Exporting America’s Jobs Archives

• Understanding the Offshoring Challenge, a Public Policy Institute report.
• “American Jobs: Going, Going…” from America@work.

Global Economy Archives

• Read AFL-CIO Workforce Issues Specialist Jane McDonald-Pines' oral testimony before the committee.
• Take action: Protest the murder of Santiago Rafael Cruz (PDF). 
  • AFL-CIO Now blog: FLOC Organizer Beaten to Death in Mexico.
• Read testimony from AFL-CIO Policy Director Thea Mei Lee before the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Foreign Affairs on “Trade, Foreign Policy, and the American Worker” (PDF).
• AFL-CIO Now blog: Bush Administration Backpedals on Trade Statement.
• Send a letter to Congress on workers' rights abuses in Iraq.
• Get the history of workers' rights abuses in Iraq (PDF).
• AFL-CIO Now blog: Solidarity Center Report: Swazi Workers Lack Basic Freedoms.
• Read AFL-CIO President John Sweeney's letter to Gen. Than Shwe expressing outrage over and condemnation of the brutal attacks by Burmese troops against unarmed Buddhist monks.
• Read AFL-CIO President John Sweeney's letter to His Excellency Hu Jintao expressing concern over the increasing danger of violence against the citizens of Burma.
• Read AFL-CIO President John Sweeney's letter requesting the governments of the Association of South East Asian Nations use its influence with military rulers of Burma to avert bloodshed and violence.
• Read AFL-CIO President John Sweeney's letter requesting the government of India use its influence with military rulers of Burma to help avert further bloodshed and violence.
• AFL-CIO Now blog: Iraqi Workers Strike to Keep Their Oil.
• Read "Iraqi Unions vs. Big Oil," from Middle East Report, summer 2007 (PDF).
• Read “Trade and Globalization: Adjustment for a 21st Century Workforce,” the testimony of Jane McDonald-Pines, AFL-CIO workforce issues specialist, before the Senate Finance Committee.
• Read "International Trade Agreements and Government Procurement," by Elizabeth Drake, AFL-CIO Public Policy Department.
  

CAFTA

• AFL-CIO Chief International Economist Thea Lee's testimony on CAFTA.
• Joint declaration on CAFTA by AFL-CIO and Central American unions.
• Chile/Singapore model won’t fix Central America’s deeply flawed labor laws.
• Deliberate Indifference: El Salvador’s Failure to Protect Workers’ Rights, a report by Human Rights Watch.

FTAA

• Economic Policy Institute report: The High Price of 'Free' Trade.
• Economic Policy Institute report: Fast Track to Lost Jobs.

Global Poverty

• AFL-CIO President John J. Sweeney on global poverty.

Women in the Global Economy

• Read the America@work feature: "Taking Care of My Family...and Do My Job?"

Child Labor

• Report: Labor Rights and Child Labor in Central America.

Good Jobs Archives

• Read “Trade and Globalization: Adjustment for a 21st Century Workforce,” the testimony of Jane McDonald-Pines, AFL-CIO Workforce Issues Specialist, before the Senate Finance Committee.
• Read McDonald-Pines' oral testimony before the committee.
• AFL-CIO Now blog: Sobering News on Tax Day for America’s Middle Class.
• Firedoglake weblog: We Make It and They Take It.
• Good jobs disappear, low-wage jobs grow (PDF).
• Toolbox: No recovery without middle-class jobs (PDF).
• Jobs shift away from industries that provide health insurance to their workers.
• The Bush recession since January 2001.

Immigration Archives

• AFL-CIO files complaint with the United Nations International Labor Organization on 2002 Supreme Court decision limiting immigrant workers’ rights.
• “Recognizing Our Common Bonds,” from America@work.
• Immigrant workers speak out at AFL-CIO forum.
• AFL-CIO urges House to restore food stamp benefits for legal immigrants.

Join a Union Archives

• Beyond Justice: Bush Administration's Labor Department Abuses Labor Union Regulatory Authorities.
• Letter to Congress from legal scholars concerned over the NLRB's recent decisions.
• AFL-CIO files complaint at United Nations against "Kentucky River" decisions.
• Learn about recent National Labor Relations Board decisions and how they could affect your freedom to join a union.
• Workers across the country joined together to demand President Bush’s NLRB do its job and protect workers’ rights during the AFL-CIO union movement week of action in July. See photos from week of action events across the country.
• Learn about how Bush personnel rules take away federal employee bargaining rights.
• Download Tom Morello's PSA on the Student Labor Action Week.
• The AFL-CIO has produced a hands-on toolkit for student and faculty supporters of workers' rights. The toolkit features ideas for teach-ins, checklists for planning, sample leaflets, fact sheets, discussion questions and other materials.
  • Download the toolkit (PDF).
• Download a teach-in presentation on the freedom to form unions (PowerPoint).
• Download the updated "The Employer War—The Union Difference" feature originally published in America@work.
• How Unions Help All Workers, a report by the nonprofit Economic Policy Institute.
• Laying the Groundwork for a Voice@Work from America@work. 
• Restoring Every Worker's Right to a Voice@Work.
• Video: International Human Rights Day 2003.
• Read about International Human Rights Day 2005.
• Video: HRW Executive Director Kenneth Roth at a June 2002 U.S. Senate hearing on the freedom to form unions.
• Community, political and religious allies support workers’ efforts to build better lives and call on employers to avoid intimidation and coercion.
  • Chicago aldermen urge AT&T to respect the freedom to organize unions.
  • A community campaign helps Riva Jewelry workers win a voice at work.
  • College students and senators help workers beat an anti-union campaign at the New Era Cap Co.
  • Combining political, legislative and organizing strategies for victory in Washington State.

Living Wages Archives

• Read testimony by Jared Bernstein of the Economic Policy Institute, Tax Incentives for Businesses in Response to a Minimum Wage Increase.
• Read more news on the fight to raise the minimum wage.
• Download a handbook on the minimum wage (PDF).
• Sens. Kennedy, Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) have released a report on the minimum wage, Their Fair Share: Creating a Just Economy for Minimum Wage Families (PDF).
• Get answers to frequently asked questions about the living wage.
• Learn about union activists working with communities to win living wages.

Manufacturing Archives

• Read testimony on energy policy from Robert Baugh, Executive Director of the AFL-CIO Industrial Union Council and Co-chair of the AFL-CIO Energy Task Force, before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee (PDF).
• Read Baugh's testimony before the Senate Finance Committee on the 2007 trade agenda (PDF).
• Read testimony on China from Brett Gibson, Legislative Representative of the AFL-CIO Industrial Union Council, before the U.S. International Trade Commission (PDF).
• The AFL-CIO and National Textile Association have filed the first worker rights case ever submitted under the U.S.-Jordan Free Trade Agreement. Download the complaint and an executive summary of the complaint.
• AFL-CIO Now Blog: The U.S. Needs Manufacturing Jobs—So Does the Middle Class.
• Read Manufacturing on the Ropes, an economic snapshot from the Economic Policy Institute.
• “The Future of Manufacturing and America's Middle Class” in America@work.
• Justice for All: The Struggle for Workers' Rights in Mexico (PDF) by the Solidarity Center.
• Read UAW President Ron Gettelfinger’s testimony before the U.S.–China Economic and Security Review Commission.
• Read a Steelworkers’ testimony before the U.S.–China Economic and Security Review Commission.
• The crisis in manufacturing: Lost jobs, January 2001–January 2004.
• “Forging a Common Vision” from America@work, February 2003.
• State by state manufacturing job loss map.
• AFL-CIO action plan to oppose Free Trade Area of the Americas.
• Manufacturing: Key to America’s Future by Jeff Faux.
• AFL-CIO Chief International Economist Thea Lee's statement on U.S.-China ties: Reassessing the economic relationship before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on International Relations.
• Lee's statement before the Commission on U.S.-China Economic and Security Review: China's industrial, investment and exchange rate policies: Impact on the United States.
• Lee's testimony before the Senate Finance Committee: An examination of U.S. Tax Policy and its effect on the domestic and international competitiveness of U.S.-based operations.
• AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka's testimony before the House Committee on Small Business: Will we have an economic recovery without a strong U.S. manufacturing base?

Overtime Pay Archives

• See how your senators voted on the overtime amendment.
• Read former Labor Department wage and hour investigator’s testimony about the Bush plan.
• See the Economic Policy Institute’s analysis of the Bush overtime rule.
• Read the report by three former high-ranking U.S. Labor Department officials on Bush’s overtime pay.

People-Powered Politics Archives

• Labor 2004 slide show: Union members making the difference for working families.
• Electing union members to public office.

Retirement Security Archives

Pensions

• Read the AFL-CIO response to the Internal Revenue Service (PDF) regarding cash-balance plans.
• Read the Treasury Department’s proposed cash-balance conversion rules.
• Read AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka’s statements on Congress’s cash-balance protection legislation.
• Rep. Bernie Sanders advocates protecting workers in cash-balance conversions. His site includes a report showing the devastating impact a cash-balance conversion would have on the pension plans of members of Congress.
• Workers at IBM opposed to a cash-balance conversion have organized a union affiliated with the CWA.
• Read the IBEW press release on its successful cash-balance conversion at AT&T.

Safety and Health Archives

Ergonomics

• Report: Justice at work may have benefits for heart health among employees (PDF).
• Download the AFL-CIO report: Immigrant Workers at Risk (PDF: English, Spanish).
• Read the testimony of Peg Seminario, AFL-CIO director of Safety and Health, before the Senate Employment and Worker Safety Subcommittee of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Hearing on “Is OSHA Working for Working People?” (PDF).
• AFL-CIO post hearing brief on OSHA's proposed ergonomics program standard.
• Past Alerts.
• Bush Labor Department's one-sided forums are a sham.
• Statement of the AFL-CIO before the Department of Labor on ergonomics.
• AFL-CIO petition to OSHA for a new ergonomics standard.
• 2001 National Academy of Sciences/Institute of Medicine report supports a Standard to Prevent Ergonomic Injuries.
• Stop the Pain: an AFL-CIO background report (April 1997).
• 1997 NIOSH study, Musculoskeletal Disorders and Workplace Factors.
• 1997 General Accounting Office report, Worker Protection: Private Sector Ergonomics Programs Yield Positive Results (report number HEHS-97-163), on flexible approaches to cutting costs and injuries from ergonomic hazards.
• Ergonomics: A year of broken promises.

Unemployment Archives

• Congress ignores 1.1 million unemployed workers.
• House and Senate pass unemployment benefit extension, but 1 million jobless workers left out.

Work and Family Archives

• “How can I take care of my family…and do my job?” from America@work.
• Labor Project for Working Families fact sheets.

Working Women Archives

• Ask a Working Woman survey 2006 report (PDF).
• Read a report from the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), An Economy That Puts Families First: Expanding the Social Contract to Include Family Care.
• Read the EPI report The Work-Family Balance: An Analysis of European, Japanese and U.S. Work-Time Policies.
• AFL-CIO Now blog: ‘Women Workers Running Faster Just to Stay in Place.’
• AFL-CIO Now blog: Act Now to Save Family and Medical Leave.
• Ask a Working Woman survey 2002 report (PDF).
• Ask a Working Woman survey 2002 Executive Summary (PDF).