Labor Union Blog

Economic Report:

Hey employers, allowing your employees the option of working from home might be good for the company. A new survey suggests a burst in productivity and lowered operational costs for companies that let employees telecommute. The majority of the workers surveyed are in IT and 67 percent said that increased productivity is the primary end result because telecommuting cuts out the time spent traveling to and from work.

By Doug Cunningham

[Hendri]: “We have 30 days to change the world. We can’t take another four years of it. All of our rights, all of our benefits, our right to organize, our right to affordable health care, our right to a roof over our head and a job is gonna go away – another four years of these disastrous politics.”

Union activist John Hendri with Santa Fe’s IATSE Local. Labor activists held a funeral for the middle class in Santa Fe Tuesday.

[Hendri 2]: “We marched behind a hearse with a coffin and talked with the many visitors from around the world and our own members that the Bush-Cheney policies of the last eight years have succeeded in killing the middle class.”

Talks will resume Thursday between the Communications Workers of America and Qwest Communications. The workers rejected the most recent contract offer in September and have given the negotiating committee the authority to call a strike if a new contract reflecting employee interests can not be reached. The workers are currently working under the previous contract which has been extended until Friday. The CWA represents 20,000 Qwest workers in 13 states.

The strike at Boeing has entered its fifth week and the company’s chief executive officer is signaling he is unwilling to move off of a key sticking point. Jesse Russell reports:

An email sent to workers at Boeing suggests the current strike at Boeing could continue for some time. One of the most important components for the 26,000 striking workers is the right for the union to be able to bid on outsourced work. Boeing Chairman Jim Neary sent an email to workers on Monday that said “it would be gravely unwise for Boeing to agree to terms in any contract that would fundamentally restrict

By Doug Cunningham

With the economy in meltdown and a track record of Republican-led disasters from Iraq to Katrina Barack Obama has the momentum heading into the final weeks of the campaign. One of the unknown elements on election day, though, will be how big a factor lingering racism may play in the voting. In a speech earlier this year AFL-CIO Secretary Treasurer Rich Trumka directly addressed the race issue that could still cost Obama critical working class votes in key states.

[Trumka]: “ We can’t tap dance around the fact that there are a lot of folks out there they just can’t get past this idea that there’s something wrong with voting for a black man.

It seems as though Sen. John McCain has given up any pretense of addressing substantive issues in his run for the presidency.

Over the past few days, McCain aides have been increasingly clear that they plan to stop talking about real issues—especially the economy.

“We’re looking forward to turning the page on this financial crisis,” McCain aide Greg Strimple told The Washington Post. “If we keep talking about the economic crisis, we’re going to lose,” an unnamed aide told the New York Daily News.

McCain thinks he can run for the highest office in the nation without addressing issues that top the concerns of working families, like jobs or the economy.

Ben Waxman, Labor 2008 state director for Ohio, sends us this report on the start of Ohio AFL-CIO President Joe Rugola’s walk around the Buckeye State to highlight the failed economic policies John McCain embraces that have destroyed jobs.

On Sunday in Youngstown, Ohio, Joe Rugola, Ohio AFL-CIO president, set out on a 300-mile trek around the state to bring attention to the toll of the past eight years of Bush-McCain economic polices—more than 180,000 Ohio jobs lost and nearly 1,100 plants, factories and other workplaces closed forever.

Rugola says he is walking to underline Ohio’s great need for a responsible national economic policy and a focused effort by our next president to rebuild America’s economy and restore jobs to our country. He says the nation needs to get on the road to economic recovery and is telling the union voters he meets on his statewide walk that Sen. Barack Obama will help lead us down that road.

In contrast, Sen. John McCain offers only more of the same policies that have left Ohio with a 7.4 percent unemployment rate, the highest in 16 years.

A year after voting for the union, some 1,000 Illinois state government administrators have become members of AFSCME Council 31.

The majority of the new union members work in the departments of Children & Family Services and Human Services, according to Council 31 spokesman Anders Lindall. Others are in the departments of Public Health and Aging, as well as some smaller departments.

Says Council 31 Executive Director Henry Bayer:

AFSCME is pleased to welcome these dedicated public servants into our union family. We are proud to stand and fight for them and the essential public services they provide.

Polls and headlines show the economy is at the top of people’s minds these days. So it’s not surprising that when members of Working America, the AFL-CIO community affiliate, are asked by canvassers what issue is most important to them, the economy is far and away the leading answer.

It’s not just an answer that’s given more often, either. There’s a new tone, too. In Pennsylvania, one of our canvassers reported:

Two weeks ago, a lot of folks told me the economy was their #1 priority, but this week when I asked, most folks just said, “What do you think?” as if it were ridiculous that I even had to ask.

In Michigan, one canvass director described the “Well, duh,” look members gave him when he asked what issue was most important to them.

Apparently, “it’s the economy, stupid” never goes out of style.

Working America members, who regularly vote on the issues most important to them, said in the latest poll that health care and good jobs were among their top concerns. Check out how Working America members voted here.