Labor Union Blog

Economic Report:

Are baby boomers saving enough for retirement? For many, it depends on the stability of the housing market. A recent Market Watch article found that housing prices remain level until 2009 the median household wealth for those between 45 and 54 will be 25 percent less than in 2004. If prices drop by 10 percent by next year the median household would experience a 35 percent drop in wealth, if they drop by 20 percent the fall would be 46 percent.

The heat is back on for Providence, Rhode Island city workers. On Tuesday Mayor David Cicilline announced that a rule that allowed outdoor city workers to take a day off when the temperature broke the 90 degree mark had been frozen. Workers who opted to take the day off received a full days pay and workers that stayed on the job were paid overtime.

By Doug Cunningham

Raises are more important to working women than health care. That’s one of the findings in Working America’s Ask A Working Woman survey. A 10 percent raise topped every other change working women desire on the job. Working women are very busy reporting little or no free time and more than a third work through their breaks at work.

Organized labor will go global next week during an historic event in Las Vegas. Jesse Russell reports:

With growing pressure from multi-national companies, organized labor is finding a need to reinvent itself so it can negotiate and compete on the same global scale. Next week the first step toward that reality will happen in Las Vegas at the United Steelworkers annual convention. On July 2 the Steelworkers will sign an agreement with UK-based union Unite forming a globe spanning union that will represent more than three million workers from the U.S., Canada, Great Britain and Ireland. The name of the new global union will also be announced at the time of the signing.

By Doug Cunningham

National Air Traffic Controllers Association spokesman Doug Church says the continuing staffing shortage caused by FAA dictates at airports nationwide is stressing out air traffic controllers and could lead to unsafe flying conditions. Church says in Reno Monday a controller forced to work alone in the radar facility had a health emergency and couldn’t stay on duty.

[Church]: “It’s having a very detrimental effect on the health – both physical and mental – of our controllers nationwide and we’re very concerned about it.”

Church says the FAA imposed work rules and wage cuts on the controllers union in 2006 that have created what the union considers a short-staffing emergency. Congress is considering a bill to order the FAA back to the bargaining table with the National Air Traffic Controllers Association. Meanwhile, Church says, the FAA won’t admit the failure of its imposed work rules and work with the union to restore safe staffing levels.

The Grand Prize and Young Activist winners of the AFL-CIO’s “Turn Around America Online Video Competition” have been selected and you can see them here.

Michael Newman, 19, of Bloomfield Hills, Mich., takes the Grand Prize with his video, “What’s Wrong with America,” which focuses on soaring gas prices, Detroit’s auto industry and Michigan’s devastated manufacturing economy.

The Young Activist award goes to Jean Carlo Penaloza, 22, of Brandon, Fla., whose Spanish language video explores how immigrants are drawn to America and find a nation of lost dreams, with expensive housing and soaring food and fuel prices. The Young Activist award winner was selected from entrants 14 to 25 years old.

The Iron Workers union has endorsed Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) for president.

Iron Workers President Joe Hunt said Obama would be a leader who pays attention to working families and would fight for job creation, health care and the freedom to form unions.

Barack Obama is a strong friend of labor. He can unite the country. With his extraordinary vision of how great this country can be, he has created a firestorm of excitement that has been embraced by all segments of our society. He will make a great Commander in Chief.

Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius

The workers’ advocacy group American Rights at Work honored three advocates for workers’ rights June 24 at its Eleanor Roosevelt Human Rights Awards Celebration in Washington, D.C. Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius (D), the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights (LCCR) and Gamesa Technology Corp. received the award named for the former first lady and human rights champion.

AFL-CIO President John Sweeney, who introduced Sebelius, praised her as a “passionate, authentic leader, a true friend of working families.”

Every day, she shows that a progressive leader can act on principle and commitment—and bring people together in a way that cuts across red states or partisan divides. And she has a record of achievement on our behalf.

Working women are spending more and more time on the job with less time for themselves and their families. But the nation’s souring economy is such a major concern, most say they would use any extra time to work a second job.

The more than 12,000 women who took the sixth Ask a Working Woman survey online—released today by Working America and the AFL-CIO—also said the top item that would make their lives easier is a 10 percent raise. While issues such as affordable health care and quality child care remain major concerns for working women, paying the bills, buying the groceries, filling the tank and paying the rent and mortgage is what worries them most.