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.
After nearly a month of mediated negotiations, Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) management held a news conference this week to proclaim it hadn’t budged an inch from its contract proposals that forced some 2,500 workers to strike last month. If an agreement isn’t reached soon, union officials say workers may be forced to hit the picket lines Monday morning.
Washington, D.C., Mayor Vincent C. Gray says he still hasn’t decided if he will sign a living wage bill for workers in big-box stores like Walmart that operate in the District of Columbia. If you live in the district, here’s your chance to tell the mayor to do the right thing.
Click here to send Gray an email urging him to sign the Large Retailer Accountability Act (LRAA).
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel has targeted Chicago teachers again. This time with an announcement last week that Chicago Public Schools (CPS) will layoff more than 3,000 teachers and school staff. This comes on the heels of the city’s closing of nearly 50 schools and layoffs of some 850 educators. Along with the layoffs, steep budget cuts are in the works.
In a settlement reached with the Palermo Workers Union and the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), Palermo’s Pizza has agreed to return eight fired workers to their former jobs with back pay.
The company also has agreed to post a notice in its Milwaukee plant informing workers of their rights under the National Labor Relations Act and to hold a union election.
The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is now fully staffed and able to continue to function to protect workers’ rights after the Senate today confirmed five members. The votes end a months-long blockade on President Obama’s nominees by Senate Republicans who threatened to shut the board down Aug. 27. AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka says the confirmations are:
Good news for all workers seeking to exercise the rights they are guaranteed by law. Those essential rights include the ability to bargain together for fair wages and living standards and a workplace safe from abuse, harassment and intimidation.
Several thousand current and retired Mine Workers (UMWA) and their supporters—including striking fast-food workers—rallied this morning outside the St. Louis headquarters of Arch Coal, protesting the company’s move to slash health care benefits for retired and active miners through corporate chicanery and bankruptcy maneuvers.
A number of workers and retirees were arrested as they sat down in non-violent civil disobedience on the front steps of the Arch Coal building.
Pointing to the “broad spectrum of support” from faith, labor and business groups that have lined up to support comprehensive immigration reform that includes a road map to citizenship, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) told the AFL-CIO Citizenship 2013 forum today, “I am confident we can prevail.”
McCain and Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-Calif.) kicked off the forum (we will bring more coverage later today) with a question-and-answer session at the AFL-CIO headquarters in Washington, D.C., about the bill’s prospects in the House after bipartisan (68–32) passage in the U.S. Senate.
First, my apologies to any student in the middle of their summer reverie who stumbles across this blog. But like Christmas ads, back-to-school messages start earlier and earlier. Here’s ours, courtesy of the Union Label and Services Trades Department (UL&STD).
In the biggest strike yet in the growing fast-food/low-wage workers’ actions demanding a voice, thousands of workers making the minimum wage or just slightly more walked off the job in several cities today, demanding a living wage, no retaliation for striking and the right to join unions.
While a comprehensive immigration reform bill has been moving through Congress this year, the nation has had a conversation about citizenship. That conversation comes directly to the AFL-CIO headquarters in Washington, D.C., Tuesday, July 30, with a special forum on immigration and citizenship with several prominent participants, including Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.).
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