Labor Union Blog

More assembly lines at GM plants ground to a halt on Monday as the United Auto Workers strike against parts maker, American Axle, continues. GM was projecting that by the end of Monday 29 plants would be idling impacting nearly half of GM’s North American workforce. American Axle and representatives for the 3600 employees at the company sat down at the bargaining table starting on Thursday and have been negotiating ever since. The workers walked off the job on February 26 to fight attempts by the company to slash pay from $23.84 per hour on average down to $14 per hour. The plan also include serious cuts to health benefits and pensions.

More assembly lines at GM plants ground to a halt on Monday as the United Auto Workers strike against parts maker, American Axle, continues. GM was projecting that by the end of Monday 29 plants would be idling impacting nearly half of GM’s North American workforce. American Axle and representatives for the 3600 employees at the company sat down at the bargaining table starting on Thursday and have been negotiating ever since. The workers walked off the job on February 26 to fight attempts by the company to slash pay from $23.84 per hour on average down to $14 per hour. The plan also include serious cuts to health benefits and pensions.

Most economists are being cautionary when it comes to throwing around the r-word, recession, but the most recent jobs report makes it even harder to deny that the economy is in some form of retreat if not yet a full blown recession. According to the Economic Policy Institute the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported the largest payroll loss in five years on Friday. Factory employment fell by 52,000 jobs last month – the largest drop since January of 2003. Temp workers also aren’t faring very well, employers let go of 28,000 jobs in the temp worker sector, the largest loss in five years. And if you are holding a part-time job while you would prefer to be working full time – you aren’t alone. EPI reports that the number of part-time employees who want to work full time is “up over 600,000 over the past year.” The retail sector was hit especially hard last month with more than 34,000 jobs being cut signaling a slip in consumer confidence.

It sounds like a story from a different era: Hundreds of workers tricked into working in the shipyards of a country thousands of miles from home, subjected to abusive working and living conditions, threats of deportation with no pay if workers complain. But that is what Indian nationals who were came to the United States to work at shipyards on the Gulf Coast are accusing Signal International of putting them through. More than 500 Indian nationals are involved in the class action lawsuit claiming the oil rig construction company promised green cards and U.S. residency and then subjected them to “psychological coercion” when they complained about crowded living and working conditions. Lawyers representing the workers say the company has violated the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act and the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act.

For the past five years, management at the Resurrection Health Care System has conducted a vicious anti-union campaign to stop its employees from freely joining a union. That anti-union campaign has spawned 15 National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) unfair labor practice complaints.

The latest complaint, which was scheduled to be heard March 12, was settled late last week. The complaint charged Resurrection with trying to silence a union supporter at its West Suburban Medical Center. The health care chain has settled all the complaints without admitting any guilt.

Major league ballplayers in Florida will trade in their ball caps and flip-down shades for red- and white-striped “Cat-in-the-Hat” toppers and other Dr. Seuss gear as part of “Read Across Spring Training.”

The players are making a special pitch to young people: Reading is fun and interesting. As part of the National Education Association’s (NEA‘s) “Read Across America” literacy campaign, several of the teams’ spring training facilities will host read-ins for local children this month.

“Read Across America” is a year-around program that began in 1997. The reading initiative kicked off its 2008 activities last week on Dr. Seuss’ birthday, March 3, with read-ins in Atlanta, Austin, Texas, and Chicago. Hundreds of children, parents, educators and local celebrities turned out at a kick-off event in Georgia at the Children’s Museum of Atlanta. Said NEA President Reg Weaver:

The site of the kickoff event is fitting because of its uniqueness that celebrates fun and brings out the kid in all of us—just as Dr. Seuss did with the magic of the written word.…Although children have many distractions like TV, video games and high-tech gadgets, nothing rivals the power of the written world. The challenge is cutting through the competitive clutter to get children energized about reading.

More than 450 service workers at St. Mary Medical Center in California join the United Steelworkers (USW) and more from the “Bargaining Digest Weekly.” The AFL-CIO Collective Bargaining Department delivers daily bargaining-related news and research resources to more than 900 subscribers. Union leaders can register for this service through our website, Bargaining@Work.

Organizing

USW, St. Mary Medical Center: More than 450 service workers at St. Mary Medical Center in Apple Valley, Calif., voted to join the United Steelworkers (USW). About 160 technical workers at the hospital already are members of the USW.

Illinois union members were crucial in this weekend’s upset victory for Bill Foster in the 14th House District special election.

Foster, a Democrat who received the Illinois AFL-CIO endorsement in his first run for office, won a 53–47 victory over Republican Jim Oberweis on Saturday, winning the seat vacated by former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert.

It’s a big change for this district, which gave Bush 55 percent of its votes in 2004 and re-elected Hastert with more than 60 percent of the vote for two decades.

Do you want to know how Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) voted on a move to repeal the federal minimum wage?

Are you interested in Sen. Hillary Clinton’s (D-N.Y.) vote on a measure to rein in the soaring cost of prescription drugs for seniors and working families?

How about finding out where Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) stood on a bill that would restore the freedom of airport screeners to join a union?

Or maybe you just want to know if your U.S. House member voted with working families last year?

All that information and more about your U.S. senators and representatives is just a click or two away in the AFL-CIO’s final 2007 House and Senate Voting Records. The congressional scorecards track 19 Senate votes and 24 House votes from the first session of the 110th Congress.