I’m a former West Virginia newspaper reporter, staff writer for the United Mine Workers Journal and managing editor of the Seafarers Log . I came to the AFL- CIO in 1989 and have written for several federation publications, focusing on legislation and politics, especially grassroots mobilization and workplace safety. When my collar was still blue, I carried union cards from the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers, American Flint Glass Workers and Teamsters for jobs in a chemical plant, a mining equipment manufacturing plant and a warehouse. I’ve also worked as roadie for a small-time country-rock band, sold my blood plasma and played an occasional game of poker to help pay the rent. You may have seen me at one of several hundred Grateful Dead shows. I was the one with longhair and the tie-dye. Still have the shirts, lost the hair.
If you are in the Washington, D.C., area Thursday, come join hands with members of the Alliance for Retired Americans and the Congressional Progressive Caucus in a Human Chain Against "Chained" CPI on Capitol Hill.
The action kicks off at 10 a.m. EDT on the House Triangle of the U.S. Capitol. Click here for a map and to RSVP .
The history of the AFL-CIO in 40 million documents contained in 20,000 boxes that take up six miles of shelf space have a new home today, with the donation and transfer of the George Meany Memorial Archives from the National Labor College to the University of Maryland Libraries.
This Saturday, Oct. 5, a broad and diverse coalition of immigrant, faith, labor, civil rights and family groups will march and rally in more than 80 actions across the nation and call on Congress to pass immigration reform with a road map to citizenship that promotes family unity and protects workers’ rights.
The U.S. Department of Justice filed suit yesterday to block North Carolina’s new voter suppression law that would disenfranchise more than 300,000 voters , mostly African American, young people and seniors. In a press conference, Attorney General Eric Holder said the law passed by the Republican-dominated legislature and signed by Gov. Pat McCrory (R) in August was a deliberate attempt to exclude voters of color.
Workers at two Army medical centers voted to join AFGE in an election that concluded last week. The 3,700 health care employees were part of the former Walter Reed Army Medical Center and were transferred to two new medical centers and other regional facilities when Walter Reed was shut down in 2001.
After a series of strikes during the past two years protesting sweeping reductions in patient care, nurses’ standards and workplace conditions that Sutter Health system demanded during contract talks at San Francisco Bay area hospitals, some 3,000 registered nurses have reached a tentative agreement that eliminates more than 200 concession demands.
A bill (H.R. 2374) set for a vote in the House Tuesday would delay and could ultimately thwart the Department of Labor’s effort to protect workers’ retirement security. The DOL wants to close loopholes and update the rule that protects workers from deceptive or abusive practices whenever they seek investment advice about their retirement savings
Call Congress at 1-888-912-5898, ask for your representative’s office, and urge him or her to protect workers’ retirement security and oppose H.R. 2374 .
Machinists ( IAM ) member and ExpressJet flight attendant Sandra Hinojosa was honored last week for her heroism and quick response to avert a potentially catastrophic event on an August United Airlines flight operated by ExpressJet.
The Mine Workers ( UMWA ) will appeal a federal judge’s decision today to dismiss a class-action suit the union and a group of active and retired miners filed against Peabody Energy and Arch Coal in October. The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Charleston, W.Va., charged that the companies had violated federal pension laws when they transferred the health and pension benefits of more than 10,000 active and retired miners to the newly created Patriot Coal Corp. in 2007 to avoid their obligations to the miners.
It’s been four years since low-wage workers got a raise. Sign the petition to tell Congress it’s time to raise the minimum wage.
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