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Click To Listen: Streaming Headlines December 10, 2008

December 9th, 2008 No comments

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lia href= http://www.laborradio.org/node/10067UE Meets With Bank And Company To Resolve Chicago Sitdown Strikea//li
lia href= http://www.laborradio.org/node/10068Auto Workers To Congress: Union Pay Isn’t To Blame For Auto Crisisa//li
lia href= http://www.laborradio.org/node/10069SEIU: No Reason To Believe Any Union Wrongdoing In Blagojevich Casea//li
lia href= http://www.laborradio.org/node/10070Sony Slashes Thousands Of Jobsa//li
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Economic Report: Leisure Time For U.S. Workers Takes A Dive – 12/10/08

December 9th, 2008 No comments

pEconomic Report:/p
pOn average Americans worked 46 hours per week this year, while playing only 16 hours per week. That’s according to a recent poll from Harris Interactive. Leisure time dived by 20 percent since this same time in 2007. In that year Americans would have 20 hours per week for play. Thirty-five years ago, when Harris Interactive first began tracking work versus leisure time Americans worked on average 41 hours and played 26 hours. /p

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Sony Slashes Thousands Of Jobs – 12/10/08

December 9th, 2008 No comments

pSony is the most recent company to announce mass layoffs. Jesse Russell reports:/p
pIt was announced on Tuesday that Sony plans to slash 8000 jobs. The company will also close 5 to 6 manufacturing plants and the job cuts will also come mostly from that sector of the company. The five percent job reduction will be made across Sony’s global workforce. Sony is the world’s second largest consumer electronics company. It is uncommon for consumer electronics company to make announcements of such cuts during the peak holiday season. The announcement serves to underscore the dire state of the economy as consumer spending declines./p

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SEIU: No Reason To Believe Any Union Wrongdoing In Blagojevich Case – 12/10/08

December 9th, 2008 No comments

pBy Doug Cunningham/p
pThe federal corruption indictment of Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich says the governor wanted the SEIU to get him a lucrative job heading the Change To Win labor federation as a payoff for appointing a U.S. Sentor who would advance the union’s political agenda. The indictment says the governor spoke with an SEIU official about the Senate seat. SEIU issued a statement Tuesday that says the union has no reason to believe SEIU or any SEIU official was involved in any wrongdoing. SEIU said “In keeping with the U.S. Attorney’s request, we are not sharing information with the media at this time.”/p

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Auto Workers To Congress: Union Pay Isn’t To Blame For Auto Crisis – 12/10/08

December 9th, 2008 No comments

pBy Doug Cunningham/p
pAs autoworkers wait for Congress to approve emergency loans to their industry, caravans of autoworkers traveled to Washington this week to drive home a point – that union autoworkers are not overpaid and did not bring the auto industry to the brink of bankruptcy. The autoworkers told Congress a national industrial policy and health care reform is needed to strengthen the U.S. auto industry./p

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UE Meets With Bank And Company To Resolve Chicago Sitdown Strike – 12/10/08

December 9th, 2008 No comments

pBy Doug Cunningham/p
pUnited Electrical workers met in Chicago Tuesday with company and bank officials in an effort to resolve the worker sitdown strike at Republic Windows amp; Doors. As of late Tuesday afternoon, no agreement had been reached to end the sitdown. Bank of America said Tuesday it’s willing to extend limited credit to Republic to help resolve the sitdown, but no money has been released yet to pay the workers the roughly $1.5 million in vacation pay, severance and wages they are owed. Two hundred workers occupied their factory in response to an illegal plant shutdown. UE organizer Leah Fried/p

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Victory for the Sit-In Strikers

December 9th, 2008 No comments

This just in from AP:
Bank of America says it will extend credit to a Chicago window and door manufacturer whose workers have occupied the factory for five days.
The bank says it’s willing to give the Republic Windows and Doors factory “a limited amount of additional loans” so it can resolves claims of employees who have [...]

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Memo to Chamber: Get Out of the Way of Fair Pay

December 9th, 2008 No comments

 

 
 

Holy pay discrimination, Batman! Did you know that working women here in Gotham City and around the country lose $434,000 over a lifetime of work because of the gender pay gap? But the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is fighting against fair pay for women?
With a boost from Batgirl (see video), our friends at I Am [...]

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10 Reasons to Support the U.S. Auto Industry

December 9th, 2008 No comments

Chances are the upcoming holiday get-togethers will provide plenty of encounters with relatives and friends who are against helping out the auto industry. Opponents of a bridge loan have plenty to say. And we should, too. Here’s a quick list of reasons for countering arguments by Uncle CEO and Cousin It.
1. Unlike the taxpayer giveaway [...]

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Workers to Highlight Employee Free Choice on Human Rights Day

December 9th, 2008 No comments

 

 
Last year on International Human Rights Day, workers demanded that the freedom to form unions be restored.
 

 

 

In hundreds of cities across the nation, workers will mark International Human Rights Day on Dec. 10 with a campaign to educate the public and build momentum to pass the Employee Free Choice Act. International Human Rights Day falls [...]

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