Labor Union Blog

Economic Report:

By Jesse Russell

Do you shop while at work? A new Workplace Snapshot from Spherion found that one-third of workers shop for gifts online from work. The study found that 59 percent of women spend more than 15 minutes shopping online at work compared to 52 percent of men who spend less than 15 minutes. And many workers don’t feel it is a big deal. 32 percent of respondents said it is acceptable to shop from work computers.

By Doug Cunningham

A Securities and Exchange Commission ruling Wednesday attacked the rights of shareholders to nominate corporate directors. AFL-CIO President John Sweeney says at a time when the need for strong, independent corporate directors is more critical than ever, the SEC has taken away an important shareholder right to have a voice on corporate governance issues. The SEC, Sweeney says, should be moving aggressively to protect investors, not to take away their rights.

By Doug Cunningham

The Broadway strike is over. The union representing stagehands says the tentative agreement is equitable for everyone involved. The strike hit producer’s where they felt it – cutting box office revenue for Thanksgiving week shows from $23.3 million last year to just $4.29 million this year. Stagehands will vote on the new five year deal over the next ten days.

By Doug Cunningham

The strike must go on! That’s the reality show playing for now in the Big Apple as talks to end the stagehand’s strike continue. The strike is hitting producer’s where they can feel it – cutting box office revenue for Thanksgiving week shows from $23.3 million last year to just $4.29 million this year. The City of New York estimates the strike is costing at least $2 million a day in lost revenue.

By Doug Cunningham

AFL-CIO Vice-President Arlene Holt Baker is joining striking Kentucky nurses today and she won’t show up empty handed. She’s bringing a $20,000 check from the AFL-CIO to help provide emergency financial support for the hundreds of nurses striking Appalachian Regional healthcare. The nurses in Kentucky and West Virginia have been on strike since October 1st against seven hospitals over staffing and patient care issues. The nurses want higher staffing levels maintained and higher patient care standards. Holt Baker will join the nurses in Lexington, Kentucky today to pre

“Last Call with Carson Daly” has now, in the eyes of striking writers, become “Late Call with the Scab.” Jesse Russell reports:

Carson Daly, who is not a member of the Writers Guild of America, crossed picket lines on Wednesday to restart production on his Burbank-based late-night talk show – he is the first host in the late night slot to do so. To make up for a lack of writers Daly sent out an email, obtained by thesmokinggun.com, asking friends and family to help him write jokes for the show. The New York-based WGA-East issued a statement expressing solidarity with the WGA-West and also disappointment in Daly’s decision to cross the picket lines. The writers have been on strike for three weeks, but negations restarted this week. The feeling is upbeat on the picket lines with many writers expecting an end to the strike in one or two weeks.

Nearly everyone but the Bush administration acknowledges America’s middle class has been teetering on the economic edge for some time. Now, a project by the nonpartisan Dēmos and Brandeis University quantifies the extent to which the nation’s middle class is, as the report’s title puts it, hanging By a Thread.

Here are its key—and chilling—findings:

• Only 31 percent of families who would be considered middle class by income are financially secure.
• One in four middle-class families are at high risk of slipping out of the middle class.
• Nearly four out of five families earning a middle-class income do not have sufficient assets to survive for just three months should their income source fluctuate or disappear.
• Twenty-one percent of middle-class families have less than $100 per week ($5,000 per year) remaining after meeting essential living expenses.
• In nearly one in four middle-class families, at least one family member lacks health insurance.
• More than half of middle-class families have no net financial assets whatsoever.

The United Steelworkers (USW), the Sierra Club and several other labor and environmental groups are going to court to force California to protect residents from a “likely” cancer-causing chemical used in the manufacture of Teflon.

The chemical, known as PFOA, is used by DuPont in making nonstick and stain-resistant coatings for products from pots and pans to carpets and clothes. It has been found to be a “likely” carcinogen by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The groups filed suit last week after the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment failed to consider adding PFOA to a list of cancer-causing chemicals that fall under strict exposure and discharge regulations.

Under Proposition 65—approved by California voters in 1986—the governor-appointed Carcinogen Identification Committee (CIC) must annually update the list of cancer-causing chemicals. The union and environmental groups had petitioned the health hazard assessment agency to expedite consideration of the DuPont chemical, but the agency refused.

It’s not unusual for state legislatures to hand out tax breaks, subsidies and other financial goodies to Big Business. But shamefully, some lawmakers need to be convinced to focus on the needs of low-income working families.

The Sloan Work and Family Research Network at Boston College has pulled together a compelling list of the challenges low-income working families face and how legislation aimed at those working families benefits the state and the business community.

The latest installment of the group’s Policy Leadership Series reports:

Legislation supporting low-income working families can meet the state’s fiscal goals, encourage workforce participation and promote a healthy, productive workforce.