Posts Tagged ‘workers’
Does Wal-Mart really care? Big Blue takes on Big Coal
[youtubehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNb_JHvOK5k&feature=player_embedded]
That’s right, the world’s biggest and baddest employer now wants to protect the enviroment. Sure, they deny dignity to millions of workers, destroy small town commerce, and fight for Republicans, but they really care about CO2 emissions. Do you believe that?
Fighting for Living Wages
Fighting for Living Wages
April 23, 2009 <!–csalafia–>
Nobody in America who works full time should live in poverty. However, the fact is as of April 2007 over 37 million people, more than the population of the State of California, do. According to recent US Census figures, 5 million more people are poor today that were not in 2000. Nearly 8 million live in neighborhoods of concentrated poverty where at least 40% of the residents are poor.
Perhaps the most telling statistic is that over 25% of all full time workers do not make enough to keep a family of four above the poverty threshold. The Federal Minimum Wage is an idea whose time has come and gone. The time has come to replace the Federal Minimum Wage with locally derived living wage standards.
Thinking globally, a salary of $40,000/year or more puts one in the top 1% of wage earners in the world. Here in the US, however, that income will put you nearly $10,000 below the US median income. The root question is why are more people falling into poverty in the wealthiest country in the world? One of the biggest reasons for this is that wages in the United States have remained essentially stagnant for the last 30 years. Yet inflation, in terms of the increase in the cost of living, has increased 3% per year, on average, over the same time period. In addition, the real value, adjusted for inflation, has decreased over 25% since 1967.
Read the rest at the link above
The Ludlow Massacre
Progressives today don’t have to reinvent the wheel. We’re fighting for the same things progressives, liberals, radicals have always fought for: democracy applied broadly, justice applied equally, a fair distribution of our nation’s resources. We can look back and see what worked and what didn’t for our forbears. We can examine what kinds of people, and philosophies, and systems opposed them. Then we can look and see the very same kinds of people, and philosophies, and systems opposing us today.
This is a general them I thinkl is lacking in today’s blog world, where we fight for every news cycle.
That’s one reason I’m writing this post. Another reason is that, ever since I first read about Ludlow, in the “early springtime” I get that tune in my head.
UAW, Chrysler Eliminate Jobs Bank
DETROIT – The United Auto Workers union has eliminated its jobs bank for Chrysler workers.
After weeks of speculation, union officials told their members the doors to the controversial job bank will be closing on Monday, Jan. 26.
Teachers at 2 Charter Schools Plan to Join Union, Despite Notion of Incompatibility
The United Federation of Teachers announced on Tuesday that it had organized teachers at two respected New York City charter schools, making inroads in a movement that has long sold itself as an alternative that is not hamstrung by union contracts and work rules.
Union officials said the teachers’ decision was an important step because the schools are part of the Knowledge Is Power Program, known as KIPP, which has 66 schools in 19 states and the District of Columbia and plays an influential role in national education debates. Advocates for charter schools — which are publicly funded but independently operated — expressed concern that unionization could undermine the schools’ effectiveness.
Coercion has no place in votes to form unions
A recent article characterized the debate surrounding legislation that would make it easier to form unions in the workplace as a question of survival — a business’s need to control operating costs vs. a union’s fight to stave off dwindling membership. While the reporting and facts were straightforward and accurate, the piece missed what is perhaps the most significant element of the “card check” controversy: the consequences of this bill on democracy and workers’ rights.
I have been to the Mountaintop – MLK, Jr, Union man
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered this speech in support of the striking sanitation workers at Mason Temple in Memphis, TN on April 3, 1968 — the day before he was assassinated. License to reproduce this speech granted by Intellectual Properties Management, 1579-F Monroe Drive, Suite 235, Atlanta, Georgia 30324, as manager for the King Estate. Write to IPM re: copyright permission for use of words and images of Martin Luther King, Jr.
UAW members no fans of Sen. Corker
In the homes of many a United Auto Worker, U.S. Sen. Bob Corker from Tennessee is a household name — and not in a good way.
“He’s a sell-out,” said Bill Bagwell, a second-generation auto worker who drives a forklift for General Motors Corp.
Jospeh Mairs, martyr for miners
The years 1913 and 1914 were black days for Ladysmith and a good part of Vancouver Island. The bloodiest mine strike ever started in Cumberland and spread all the way to our Extension Mines.
Unions had tried to form for years, but the Dunsmuir operation and others held out. Ladysmith was built because Dunsmuir did not want his miners living near the mines. It was a form of control. Ladysmith was definitely his company town.
More than two-thirds of Mosaic mine staff being laid off
REGINA — Mosaic confirmed Monday it will lay off more than 1,000 of workers at its potash mines in Esterhazy and Colonsay due to slow fertilizer demand, the global credit crisis and growing potash inventories.
Layoffs notices were set to 360 hourly employees at Mosaic’s Colonsay mine east of Saskatoon on Thursday and to 700 hourly employees at Mosaic’s Esterhazy mine on Friday.
Teamsters Challenge Mayor’s Furlough Policy
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – A local union has launched a new challenge to stop unpaid furlough days for Metro employees.
Teamsters’ Local 783 represents nearly 900 employees who work in several Metro government agencies.
Have Anti-Union Smear Ads Flopped? Here’s Why 78% of Public Favors Unions
Just as Karl Rove-style tactics didn’t work against Barack Obama’s campaign, union supporters see promising signs that the spate of negative TV and print ads from corporate front groups attacking the Employee Free Choice Act appear to be failing to sway the public. The main line of attack is that the proposed bill would supposedly take away the right to a secret ballot for workers; in fact, the bill amends the National Labor Relations Act to give workers the choice of whether to have a secret-ballot election or the majority sign-up approach for a union, also dubbed “card check” by some.
Art brings us a great article on those stupid anti-union adds running. I have to wonder if the Chamber of Commerce realized that the during the election, most of the policies and tactics used by Rove and his ilk actually was the cause of the support for the Democrats?
US mine deaths fall to 51, the lowest on record
FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — The number of miners killed on the job in the United States fell to 51 in 2008, the fewest number of deaths since officials began keeping records nearly a century ago, according to preliminary data released by federal regulators Thursday.
The U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration reported that 29 of the deaths occurred in coal mines, down from 34 in 2007; and 22 were in copper, stone and other types of mines, down from 33 in 2007.
The previous low was 55 in 2004.
UAW Barred From Striking
The United Auto Workers union may be limited in the use of one of its key negotiating tools as it sits down to revise contract terms with Detroit’s Big Three auto makers starting Monday.
The U.S. Department of Treasury, in its $13.4 billion loan agreement with General Motors Corp., said there can be no strikes pending or threatened against the loan party between Dec. 31 and Feb.17. GM and the UAW need to agree on key labor concessions by Feb. 17 in order to meet requirements set in place by the federal government in relation to the loans granted to the struggling U.S. auto maker.
A GM spokesman declined to comment on the issue. Officials with the UAW and Treasury Department couldn’t immediately be reached. It is unclear if the same terms apply to Chrysler LLC, which was given a $4 billion loan by the Treasury Department.
By barring the UAW from a strike against the auto makers, the pact removes one of the most effective tools in the union’s arsenal. In year’s past, when negotiating with the Big Three and key automotive supplier, the UAW has often staged labor stoppages that have led to major costs and a lack of vehicle supply for the auto makers.
