Labor Union Blog

Economic Report:

It is getting more expensive to own a home. Rates on 30-year mortgages continued to rise this week as they hit the highest level in nine months. The average rate for a 30-year-fixed rate mortgage was at 6.42 percent and it is the fourth week in a row the rates have been above 6 percent.

Is Bally violating the rights of workers at their Atlantic City casino? Jesse Russell reports:

Dealers at Bally’s in Atlantic City testified in front of the New Jersey Casino Control Commission that the company is violating their rights to collectively bargain and abusing seniority rights. The National labor Relations Board had already ruled to prosecute Bally’s for their labor law violations and in the hearing the workers were asking for Bally’s to be monitored. The workers are represented by the United Auto Workers. Some of the other allegations levied at the commission hearing include forcing workers to attend unpaid meetings and failure to provide a safe working environment. The workers called on the commission to impose sanctions on the casino if the labor law violations do not cease.

By Doug Çunningham

Hundreds of pro-war bikers are expected in Berkeley, California Saturday and they will be met by antiwar protesters. Berkeley’s antiwar movement has focused efforts against military recruiters. The pro-war bikers are rallying at a marine recruiting station in Berkeley. The Berkeley City Council passed and then recanted a resolution calling military recruiters “unwelcome intruders”. Antiwar activists say the right-wing biker backlash is evidence that the efforts against military recruiting are striking a nerve.

By Doug Cunningham

The California Labor Federation is calling on the U.S. Air Force to reopen bidding immediately on a air refueling tanker contract worth billions of dollars. The General Accounting Office said this week the bidding process that gave the contract to a French company was flawed. Unions at Boeing say if Boeing gets the ocntract instead thousands of U..S. jobs will be created.

By Doug Cunningham

AFL-CIO and Change To Win labor federation leaders met with Senator Barack Obama this week as Obama seeks labor support for the general presidential campaign. Change To Win has already endorsed Obama. The AFL-CIO will surely follow. There is some fence-mending to do between Obama and many unions hat supported Senator Hillary Clinton’s White House bid. Obama met with top leaders of the two labor federations in Washington, D.C. An AFL-CIO decision on an endorsement of Obama is expected soon.

For the third time in little more than a month, the House today voted overwhelmingly (416-12) to extend unemployment insurance benefits (UI) to unemployed workers who run out of benefits without finding new work. This time, the jobless aid appears to be headed for Senate approval and—wonder of wonders—a presidential signature. Bush threatened to veto previous UI extensions claiming the economy wasn’t in bad enough shape to justify an extension.

House leaders last night announced they had reached a compromise with the Bush White House to include the UI extension in a supplemental funding bill for the war in Iraq. The deal will provide an additional 13 weeks of benefits for the millions of jobless workers who have exhausted their benefits or will run out of benefits over the next several months.

AFSCME has endorsed Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) for president, following a unanimous vote today by the union’s International Executive Board in favor of the endorsement.

Congress took an important first step today toward ensuring paid family leave for federal workers. On a 278­–146 vote, the House passed the Federal Employees Paid Parental Leave Act (H.R. 5781), which would give federal workers up to 12 weeks of paid leave to care for a newborn or a newly adopted child.