Labor Union Blog

Seventy-three years ago today, President Franklin Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act into law. Today, more than 42 million Americans count on that monthly check to help buy groceries, pay the rent or get medicine. For all these 73 years, Social Security has never missed a payment.

But if retirees, people with disabilities and other Social Security beneficiaries had to count on Wall Street and the stock market to ensure Social Security's stability—as Sen. John McCain, President Bush and other Republican privatizers of Social Security have long sought—that reliability would replaced by an unacceptable risk.

That's the message members of the Alliance for Retired Americans are spreading this week in more than two dozen Social Security celebrations and rallies across the country. In Pennsylvania and Colorado, alliance members will be shadowing McCain during his campaign stops to protest his Social Security privatization plan and his recent description of Social Security as "a disgrace."

Economic Report:

Retail sales fell in July, dropping 0.1 percent as prices continue to rise. This is the first decrease in sales in five months as the monetary injection from the government’s stimulus checks ran out. According to the numbers released by the Commerce Department the biggest decline came in the automobile sector. Even with gasoline prices easing up slightly toward the end of July, consumers are hesitant to buy new cars.

One GM plant has been spared the chopping block. The American automaker said that an increased interest in fuel-efficient cars will allow it to keep open a plant in Massena, New York at least until June 2009. The plant had been scheduled to close at the end of 2008 laying of 250 workers.

New bills signed by Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick will increase that states spending on “green jobs.” Jesse Russell reports:

Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick signed a pair of bills on Wednesday that could move that state to the forefront of the “Green Jobs” movement. One of the bills is called the Green Jobs Act and is intended to provide grant money for companies and universities that provide encourage the training of workers for environmentally friendly jobs and also encourage startups to focus on the green development. Over the next five years the bill will provide $68 million dollars to the green jobs initiative. The second law signed on Wednesday is intended to require greenhouse gas emissions in the state to be 80 percent lower than in 1990 by the year 2050.

By Doug Cunningham

American Rights At Work is urging people to sign its online petition urging a Federal Elections Commission investigation of Walmart’s efforts to intimidate its workers into voting against Democrat Barack Obama in November. A Wall Street Journal story documented Wal-Mart’s mandatory meetings urging its workers not to vote Democratic. Walmart’s actions may have been illegal. Wal-Mart Watch is urging support for the American Rights At Work petition. Wal-Mart Watch says Walmart has a long history of anti-worker practices and there should be a full investigation of this elections incident by the Federal Elections Commission.