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lia href= http://www.laborradio.org/node/9737Boeing Engineers Union Delays Contract Talks As IAM Negotiates To End Its Strikea//li
lia href= http://www.laborradio.org/node/9738Smithfield Lawsuit Settlement Includes New Union Electiona//li
lia href= http://www.laborradio.org/node/9739Economic Report: Economic Crisis Changes U.S. Eating Habitsa//li
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pEconomic Report:/p
pEighty percent of workers have changed their eating and drinking habits due to a tightening economy. That’s according to a new survey released Monday by Vault.com. Sixty percent of those polled said they have started bringing lunch from home more often instead of eating out. Twenty eight percent have even begun giving up a cup of joe in the morning. Twentytwo percent said they are trying to arrange for a telecommute option at work to cut down on fuel costs./p
pCould the third time be the charm for workers at the country’s largest pork processing plant seeking union recognition? Jesse Russell reports:br /
The United Food and Commercial Workers union has been trying to organize workers at the Smithfield Foods slaughterhouse in North Carolina for more than 15 years. Two prior votes failed to win a majority in favor, but the union has charged that the company used illegal union busting tactics to intimidate workers. The UFCW waged a campaign against the company which included a boycotts and a negative publicity campaign. In response, Smithfield filed a racketeering and extortion suit against the union that was scheduled to go to trial Monday morning./p
pBy Doug Cunningham/p
pThe Society Of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace, or SPEEA - representing more than 20,000 Boeing workers - will delay its contract talks with Boeing one day as the striking IAM and Boeing negotiate the end the strike. SPEEA Executive Director Ray Goforth says these will be tough talks as the profitable company tries to lower compensation by eliminating traditional pensions for new hires, shifting healthcare costs onto employees and accelerating outsourcing./p
p[Goforth]: “This is a company that is fabulously successful financially, fabulously successful in the marketplace. And instead of seeking to reward the employees that delivered that success, they’re seeking takeaways that you would expect from a company that ws struggling to survive.”/p
Seems like every day, we hear about more efforts by Republican operatives to suppress the vote. Kyla Berry, a college senior in Georgia, received a letter three weeks ago telling her that she is not a U.S. citizen and is not eligible to vote.
That came as a surprise to Berry, who was born in Boston and has a U.S. passport and birth certificate to prove it. The letter, dated Oct. 2, gave her a week from the time it was dated to prove her citizenship. One big problem: The letter was postmarked Oct. 9.
Berry is one of more than 50,000 registered Georgia voters whose names have come up as a mismatch when checked against state computer records. At least 4,500 of those people are having their citizenship questioned, and the burden is on them to prove they are eligible to vote. Check out the video of CNN’s interview with Berry here.
Anyone with health care coverage knows that costs are rising far faster than their paychecks are growing. Last month, we highlighted several reports on the topic, including Premiums vs. Paychecks, produced by Families USA. In recent days, Families USA has updated the report with its new state-specific data on health costs and wages from 2000 to 2007.
Here are some of the new state data:
- Colorado: Health care premiums rose 74.8 percent and wages 15.5 percent.
- Missouri: Health care premiums rose 76.1 percent and wages 17.3 percent.
- New Mexico: Health care premiums rose 92.3 percent and wages 20 percent.
- Virginia: Health care premiums rose 82.5 percent and wages 20.2 percent.
Barack Obama’s candidacy has changed the dynamics of national politics, bringing together youth, progressives, people of color, union members and leather jacketed, hog-riding bikers.
More than 30 bikers, most of them members of the Letter Carriers (NALC) and Teamsters, and other supporters joined a cookout and rally in Columbia, Mo., yesterday to show support for Obama and his plans to revive the middle class. After the rally, the bikers, calling themselves “Bikers for Obama,” headed off for a scenic ride to the state capitol in Jefferson City with Obama 2008 stickers proudly displayed on their union-made Harleys.
As the election gets closer and momentum continues to build for pro-worker U.S. House and Senate candidates, corporate interests are using increasingly desperate scare tactics and promoting falsehoods about unions in ads attacking candidates who support the Employee Free Choice Act.
Rep. Keith Ellison of Minnesota’s 5th Congressional District is among those candidates fighting back.
Speaking to union retirees in Minneapolis last week, Ellison explained why he’s leading the fight for passage of the Employee Free Choice Act. Ellison also is going on the air to push back against the Big Business smear campaign because he understands that the Employee Free Choice Act is a means by which working families can improve their lives.
The end is stronger pensions. The end is universal health care. The end is greater worker rights.
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Minnesota teachers and AFT President Randi Weingarten join U.S. Senate candidate Al Franken. |
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Workday Minnesota editor Barb Kucera reports, union members in Minnesota honored the late Sen. Paul Wellstone this past weekend in a way that he would have applauded: getting out the vote.
On Saturday, the sixth anniversary of the plane crash that killed U.S. Sen. Paul Wellstone (D), union leaders and elected officials evoked the spirit of Minnesota's "labor senator" to rally members in the final days before Nov. 4. Two national union presidents, AFT President Randi Weingarten and Painters and Allied Trades President (IUPAT) Jimmy Williams, joined us in the day's get-out-the-vote events.
At a massive door-knock organized out of the St. Paul Labor Centre and at numerous other events across Minnesota, unions dispatched volunteers to knock on doors and sway the last few uncommitted voters who may be left in this battleground state.
Contract talks at Boeing continue—and more news from the "Bargaining Digest Weekly." The AFL-CIO Collective Bargaining Department delivers daily, bargaining-related news and research resources to more than 900 subscribers. Union leaders can register for this service through our website, Bargaining@Work.
WORK STOPPAGES AND ACTIONS
IAM, Boeing: Negotiations continued between the 28,000 striking members of the Machinists (IAM) and Boeing late into the evening Sunday with a federal mediator in Washington, D.C., in hopes of ending the month-and-a-half-long strike. "Your solidarity brought Boeing back to the bargaining table," union spokeswoman Connie Kelliher wrote in a statement to union members when talks resumed last Thursday. "We hope this meeting marks a major step forward to resolve this strike. The union will continue to do everything possible to bargain a contract that addresses the concerns our members have identified," she added. Both parties have agreed to a news blackout, and no details will be released until this latest round of contract talks have concluded.
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