The 2008 election just took on greater importance for American workers after Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced today that he is canceling the competition for a $35 billion contract for the Air Force’s refueling tankers and leaving it to the next administration to decide.
Gates announced that the competition between Boeing Co. and European-based EADS was “too controversial” to be settled during the last four months of the Bush administration.
One reason that the new occupant of the White House is so critical to the competition is Sen. John McCain’s role in the first contract award. Time magazine reported in March that McCain was a “key figure” in the Pentagon’s attempt to complete the tanker deal.
Economic Report:
You may not have heard it mentioned much during the Republican National Convention, but that doesn’t mean the economy isn’t on the minds of American workers. A survey of the latest Principal Financial Well-Being Index has discovered that 79 percent, up from 52 percent one year ago, are primarily concerned about jobs and the economy.
71 percent of working Americans are additionally losing sleep over their “long-term financial security.” Only 35 percent of workers believe the two Presidential candidates can deal with the economy.
Lede: A labor professor says the NLRB acted improperly in a 2004 ruling on grad student teachers that continues to have ramifications today. Doug Cunningham reports.
By Doug Cunningham
Labor Professor Ellen Dannin says the Bush labor board decision that graduate student teachers working for universities are not employees was improper policy making by the NLRB. Dannin says the National Labor Relations Board is supposed to use the facts of cases to enforce the workers law – the National Labor Relations Act – and not make new labor policy.
[Dannin]: “When the board majority said that graduate students are not employees – graduate students across the United States – that was a decision that was not made on the facts and it was also not a decision that was not made in each case, in that specific case. They tried to extend it across all graduate students. So that’s one thing that’s wrong with the decision.”
Lede: A labor professor says the NLRB acted improperly in a 2004 ruling on grad student teachers that continues to have ramifications today. Doug Cunningham reports.
By Doug Cunningham
Labor Professor Ellen Dannin says the Bush labor board decision that graduate student teachers working for universities are not employees was improper policy making by the NLRB. Dannin says the National Labor Relations Board is supposed to use the facts of cases to enforce the workers law – the National Labor Relations Act – and not make new labor policy.
[Dannin]: “When the board majority said that graduate students are not employees – graduate students across the United States – that was a decision that was not made on the facts and it was also not a decision that was not made in each case, in that specific case. They tried to extend it across all graduate students. So that’s one thing that’s wrong with the decision.”
From September 7 through the 13 the International Associations of Machinists are celebrating 120 years at their 37th Grand Lodge Convention in Orlando Florida. On opening the machinists welcomed a new honorary member, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton. IAM President Tom Buffenbarger, who campaigned alongside Clinton as she made her bid for President in the Democratic primary, welcomed the Senator to the union:
[Buffenbarger]: We would like to make you a member of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers…
Clinton graciously accepted the membership, but quickly turned her focus to the 2008 as the Machinists voted to endorse Senator Barack Obama to be the next President of the United States of America. Clinton said the Machinists were the right union for getting the job done:
In the past eight months, 41 Colombian trade union members have been murdered, more than in all of last year. The latest victim, Alexander Blanco Rodriguez, was killed in recent days in front of his co-workers by a group of armed men as he was finishing his shift. Rodriguez was a member of the Colombian oil workers union, USO.
Nearly 2,700 trade unionists have been murdered in Colombia since 1986, including more than 450 during the administration of President Alvaro Uribe. And the killers are getting away with it. The impunity rate for murdering a trade unionist in Colombia remains at more than 96 percent.
AFL-CIO President John Sweeney says the United States cannot approve a free trade agreement with Colombia until workers can exercise their rights to unionize and bargain collectively without harassment and without fear for their lives.
Whoa. Only 55 days until the election.
We’ve got a lot of outreach to do between now and Nov. 4—and we need the help of every union member.
On the presidential side, Sen. John McCain got a bump in public support after last week’s Republican National Convention—and we need to let every union member know why a vote for McCain is a vote against job and pension security, quality health care and a vote for tax policies that benefit the wealthy at the expense of America’s working families.
In 2003, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and his campaign manager, Rick Davis, helped pave the way for German-owned DHL’s takeover/merger of the U.S. package delivery company Airborne Express.
Air Line Pilots (ALPA) President Capt. John Prater says that deal today could mean
financial disaster for thousands of families across Ohio who are already reeling from hard economic times.
What does vice presidential nominee and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin have to say on crucial issues that affect real people’s lives?
Remarkably little, as it turns out. Palin, like Sen. John McCain and other politicians, gave a speech at the Republican National Convention that was heavy on biography, filled with vague rhetoric and misleading, easily debunked statements about her public record. What she—and McCain—didn’t offer were any proposals that would help workers and families struggling in the economy.
We’ve done some research and pulled together information on Palin here, as part of our Working Families Vote website.
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