“Stop the Lies” aims to counter myth about public service workers

AFSCME, the largest union of state and local government workers in the US, recently launched a media campaign, called No More Lies, to challenge the popular myth that public service workers are overpaid and have overly generous benefits. “We aim to remind the country that attacking public services and public service workers will not fix our […]

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Columbia: The most dangerous place in the world for union members

Last May, Francisco Antonio Abello Rebollo was working on a palm oil plantation in the Magdalena province of Columbia when two armed men approached and shot him dead. Abello was an activist member of SINTRAINAGRO, a union of farm workers who won union recognition last March at the plantation where Abello worked. The union victory came […]

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International support helps hospital workers help patients

They were frustrated. They worked for a children’s hospital in the laundry room where most of the laundry machines didn’t work and hadn’t worked for eight days. Dirty bed linens and hospital uniforms were piling up at Benjamin Bloom National Children’s Hospital in San Salvador, El Salvador. The workers told management about the problem, but nobody listened. And this wasn’t the […]

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Titan Tire Update

Titan Tire on Friday declared negotiations with the United Steelworkers at an impasse. As a result, the company was able to impose its final contract offer on the workers. After declaring an impasse, Titan lifted its lock out, which had been in effect for some of its workers since December 17.  Titan had locked out workers at its three […]

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Titan Tire lock out update

After being locked out of work by Titan Tire for nearly a week, members of the United Steelworkers at Titan plants in Freeport, Illinois and Bryan, Ohio on December 23 rejected the company’s last and final contract offer. But workers at Titan’s Des Moines plant voted to accept the new contract A worker at the Freeport plant who rejected the offer said […]

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Merry Christmas

I’m taking a few days off to enjoy the Holidays. I’ll be back on Tuesday or maybe Wednesday. In the meantime for your entertainment, here are some music videos that I like. http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x236hb_rage-against-the-machine-sleep-now_music http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tAb5rYRXvs

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Privatization the cause of airport misery?

You probably saw the images on TV or the internet. Thousands of stranded and miserable passengers at London’s Heathrow Airport sprawled on floors or queuing up in lines at ticket counters as they waited for information about canceled flights after the airport was virtually shut down between December 18 and December 21. Some passengers were stranded for days […]

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Tire company locks out workers in Midwest

Titan Tires locked out 1,000 of its union employees late last week at its factories in Iowa, Ohio, and Illinois in hopes of forcing workers to accept concessions in a new contract that the company is negotiating with the United Steelworkers. “The company’s proposal falls short of what we would like to see,” said Jim […]

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Mexican and US unions plan for unity

Unity was their focus when leaders of two unions on either side of the Mexico-US border met earlier this month in Vancouver, Canada.  A joint committee set up last June by the National Union of Mine, Metal, Steel, and Allied Workers of the Mexican Republic and the United Steelworkers convened on December 10 to plan strategic cooperation and […]

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UE wins favorable contracts

These days, many contract negotiations result in unions making major concessions. But last week, the United Electrical Workers (UE) announced that it had reached favorable agreements with three manufacturing employers. Mobilization of rank and file members was key to the success at two of the companies, and at the third, workers succeeded in improving their defined […]

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State workers join coalition to save state services

Working for the State of Texas can be frustrating. Demand for services is always heavy; resources for providing them are always thin. That frustration level will increase dramatically if Texas’ leaders succeed in closing the state’s $21 billion budget shortfall through budget cuts.   The looming cuts to state services are one reason that the Texas State Employees Union, a statewide local […]

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Fire kills garment workers; workers protest low wages

Fire swept through a Bangladesh garment factory Wednesday killing at least 29 workers and injuring dozens of others. Three days earlier, three workers were killed as thousands of angry garment workers enraged by their low pay shut down 300 garment factories in Bangladesh’s Chittagong Export Process Zone . Most of the clothes made at Bangladesh’s factories are inexpensive […]

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Pope vs Hoffa for Teamster General President

It’s official. Sandy Pope will challenge James Hoffa, Jr. for the leadership of the Teamsters Union. “I want to thank every Teamster who worked on and supported the petition drive. Together, we are making Teamster history,” Pope said. If elected, Pope would become the first female president of the Teamsters, the nation’s largest union with […]

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Deferred maintenance causes worker injuries, worsens pollution

Gregory Starkey, Jr. died on the job. Seabell Thomas endured 12 days of an environmental disaster that left her and her neighbors breathing air polluted with tons of sulphur dioxide. Both were victims of accidents at Louisiana oil refineries. According to a new report entitled Common Ground II, most of the 500 accidents that occur annually at Louisiana’s […]

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Smelter workers want answers, not cover up

Patrick Garza is ill, and he wants to know why. Garza, who worked as a pipefitter at the ASARCO copper smelter in El Paso, has multiple sclerosis, which he thinks may have been caused by the toxic material processed at the smelter. He’s not alone. Other former smelter workers think that their health problems may be […]

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Misclassification makes life hard for drivers

“I work day and night; sometimes 90 hours a week,” said Daniel Ortiz, a short-haul truck driver at the Port of Newark. “I don’t have time to rest; I don’t have time to be with my family.” Oritz is one of 110,000 short-haul drivers in the US who transfer goods between the nation’s ports and […]

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Higher education deficit bigger threat than budget deficit

Texas has a deficit problem that threatens its economic future, but it’s not the budget deficit; it’s the state’s higher education deficit. Nearly 50 percent of the state’s new jobs will require at least a bachelor’s degree, but only 30 percent of the state’s 25-34 year olds have an associate’s degree or better. The Texas […]

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Unions organize precarious workers

What does a sugar cane workers’ union in Iran have in common with an auto workers’ union in South Korea? They’re both  organizing temporary workers, also known as precarious workers, a growing segment of the worldwide workforce. Precarious workers often work side-by-side with permanent workers, do much of the same work, but are paid much less […]

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New US/South Korea trade pact much the same as the old one

Over the weekend, President Obama announced that the US and South Korea had agreed to changes in a free-trade agreement that he thought would lead to quick approval by legislative bodies in the US and South Korea. The United Auto Workers said that, “these changes represent an important opportunity to break open the Korean market […]

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Iranian union leader jailed as government continues crackdown

Reza Rakshan, leader of an indepent union of sugar cane workers’union in Iran, was recently sentenced to jail  for publishing an article about the union and its struggle for justice at the Haft Tapeh Sugar Cane Company in southern Iran. The union was organized in 2008 after 5,000 workers at the only sugar cane processing plant in Iran put down their tools […]

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