IBEW member John Harriel says a union job helped turn his life around.

After a strong push by union members, clergy and community groups, the city of Los Angeles last week passed a landmark law that will fight poverty by expanding opportunities for low-income residents to access union construction jobs.

The new “Construction Careers and Project Stabilization Policy” requires that most of the projects funded by the city’s community redevelopment agency hire more local and low-income residents from the communities where a project is being built. The policy also encourages partnership, through a project labor agreement (PLA), between developers and contractors and the Los Angeles/Orange County Building Trades Council. A PLA defines wages and work rules for a project based on community standards and is approved by the workers’ representatives and the agency awarding the contract before the project begins.

The 400 workers at New Era Cap Co. in Demopolis, Ala., now have a voice on the job after they voted for the Communications Workers of America (CWA).

"We found a boldness and courage that we didn't know we had," said Alma Null and Laurie Fendley, two workers on the CWA organizing committee.

It has been a great experience and a cause that we have come to believe in.

IUE-CWA Local 201 Executive Board member and Ward 6 Councilor Pete Capano on the porch of one of two houses on his street that are under foreclosure. Alley Street is part of the historic “Brickyard” neighborhood of Lynn, Mass., home to waves of shoe workers, GE workers and new immigrants for the past 150 years.

“We just lost a big chunk of our retirement,” grumbled more than one person down at the Union Hall last week, when General Electric Co. (GE) stock tumbled. “I got two houses on my street under foreclosure already,” added Pete Capano, an IUE-CWA Local 201 Executive Board member and Ward 6 city councilor in Lynn, Mass. We are entering the fear stage of the recession, where people swap stories about the trouble we’re in.

We in the United States work the longest hours of any workers in the industrialized world.

Our productivity is up by any standard—two-thirds or more in the past 10 years.

So why were 102 houses in Lynn facing foreclosure in February, more than double the 44 houses one year ago? Why did GE workers and retirees take a beating on their 401(k)s last week, when GE stock dropped $4 a share? Why have more than one hundred people stopped by my office for help in getting jobs—jobs that I don’t have to offer? Why is nearly every city and town in Massachusetts facing layoffs?

Why is the economy falling apart?

Economic Report:

While the rest of the country has been seeing job slowdowns in the construction industry as requests for new homes decline, New York City continues to see a healthy increase. New York state’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority says $51 billion in projects are on the slate over the next four years. In March, two thousand more construction workers then at the same time last year were on the job.

By Doug Cunningham

Part-time faculty trying to get their first union contract at Wayne State University in Detroit will pack the school’s Board of Governor’s meeting today. Brian Pfeifer is with the Union of Part-Time Faculty – AFT.

[Pfeifer]: “We have a lot of support from the campus community and for us out there and a lot of people are watching this. Thus far we have had well over 1600 letters sent to the president - President Reid - on campus. We have been sending letters to the Board of Governors on campus. Due to this pressure and due to the massive support we have from labor and community, as well as the students , we feel that this is going to win us a good contract."

A court has ordered Goya Foods to negotiate with a union that won representation of workers back in 1998. Jesse Russell reports:

The battle between UNITE and the Goya Foods factory in Miami has waged since 1998 when the union UNITE, which has since merged with another union to form UNITE-HERE, won the right to represent workers. Over the next decade Goya incurred multiple charges of unfair labor practice and even fired workers as it sought to break the union’s attempt to represent the workers. In 1999 the company stopped negotiation with the union and it wasn’t until August of 2006, after a great deal of back and forth between the National Labor Relations Board and Goya, that the board finally ruled that the company had unlawfully “withdrawn union recognition” and ordered Goya to resume collective bargaining. Goya appealed and in a court decision on April 24 it was recognized that the National Labor Relations Board taking a decade to determine a ruling “is of considerable concern.” In a statement, UNITE-HERE President Bruce Raynor said 10 years is “far too long to wait when bills need to be paid and meals need to be put on tables.”

By Doug Cunningham

The GM lay-offs of roughly 3500 workers at four truck and SUV factories in the U.S. and Canada is the latest blow to autoworkers as the U.S. economy slips into recession. Thanks UAW contracts the workers will get supplemental income that together with unemployment benefits will equal about 80 percent of their pay. One shift each is being eliminated at each of the four factories – and that will cut production of GM trucks and SUV’s by about 50,000 this year.

More than 60 union members, their families and local candidates came together for a health care presentation sponsored by the Northwest Missouri Central Labor Council in St. Joseph yesterday. Members reviewed a video, talked about their personal experiences with the health care system and passed a resolution promising to educate their fellow members about health care and how candidates running for office stand on the issue.

They also committed to taking part in the May 17 labor walks in Missouri. Much of the discussion centered on distributing fliers at their worksites. Union leaders and activists learned about what’s at stake in the November elections, including the dangers posed by John McCain’s health care proposals, which would raise taxes and undermine the health care of millions.