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.
The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) just released numbers that should make any deficit-fearing Republican stop dead on his or her way to vote to repeal health care reform.
Last fall, the Alliance for American Manufacturing (AAM) conducted a 12-city “Keep it Made in America” town hall tour that brought candidates and voters together to talk about the tough issues revolving around reviving American manufacturing, lowering unemployment and getting the U.S. economy back on track.
Here’s something that certainly isn’t going to be highlighted when Republicans begin their let-no-facts-get-in-the-way show trial of health care reform. Small business owners say the Affordable Care Act will spur them to provide health insurance for their workers.
New Republican governors, old right-wing radio windbags, Fox News and extremist hacks continue to stoke the noise machine that’s belching blather about public employees.
Petty. Petty. Petty. With major issues like jobs and the economy straining for attention, House Republican leaders took a big step to solving the nation’s problems when they boldly acted—drum roll, please—to change the name of the Education and Labor Committee to the Education and Workforce Committee.
When workers decide they want to come together and form unions, it’s a well-documented fact that management is none too happy about it.
Meaning no disrespect to the world’s most famous and lovable rodent, but New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s (R) response to last week’s massive snow storm that hammered the Garden State and other East Coast states was literally Mickey Mouse.
The 17-year-old Michigan factory worker who was the inspiration for the iconic World War II Rosie the Riveter, “We Can Do It” poster, died Dec. 26 in Lansing, Mich. Geraldine Doyle was 86.
House Republicans have put repealing health care reform at the top of their to-do list. Their fight against the Affordable Care Act is not only pure partisan politics, it is also an attack against the millions of regular working people and seniors who benefit from the new law.
When the Apollo Alliance released its Clean Transportation Manufacturing Action Plan (TMAP) in October (click here for detailed coverage) one of its key job-creating recommendations was ensuring that American manufacturers and U.S. workers supply the rail cars, tracks and other mass transit equipment to modernize the nation’s mass transportation system.
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