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Welcome, New Neighbors! |
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OK, so our AFL-CIO building here in Washington, D.C., is surrounded by barricades. It’s for a good cause: Our new neighbor has set up temporary digs at the Hay-Adams across the street, and he carries a lot of Secret Service with him. The Secret Service has this need for, well, security.
But imagine what it’s like to be 10-year-old Malia and 7-year-old Sasha, whisked daily through concrete barriers and blockaded streets only to return home to a hotel room?
So we thought we’d brighten up their days a bit. From the seventh floor of our building, we’ve draped a one-story-tall and 67-foot-wide banner welcoming the two Obama girls.
That banner joins one we put up in the early hours of Nov. 5, just above our entrance, saying, “We’re Turning Around America.”
More U.S. Children Face Poverty |
Last year, the number of poor children in the United States increased by nearly half a million, to 13.3 million—and 5.8 million of those are living in extreme poverty. Nearly 9 million children have no health insurance. Those numbers are sure to rise as the nation plunges further into recession, says the Children’s Defense Fund (CDF) in its recently released report, The State of America’s Children 2008.
According to the CDF report, children in the United States lag behind those in almost all industrialized nations on key indicators. Our nation has the unwanted distinction of being the worst among industrialized countries in relative child poverty, the gap between rich and poor, teen birth rates and child gun violence. In addition, the United States is first in the number of incarcerated persons.
Rep. Ellison Shows How to Support Employee Free Choice |
As the new Congress kicks off its first week and we prepare for the inauguration of President-elect Barack Obama, now is the time for political leaders to speak out for the freedom of workers to form unions and bargain for a better life.
Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) is a great example of how a political leader can educate the public and fight for workers as we work to pass the Employee Free Choice Act.
Ellison and other pro-worker members of Congress have come under fire from deep-pocketed Big Business lobbyists and corporate front groups that are expending millions on disinformation and false attack ads to scare voters and elected officials alike. But Ellison, an Employee Free Choice Act co-sponsor, doesn’t scare so easily.
Welcome, New Members of Congress! |
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| Sen. Kay Hagen, who defeated Elizabeth Dole in North Carolina, and Rep. Paul Tonko of New York are among the new members of Congress who joined members of the AFL-CIO union movement at a reception in their honor. |
Before getting down to the serious business of fair pay legislation, the Employee Free Choice Act, economic recovery and a whole host of other issues to change the nation’s stumbling direction after eight years of Bush rule, dozens of new members of Congress, and some veterans, got together with the labor movement last night.
At the AFL-CIO-sponsored reception at a Capitol Hill hotel, lawmakers, union leaders and legislative representatives mingled and talked about how a larger working family majority in both houses will impact upcoming legislative battles. In his welcoming remarks, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said:
We know what our priorities are and we know how committed each and everyone of you are, as is the president of the United States, to the working family agenda.
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) told the crowd:
On behalf of the speaker [Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.)] and myself, we will never forget, we will look forward to going forward shoulder to shoulder, paycheck to equitable paycheck. I will tell you this as well, when people say they want to be a member of a union and sign up, we’re going to make sure that they have the ability to be a member of a union.
Survey: Public Strongly Supports Employee Free Choice |
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A new survey released today shows 78 percent of those polled want to see legislation that protects workers’ freedom to form unions and bargain for a better life—great news and a strong signal to Congress and President-elect Barack Obama that we need to pass the Employee Free Choice Act.
The survey of 1,007 adults across the country, conducted Dec. 4-10 for the AFL-CIO by Peter D. Hart Research Associates, shows a striking level of support for the provisions of the Employee Free Choice Act and the freedom to form unions. This support crosses party and state lines, with 74 percent of those who identify as moderate or liberal Republicans in favor; conservative Republicans were the only group not expressing majority support. Support remains steady, even when those surveyed heard messages from both supporters and opponents of the bill.
Watch Mary Beth Maxwell Discuss Employee Free Choice on C-SPAN |
On Friday, Mary Beth Maxwell, executive director of American Rights at Work, appeared on C-SPAN’s “Washington Journal” for a great interview about the importance of quickly passing the Employee Free Choice Act.
In the half-hour interview, Maxwell described our badly broken system for forming unions, how it has undermined workers’ bargaining power and the economy, and how the Employee Free Choice Act will restore workers’ freedom to form unions without corporate harassment and intimidation, allowing them to bargain for a better life. Maxwell took questions from viewers around the country and cut through the misconceptions about the Employee Free Choice Act.
Don’t Be Fooled: ‘SOS Ballot’ Another Corporate Front Group |
Another day, another shady front group trying to confuse and mislead workers. This time, a new group calling itself “SOS Ballot” is waging an under-the-radar state-level campaign to lock in corporate domination and prevent workers from exercising the freedom to bargain for a better life.
In five states—Nevada, Arizona, Missouri, Arkansas and Utah—SOS Ballot is gathering signatures, hoping to put initiatives on the ballot to prevent workers from opting to form unions through majority sign-up.
“SOS Ballot” is yet another misleadingly named corporate front group, with a secret funding base, aimed at keeping a firm corporate lock on workers and their ability to form unions and bargain.
Who’s behind it? A glimpse at their priorities: The group is chaired, according to its website, by former U.S. Rep. Ernie Istook (R-Okla.). Istook had a consistently anti-worker voting record in Congress, voting to block collective bargaining rights, eliminate overtime and block the enforcement of workplace safety and mine safety rules. The big-money donors behind this effort are hoping that hiding behind a clever name will convince us that this time, they only have workers’ best interests at heart.
Right.
New Look for Sheet Metal Workers’ Website |
When you get a chance, cruise on over to the Sheet Metal Workers (SMWIA) revamped website. The just-launched site offers several new features—for visitors and SMWIA members—along with a clean and streamlined look.
The site’s new News section brings you a wide variety of worker-orientated labor and political news from the blog world and the mainstream press. The new Multimedia Resource Center gives you access to a wide range of SMWIA news, videos, podcasts and photos. Check out the video gallery here and photo gallery here.
New social networking features include SMWIA Facebook, the Sheet Metal Network and Sheet Metal Twittering.
The site’s Action Center provides information and the chance to join in the union’s and the labor movement’s latest campaigns, including the fight to win the Employee Free Choice Act.
AFL-CIO Groups Highlight Cervical Cancer Awareness Month |
January is Cervical Cancer Awareness Month, and as part of its campaign to raise awareness about how to prevent this deadly disease, the Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW) is teaming up with the Metropolitan Washington Council’s Community Services Agency (CSA) at one of the largest health and fitness expos in the nation.
The two groups will take part in the NBC4 Health and Fitness Expo in Washington, D.C., Jan 10-11 at the Washington Convention Center. The Expo—with more than 200 exhibits, health screenings, demonstrations and more—promotes good health and provides advice in making healthy lifestyle choices.
The CLUW/CSA exhibit will focus on cervical cancer prevention, women’s health and how unions can have an impact on women’s health by bargaining contracts with strong health care provisions. The first 1,000 visitors who show a union card or union label will receive a “Pearl of Wisdom” pin, symbol of a new cervical cancer awareness program set to launch later this month.
FAA Fails to Reach Performance Goals for 2008 |
With a record number of air traffic controllers retiring early or simply leaving the towers and radar facilities after the Federal Aviation Administration unilaterally imposed new work rules and pay cuts in 2006, trainees make up more than one-quarter of the controller workforce.
That, says the National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA), is at the heart of critical safety shortcomings in the FAA.
Burdened by an increasingly inexperienced workforce and a continuation of failed staffing and labor relations policies, the FAA has admitted that not only did it fail in fiscal year 2008 to meet its own performance goals for one of its most critical safety issues—incidents involving planes getting too close—but the agency is off to a poor start to the new fiscal year as well.
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