AFL-CIO Weblog

Author/Reporter Phil Dine: Unions Equal Economic Strength

superuser — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 15:47:16 -0400

The nation's labor movement is "more relevant today than ever," but unions need to help the general public "connect the dots" between a strong and growing union movement and improving their lives, says Phil Dine, veteran St. Louis Post-Dispatch labor reporter.

Dine, author of State of the Unions: How Labor Can Strengthen the Middle Class, Improve Our Economy, and Regain Political Influence, spoke to a lunch-time crowd at the AFL-CIO here in Washington, D.C., today.

AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Rich Trumka introduced Dine, who has spent more than 20 years covering unions and workers, and is one of the few remaining labor reporters in the mainstream media. Trumka gave Dine high praise, describing him as "not some Beltway pundit but a grassroots labor reporter."

Baaaaad Bosses. Really Baaaad Bosses

superuser — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 15:47:16 -0400

Imagine you're at work and you get a call that your mother died. Then imagine your boss saying you might as well stay at the office the rest of the day—there's nothing you can do because she's dead anyway.

Even worse: That true scenario from Amy in Florida is just one of the many workplace horror stories piling in for this year's My Bad Boss Contest. Now in its third year, the contest for the nation's worst boss, sponsored by the AFL-CIO community affiliate Working America, provides a frightening look at the demons on the other side of the cubicle.

The contest runs through Aug. 19 and offers suffering employees a chance to win the first prize, a week’s free stay at a condo in one of more than 50 countries, plus $1,000 toward airfare and other travel/trip expenses. Second prize is a week’s free stay at a condo in one of more than 50 countries and $500 toward airfare or other travel/trip expenses.

Four Die in Latest Crane Disaster

superuser — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 15:47:16 -0400

A 30-story mobile crane, one of the country's largest, collapsed yesterday in Houston, killing four workers and injuring seven others, according to an AP report.

The deadly collapse is the latest in a recent series of fatal crane accidents that have claimed more than a dozen lives in New York City, Las Vegas and Miami.

Friday's collapse took place at the LyondellBasell refinery in southeast Houston. Workers ran to a lunch tent designated as an evacuation site when a siren went off. Tragically, the falling crane landed on top of the tent, according to the AP.

Holt Baker: Union and Civil Rights Movements Can Turn Country Around

superuser — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 15:47:16 -0400

Arlene Holt Baker

In this pivotal election year, the union and civil rights movements together can turn the country around from the disastrous course we have been on in recent years. But it will require members of both movements to “get angry and get our voters to the polls, fight through the barriers, wait in the lines and stand up” for our neighbors who are suffering in this economy, says AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Arlene Holt Baker.

Speaking at the annual Labor Luncheon at the NAACP’s national convention in Cincinnati this week, Holt Baker said:

It seems to me that for the past 30 years, our country has been headed in the wrong direction, with our dual movements for civil rights and union rights struggling against a huge tide of oppressive history.

McCain Collects His Social Security Checks. Why Shouldn’t We?

superuser — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 15:47:16 -0400

The Alliance for Retired Americans, the national organization that advocates for the rights of more than 3.5 million retirees and their families, asks a good question:

Will John McCain return the Social Security check he calls a "disgrace"?

Seems that even though he called Social Security a "disgrace," the senator from Arizona doesn't mind collecting his own monthly Social Security check, nearly $2,000 a month.

Says Edward Coyle, executive director of the Alliance for Retired Americans:

Retirees are puzzled by today’s media accounts that Senator John McCain received Social Security benefits of $23,157 in Social Security in 2007, an average of $1,929.75 each month.
America’s seniors deserve straight talk. Sen. McCain, now that you have said that Social Security is a disgrace, will you now mark "RETURN TO SENDER" on your check?

Netroots Nation Labor Caucus Stresses Employee Free Choice

superuser — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 15:47:16 -0400

The Netroots Nation conference has come to Austin, Texas, this year, and it’s brought together people from across the progressive movement. State, local and national bloggers are taking part in what has become an annual meeting to get together with other activists face to face and swap ideas. As labor communicators, it’s especially important for us to make sure the online community—an active and committed body of people—are paying attention to the core economic issues that matter to working families.

At Thursday’s Netroots Nation Labor Caucus, more than 40 communicators and other activists from across the union movement—unions of the AFL-CIO, Change to Win and the National Education Association participated—and outside the union movement got together to talk about working family issues and how to engage the netroots around them.

Netroots Nation: Real Answers for the Middle Class

superuser — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 15:47:16 -0400

Some 85 percent of the American public says they are unhappy with the U.S. economy, according to a new Time/Rockefeller Foundation poll, which called the figure "an unprecedented downer for an optimistic nation."

Concerns about the economy have raced ahead of any other issue this election season, as hard-hit middle class families struggle to pay the bills—and keep a roof over their heads.

At the Netroots Nation conference in Austin this morning, a panel explored economic policies that could make a positive influence in the lives of middle class families—and discussed how we hold lawmakers accountable for making those policies.

Netroots Nation: The Internet and the Health Care Movement

superuser — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 15:47:16 -0400

Health care is guaranteed to be at the forefront of the 2008 election, and, more importantly, the fight to build a better health care system will be one of the toughest fights when a new administration takes over in 2009.

Bloggers, experts and activists are using online tools in innovative ways to make sure we can win high-quality health care for all. At Netroots Nation, some of the people leading this effort took part in an important panel, Emerging Trends in Healthcare Online.

Melinda Gibson works for Health Care for America Now, a coalition of more than 80 groups working to build a grassroots movement to mobilize voters around health care during, and after, the election. HCAN has both an on-the-ground component and an online effort.

Texas Mail Facility Named After Postal Worker Killed in Iraq

superuser — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 15:47:16 -0400

Master Sergeant Kenneth (Kenny) Mack

A Fort Worth, Texas, postal facility now bears the name of Marine Master Sgt. Kenneth Mack, a Postal Workers (APWU) member killed by a roadside bomb in May 2007 in Iraq's Anbar province.

Mack was an automotive technician at the Fort Worth Vehicle Maintenance Facility. He had joined the Marines not long after graduating from high school in 1984. He began working for the U.S. Postal Service in 1988.

Last year, when the resolution—introduced by Rep. Kay Granger (R-Texas)—to rename the Altamesa Boulevard facility for Mack, was on the House floor, Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) said:

I think it bears underlining how much of the armed services of the United States today is made up of the post office, civil servants, first responders, often needed at home, but always willing to go where their country needs them.

Tomatoes or Children?

superuser — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 15:47:16 -0400

Ben Davis, the AFL-CIO Solidarity Center representative in Mexico, relates a poignant narrative of what's wrong with trade agreements like the North American Free Trade Agreement.

On Jan. 6, 2007, David Salgado, a 9-year-old worker from Guerrero, was run over and killed by a tractor while harvesting tomatoes on a farm in Sinaloa. In a May 9 story, Arizona Republic correspondent Chris Hawley reported the owner of the farm is a major supplier of open field and greenhouse products, including tomatoes, eggplant and sweet bell peppers, for the North American market.