Labor Union Blog

Economic Report

By Doug Cunningham

Wages have been growing for the past three months by 4.3 percent. Inflation is running at just under 3 percent. But jobs growth has been weak with big jobs losses in manufacturing and construction. The economy is seeing jobs growth in health care and restaurants, but the Center for Economic And Policy Research says those two sectors are not enough to keep the labor market strong. The official U.S. unemployment rate is 4.7 percent.

By Doug Cunningham

Sharing the wealth with workers isn’t a corporate strong suit. American Airlines is proving that to union workers who sacrificed deeply in 2003 during a bankruptcy. Now profitable again, American Airlines is resisting efforts by three unions to get raises for workers who took double-digit pay and benefits cuts to help the airline take off again. It was perfectly OK with American to give $250 million in stock bonuses to executives, so workers naturally expect to also see their compensation raised. The Transport Workers Union, the Allied Pilots Association and flight atte

By Doug Cunningham

Sam Gindin is a former assistant to the president of the Canadian Auto Workers union and teaches at York University. He says the UAW GM deal in the U.S. further weakens the union by agreeing to pay new hires about half of what current UAW GM workers make while giving GM what it wants on health care without demanding that GM back a single-payer national health care system.

[Gindin 1]: “At any level you could talk about, this is devastating. Giving up things doesn’t guarantee you anything. I mean, that’s the lesson of 25 years. In fact, it just makes you weaker. And then you’re just in a position to give up more.”

By Doug Cunningham

Five thousand nurses represented by the California Nurses Association may be on strike October 10th and 11th. The nurses are facing proposed cuts in health benefits for active and retired nurses as well as staff and service cuts. Another issue is a health survey that nurses would be forced to take from an outside company. They would have to submit to the survey and to “health coaching” from non-medical professionals or pay more for their health care. Fifteen northern California hospitals, most run by Sutter, would be affected. It would be the biggest nurse’s strike in California since 1997’s Kaiser strike.

Last week, President Bush told 10 million kids that their health care coverage wasn’t important enough to sign a bill that would renew the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP).

His veto ignited a nationwide mobilization to find the two dozen or so votes needed in the House of Representatives to override it and a firestorm of criticism. The bill passed with bipartisan support in both chambers, but while the Senate margin was veto-proof, the House vote fell short of the two-thirds needed to override.

With the vote expected next week, we thought it would be a good time to see what others are saying.