The Austin American Statesman recently reported that a group of Houston corporate executives want to eliminate public pensions for future teachers, fire fighters, police, and other state and local government workers. Bill King, an investor and principal in several companies including Global FBO Holding, Inc., Politicalendar, LLC, and EmLogis, told the Statesman that public pensions are too […]
Read more
Archive | August, 2011
US/Colombia trade pact hurts workers in both countries
August 30, 2011 
1 Comment
As Congress returns to work after Labor Day, there will likely be a big push to get new trade agreements, like the one with Colombia, ratified. Proponents of the Colombia agreement are worried that US grain exporters will miss out on opportunities to increase corn, wheat, and soybean exports. To build pressure on Congress to act quickly, their […]
Read moreCorporations spend excess money on stock repurchases instead of jobs
August 29, 2011 0 Comments
As working people struggle to find jobs and protect their living standard from corporations like Verizon, which is demanding huge concessions from its union workers, corporations in the US are sitting on more than a $1 trillion in cash stockpiles. This large amount of excess cash instead of being invested in new factories and new jobs is being used […]
Read moreIn Chile workers, students join general strike for economic democracy
August 26, 2011 1 Comment
About 175,000 people across Chile on Thursday marched and rallied in dozens of towns and cities in support of a two-day general strike called by Chile’s union confederation, the Workers Unity Center (CUT, the Spanish acronym). The general strike, which was scheduled for August 24 and 25, was called to support students who for the last three months […]
Read moreUnfair labor practices cause work stoppage by Michigan faculty
August 25, 2011 1 Comment
As Central Michigan University students arrived for the their day of class on August 22, they were greeted by picketing members of CMU’s Faculty Association, which represents more than 600 tenured and tenure-track professors. Members of the Faculty Association had authorized their executive board to call a job action if the CMU administration continued to bargain in bad […]
Read moreNurses to Congress: Invest in working America, support Wall Street tax
August 24, 2011 6 Comments
National Nurses United (NNU) announced yesterday that on September 1, its members will deliver this message to members of Congress: People are hurting because of the fallout from the financial crisis caused by Wall Street speculation. We need a huge public investment to end this pain. Tax Wall Street’s speculative financial transactions to pay for this investment. “It’s […]
Read moreWisconsin unions work to regain lost ground
August 23, 2011 0 Comments
Wisconsin’s new law that severely restricts collective bargaining for public workers took effect June 29. Since then unions have been working to regain the power they lost as a result of the new law, also known as Act 10. Besides limiting collective bargaining, Act 10 limits the power of unions in other ways. For example in order to engage in the limited collective […]
Read moreSteelworkers, Los Mineros sign pact to help workers in Mexico and the US
August 22, 2011 0 Comments
At last week’s Constitutional Convention of the United Steelworkers (USW), the USW and the National Union of Mine, Metal, Steel, and Similar Workers of the Mexican Republic (Los Mineros) signed an enhanced strategic alliance. The purpose of the alliance is, according to Napoleon Gomez, general secretary of Los Mineros, to build an international labor organization […]
Read moreVerizon agrees to bargain; workers back at work on Tuesday
August 20, 2011 0 Comments
The Communications Workers of America (CWA) and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) today announced that striking workers would return to work on Tuesday because Verizon has agreed to bargain seriously on a new contract that replaces the one that expired on August 7. The unions said that worker unity and public support were key factors in […]
Read moreFlight attendants fight to prevent FAA shut down, preserve democratic union elections
August 19, 2011 0 Comments
The Association of Flight Attendants-CWA earlier this week took action to prevent another shut down at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and to protect fair and free elections for union representation. AFA-CWA members held rallies at airports around the nation and demonstrated outside the Florida offices of US Congressman John Mica. Last June Rep. Mica, Chair of […]
Read moreOhio governor asks for compromise on anti-worker legislation
August 18, 2011 0 Comments
At a press conference on Wednesday, Ohio Governor John Kasich invited union leaders to talk with him about a compromise on SB 5, legislation passed last spring that limits the collective bargaining rights for Ohio’s 350,000 public sector workers. Gov. Kasich made his remarks after We Are Ohio, a citizen-driven, community-based, bipartisan coalition that has come […]
Read moreVerizon stops health care payments, struggles to maintain service as support for strikers grows
August 17, 2011 0 Comments
Verizon earlier this week notified its 45,000 striking workers represented by CWA and IBEW that the company would suspend health care premium payments, leaving them and their families without health care coverage after August 31. CWA responded swiftly by telling members that the union has taken steps to protect the health and well-being of strikers and their families. […]
Read moreLongshore workers fight anti-union company for right to work
August 16, 2011 0 Comments
The International Longshore and Warehouse Union and a multi-national consortium named EGT are locked in a battle. The company wants unlimited control over the workers it employs. The union wants to protect its members right to work and to keep their jobs safe. It has relied on militant tactics to do so. The fight began earlier this […]
Read moreVerizon blinks as support grows for strikers
August 12, 2011 6 Comments
As Verizon tries to project an image of strength by remaining inflexible at the bargaining table, its recent effort to limit the free speech of its striking workers suggests that the company is already feeling the effects of the collective actions taken by CWA and IBEW, the two unions representing 45,000 East Coast Verizon workers […]
Read moreYouth riots roil the UK
August 10, 2011 0 Comments
On Tuesday riots by young people spread across the United Kingdom for the fourth day. Government officials, some of whom returned to the UK after cutting short their vacations, vowed to gain control of the chaos that erupted in London’s multi-racial, working-class neighborhood of Tottenham on Saturday night and quickly escalated nationwide. The government labeled those participating in the […]
Read moreHoneywell workers return to work with the help of global labor solidarity
August 9, 2011 3 Comments
United Steel Workers Local 7-669 last week ratified a contract with Honeywell that ended a lock out that lasted more than a year. “We fought one-day longer on all the core issues and won them to our satisfaction,” said Darrell Lillie, president of Local 7-669. “All of us who were locked out by Honeywell in […]
Read moreVerizon follow’s Wisconsin’s governor’s lead; forces strike
August 8, 2011 0 Comments
Taking a lead from Wisconsin’s right-wing governor Scott Walker, Verizon’s management refused to bargain seriously with its union workers on the East Coast from Virginia to New England, forcing members of the CWA and IBEW, the two unions that represent 45,000 Verizon workers, to go on strike Sunday morning. In a statement issued shortly after […]
Read moreWorkers hold Holiday Inn responsible for wage theft
August 5, 2011 1 Comment
About 100 people on Thursday picketed the Holiday Inn Midtown near downtown Austin to urge the hotel owners not to be complicit in wage theft. Earlier in the year, Mely’s Construction, a San Antonio-based company, hired about 30 Austin workers for a remodelling project at the hotel, but left town after the work was done […]
Read moreUnemployment crisis shunted aside as austerity measures enacted
August 4, 2011 0 Comments
“America’s real crisis is not a debt crisis. “It’s an unemployment crisis” wrote Joe Nocera of the New York Times in a column about the job killing impact of austerity measures agreed to by Democrats and Republicans in order to lift the federal debt ceiling. However, Nocera’s message, an echo of earlier warnings by economists such […]
Read moreUnity rally by Verizon workers exceeds forecast
August 2, 2011 0 Comments
As the familiar beat of Queen’s, “We Will Rock You” pulsed loudly in front of Verizon’s headquarters in New York City last Saturday, 15,000 and more Verizon workers and their supporters sang, “We will, we will strike you! We will, we will strike you!” while a spectacular sea of red, the color of the t-shirts […]
Read more
