Labor Union Blog

Activists in Wisconsin, shown here, launched a year of protests in 2011 against injustice, economic inequality and blatant attacks on the ability of working people to form unions and collectively bargain for a solid, middle class life.

The movement spread nationwide, and the establishment took note: Time magazine named the “Protester” Person of the Year.

As we toast the New Year, the AFL-CIO union movement is committed to magnifying that energy in 2012 on behalf of working people across the country.

Happy New Year.

Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels’ administration will limit the number of people who can assemble in the statehouse beginning Jan. 1–a move that Indiana AFL-CIO President Nancy Guyott says creates a “policy to shut out the voices of dissent and limit access to government to only those they favor.”

IndyStar.com reports state security agencies have capped the number of people who can be in the statehouse in Indianapolis at any one time to 3,000, including about 1,700 employees–a fraction of the number who have turned out at the statehouse to protest proposed “right to work” (for less) legislation.

According to Guyott:

Under this policy neither lobbyist nor donor will be turned away–yet everyday, taxpaying citizens will be.

This arrogant move is clearly aimed at working people who in 2011 went to the Statehouse to protest the anti-worker agenda being advanced there–and it is wrong. Our Constitution guarantees us the right to petition our government, and this limits that fundamental right.

That it is the official policy of this state that the people’s voices are mere noise is tragic. And that those setting Indiana’s legislative priorities feel they must isolate people’s representatives from the citizens they represent is
testament to how unpopular the policies they are advancing are.

Time Magazine named “the protester” the Person of the Year for 2011. Looks like Daniels and his crew would like to keep that from happening again in 2012.

Maybe a lot has changed in the past decade–back then we didn’t have YouTube to bring us hours of enjoyment of cute babies and kittens–but working men and women today are taking home about the same size paychecks we did back then.

Take a look at the National Employment Law Project’s new video–and have a safe and happy New Year 2001.

Musicians in Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and Texas can play a happy tune following a Dec. 27 ruling by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) that says musicians in symphony orchestras are employees with the freedom to join unions—not independent contractors.

Members of the Lancaster (Pa.) Symphony Orchestra sought to join the American Federation of  Musicians (AFM) and the union filed a  petition for an election  But an NLRB regional director ruled the musicians were independent contractors and thus ineligible for union representation.

The Board’s 2-1 decision reversed that ruling and sent the case back to the region for further action. Citing the Lancaster ruling, the NLRB issued decisions the following day that the musicians in the Cape Cod Symphony Orchestra and the Plano Symphony Orchestra are also employees with the right to join a union.

For more on the cases, visit the NLRB here and the Bureau of National Affairs’ Daily Labor Report (subscription required) here.

Most of the time here at AFL-CIO Now we deal with serious subjects like workers’ rights, health care, economic inequality to sometimes even wonkish matters such as currency manipulation and corporate governance rules.

But we thought if you are visiting us today in the middle of holiday season and just a couple of  days before News Year’s celebrations get underway, we’d give you something different courtesy of the American Federation of Musicians (AFM).

Each month the union’s magazine—International Musician—features one of their better known members who talk about how they got started in the music business and what their union membership means to them.

Violin superstar Rachel Barton Pine told the magazine:

As a home-school assignment, I had to write a paper about the AFL-CIO, and as I was learning about the history of unions in America, I was seeing on a daily basis how the AFM was protecting us.  To this day, I feel a sense of solidarity with my brothers and sisters that I’m playing with every night.

Jazz trumpeter Randy Brecker says he joined AFM in 1966 when he moved to New York City and that the networking with “the great musicians already enrolled” opened doors. “You’d form relationships and play gigs with other members. And one thing always led to another.”

Five decades later Brecker says, “[The union’s] wonderful pension plan is very important for young musicians. It’s important they realize that they have a future when they get older.”

Click here and check out the list on the left of featured musicians.

With the state legislative season set to get under way next month, Virginia offers us a preview of what working family activists are up against. A story  in today’s The Washington Post explores some of the more than 50 bills “ghostwritten” for Republican state legislators by the extreme conservative American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).

Anna Scholl, executive director of Progress VA, tells the Post that ALEC is:

a secretive organization funded by big corporations, has been writing bills that Virginia legislators are passing off as their own work on everything from education to health care to voting rights.

ALEC bills in Virginia have included new restrictions on voter rights, anti-immigrant legislation and right-wing bills on education, tax breaks for corporations and a new law the Post says “laid the legal groundwork” for Virginia’s lawsuit to overturn the Affordable Care Act.  Read more in ProgressVA’s report, ALEC Exposed: Who’s Writing Virginia’s Laws.

Along with the more than 2,000 extreme lawmakers from every state, ALEC membership includes more than 300 major corporations such as Wal-Mart, Exxon Mobil, Kraft Foods, Bayer and Koch Industries. David and Charles Koch, the right-wing extremist billionaire brothers, are major funders of ALEC, according to a July article in The Nation.

Outside of Virginia, ALEC is a major player in the right to work for less fight in Indiana. ALEC backed discriminatory voter suppression laws in several states and efforts to undermine workers rights, including S.B. 5 in Ohio and Wisconsin’s elimination of collective bargaining  rights for public employees.

A Common Cause report says ALEC fights to:

secure passage of on legislation that puts corporate interests ahead of the interests of average Americans.

In July, the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) issued a report and launched the website ALEC Exposed, which includes the more than 800 ALEC-authored model bills that have been passed or introduced by state lawmakers. CMD Executive Director Lisa Graves says ALEC:

is little more than a bill factory for corporate-friendly legislation that often repeals people’s rights or fattens the corporate bottom line.

That bill factory will be pushing its extremist product in state legislatures throughout the nation in the coming months.

Every wonder why it’s so hard to get a millionaires’ tax passed?

We all know that the gap between 1 percent and the rest us has grown to obscene proportions. Their wealth has soared while ours has stagnated or fallen over the past decade and more.

We picture Wall Street stockbrokers, bankers and CEOs as the top winners in our out of whack economy. But new figures from the University of Michigan and the Center for Responsive Politics (CRP) show that members of Congress—where 250 lawmakers are millionaires—are doing better than anybody.

In a story today on the new data in The New York Times, Eric Lichtblau writes:

Members of Congress are getting richer compared not only with the average American worker, but also with other very rich Americans.

While the median net worth of members of Congress jumped 15 percent from 2004 to 2010, the net worth of the richest 10 percent of Americans remained essentially flat. For all Americans, median net worth dropped 8 percent, based on inflation-adjusted data from Moody’s Analytics.

A Washington Post article points out that between 1984 and 2009, the median wealth of House members grew two and half times (adjusted for inflation), while the wealth of the average American family actually declined.

CRP Executive Director Shelia Krumholz told the Times that rising congressional wealth cast doubts in voters’ minds about whether lawmakers have a grasp on the struggles average families face.

There’s always a concern that they can’t truly understand or relate to the hardships that their constituents feel—that rich people just don’t get it.

The Times contacted all current House and Senate members and asked if they had any close friends or families who lost their jobs or homes in the great recession. Only 18 responded and only nine said yes.

Click here for the full Times article and here for more from the Post.

The Communications Workers of America (CWA) Speed Matters campaign will soon release its annual report on Internet speeds across the country to help paint a clear picture of U.S. Internet speeds and identify the areas that need immediate improvement.

You can help by clicking here to take the Speed Matters test to find out just how fast your Internet speed is. Previous reports have found that the United States lags far behind other industrialized nations when it comes to Internet speeds.

Why does Internet speed matter?

For individuals, it means access to new education opportunities, job training, telemedicine services and much more.

For businesses, it means connecting to the global economy, opening up new markets and accelerating growth.

For the economy as a whole, it means creating new jobs and making sure we’re not falling behind the rest of the world in the digital age.

Click here and take the Speed Matters test now.

Speed Matters promotes affordable high-speed Internet for all and advocates for programs and policies that build affordable, universal high-speed broadband investment.

Occupy Justice, Wherever You Are!

Seasons Greetings from

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka
AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler
AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Arlene Holt Baker

Congress this morning extended for two months unemployment insurance (UI) for America’s jobless workers. Republicans in the House earlier this week had blocked the UI extenstion, but after suffering badly in opinion polling, they announced they’d join with 89 out of 100 senators from both political parties who’d already voted to renew unemployment aid for two months—with no cuts and no strings attached.

Media headlines throughout the week–including the conservative Wall Street Journal–and Republican stalwarts such as Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), had decried House Speaker John Boehner’s (R-Ohio) refusal to move the UI bill, which gives a lifeline to 2.8 million jobless Americans who otherwise would lose UI after Dec. 31.

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka described the victory for jobless Americans as “not a hnndout or a free ride” but “a lifeline.”

In the fight to extend aid for the jobless, the 99 percent went on the offense against 1 percent politicians. And we won. And if working people keep it up, we’ll score more victories and build a better future. Not every time—two steps forward, one step back. But look around. People all across the country are saying our economy and our democracy are out of balance. And they’re winning the public debate.