Labor Union Blog

Economic Report:

If you are heading towards retirement, as we all are, someday, here is some sobering news. A couple retiring this year should have $225,000 in savings set aside to cover medical costs. That is according to Fidelity Investments who released the study on Wednesday. Fidelity isn’t the only one with such a projection. According to a study by the Center for Retirement Research, an individual retiring should have $102,000 set aside for healthcare in retirement.

By Doug Cunningham

Six National Education Association chapters of the California Teachers Association are directly affiliating with the AFL-CIO. It’s part of a groundbreaking pact between the AFL-CIO and the independent NEA that allows local chapters of the NEA to directly affiliate with the AFL-CIO. Over ten thousand NEA members are in the AFL-CIO as a result.

By Doug Cunningham

AFSCME President Gerald McEntee says he will continue to push for an AFL-CIO endorsement of Senator Hillary Clinton for president in the wake of her big wins in Ohio and Texas. He says about 52 percent of the federation’s unions now back Clinton, but a two-thirds majority is needed.

[McEntee]: “That’s very difficult. It’s like pushing a rock up the side of a mountain.”

Despite denials from the Obama campaign and from Canadian officials, McEntee says there’s still serious concern in the labor movement over whether Obama’s economic advisor said one thing in private to Canadian officials about NAFTA while Obama’s campaign may have been saying something different to voters.

The United States could be facing a West Coast ports shut down on May 1st as longshore workers protest the War in Iraq. Jesse Russell reports:

The International Longshore and Warehouse Union recently sent a letter to AFL-CIO President John Sweeney announcing that West Coast port workers would be walking off the job on May 1 to demand a withdrawal of troops from Iraq. The letter from ILWU President Robert McEllrath says that during a two-week caucus members adopted a resolution that calls for “longshore workers to stop work during the day shift, on May 1, 2008, to express their opposition to the war in Iraq.” McEllrath asks Sweeney in the letter if other AFL-CIO affiliates would be participating in similar events on May 1, also known worldwide as International Workers’ Day, to “honor labor history and express support for the troops by bringing them home safely.” The letter was sent on February 22.

Strike up the violins: Bush and McCain in an earlier get-together.

It got pretty cozy in the White House Rose Garden today when Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain sidled up to George W. Bush to pick up his endorsement.

McCain’s pilgrimage is a reminder that when it comes to backing Bush and his failed policies, McCain is no “maverick.”

Bush was so effusive in today’s press event he barely let McCain speak—making it clear that he expects McCain to be a successor in his own image. Bush can’t run for a third term and wouldn’t win if he did—with approval rating at or below 30 percent for months—but with McCain as the Republican nominee, he’s got the next best thing.

Here’s how close the two are: McCain has voted in support of Bush’s positions 89 percent of the time—a lifetime voting record that in 2007, rose to a striking 95 percent, according to Congressional Quarterly.

The movement to provide quality education for our children grew stronger today when the AFL-CIO and the National Education Association (NEA) announced that six chapters of the California Teachers Association (CTA), the NEA’s state association, affiliated with the AFL-CIO.

The affiliation comes as part of a groundbreaking agreement between the AFL-CIO and NEA allowing for NEA local associations to affiliate directly with the AFL-CIO. The partnership is supported by the AFT, a longtime AFL-CIO affiliate. With the affiliations, there are now seven CTA associations affiliated with the AFL-CIO, more than in any other state.

Washington, D.C., could soon become the second city in the nation to require employers to provide workers with paid sick leave days if the mayor and Congress approve a measure the District of Columbia City Council passed yesterday. But union members and communities allies who worked for the bill’s passage are decrying efforts by local corporations that ultimately persuaded the City Council to weaken the original bill. The most damaging change was an amendment that requires workers to be on the job for 12 months before becoming eligible.

Metropolitan Washington (D.C.) Council President Jos Williams, quoted in the council’s daily news update Union City, summed it up:

Sick workers shouldn’t have to wait to take the time needed to get better. This onerous requirement is a fatal flaw in this landmark legislation.

The AFL-CIO Executive Council yesterday outlined a strategic approach to combat global warming domestically and around the world—and at the same time create a “green economy” with good jobs.

In the council’s “Greening the Economy” statement approved during its March 4–6 meeting in San Diego, the council says:

The AFL-CIO believes we can have both a healthy economy and a cleaner planet….The greening of the economy means that every job that contributes to a low-carbon future is a green job.

By Jesse Russell

The plot thickens it what has come to be known as “NAFTAgate.” The CBC is reporting that what was originally reported by the CTV as a meeting called between Sen. Barack Obama’s economic adviser and the Canadian Embassy in Chicago was inaccurate (view the report here)

A few weeks earlier Canadian diplomats in Chicago had pleaded for a meeting with this man, Austan Goolsbee, an adviser to Barack Obama. Later the Canadian diplomats told Ottawa there was no need to worry about NAFTA. Goolsbee, they reported, had said that any anti-NAFTA campaign messages should be viewed as more of a “political positioning” then a clear articulation of policy plans. After the Ohio debate sources suggest that someone in Stephen Harper’s government decided to leak their own version of Obama’s views.