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 New Hampshire Gov. John Lynch (D) vetoed a right to work bill yesterday, state House Speaker William O’Brien (R), the bill’s chief proponent, decided to respond with a press conference. No problem there.
The nation “must dig in and redouble our efforts to ‘Make It In America‘,” said Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) at Senate hearing this afternoon on reviving the nation’s manufacturing base.
New Hampshire Gov. John Lynch (D) vetoed a so-called right to work bill today, saying that “There is no evidence that this legislation will offer any benefits to New Hampshire’s economy or workers.”
“Disgraceful and dangerous” is how Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) today described attempts by Republican senators and state attorneys general to intimidate the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). They are demanding the NLRB drop its complaint against the Boeing Co.
When they’re not busy trying to privatize Social Security, congressional Republicans clamor to cut Social Security in the name of deficit reduction. Today, pointing out that “Social Security is not responsible for the deficits we face,” Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) said Social Security should not be on the table in upcoming budget deficit talks.
For years, billionaire brothers David and Charles Koch flew under the radar as they financed right-wing campaigns and extreme conservative think tanks to overturn financial regulations, corporate rules, environmental standards, workers’ rights and the entire litany of “evils” on the radical right agenda.
Last year, when Congress passed the Affordable Care Act, it was a “historic milestone on our path toward a more just society,” says AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Arlene Holt Baker, “But we also know that much work is left to be done.”
More than 200 students, teachers and other activists—many from Wisconsin and Pennsylvania—rallied today in Washington, D.C., against Gov. Scott Walker’s (R) and Gov. Tom Corbett’s moves to privatize their states’ schools.
Earlier this week 5,000 workers from dozens of unions marched on the Pennsylvania Capitol in Harrisburg to let Gov. Tom Corbett (R) know his budget is an attack on workers and communities. Said Gordy Moretton of Transport Workers (TWU) Local 2009:
The governor wants to make cuts to services that everyday people need. We need to stop this attack on the middle class.
More than 156 million Americans get their health care coverage through their employers. Employer and most worker contributions to health insurance premiums are excluded from workers’ taxable incomes.
CEOs are trying to get more power by shutting down the National Labor Relations Board. Tell your senators to confirm nominees to the NLRB.
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