I’m the AFL-CIO’s deputy director of public affairs for publications, Web and broadcast. Prior to joining the AFL-CIO in 1997, I served as publications director at the nonprofit Children’s Defense Fund for 12 years. I began my career as a newspaper reporter in Southwest Florida, and since have written, edited and managed production of advocacy materials— including newsletters, books, brochures, booklets, fliers, calendars, websites, posters and direct response mail and e-mail—to support economic and social justice campaigns. In June 2001, I received a B.A. in Labor Studies from the National Labor College. Most important: I’m the very proud mom of a spectacular daughter.
An editorial in today's New York Times says as the election gets closer, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney may try to roll back some of his ardor for Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and Walker's extreme agenda. But "but voters should be skeptical. As Mr. Walker’s actions show, they are at the core of Republican ideology."
Don't miss this one.
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, who is facing a recall election, quietly repealed a state law making it easier for pay discrimination victims to seek justice. Amanda Terkel reports in The Huffington Post that Walker signed into law a bill passed in party-line votes by Republicans in the state legislature that rolls back the 2009 Equal Pay Enforcement Act. The act had allowed workers to challenge pay discrimination in state rather than just federal courts.
The U.S. economy added 120,000 jobs last month and the unemployment rate dipped slightly to 8.2 percent, according to the Labor Department report released this morning. Economists had predicted stronger job growth, in line with recent months when 200,000 or more jobs were created.
The experience of the AFL-CIO’s community affiliate Working America has shown that working people—union and nonunion—“hold closely to the belief that workers need to have power and a voice,” reports Kenneth Quinnell at Crooks and Liars , based on an interview with Working America’s Executive Director Karen Nussbaum. “….There is strength in numbers and…working families and their allies have numbers they can mobilize to make positive change.”
MIT's Paul Osterman has a provocative piece in the Boston Review about some myths standing in the way of turning lousy, low-wage jobs into good jobs. The convention wisdom, he says, is "to let the economy generate jobs of whatever quality firms choose and then, if necessary, compensate by enabling people to avoid the bad ones or by shoring up people who are stuck. The nature of available jobs is a given." His arguments bolster the union movement's case that we need direct intervention in the labor market to make bad jobs into good jobs through collective bargaining, labor standards, public-sector leadership, training and career ladders and more.
The U.S. Department of Labor has added three products to the list of goods produced by forced labor, child labor or both. The list now includes 133 products from 71 countries, ranging from bamboo in Burma to zinc in Bolivia. Added to the list yesterday are bricks in Afghanistan and cassiterite and coltan in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The Republican-controlled Georgia state legislature ended its session. In a victory for working families—and for the Bill of Rights—the anti-free speech bill (S.B. 469), that brought union, faith and tea party activists together to protest the proposal to subject picketers to big fines, died. But not before lawmakers, in a last-ditch attempt to pass the bill in some form, stripped the picketing provisions and turned S.B. 469 into a purely anti-union bill that would affect dues deduction for public employees. But the bipartisan coalition opposed to the S.B. 469 held firm, and lawmakers decided not to take up the bill.
But the victory was bittersweet. Republicans still managed to pass bills that cut jobless benefits severely and require some welfare applicants to pass drug tests.
![In Ga.: 'We [Union Workers, Tea Party, Etc.] Own the Dome!'](/var/ezflow_site/storage/images/aflcio/blog/in-the-states/in-ga.-we-union-workers-tea-party-etc.-own-the-dome!/209161-1-eng-US/In-Ga.-We-Union-Workers-Tea-Party-Etc.-Own-the-Dome!_blogpostimage.jpg "In Ga.: 'We [Union Workers, Tea Party, Etc.] Own the Dome!'")
The rally today at the Georgia state Capitol protesting extreme bills proposed by extremist state legislators went waaaay beyond bipartisanship.
The hundreds of ralliers, shouting, "We Own the Dome," represented a strange-bedfellows coming together of union activists, tea party members, faith activists and others, united against S.B. 469—the anti-free speech bill that would impose serious penalties for picketing a business or a CEO's home if it interferes with his or her "right of quiet enjoyment."
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney just can’t stop proving how out of touch he is with the 99%.
The latest example: In a conference call Wednesday with Wisconsin voters, he related what he called “the most humorous” story about his connections to the state. Romney’s father, as president of American Motors, shut down a Michigan auto factory, shipping production to a Wisconsin facility. The really funny part, in Romney’s eyes, was his father’s antics in hoping Michiganders wouldn’t remember the shutdown when he ran for governor there. (Read more here and here .)
Hey—what could be funnier than wiping out jobs by closing a factory?
House Republicans are playing chicken again with our economy, says AFL-CIO Transportation Trades Department President Edward Wytkind on The Huffington Post .
Instead of moving a highway and transit bill that will put Americans to work—a move the Senate was able to pull off by a vote of 74 to 26—House leaders want to punt with another short-term extension.
There is an easy solution to this problem—the House can take up the Senate's bipartisan bill (MAP-21) and put millions to work and improve our surface transportation system. President Obama will sign that bill tomorrow.
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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