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AFL-CIO Shifts Young Worker Outreach Into High Gear |
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A new survey shows young workers are worse off this year than they were last year. And the AFL-CIO is ratcheting up its outreach program to connect with the next generation of workers.
The survey, commissioned by the AFL-CIO to update a 2009 study, shows young workers are more likely to be working part time, if at all, and have fewer resources to fall back on than they did just last year.
Only 52 percent of young workers surveyed said that they have enough savings to cover their living expenses for two months or more, compared with 60 percent in 2009. Sixty percent report being concerned about their futures, compared with 41 percent last year. Many also are concerned they will fare worse than previous generations when they reach retirement age. Read the updated survey report, “Young Workers: A Lost Decade, One Year Later,” here.
In its 10th Year, DC Labor FilmFest Opens Friday |
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The 10th annual DC Labor FilmFest kicks off Friday night at the American Film Institute in Silver Spring Md., with the French black comedy Lousie-Michel featuring workers at suddenly shuttered toy factory who decide to seek the ultimate revenge.
The FilmFest runs through Oct. 19 and includes the Washington, D.C., area premier of Fair Game, starring Naomi Watts and Sean Penn in the story of outed CIA operative Valerie Plame. Plame’s undercover CIA role was revealed in a Robert Novak column (thanks to a leak from the White House) after her husband, former U.S. ambassador Joe Wilson, published an op-ed piece critical of the Bush administration’s weapons of mass destruction intelligence in Iraq.
Click here to purchase tickets—union members get a discount when they show their union card at the box office—and here for detailed look at the line-up.
Chris Garlock, founder and director of the FilmFest presented by the DC Metro Labor Council, says the rest of the line up includes: Read the rest of this entry »
Public Employees Under Attack |
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The people who teach our children, protect us from crime, put out fires in our homes and make sure our water is clean are under attack. Conservative pundits and politicians across the country are using the economic crisis to attack public employees and portray them as privileged compared with everyone else. They use the fact that public employees, many of whom are union members, have been able to keep their well-funded pensions, reasonable hours and decent pay to stir up rage from those who have lost these benefits in the private sector.
Many cash-starved state and local governments have used these same arguments as a cover to cut services, personnel and pension benefits to balance their budgets and weaken unions.
Union Activists Counter Unprecedented Election Cash from Corporations, Front Groups |
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West Virginia Fire Fighters (IAFF), California Ironworkers and Painters and Allied Trades (IUPAT) and AFGE members across the country are fighting back against the hundreds of millions of dollars Republicans, corporations and phony front groups are pouring into the November elections.
In West Virginia, you’ll remember that a Republican TV ad for multimillionaire and mostly Florida resident John Raese’s campaign for the U.S. Senate used actors—encouraged to come to the auditions looking “hicky” in trucker caps and flannel shirts—to portray West Virginians.
The outcry over that condescending slap in the face to real West Virginia voters forced the National Republican Senatorial Committee to pull the ad last week. Now, some IAFF members who are real West Virginians are on the air (see video) backing Gov. Joe Manchin (D). In a commercial airing around the Mountain State, Mark Roberts, a Dunbar firefighter (IAFF Local 1228 member), says:
Joe Manchin doesn’t hire Philadelphia actors to play hicks in his ads. We need a real West Virginian to fight for us in the U.S. Senate.
IAFF President Harold Schaitberger says the Raese ad was offensive:
We didn’t have to ship in East Coast actors who pretend to support Joe because West Virginia is filled with firefighters who are proud to support him. West Virginians realize that Joe Manchin has been a fantastic governor, and they also understand that his legacy of service provides evidence that he will be an even better senator.
Domestic Workers Seeking Rights Need Unions |
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Jenya Cassidy of the Labor Project for Working Families reports on the importance of unions joining the campaign for domestic workers’ rights.
Many workers have a hard time balancing work and family, but the workers who take care of other people’s families have the hardest time of all. There are more than 2.5 million domestic workers in the United States who work as nannies and maids. They care for other families’ homes and children while they are separated from their own children, often by a continent. They work long hours without overtime pay and, more often than not, without health benefits.
In the most recent edition of Labor Family News, Andrea Cristina Mercado of Mujeres Unidas y Activas (Active and United Women, MUA) and Ai-Jen Poo of Domestic Workers United (DWU) tell the story of Maria, a Central American woman who came to New York as a domestic worker to support her family.
Union Members Getting Out the Vote in Critical Central California |
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Rachel Johnson, California Labor Federation Communications intern, sends us this cross-post from the Labor’s Edge Blog on union members mobilizing to get out the vote.
The Central Valley could be the California equivalent of Florida or Ohio in presidential politics—a critical battleground that may determine the fate of an election.
That’s why unions have placed special emphasis on the region this year, ramping up more phone banks, precinct walks and worksite visits than ever before. And if this past weekend’s Central Valley get out the vote (GOTV) kickoffs are any indication of how much grassroots energy there is statewide for Jerry Brown, Barbara Boxer and other working family candidates, it’s going to be a good night on Nov. 2.
AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Arlene Holt Baker joined hundreds of union volunteers and national and state leaders to launch the final phase of the California Labor Federation’s massive grassroots mobilization for the 2010 elections with union member-to-member walks in Modesto, Tracy and Sacramento.
Rescue of Chilean Miners a ‘Rare Blessing’ |
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At 12:11 a.m., Florencio Avalos, the first of 33 miners trapped for 69 days in Chile’s San Jose mine, emerged to the embrace of his family and friends. And workers, especially those who work deep in the earth in mines, let out a cheer and a deep sigh of relief. The rescue effort to free the miners, who have been in the Atacama Desert mine since Aug. 5, is going like clockwork, according to the Associated Press.
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, a third-generation coal miner himself, watched the rescue at the Chilean Embassy in Washington, D.C., last night. He said, “The miners endured tribulations that thankfully few will ever face, and are emerging as an inspiration to the world.”
It is a rare blessing when the earth gives back up those that it has trapped within. Watching these brave miners return to the embrace of their families is an indescribable joy.
And while this is a happy day, we also bow our heads and remember our fallen brothers and sisters who have not returned to us, and pray for a safe future for all those who toil underground.
Hundreds of Union Members Try to ‘Save the Dream’ of Home Ownership |
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Even though JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America have declared temporary moratoriums on foreclosures, millions of Americans still face the prospect of losing their homes. And union members are not exempt. Last week, hundreds of union members in danger of foreclosure attended two workshops sponsored by the nonprofit Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America (NACA) in hopes of being able to continue the American Dream of homeownership.
Counselors and lenders were on hand at the two Save-the-Dream workshops—one in Los Angeles and another in Sacramento, Calif.—to help people who cannot afford their mortgages. At similar events, NACA says it has been able to help some 80 percent of participants, with many households lowering their mortgage interest rates to 2 percent. That success rate, coupled with media coverage, ensured that both events would have overflow crowds.
Rebuilding the Infrastructure Is a ‘No-Brainer’ |
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When President Obama announced his plan to rebuild our nation’s transportation infrastructure, he was affirming what the AFL-CIO and the union movement have been saying for years: Our crumbling infrastructure needs rebuilding and doing so would put thousands of people back to work.
Today, the Council of Economic Advisers and the Treasury Department released a report spelling out the benefits of investing in our infrastructure, saying “well designed infrastructure investments have long term economic benefits” and “the middle class will benefit disproportionately from this investment.” The report also points out that a huge majority of Americans support infrastructure investment.
Oakland Nurses Begin Three-Day Strike—and More Bargaining News |
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Some 700 nurses at Children’s Hospital in Oakland, Calif. began a three-day striek today and more news from the “Bargaining Digest Weekly.” The AFL-CIO Collective Bargaining Department delivers daily, bargaining-related news and research resources to more than 1,300 subscribers. Union leaders can register for this service through our website, Bargaining@Work.
WORK STOPPAGES
NNU-CNA, Children’s Hospital Oakland: Some 700 nurses launched a three-day strike today at Children’s Hospital in Oakland, Calif., to demand a fair contract. The California Nurses Association (NNU-CNA) has been in negotiations with hospital management since May, but health care coverage remains a major issue.
AFM, Detroit Symphony Orchestra: Detroit orchestra musicians applauded a world-renowned violin soloist’s decision to cancel her scheduled recital with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. The Detroit players, along with the musicians of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra appealed to Sarah Chang to not cross the picket line set up last week by members of the Detroit Federation of Musicians (AFM).
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