Labor Union Blog

Economic Report:

According to the ADP Employer Services report, just 13,000 new U.S. private sector jobs were added in June. Some economists fear the federal government’s non-farm job report will reflect a big drop as well. Despite the ADP report, the median forecast of economists is that the government’s job report issued Friday will show 112,000 private jobs added in June. The recession recovery continues to be weak and not nearly enough new jobs are being created to get all the roughly 15 million unemployed American workers back to work.

Traffic was moving smoothly throughout the Chicago construction zones Thursday due to the lack of construction work. It wasn’t that construction in Chicago was completed, but because workers had put down their tools and walked off the job. The International Union of Operating Engineers went on strike Thursday morning over language in the most recent contract proposal that would see health care costs to workers go up anywhere from 10 to 12 percent.

By Doug Cunningham

Nearly 20,000 flight attendants at the merged Northwest Delta Airlines will soon get a chance to vote on union representation. And this time, flight attendants who don’t vote won’t be counted as anti-union. A rules change under the National Railway Labor Act will count only the yes and no votes actually cast. AFA-CWA spokesperson Renee Foss says the union filed Thursday for an election under this new rule.

[Foss]: “We’re thrilled to have an opportunity to have a air, democratic election that’s in line with other elections in this country.”

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The county’s busiest port is facing a strike by clerical works, but it hasn’t been shut down…yet. Jesse Russell reports:

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