Labor Union Blog

Economic Report

The high cost of education, health care, and home ownership are having a major impact on the ability of 25-34 year olds to keep up with the living standards of their parent's generation. In 1970 only 18 percent of young adults spent more than 33 percent of salaries on rent while in 2005 it was 43 percent. One third of young adults have no health care.

On June 13 the editorial employees of nine papers owned by the Bay Area News Group-East Bay will vote on representation by the Newspaper Guild. More than half of the 250 newsroom employees have signed union cards.

Can unions and employers ever find harmony? Jesse Russell finds out.

Last week two employers were honored at the America@Work Union Industries Show for having positive labor-management relations. The two companies chosen this year were International Specialty Products from Calvert City, Kentucky and General Motors Powertrain from Defiance, Ohio. The award is presented by the AFL-CIO’s Union Label and Service Trade Department. According to department President Charles Mercer the firms “represent the best of modern labor-management cooperation, providing working environments that invite p

By Doug Cunningham

The International Labor Organization says poverty for Arab workers in Israeli-occupied Middle East territories is growing as the employment situation degrades. In an annual report, the ILO says the economic plight of Palestinian workers is deteriorating. Working poverty is on the rise with just one in three workers employed, while 80 percent of the people in the occupied territories are dependent on food aid. Forty percent of people in Gaza are living in extreme poverty – 19 percent in the West Bank.

By Doug Cunningham

California authorities are investigating the death of an 18 year-old farm worker who collapsed after eight hours of working in the sun. The United Farm Workers and the young woman’s family are blaming the contractor for failing to take appropriate action when Maria Isabel Vasquez Jimenz show signs of heat-related illness. She died Friday – two days after being hospitalized for heat exhaustion. Merced Farm Labor is the contractor being investigated by California’s occupational safety agency.

By Doug Cunningham

ACORN – the Association of Community Organizations For Reform Now – says Senator John Edwards will chair an anti-poverty effort with ACORN and allied organizations. Called “Half In Ten”, it’s a campaign to cut poverty in half in the U.S. within ten years. There are at least 36.5 million people living in poverty in the U.S. according to the 2006 Census. That’s 12.3 percent of the population.

The United Steelworkers (USW) has launched a new website to shine the spotlight on the business practices of Grupo México, a Mexican conglomerate that owns numerous businesses in the Western Hemisphere.

The Record Speaks for Itself hosts links to resources to educate the public about Grupo México's treatment of its workers at home and abroad, and its sorry record on the environment.

Grupo México, a mining and railroad company, is the world’s third-largest copper producer. It has ties to ASARCO Inc., an Arizona-based metals company that employs USW members in Arizona and Texas. USW members in Arizona struck Grupo México-owned copper mines for four months in 2005 over the company’s refusal to bargain in good faith.