism School—a pioneering program to train an army of 50 new media muckrakers across the South.
Tributes to Sen. Edward Kennedy
 |
|
The death of Sen. Edward Kennedy has sparked tributes from around the globe, from those who knew him best in his home state of Massachusetts, to world leaders. We include some of these here, mindful that as former Labor Secretary Robert Reich wrote:
Most Americans will never know how many things Ted Kennedy did to make their lives better, how many things he prevented that would have hurt them, and how tenaciously he fought on their behalf.
Be sure to stop by the Edward Kennedy tribute site at: www.tedkennedy.org/tributes.
* Ted Kennedy was not just a senator for Massachusetts; he was our senator—a senator for working people, for poor people, for the old and the vulnerable. For all those who needed a champion, he was our champion. He personified a sense of aspiration that has become America’s aspiration—to make things better, to make them more fair, to make our nation more compassionate and hopeful, to make life work for working men and women.
—AFL-CIO President John Sweeney
Tell Policymakers Why Colombia Free Trade Is a Bad Idea
 |
|
After eight years of being pushed out of discussions over bad trade agreements, America’s working people now have a chance to personally let policymakers know what they really think about one of the most controversial trade deals.
In an announcement in the July 29 Federal Register, the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) asks for comments on the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement. USTR is conducting a review of labor-related issues in the context of the agreement and is seeking “comment from the public to assist the USTR in working with the Colombian government to secure continued progress in ensuring that Colombia’s workers can fully exercise their fundamental labor rights.”
Written comments are due by noon, Sept. 15, 2009. Comments should be submitted electronically online at www.regulations.gov. For alternatives to online submissions, contact Gloria Blue at 202-395-3475.
AFL-CIO: Stop Violence Against Iran Demonstrators
The global union movement is demanding that Iran stop its violent and deadly repression of the peaceful demonstrations following the contested re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
In a statement today, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said Iranian authorities should
cease and desist their violent repression of these peaceful demonstrations, as well as fully prosecute…all of those responsible for the tragic and reprehensible deaths and injuries.
Sweeney, Global Unions Call for Stronger Stimulus Measures
Workers are the innocent victims of the worldwide economic crisis and their governments must take stronger actions to stimulate the global economy, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney told the leaders of the world’s top economies today.
Governments should ensure that their recovery measures are big enough to maintain and protect jobs and provide social protections, Sweeney told the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD’s) annual forum June 23-24 in Paris.
91 Unionists Killed in 2008, 49 in Colombia Alone
 |
|
A total of 91 union members were killed worldwide last year, the same number as in 2007. But more than half (49) were killed in Colombia alone, 10 more than last year, making it once again the most dangerous country for trade unionists, according to the International Trade Union Confederation’s (ITUC’s) “Annual Survey of Violations of Trade Union Rights.”
The Colombian government has not vigorously investigated or prosecuted the killing of trade union members. At the current pace of investigations and trials, it would take 37 years to prosecute the backlog of cases. And the caseload is growing—the rate of killings, which had fallen for a few years, jumped sharply last year by 25 percent, says José Luciano Sanin, director of Escuela Nacional Sindical (National Union School), a leading Colombian think tank.
AFL-CIO Opposes Panama Deal, Calls for Trade Policy Review
BREAKING: President Obama has delayed moving the Panama trade deal because of union objections. Read more here.
Congress should not consider the U.S.-Panama trade agreement until Panama implements labor law and tax reforms and the Obama administration lays out a comprehensive, principled trade strategy for the United States.
Testifying before the U.S. Senate Finance Committee today, AFL-CIO Policy Director Thea Lee said the union movement will oppose the Panama deal unless these issues are resolved.
The AFL-CIO has called on Panama to bring its labor laws into compliance with the International Labor Organization’s (ILO’s) minimum standards. For example, Panama’s laws effectively prohibit the forming of a union in most workplaces and seriously limit the right to strike. A growing problem in Panama are the laws that allow employers to circumvent unions by repeatedly hiring the same workers on a temporary basis, rather than hiring them as full-time workers, Lee said.
