The corporate media mouthpiece Bloomberg may say the nation’s economy is “stalling” in the wake of today’s announcement that the jump in the U.S. unemployment rate is the worst in more than two decades, but working Americans know the real word for it: Disaster.
Jobs fell by 49,000 after a 28,000 drop in April, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. The unemployment rate increased to 5.5 percent, the fifth straight month in a row that jobs decreased.
Amanda Montgomery, communications and research coordinator for the Massachusetts AFL-CIO, reports on a breakfast being sponsored tomorrow by the union and Sen. John Kerry.
Hundreds of delegates attending the Massachusetts Democratic Party State Convention will take part in a breakfast co-sponsored by the Massachusetts AFL-CIO and Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) tomorrow.
The breakfast will precede the convention and is part of the AFL-CIO union movement’s Turn Around America campaign. The campaign includes a massive mobilization effort to collect 1 million signatures in support of the Employee Free Choice Act.
Tony Rippeto, assistant directing business representative for the Machinists’ District 9, writes about the strike at Valley Ford in the St. Louis area.
Members of District 9 Automotive Lodge 779, a local of the Machinists (IAM), went on strike Nov. 1, 2007, at Valley Ford Automotive—the only automotive dealer in the St. Louis area with whom the union was unable to bargain a contract.
Valley Ford’s final proposal was so substandard that District 9 was forced to go on strike. Our feelings are that the company wanted to break the union.
 |
|
|
From left, Rep. Jason Altmire (D-Pa.), Working America Pennsylvania director Jenn Jannon and Southwestern Pennsylvania Labor Federation chairman Jack Shea. |
|
|
|
|
Frank Snyder, Pennsylvania Labor 2008 state director, reports on Working America’s Week of Action.
Rep. Jason Altmire (D-Pa.) and Southwestern Pennsylvania Area Labor Federation chairman and Allegheny County Labor Council president Jack Shea were the featured speakers at a health care rally sponsored by Working America and the Allegheny council. The event was hosted June 3 by the United Steelworkers at their national office in Pittsburgh.
The rally was one in a series of events nationwide as part of “Working America Week” to highlight the union movement’s ability to reach nonunion members. Taking part were allies and union members from CWA, GCIU, PFT, SEIU, UFCW, UMWA and USW.
If the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) had acted to control combustible dust levels in the nation’s factories, the 13 workers killed in an explosion at a Georgia sugar factory in February probably would be alive today, safety experts tell CBS’s “60 Minutes.”
This Sunday at 7 p.m. (EDT), “60 Minutes” will air a segment on the catastrophic explosion at Imperial Sugar and OSHA’s foot dragging on issuing rules to protect workers from dust explosions.
The Air Traffic Controllers union (NATCA) has endorsed Sen. Barack Obama for president.
NATCA, which represents more than 18,000 employees in the aviation industry, announced its endorsement last night.
NATCA President Patrick Forrey says Obama will fight for the interests of working families and the rights and safety of workers on the job. He pointed to Obama’s sponsorship of the Federal Aviation Administration Fair Labor Management Dispute Resolution Act of 2006 as an example of his leadership.
Last September, Johnathan Putnam, already active in his union, decided to become even more so. Putnam, a member of Communications Workers of America (CWA) Local 1400 in Portsmouth, N.H., and a shop steward in a then-Verizon landline operation, signed up for one of the AFL-CIO Organizing Institute’s (OI‘s) intense, two-day training sessions.
In the program, he learned basic organizing skills, including one-on-one communication skills, how to move workers to take action, leadership identification and the basic elements of a union organizing campaign.
This spring he put those skills to work. Joining Local 1400 President Cheryl Aheam and fellow shop steward Jeannie Picardi, he helped workers at two FairPoint Communications call centers win a voice at work. The nonunion centers were formerly owned by Verizon, but FairPoint bought Verizon’s landline operations in a controversial deal approved earlier this year. (Click here for more on the sale.)
Recent Comments