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.
First, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) announced a state budget plan that strips state workers of nearly all their collective bargaining rights, cuts pay and benefits and says there will be no negotiations.
Looks like a California tea party activist took to heart AC/DC’s song “Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap” to take a swipe Ohio public employees. Thanks to the good folks at the progressive blog Plunderbund for publicizing the trickery.
Today’s House Ways and Means Committee hearing on Medicare was billed as an examination of how the health care reform law will impact the 45-year-old program that provides health care coverage for nearly 40 million seniors.
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) wants to deny safety and health protections for flight attendants. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reauthorization bill would extend Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) protection to flight attendants and other air crew, something air crew workers have been seeking for decades. Paul has offered an amendment to strip the OSHA protections from the bill. (Click here for details.)
Wow. How sweet! We didn’t even know they cared. The Republican National Committee (RNC) has launched an e-Valentine’s Day card website where you can send a card, adorned with the faces of people who certainly aren’t the RNC’s sweethearts and carrying what passes for Republican humor messages.
Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R) and Republican legislators launched their biggest assault yet against Buckeye State public employees with a hearing yesterday on a bill to eliminate collective bargaining rights for all state workers, including faculty and staff at Ohio state colleges and universities.
This week in Washington, D.C., thousands of conservative, very conservative and downright OMG extreme conservative activists will gather for the Conservative Political Action Committee’s (CPAC) annual choir session.
The attacks on firefighters and other public employees by state politicians like New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) are “like a tsunami rolling across the country….The attacks have never been greater, more serious or so vicious,” says Fire Fighters (IAFF) President Harold Schaitberger.
Across the country, state politicians are in “States of Denial.” Instead of creating jobs and solving the problems of middle-class working families, newly elected Republican legislators and governors are pushing legislation to cut good jobs and benefits, lower wages, threaten job safety and weaken unions.
With some 280,000 jobs at stake in the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reauthorization bill, you’d think Senate lawmakers would be working together to get those jobs in the pipeline as soon as possible. Not.
Sign the pledge to fight for a common-sense immigration process that creates a road map to citizenship for aspiring Americans.
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