About 750,000 teachers and other public sector workers in the United Kingdom today staged a 24-hour strike that shut down schools and other public services to demand that the government back off its attempt to reduce their pensions. “This is the best supported strike we’ve ever had,” said Mark Serwotka, general secretary of the Public […]
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Archive | June, 2011
Lawmakers punish Cap Metro’s mismanagement by trying to cut workers pay
June 29, 2011 
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What do you do if you’re overseeing a public transportation authority that doesn’t control cost overruns on a commuter rail project and nearly exhausts its financial reserves? If you’re the Texas Legislature, you punish the authority by trying to cut its workers’ wages and breaking their union. Capital Metro provides public transportation service to Austin and its outlying suburbs. In 2004, it began […]
Read moreWith bi-partisan support, race to bottom shifts to New Jersey
June 28, 2011 0 Comments
The New York Times last week reported that recently passed legislation in New Jersey ”will significantly increase costs or reduce benefits for three-quarters of a million public employees and retirees.” A typical New Jersey public worker who enrolls her family in her health care plan will now pay about $3,600 annually for her health care premium, up from about […]
Read moreUnion charges Ikea with violating code of conduct
June 27, 2011 3 Comments
The International Association of Machinist charged Ikea, the giant Swedish furniture retailer, with violating it own code of conduct after the company’s US subsidiary that manufacturers furniture for Ikea stores interfered with its workers’ union organizing campaign. Workers at the Danville, Virginia plant operated by Swedwood, a wholly owned subsidiary of Ikea, on June 20 filed […]
Read moreNLRB proposes rule changes to speed up union elections
June 24, 2011 0 Comments
The National Labor Relations Board earlier this week proposed modest changes to the procedures for holding union representation elections. The proposed changes are, according to the NLRB, “intended to reduce unnecessary litigation, streamline pre- and post-election procedures, and facilitate the use of electronic communications and document filing.” Interested parties have 60 days to share their […]
Read moreNurses tell Wall Street: It’s time you make some sacrifices
June 23, 2011 0 Comments
Dressed in red tee shirts and carrying signs that read, “Heal America, Tax Wall Street,” about 1,000 members of National Nurses United and their supporters gathered on the steps of the Federal Hall across the street from the New York Stock Exchange on Wall Street to demand that financial speculators be taxed to help finance an economic […]
Read moreMiners’ new contract provides hefty raise but diverts new hires to 401(k) plan
June 22, 2011 5 Comments
Members of the United Mine Workers of America last week approved a new contract with the Bituminous Coal Operators Association that provides the largest pay raise for miners in the union’s 121-year history and preserves the current level of health care coverage for active miners, retirees, and their families. But the agreement also allows the operators […]
Read moreGE, unions reach tentative agreement
June 21, 2011 7 Comments
Update: GE workers have approved the new contracts. For more details, see the comments. GE and its two largest unions, IUE-CWA and UE, on Sunday reached a tentative agreement on a new four-year contract. “While the proposal contains important improvements and advances, it also contains certain disappointments,” said John Hovis, president of UE. “However, given the […]
Read moreWisconsin State Supreme Court upholds anti-collective bargaining law
June 16, 2011 0 Comments
The Wisconsin Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld a law passed in March that bans collective bargaining for most of Wisconsin’s public employees. As the Supreme Court was handing down its decision, thousands of protestors gathered in Madison, Wisconsin’s state capital, to protest Gov. Scott Walker’s proposed budget that contains billions of dollars of cuts to higher […]
Read moreHeal America, Tax Wall Street
June 15, 2011 0 Comments
Nearly 800 registered nurses last week gathered in Washington DC for National Nurses United Staff Assembly where the union that represents 165,000 registered nurses unveiled a national campaign to reshape national priorities and challenge today’s conventional wisdom that demands sacrifices from the working class so that Wall Street can enrich itself. While workers in the US […]
Read moreNew Jersey Democratic leaders seeks to end public sector bargaining rights on benefits
June 14, 2011 0 Comments
New Jersey Senate President Stephen Sweeney, a Democrat, yesterday called union members selfish for wanting to protect their collective bargaining rights and resisting efforts to cut their take home pay by between 5 percent and 8 percent. Sweeney has been working with Republican Gov. Chris Christie on a plan that will eliminate the right of public workers to bargain […]
Read moreEgyptian government says it will crack down on protest, workers continue to protest
June 13, 2011 0 Comments
Although Hosni Mubarak, Egypt’s former dictator is gone way, the low wages, high prices, lack of job security and other economic hardships that caused many to take to the streets in January have not. As a result, people have continued to strike, sit-in, and protest, which in turn has led the new government to say that […]
Read moreUnions warn GE about dangers of overreaching
June 11, 2011 0 Comments
The first round of negotiations between GE and UE and IUE-CWA, GE’s two largest unions, came to an end on Thursday. Talks resume on Monday when the hard bargaining begins. As the two sides wrapped up the first round, GE continued to hammer home its main message: a highly competitive marketplace requires that workers accept major concessions. The unions warned […]
Read moreCasino workers protest discrimination against Latino workers, union supporters
June 9, 2011 0 Comments
About 1,000 union members and supporters on June 2 rallied in front of the Palace Station casino in Las Vegas to protest the firing of casino workers who were trying to form a union. Eight of the ten fired union supporters are Latino. About 150 of the protestors staged a sit-in at the casino’s entrance to […]
Read moreTWIC fails to secure ports, creates hardships for workers
June 8, 2011 2 Comments
After the 9/11 terrorists attacks, media reports about the lack of security at ports in the US began to appear. Congress reacted by passing the Maritime Transportation Security Act. The act required the US Department of Homeland Security to create a nationwide database of port workers including longshoremen, long- and short-haul truck drivers, seafarers, and others and issue a […]
Read moreGE workers hold solidarity rally
June 6, 2011 1 Comment
They came by motorcycle; they came by car; they came by foot. Thousands of GE workers and their supporters came to a rally at the Gannon University Hammermill Center in Erie, Pennsylvania to show solidarity and demand a decent contract from GE. So many people came that they overwhelmed the school’s security system. “This is great to […]
Read moreTexas tightens wage theft law
June 6, 2011 0 Comments
Texas has a new wage theft law. The new law, which passed as the regular session of the state Legislature drew to a close, closes some of the gaps in existing law that made prosecuting wage theft difficult. “Wage theft is a widespread problem that occurs when employers fail to pay their employees for their work,” […]
Read moreGE, unions still far apart in contract negotiations
June 3, 2011 0 Comments
The second week of negotiations on a new contract between GE and its two largest unions, CWA-IUE and UE, ended on Thursday with the two sides still far apart. GE contends that it must reduce benefits and keep a lid on wage increases if it is to remain viable in a “brutally competitive market.” The […]
Read moreLabor supports marriage equality bill in New York
June 2, 2011 0 Comments
Leaders of seven New York labor organizations on Wednesday joined Empire State Pride Agenda executive director Rose Levi at an Albany press conference to urge state law makers to pass the Marriage Equality Act. “This is a defining civil rights issue of our time,” said Danny Donahue, president of the Civil Service Employees Association, AFSCME Local 1000. […]
Read moreUnions, community alliance lead winning fight to stop privatization
June 1, 2011 0 Comments
Voters in Northampton County, Pennsylvania in the Lehigh Valley recently voted overwhelmingly to block efforts by the county government to privatize a county-owned nursing home that for 50 years has provided low-income elderly residents with high-quality, long-term care. In a referendum made possible by the hard work of union members and the families of nursing home […]
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