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 drive to repeal a law backed and recently signed by Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R) that eliminates the rights of 350,000 public employees to bargain for middle-class jobs, got the official go ahead this morning. The Ohio attorney general and secretary of state certified the 1,000 signatures needed and approved the petition language submitted earlier this month.
As part of the Tax Day: Make Them Pay mobilization, the AFL-CIO community affiliate Working America is urging people to tell Congress to close the corporate tax loopholes that allow companies like ExxonMobil to rake in $19 billion in profits in 2009 and yet pay no federal income taxes—and instead, get a $156 million rebate from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). You can tell these corporate tax scofflaws to pay up—click here.
Today, Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz and AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka will host a special presentation and discussion at the AFL-CIO in Washington, D.C., of the new book, “Exiting from the Crisis.”
The erosion of the nation’s manufacturing base, especially over the past decade, has not only cost millions of jobs and devastated working families across the country, it has also put the nation’s security at risk, a report released this morning reveals.
The famous “Koch brother” prank call popped up during Rep. Gerry Connolly’s (D-Va.) questioning of Walker. In February, Walker believed he was on the phone with right-wing, extremist billionaire David Koch (click here, here and here for more on David and Charles Koch).
Once again, Walker brought out his tap shoes and did his best to dance around a question. But Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) kept plugging away. He asked Walker if he had ever brought up repealing workers’ collective bargaining rights during his campaign.
Rep. Elijah E. Cummings (D), the ranking Democrat on the panel, said politicians like Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and others are falsely blaming workers for the current economic problems.
More from this morning’s hearing. Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) got Gov. Scott Walker to admit that several items in his so-called budget repair bill that repealed the right of public employees to bargain for middle-class jobs had nothing to do with balancing the state’s budget.
Here’s more from Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin during the Q&A following his opening statement. He said lawmakers should not use the cover of a budget crisis to attack workers’ rights.
House Republicans this morning are holding a bit of bad theater, giving Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) and the National Right to Work Committee the stage to attack workers’ rights and middle-class jobs under the guise of fixing broken state budgets.
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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