Labor Union Blog http://www.4ibew.com Web Blog for anything related to Union Labor Sat, 19 Jul 2008 15:45:40 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 en Click To Listen: WIN Week In Review July 18 - 20, 2008 http://www.4ibew.com/2008/07/19/click-to-listen-win-week-in-review-july-18-20-2008/ http://www.4ibew.com/2008/07/19/click-to-listen-win-week-in-review-july-18-20-2008/#comments Sat, 19 Jul 2008 15:45:40 +0000 UnionGuy tag:www.laborradio.org://71452017ad6b83156f5ad2a98eb1debe

]]> http://www.4ibew.com/2008/07/19/click-to-listen-win-week-in-review-july-18-20-2008/feed/ WIN Week In Review July 18-20, 2008 http://www.4ibew.com/2008/07/19/win-week-in-review-july-18-20-2008/ http://www.4ibew.com/2008/07/19/win-week-in-review-july-18-20-2008/#comments Sat, 19 Jul 2008 15:44:56 +0000 UnionGuy tag:www.laborradio.org://97ec08080474015ec08e605f286a08be WIN Week In Review July 19-20, 2008

By Doug Cunningham

GM - America’s fourth largest company in annual sales - said Tuesday that it’s making more deep cuts to survive a harsh economy. GM jobs have gone from 107,000 hourly jobs in 2004 to 74,000 today. Buyouts and early retirement incentives will slash even more of those as some new workers are added at half the pay. The new cuts include selling off $4-7 billion in assets, slashing salaried jobs and benefits and suspending the GM stock dividend. GM CEO Rick Waggoner called this an “unprecedentedly difficult time”. He said these cuts are necessary for GM’s survival.

]]> http://www.4ibew.com/2008/07/19/win-week-in-review-july-18-20-2008/feed/ Four Die in Latest Crane Disaster http://www.4ibew.com/2008/07/19/four-die-in-latest-crane-disaster/ http://www.4ibew.com/2008/07/19/four-die-in-latest-crane-disaster/#comments Sat, 19 Jul 2008 15:29:58 +0000 UnionGuy http://blog.aflcio.org/2008/07/19/four-die-in-latest-crane-disaster/ AP report.

The deadly collapse is the latest in a recent series of fatal crane accidents that have claimed more than a dozen lives in New York City, Las Vegas and Miami.

Friday's collapse took place at the LyondellBasell refinery in southeast Houston. Workers ran to a lunch tent designated as an evacuation site when a siren went off. Tragically, the falling crane landed on top of the tent, according to the AP. ]]> http://www.4ibew.com/2008/07/19/four-die-in-latest-crane-disaster/feed/ Holt Baker: Union and Civil Rights Movements Can Turn Country Around http://www.4ibew.com/2008/07/19/holt-baker-union-and-civil-rights-movements-can-turn-country-around/ http://www.4ibew.com/2008/07/19/holt-baker-union-and-civil-rights-movements-can-turn-country-around/#comments Sat, 19 Jul 2008 13:00:29 +0000 UnionGuy http://blog.aflcio.org/2008/07/19/holt-baker-union-and-civil-rights-movements-can-turn-country-around/ Bill Burke/Page One
Arlene Holt Baker

In this pivotal election year, the union and civil rights movements together can turn the country around from the disastrous course we have been on in recent years. But it will require members of both movements to “get angry and get our voters to the polls, fight through the barriers, wait in the lines and stand up” for our neighbors who are suffering in this economy, says AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Arlene Holt Baker.

Speaking at the annual Labor Luncheon at the NAACP’s national convention in Cincinnati this week, Holt Baker said:

It seems to me that for the past 30 years, our country has been headed in the wrong direction, with our dual movements for civil rights and union rights struggling against a huge tide of oppressive history.

]]> http://www.4ibew.com/2008/07/19/holt-baker-union-and-civil-rights-movements-can-turn-country-around/feed/ Netroots Nation: Real Answers for the Middle Class http://www.4ibew.com/2008/07/18/netroots-nation-real-answers-for-the-middle-class/ http://www.4ibew.com/2008/07/18/netroots-nation-real-answers-for-the-middle-class/#comments Fri, 18 Jul 2008 22:13:16 +0000 UnionGuy http://blog.aflcio.org/2008/07/18/netroots-nation-real-answers-for-the-middle-class/ Some 85 percent of the American public says they are unhappy with the U.S. economy, according to a new Time/Rockefeller Foundation poll, which called the figure "an unprecedented downer for an optimistic nation."

Concerns about the economy have raced ahead of any other issue this election season, as hard-hit middle class families struggle to pay the bills—and keep a roof over their heads.

At the Netroots Nation conference in Austin this morning, a panel explored economic policies that could make a positive influence in the lives of middle class families—and discussed how we hold lawmakers accountable for making those policies.

]]> http://www.4ibew.com/2008/07/18/netroots-nation-real-answers-for-the-middle-class/feed/ McCain Collects His Social Security Checks. Why Shouldn’t We? http://www.4ibew.com/2008/07/18/mccain-collects-his-social-security-checks.-why-shouldn%e2%80%99t-we/ http://www.4ibew.com/2008/07/18/mccain-collects-his-social-security-checks.-why-shouldn%e2%80%99t-we/#comments Fri, 18 Jul 2008 19:17:30 +0000 UnionGuy http://blog.aflcio.org/2008/07/18/mccain-collects-his-social-security-checks-why-shouldnt-we/

The Alliance for Retired Americans, the national organization that advocates for the rights of more than 3.5 million retirees and their families, asks a good question:

Will John McCain return the Social Security check he calls a "disgrace"?

Seems that even though he called Social Security a "disgrace," the senator from Arizona doesn't mind collecting his own monthly Social Security check, nearly $2,000 a month.

Says Edward Coyle, executive director of the Alliance for Retired Americans:

Retirees are puzzled by today’s media accounts that Senator John McCain received Social Security benefits of $23,157 in Social Security in 2007, an average of $1,929.75 each month.

America’s seniors deserve straight talk. Sen. McCain, now that you have said that Social Security is a disgrace, will you now mark "RETURN TO SENDER" on your check?

]]> http://www.4ibew.com/2008/07/18/mccain-collects-his-social-security-checks.-why-shouldn%e2%80%99t-we/feed/ Tomatoes or Children? http://www.4ibew.com/2008/07/18/tomatoes-or-children/ http://www.4ibew.com/2008/07/18/tomatoes-or-children/#comments Fri, 18 Jul 2008 17:18:46 +0000 UnionGuy http://blog.aflcio.org/2008/07/18/tomatoes-or-children/

Ben Davis, the AFL-CIO Solidarity Center representative in Mexico, relates a poignant narrative of what's wrong with trade agreements like the North American Free Trade Agreement.

On Jan. 6, 2007, David Salgado, a 9-year-old worker from Guerrero, was run over and killed by a tractor while harvesting tomatoes on a farm in Sinaloa. In a May 9 story, Arizona Republic correspondent Chris Hawley reported the owner of the farm is a major supplier of open field and greenhouse products, including tomatoes, eggplant and sweet bell peppers, for the North American market.

]]> http://www.4ibew.com/2008/07/18/tomatoes-or-children/feed/ Netroots Nation Labor Caucus Stresses Employee Free Choice http://www.4ibew.com/2008/07/18/netroots-nation-labor-caucus-stresses-employee-free-choice/ http://www.4ibew.com/2008/07/18/netroots-nation-labor-caucus-stresses-employee-free-choice/#comments Fri, 18 Jul 2008 14:37:46 +0000 UnionGuy http://blog.aflcio.org/2008/07/18/netroots-nation-labor-caucus-stresses-employee-free-choice/ The Netroots Nation conference has come to Austin, Texas, this year, and it’s brought together people from across the progressive movement. State, local and national bloggers are taking part in what has become an annual meeting to get together with other activists face to face and swap ideas. As labor communicators, it’s especially important for us to make sure the online community—an active and committed body of people—are paying attention to the core economic issues that matter to working families.

At Thursday’s Netroots Nation Labor Caucus, more than 40 communicators and other activists from across the union movement—unions of the AFL-CIO, Change to Win and the National Education Association participated—and outside the union movement got together to talk about working family issues and how to engage the netroots around them.

]]> http://www.4ibew.com/2008/07/18/netroots-nation-labor-caucus-stresses-employee-free-choice/feed/ Click To Listen: Streaming Headlines July 18, 2008 http://www.4ibew.com/2008/07/17/click-to-listen-streaming-headlines-july-18-2008/ http://www.4ibew.com/2008/07/17/click-to-listen-streaming-headlines-july-18-2008/#comments Thu, 17 Jul 2008 22:58:20 +0000 UnionGuy tag:www.laborradio.org://6d0bda0693ecc137956fa3f9015e9267

]]> http://www.4ibew.com/2008/07/17/click-to-listen-streaming-headlines-july-18-2008/feed/ Economic Report: 70% Of American Workers Feel Burned Out - 07/18/08 http://www.4ibew.com/2008/07/17/economic-report-70-of-american-workers-feel-burned-out-071808/ http://www.4ibew.com/2008/07/17/economic-report-70-of-american-workers-feel-burned-out-071808/#comments Thu, 17 Jul 2008 22:57:26 +0000 UnionGuy tag:www.laborradio.org://919f4768305cc69f8ad2b3c4a6f36b6a Economic Report:

Americans are burning our, or at least they feel like they are burning out. A new study from Harris Interactive has found that 78 percent of American workers say they feel burned out. Forty-five percent attribute it to a heavy workload while 23 percent are unhappy with the balance between work and their social lives. However, many workers confuse stress with burning out. Some signs of actual burn out include detachment, isolation, apathy, and hopelessness.

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