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lia href =http://www.laborradio.org/node/10193California Labor Fighting To Defend Workers In State Budget Crisisa//li
lia href =http://www.laborradio.org/node/10194Wal-Mart Will Begin New Year By Paying As Much As $640 Million In Wage Theft Suitsa//li
lia href =http://www.laborradio.org/node/10195State Workers Nationwide Uncertain As Governors Grapple With Budget Deficitsa//li
lia href =http://www.laborradio.org/node/10196Economic Report: First Half Of New Year Could See 73,000 U.S. Stores Closeda//li
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pEconomic Report:/p
pRetailers know holiday sales were bad this year, but what does that mean for the surplus of stores? According to a new report by the International Council of Shopping Centers, 73,000 stores could be shuttered during the first half of 2009 alone. The group says sales at stores open for less than a year dropped by nearly 2 percent during the final two moths of 2008. That drop is the largest in the 40 years the statistic has been tracked./p
pGovernors are taking drastic measures to deal with budget shortfalls leaving many state employees pondering what the next step should be. Jesse Russell reports:/p
pA majority of states are going into 2009 facing major budget shortfalls and state workers are often finding themselves under the knife of Governor’s tasked with tough decisions. In Maryland state workers faced their first forced unpaid furlough on Friday when the state closed down in an attempt to save $34 million dollars. The second state closure will come on January 2. Most workers will be asked take two more days off by June 30. The furloughs impact 67,000 workers in “non-essential” jobs. A similar move in California that would mandate twice-monthly furloughs has led to a legal challenge. The lawsuit was filed by the Professional Engineers in California Government alleging that the governor does not have the right to cut wages or hours without approval by the California legislature. Washington’s governor is also facing a lawsuit for attempts to make up for lost tax revenue. The union representing 40,000 state workers filed unfair labor practice charges after the Governor used a 2002 collective bargaining law which she says allows her to hold out on additional funding of employee contracts if the new budget can not provide. As a result she froze raises and benefits in the 2009-2011 budget. The lawsuit also calls for the provision in the collective bargaining law to be revoked. /p
pBy Doug Cunningham/p
pWal-Mart is hoping to start off the New Year by paying as much as $640 million to settle 63 wage theft lawsuits filed by its workers. The final amount Wal-Mart will pay is determined by how many workers will be compensated. The lawsuits were filed in response to Wal-Mart practices that forced workers to work without pay during breaks./p
pBy Doug Cunningham/p
pThe California Labor Federation’s Steve Smith says as California struggles to close a $40 billion state budget gap, Republicans have frozen two thousand infrastructure projects while trying to force state workers to take two days off each month without pay. /p
p[Smith]: “The last thing we want to be doing when we’re facing a financial crisis as large as the one we have now is tke money out of the hands of workers, because that’s just gonna make things worse./p
pSmith says organized labor in California is seeking a rational solution that keeps money in workers’ pockets./p
In today’s New York Times, the editorial board makes a strong, clearly argued and unambiguous case that President-elect Obama needs to strengthen working families by pushing for a quick passage of the Employee Free Choice Act and giving his Labor Secretary-designate, Rep. Hilda Solis, the power she needs to protect workers.
The editorial lays out several [...]
Here’s the third part in our series taking a look back at 2008. Check out Part 1 here and Part 2 here.
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May-June
Union members knocked on the first of what would be 10 million of union voters’ doors around the country to talk with them about the key working family issues in the 2008 elections. In [...]
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