The UAW Takes One Step Forward, and One Backward (tags)
Trying to rebound off the ropes, where it has been pummeled for the past several decades, The United Auto Workers (UAW) has launched an aggressive organizing campaign in the South, in line with an AFL-CIO resolution emphasizing organizing there, where unionization rates are weak across the board.
Nine Obama Pardons Mock Equity and Justice (tags)
gross presidential hypocrisy
Remarks by Richard L. Trumka, President, AFL-CIO, National Press Club, Washington, DC (tags)
Our economy does not work without good jobs, so we must take action now to restore workers' voices in America. The systematic silencing of American workers by denying our right to form unions is at the heart of the disappearance of good jobs in America. We must pass the Employee Free Choice Act so that workers can have the chance to turn bad jobs into good jobs, and so we can reduce the inequality which is undermining our prospects for stable economic growth. And we must do it now—not next year, not even this summer. Now.
Betrayals Continue as Trumka Takes the Helm at the AFL-CIO (tags)
The partnership between the heads of organized Labor and the employers strengthens as Trumka dumps EFCA after spending millions of dollars of member's hard earned dues money getting our enemies elected in to office.
Labor Leaders Put All “Our” Eggs in the NLRB and EFCA Baskets (tags)
Worker’s relying on our own strength and not the courts will drive back the capitalist’s offensive.
Stewart Acuff, special assistant to AFL-CIO President John Sweeney touts EFCA (tags)
Employee Free Choice Act: Acuff told his Denver audience that he believes the legislation will come before Congress in seven to eight weeks and that he is hopeful Senate Democrats will be able to round up 60 votes.
On May 1, all 29 ports on the U.S. West Coast are to be shut down by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) in protest against the U.S. war on Afghanistan and Iraq. This is a historic event of international significance: labor action against imperialist war by a major American union. The strategically placed port workers in the ILWU can bring commerce with Asia to a grinding halt, and they’re about to demonstrate it. The maritime employers are already screaming, and you can bet it’s got the attention of the warmongers in Washington. All labor should take up the challenge this poses: For workers strikes against the war! Meanwhile, immigrants’ rights groups are once again mobilizing on May Day. And on April 30 and May 1, the independent truckers who move cargo to and from the docks may play an important role in a shutdown. The imperialist war on Afghanistan and Iraq is also a war on immigrants, minorities, working people and democratic rights “at home.” We need to defeat this attack here and abroad, in opposition to both the capitalist war parties. The “antiwar movement,” whose aim has always been to pressure the Democrats, is at a dead end. What’s needed is working-class action independent of the bosses. What that takes is a fundamental break from the Democratic Party and the pro-capitalist politics that infuse the labor bureaucracy.
For Workers Strikes Against the War! ILWU to Shut Down West Coast Ports May 1 Against War (tags)
In a major step for the U.S. labor movement, the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) has announced that it will shut down West Coast ports on May 1, to demand an immediate end to the war and occupation in Iraq and Afghanistan and the withdrawal of U.S. troops from the Middle East.
Paro portuario en la Costa Oeste contra la guerra el 1° de mayo (tags)
En lo que representa un paso de gran importancia para el movimiento obrero norteamericano, el International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU – sindicato internacional de estibadores y almacenistas) ha anunciado que paralizará los puertos de la Costa Oeste de Estados Unidos el 1° de mayo para exigir el cese inmediato de la guerra y la ocupación en Irak y Afganistán, así como el retiro de las tropas norteamericanas de Medio Oriente. Ésta es la primera vez en décadas que un sindicato en Estados Unidos ha decidido emprender una acción industrial en contra de una guerra de EE.UU. La acción anunciada por el poderoso sindicato de trabajadores portuarios de la Costa Oeste, un paro de labores para parar la guerra, debe ser retomada por sindicatos y organizaciones de trabajadores de todo Estados Unidos y a escala internacional. El propósito de semejantes acciones no debe ser suplicar a los políticos burgueses –cuyas manos están llenas de sangre, por haber aprobado a lo largo de los últimos seis años y medio todo presupuesto de guerra– sino dar una muestra de la fuerza de los trabajadores, que hacen funcionar este país, ¡y que pueden también pararlo!
ILWU to Shut Down West Coast Ports May 1 Demanding End to War in Iraq, Afghanistan (tags)
In a major step for the U.S. labor movement, the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) has announced that it will shut down West Coast ports on May 1, to demand an immediate end to the war and occupation in Iraq and Afghanistan and the withdrawal of U.S. troops from the Middle East. This is the first time in decades that an American union has decided to undertake industrial action against a U.S. war. The action announced by the powerful West Coast dock workers union, to stop work to stop the war, should be taken up by unions and labor organizations throughout the United States and internationally. And the purpose of such actions should be not to beg the bourgeois politicians whose hands are covered with blood, having voted for every war budget for six and a half years, but a show of strength of the working people who make this country run, and who can shut it down!
Film Night at Flor y Canto: March 2003-September 2005 (Part 1 of 2) (tags)
To mark the five-year anniversary of the Eagle Rock Peace Vigil, here is a list of films shown at Flor y Canto over a two-and-a-half year period. These almost-weekly screenings were an outgrowth of the Eagle Rock Vigil. (A link to the rest of this list can be found below in "comments.")
LABOR DAY SCORECARD 2007 (tags)
COMMENTARY
Environment-Hating-Congresspeople's List (tags)
This is from the League of Conservation Voters. It shows the percentage of votes "for" the environment of members of the US House of Representatives that are morally bankrupt and do what the corporations want them to do in return for the campaign contributions they were given.
LABOR DAY SCORECARD-2006 (tags)
TOUGH TIMES FOR THE AMERICAN LABOR MOVEMENT -AND THAT AINT NO LIE
Bush's Immigration Trap (tags)
Labor: Organize the Unorganized!
AFL-CIO in Solidarity with Locked Out Canadian Workers (tags)
On 09/12/05, a rally was held in Washington, D.C., in solidarity with the 5,500 Canadian Media Guild (CMG) members, who have been locked out of their jobs. Linda Foley, President of the TNG-CWA; Larry Cohen of the CWA; and John Sweeney, President of the AFL-CIO, all blasted the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) for their deplorable tactics. They then presented letters of support for the CMG to an Embassy of Canada official.
What path toward an independent workers movement? (re Million Workers March) (tags)
A leaflet of the Communist Voice Organization presented at the Detroit Conference of the Million Workers March held May 14-5. The leaflet opposes the alliance with certain Detroit city council members and union bureaucrats that has developed within the Detroit organization of MWM and opposes the same policy nationally.
L.A.'s Social Security Now- Update (tags)
Stop The Privatization Of Social Security!
Unions UNITE HERE for greater power (tags)
CHICAGO – Two of the nation’s most active unions formalized their merger here July 8-10.
Ding Dong The Witch is Dead (tags)
Reagan's death is time to celebrate for working people
Ding Dong The Witch is Dead (tags)
Reagan's passing is a time to celebrate for working people
A Message to Young People Who Are Considering Taking a Job as a Union Staffer
The Los Angeles Supermarket Strike of 2003-2004 (tags)
Media coverage was eclipsed by Hollywood’s Academy Awards, but on Sunday, Feb. 29, Southern California supermarket workers voted 86% to end their five-month old strike, accepting a contract that amounts to a serious, if not total, victory for a determined employer offensive with national implications.Thus one of the most important strikes in the U.S. in years has ended in defeat.
AFL-CIO Leadership Give the Employers Another Victory (tags)
Defeat in southern California confirms the need for regime change atop the AFL-CIO
That these issues I keep hearing about--of the increased use of police and military force in this country--are real. They're not happening in the future; they're happening today.
Building Bridges Radio-Bush's Plan for Immigrants (tags)
Building Bridges: Your Community and Labor Report presents this 27 minute Radio Program. TO LISTEN CLICK ON WEB LINK
BTL:U.S. Labor Movement Opposes Bush Plan to Create... (tags)
...Immigrant Guest Workers Program Interview with Anna Avendano, senior adviser on immigration issues for the AFL-CIO, conducted by Between the Lines' Scott Harris
Dec. 16th Mass March to support striking Grocery Workers (tags)
AFL-CIO Pres. Sweeney will Lead March of Thousands of Strikers March From Century City to Beverly Hills Slated Tuesday, December 16
BTL:Progressive Groups Gather in Washington, D.C. to "Take Back America" (tags)
Interview with Yaniz Iczkovits, Israeli reservist and cofounder of "Courage to Refuse," conducted by Between the Lines' Melinda Tuhus
The Bush Outrage(s) of the Month list (tags)
(see related story below) As part of its campaign to put a four-year limit on George W. Bush’s tenure at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, the AFL-CIO has drawn up what might be called the “Outrage of the Month” list of attacks against working people by the Bush administration since taking office in January 2001.
What the "Peace Movement" Ignores (tags)
"Yeah, yeah," they say, "Saddam's a bad guy, but the world is full of bad guys. . . " blah, blah. Enough apologizing for this bastard. Lets take him out.
After 6 Years Leading AFL-CIO, John Sweeney Has Achieved Mixed Results (tags)
Between The Lines' Scott Harris spoke with David Moberg, a senior editor at In These Times, who assesses John Sweeney's leadership and the institutional barriers hindering union organizing in the U.S.
Gore and Sweeney: Together at Last (tags)
The Democrats attempt to woo labor. Could murder be in the offing?