Labor Union Blog

Economic Report:

How much have your retirement savings lost? Over the past 15 months, Americans have lost nearly $2 trillion in retirement savings according to a report in the Washington Post. 401(k)s have seen a decline of roughly 20 percent. And defined-benefit plans have lost 15 percent of assets during the past year. However, when defined benefit plans decline the onus is on the company to find ways to make up for the loss.

Ebay is slashing 10 percent of its workforce including 1000 permanent workers. The cuts will come from the online auction house’s marketplace division. Even though online commerce has been explanding by double-digits over the last few years, Ebay’s marketplace is slowing in growth. Instead, the company plans to focus on online payments. Ebay already owns Paypal and announced Monday it would be acquiring a similar firm called Bill Me Later.

Film studios are gambling that an actor’s strike won’t occur as contract negotiations slog on. Jesse Russell reports:

The Screen Actors Guild and studios represented by the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers are still at odds over a contract that expired on June 30 and a potential strike that continues to hang in the air, but according to Variety magazine concerns over “gaping holes” in the 2010 and 2011 distribution slate has the studios moving forward with productions. Unlike some of the films currently in production, this new slate of films will not have built in strike protection.

By Doug Cunningham

Labor’s effort for Obama is paying off in a southern red state. Polls show Obama leading in Virginia, a state that hasn’t voted Democratic since Lyndon Johnson in 1964. Dan Duncan of the northern Virginia Central Labor Council is excited about Obama’s lead in Virginia.

[Duncan]: “Fantastic shape. That is something that we’ve been drooling at. And we still think we’re dreaming. We’ve got so many good folks volunteering her from all their unions. For a right to work for less state, like Virginia is, our union members get this. They know what it means and they’re out here helping.”

Fueled by Wall Street greed and Bush-McCain deregulation fever, today’s crashing economy, tumbling home prices and stock market nosedive has cost American workers as much as $2 trillion in retirement security savings during the past 15 months.

Yesterday, several witnesses told the House Education and Labor Committee that 401(k) plans are taking a tremendous battering that could force many people to work longer and retire poorer.

Said Committee Chairman George Miller (D-Calif.):

Unlike Wall Street executives, American families don’t have a golden parachute to fall back on. It’s clear that Americans’ retirement security may be one of the greatest casualties of this financial crisis.

Nicole Lowe’s 5-year-old son has asthma. Like any other parent of a child with a chronic illness, she has spent many anxious hours in the emergency room.

A member of UAW Local 140 in Warren, Mich., Lowe worries that her union-negotiated health care benefit could be taxed under John McCain’s health care plan, an extra expense she cannot afford. She could even lose health care coverage under McCain’s plan.