Working families' candidate Steve Beshear greets a union volunteer during a union-run, get-out-the-vote phone bank.

Bernard Pollack, AFL-CIO field coordinator, is working on the union movement's campaign to elect a working family-friendly governor in Kentucky, where working families' candidate Steve Beshear is running against anti-worker Gov. Ernie Fletcher. He fills us in on the weekend's union-member-to-union-member get out the vote walk.

The front page, above-the-fold article and photo in Sunday's Ashland Daily Independent says it all:

Union members deliver message to community.

Working families are mourning the loss of Cheryl Johnson, RN, president of the United American Nurses (UAN) and a member of the AFL-CIO Executive Council. Johnson died early Sunday morning surrounded by family and friends.

Johnson was the first president of the UAN, which was founded in 2000 and affiliated with the AFL-CIO in 2001. Susan Bianchi-Sand, national executive director of UAN, says:

We have been richly privileged to work with Cheryl. We learned from her to take risks, to speak boldly for staff nurses, and not to be afraid of progress or change. Cheryl acted on the integrity of her beliefs and made other people strong as a result. Her voice and her values will never go away.

The National Labor Relations Act was passed to make it easier for workers to form unions and to ensure their right to collectively bargain for a better life and strike if need be. But today, rather than protecting the rights of workers, Julius Getman says:

Our labor laws constitute a massive impediment to the basic rights to organize, bargain collectively and strike.

Getman, professor of law at the University of Texas and pre-eminent scholar in the field of labor law, writes in a new Point of View column at the AFL-CIO website that the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) union election process has been transformed by judicial decisions that make it easy for management to fight unions. Calling the election process "absurdly one-sided," Getman says employers can almost always violate the law through threats and acts of reprisal with impunity.

Tomorrow, Hollywood screenwriters and producers will return to the bargaining table, giving them less than two days to negotiate before an important contract deadline passes. A strike has already been approved by the Writers’ Guild of America, and with the expiration of their contract Wednesday at midnight the ticking and tacking of keyboards could quickly end. A federal mediator will be stepping in with hopes to find an olive branch in the negotiations. The union is seeking higher residuals for films and television shows on DVD and is seeking payment for work appearing on new media outlets, like cell phones and on the internet. The producers, on the other hand, want a trial period to see if the new media outlets are profitable before they make any agreements. They are also targeting pension and health care costs.

Tomorrow Hollywood screenwriters and producers will return to the bargaining table – giving them less than two days to negotiate before an important contract deadline passes. A strike has already been approved by the Writers’ Guild of America and with the expiration of their contract Wednesday at midnight the ticking and tacking of keyboards could quickly end. A federal mediator will be stepping in with hopes to find an olive branch in the negotiations. The union is seeking higher residuals for films and television shows on DVD and are seeking payment for work appearing on new media outlets – like cell phones and on the internet. The producers, on the other hand, want a trial period to see if the new media outlets are profitable before they make any agreements. They are also targeting pension and health care costs.

Gap Kids is under fire after UK publication The Observer alleged that the clothing chain has been receiving clothing produced by child workers in India as young as 10. According to the report in Sunday’s Observer, Gap has said it was unaware that the clothes had been produced in an alleged sweatshop. Since then, the company has taken proactive steps to pull from the market clothes that were produced at the factory. The United Nations has dubbed India as the world capital of child labor. According to the Observer, 20 percent of labor in that country is provided by children under the age of 14.

Gap Kids is under fire after UK publication The Observer alleged that the clothing chain has been receiving clothing produced by child workers in India as young as 10. According to the report in Sunday’s Observer Gap has said it was unaware that the clothes had produced in an alleged sweatshop. Since then the company has taken proactive steps to pull from the market clothes that were produced at the factory. The United Nations has dubbed India as the world capital of child labor. According to the Observer 20 percent of labor in that country is provided by children under the age of 14. In a statement Gap said, “All of our suppliers and their subcontractors are required to guarantee that they will not use child labour to produce garments.

A new contract has been ratified between Chrysler and workers. The future of the controversial contract was up in the air until the very last minute with a thin majority of workers voting for ratification. 51 percent of skilled trade workers and 56 percent of production workers voted in favor of the contract. The approval came after a six hour strike on October 10. One of the union’s negotiators, Bill Parker, had come out against the contract and strongly urged workers to vote it down. He was concerned that the contract didn’t defend union principles and gave up too many concessions, including a lack of job protection.

A new contract has been ratified between Chrysler and workers. The future of the controversial contract was up in the air until the very last minute with a thin majority of workers voting for ratification. 51 percent of skilled trade workers and 56 percent of production workers voted in favor of the contract. The approval came after a six hour strike on October 10. One of the union’s negotiators, Bill Parker, had come out against the contract and strongly urged workers to vote it down. He was concerned that the contract didn’t defend union principles and gave up too many concessions including a lack of job protection.