After watching the continued decline in the number of Oregon workers winning a voice at work, the Oregon AFL-CIO “decided to do something different,” says state federation President Tom Chamberlain. That something different was unions working together. Since late 2011, Oregon unions have been able to craft a number of significant victories for workers who want a voice on the job. Says Chamberlain:

By working together, we have achieved something phenomenal.

With the promise from several Democratic candidates—one of whom is likely to succeed New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg next year—that they will “revisit’ school transportation contracts to ensure that the experienced and trained school bus drivers and bus matrons will be treated fairly, the members of Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 1181 have ended their strike.

In New Orleans this Super Bowl week, there are plenty of fans sporting 49ers' red and gold caps and jerseys and Ravens' purple and black gear. But there also are thousands of union members—including many from unions in the Greater New Orleans AFL-CIO (GNO)—who proudly display their union label and are making the game possible and the fan experience in the Crescent City run smoothly.

New York City school children with special physical, emotional and mental needs could be bused to school with general education students under New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s effort to cut student transportation costs, according to the New York Daily News.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg is seeking to cut costs by requesting bids for school bus operations that, for the first time in 30 years, do not contain a requirement that proven, experienced and trained drivers and bus monitors retain their jobs. Over the years, drivers in New York have developed a culture around their profession that rewards hard work and increases safety for children. Now that culture is in danger, reports Al Baker of the New York Times.

While New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg continues to vilify the striking drivers, bus matrons and the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) as "greedy villains" bankrupting the city, New York Daily News columnist Denis Hamill paints a real-life picture in a recent column. He profiles Vic and Lucy DiBitetto—a school bus driver and matron on the same Staten Island bus route caring for kids with autism, multiple sclerosis and physical and developmental challenges.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg already has shown he is willing to put the safety of schoolchildren at risk in forcing a strike by the city’s school bus drivers. Now, Bloomberg has shown he is willing to throw away $450 million in state and federal education aid by breaking off talks with the United Federation of Teachers (UFT) over a new evaluation system.

Some 8,000 school bus drivers are on strike today to convince New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg that only experienced and trained drivers should be behind the wheel.

Watch the video below.  

New York City may be putting the safety of public and private school students who ride the city’s “Yellow” bus fleet at risk. In sending out a request for competitive bids on certain routes—the current contracts expire June 30—the Department of Education is dropping a long-standing requirement that proven, experienced and trained drivers and bus monitors retain their jobs.

While Oregonians exercised power at the polls in the 2012 elections Tuesday, workers in Portland also were gearing up for another election that would give them a powerful voice on the job.

After electoral wins across the state and three successful organizing drives in the past three months, full-time, part-time and extra board paratransit drivers and dispatchers with First Transit Region 3 voted Wednesday to form their own union with the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 757. By an overwhelming margin, 160 employees voted to form the union in the election yesterday, which was conducted by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).