Labor Union Blog

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lia href= http://www.laborradio.org/node/9915Senator Stabenow: Save The Auto Industry – Somebody Has To Make Something In Americaa//li
lia href= http://www.laborradio.org/node/9916NY Economist Says Changing Economy Calls For More Worker Involvementa//li
lia href= http://www.laborradio.org/node/9917Hey, Magic, Where’s The Magic In No Family Health Care For Your Workers?a//li
lia href= http://www.laborradio.org/node/9918Economic Report: New U.S. Home Construction Down Steeplya//li
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pEconomic Report:/p
pConstruction began on 38 percent fewer homes in October 2008 as compared to the same time last year. With less people buying homes, construction is stalling with requests for new building permits dropping by 12 percent in October, the lowest rate since 1960. The consumer price index also had a historic drop last month falling by 1 percent, that’s the biggest drop since the Labor Department began keeping records in 1947./p

pBy Doug Cunningham/p
pSEIU 32BJ says former NBA great Magic Johnson, in New York City promoting a book, has dropped the ball on family health care for workers at a luxury building he co-owns in the city. 32BJ’s Matt Nerzig says workers at the building have no employer-paid family healthcare./p
p[Nerzig]: “And we’re gonna find ways, creative and otherwise, to get tat message across. We’d like to think that at the end of the day, or at least the end of the week, that Magic will fully appreciate the situation and come to his senses and do the right thing by these workers.” /p

pWorkers will need to take a greater role in determine the course of the new economy. Jesse Russell reports:/p
pAccording to the Fiscal policy Institute’s James Parrott the country is entering a new economy where workers need to take a greater role in determining the direction of companies./p
p[Parrott1]: All workers and their unions need to get much more actively involved in deciding what the strategic direction of the economy is going to be. So, revitalizing the auto industry is a logical place to start./p
pParrott says the auto industry, like the construction industry, is a major lynchpin in the U.S. economy and with the construction suffering from the continuing mortgage crisis, Congress can’t ignore the auto sector./p

pBy Doug Cunningham/p
p[Stabenow]: “We need this industry as a basic part of the fabric of our economy. Somebody has to make something in America./p
pMichigan Senator Debbie Stabenow says federal help is urgently needed for the U.S. auto industry. She says workers are not to blame for the automakers’ crisis./p
p[Stabenow 2]: “We don’t have to say to the workers that they should restructure in terms of pay cuts and changes in flexibility and changes in benefits. The new contracts with the UAW cut wages for new workers by fifty percent. I don’t know any other industry, anywhere, who has be/p

This is a cross-post from the Georgia AFL-CIO.

Attempting to capture the excitement of union members leading up to the runoff election in Georgia, Jimmy Hyde, Georgia AFL-CIO state director, spoke about the enthusiasm he sees on a daily basis while working on the campaign. Hyde describes what he sees as opportunities the labor movement has to enact real change.

The labor movement is coming together in a way I never saw before. I have a long history of working on political campaigns in Georgia, but never saw the kind of enthusiasm that our members now have about doing our program….Union members are excited about sending out local union mail, phone banking and handing out worksite leaflets, and that is why we are going to win on December 2nd.

The smoke from the fires raging in Southern California was so thick it nearly blocked out the sun at 2 p.m. last Saturday in Orange County.

The AFL-CIO’s Community Services Network is joining with its partners at United Way in Southern California to help survivors of the devastating wildfires in that area. So far, the fires have destroyed nearly 1,000 homes and apartments and burned 42,000 acres, or 65 square miles, forcing mass evacuations.

The United Way recently launched the Southern California Fire Fund to help support agencies provide services in the areas destroyed by the fires and develop strategies to address the long-term needs of the communities affected.

AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Arlene Holt Baker, a member of United Way’s national board, says:

Union members respond when their neighbors are in need. Not only are we there as first responders, but we help restore communities through our generosity and hard work. That’s why we support the United Way’s Southern California Fire Fund—it’s a step towards helping rebuild neighborhoods that were devastated by the recent wildfires.

Health Care for America Now! (HCAN) is airing a new TV ad to promote President-elect Barack Obama’s commitment to reforming the nation’s health care system as a key element in turning around the nation’s economy.

The ad is being aired in the Washington, D.C., area. It reminds the representatives and senators in the nation’s capital for the lame duck session—and those who will return for the 111th Congress, where the health care debate will unfold next year—that Obama has made health care reform a top issue on his agenda. Says HCAN’s Richard Kirsch:

We know there will be tremendous opposition to real reform—both from industries that benefit from the status quo and from members of Congress who are not used to taking the bold steps we need to create a new economy that works for American families and businesses.

Members of the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee (CNA/NNOC) joined several thousand LGBT, civil rights, labor, community and religious activists in San Francisco in recent days in a demonstration calling for marriage equality.

Along with the San Francisco rally, tens of thousands of people took part in rallies backing equal marriage rights for all and protesting the Nov. 4 passage of Prop. 8 in California, which bans lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) couples from the right to marry.

According to the Los Angeles Times, civil rights groups, religious organizations and local governments have filed six lawsuits asking the California Supreme Court to declare the measure an illegal constitutional revision.

Our own Damon Silvers, AFL-CIO associate general counsel, is one of three members appointed to the Congressional Oversight Panel, an entity mandated by Congress as part of the initial Wall Street bailout bill passed in October. The panel is charged with reporting on the Treasury Department’s effort to stabilize our nation’s financial system and make recommendations to improve it.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) appointed Silvers, along with Harvard professor Elizabeth Warren, best known for her work on bankruptcy issues, and New York Superintendent of Banks, Richard Neiman. House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) have not yet made their two appointments to the panel.

The panel must report to Congress every 30 days and issue final recommendations by Jan. 20, 2009 (otherwise known as the day President-elect Barack Obama is inaugurated).