Labor Union Blog

Workers taken for a long ride by Disneyland on an unresolved labor contract are planning a hunger strike at Disneyland resorts. Jesse Russell has more.

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During Congressional hearings concerning a Comcast and NBC merger, Comcast CEO Brian Roberts said the deal would not result in employees being laid off. Roberts explained that the two companies are not direct competitors, so there would be little overlap in jobs. However, the Communications Workers of America which combined represents nearly 5,000 workers at the two companies, opposes the deal. The labor organization cited previous mergers of similar companies, such as Time Warner merging with AOL, which resulted in thousands of layoffs.

By Doug Cunningham

As Congress considers a jobs bill, the AFL-CIO says recent polls show the American people’s solid support of government spending money to create jobs and help the jobless. A CNN poll in mid-January showed 80 percent of Americans support government spending on roads and bridges while 83 percent support aid to unemployed workers. The latest CNN poll, taken in mid-January, shows four of five Americans (80 percent) favor government spending on roads and bridges, and 83 percent approve of aid to unemployed workers.

By Doug Cunningham

In every state in the U.S. being in a union on average means being paid more and being more likely to have employer-provided health care and an employer-sponsored retirement plan. The Center for Economic and Policy Research’s study, “The Unions Of The States” finds the typical union member earns 15 percent more money, is 19 percent more likely to have health care provided by employers and is 24 percent more likely to have a retirement plan from an employer.

By Doug Cunningham

In the wake of Thursday’s New York Attorney General indictment of bank of America and former CEO Ken Lewis on fraud charges, SEIU is calling Lewis and the bank to come clean with all the information surrounding the banks’ purchase of Merrill Lynch. SEIU says this investigation drives right to the heart of the financial crisis and taxpayers deserve all the facts. The union says big banks can’t crash our economy, take our money and walk away scot-free.

By a 60-37 vote, the U.S. Senate this afternoon confirmed M. Patricia Smith as the solicitor of labor. The solicitor of labor oversees enforcement of the nation’s most important labor laws and sets enforcement priorities that have a major impact on workers and their lives.

The late Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) described the solicitor general’s job as “the workers’ lawyer.” During her confirmation hearing last year, Smith said she would bring to the job a “philosophy of proactive enforcement.” Says AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka:

At a time when working families are bearing the brunt of the economic recession and violations of workplace rights are rampant, Ms. Smith’s commitment to strong, fair and effective enforcement of our workplace laws is crucial.

The vote follows some nine months of Republican obstruction in an attempt to block Smith from the U.S. Department of Labor post as the nation’s top labor lawyer.

Adhering to their strict policy of “No to everything,” all Republicans voted against Smith, the current commissioner of labor in New York state. Earlier this week, the Republican filibuster against Smith was broken. Says Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio):

We’ve had one year of Republicans saying “no,” of blocking and obstructing. This isn’t an inconsequential position. It’s a position that protects workers’ ability to be part of the middle class.

Ross Eisenbrey, vice president of the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), says:

For the last decade, lax labor law enforcement has made workers far more susceptible to abuses like unpaid overtime and wage theft, unsafe working conditions, and workplace discrimination, which is why Patricia Smith’s confirmation as Solicitor of Labor marks such an important change.

Fire Fighters members of Fairfax County (Va.) Urban Search and Rescue conduct a rescue operation at the Montana Hotel in Port-au-Prince.

Despite reports of improved conditions in Port-au-Prince, two weeks after the earthquake hit Haiti, workers still lack basic shelter, food, water and medicine, reports Cathy Feingold, the AFL-CIO Solidarity Center representative in the neighboring Dominican Republic.

Feingold met with union leaders in Haiti last week and says:

…the majority of union leaders and members are sleeping outside their homes because many completely collapsed or became unstable as a result of structural damage. Direct access to international humanitarian aid remains challenging; so many workers and their unions depend on the support received from the global labor movement.

You can take action now to help the Haitian survivors by clicking on the AFL-CIO Haitian Disaster Relief site here. You can read Feingold’s full report here.

Meanwhile, union support continues to pour into Haiti:

• Some of the 11,000 nurses who responded to the National Nurses United’s call for volunteers to help in Haiti left this week to join the U.S. Navy hospital ship Comfort, which is crewed by members of the Seafarers. You can help send a nurse to Haiti by clicking here.
• Donations to the Solidarity Center’s Earthquake Relief for Haitian Workers Campaign are already being put to use. Delegations from Dominican unions have traveled to Port-au-Prince with truckloads of bottled water, non-perishable food, first aid products, re-hydration liquids and other needed supplies.  Click here and Union Plus will automatically match your contribution to the fund, up to $100,000. You do not need to use a Union Plus credit card for the matching donation.
• Fire Fighters (IAFF) members from Los Angeles, Fairfax County, Va., and other cities are still conducting rescue operations in the rubble.  

A majority of the 300 postdoctoral researchers working at three University of Massachusetts campuses in Boston, Amherst and Dartmouth have signed cards to join a union to negotiate better wages, health care and working conditions.

A delegation of the workers filed a petition yesterday asking the Massachusetts Division of Labor Relations (DLR) to certify their union, UMass Postdoctoral Researchers Organize/UAW (UMass PRO/UAW), as their representative for collective bargaining.

Says Simona Maccarrone, a postdoctoral researcher from UMass Amherst:

We’ve taken this step so we can protect our rights on the job, and make sure postdocs working on different campuses and in different labs are treated fairly and receive comparable pay and benefits. This will give us the same union rights as other workers and faculty at UMass.

If the Employee Free Choice Act is implemented, workers would be able to choose for themselves how to form a union, including through majority sign-up. The UAW represents workers at more than 40 universities and colleges across the country, including teaching assistants, research assistants, graders, tutors and other student academic employees and support staff.

Caleb Rounds, a plant biologist at UMass, adds:

 We’re a vital part of the university workforce and leaders in our fields, yet our pay is very low.  With the economy rebounding, the university’s financial situation is improving, so it’s time to address our needs.   

UAW Regional Director Bob Madore says the UMass workers are the first postdoctoral researchers in Massachusetts to join a union. 

These are first-class academic employees working in a world-class institution, and they are pioneering on behalf of their colleagues at other colleges and universities in Massachusetts.

Postdoctoral researchers perform basic scientific research and contribute to the development of new innovations in biomedical science and industrial technologies. They also publish scholarly articles and write grant proposals that help bring in millions of dollars in grants and contracts.

Earlier this week, we noted a new study that predicts health insurance premiums will jump between 10 percent and 11 percent this year. Now a new government report says health care costs last year took the biggest bite ever out of the nation’s economy.

The non-partisan Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) reports that health care spending ate up a record 17.3 percent of the nation’s economy, or $2.5 trillion, in 2009, up from 16.2 percent in 2008. That is the largest one-year jump in 50 years. In 1960, health care costs consumed just 5 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product.

Over the past 50 years, as health care costs have soared and working families pay more and more for less and less, profits have skyrocketed in the health care industry, especially the private health insurance industry.

Yet the Party of No Republican opposition to meaningful health care reform means these through-the-roof costs for families and the entire nation will climb higher and higher.

Comprehensive health care reform would slow the growth in health care spending, lower working families’ costs and maybe even take a small bite of the health care profits. Independent experts have predicted that health care reform could save working families between $2,000 and $3,000 a year if enacted. If not, costs will continue to soar.