Social Forum Focuses on Workers’ Issues

By James Parks Workers’ issues were the focus of  five days of  marches, rallies and workshops at the U.S. Social Forum in Detroit, which ended over the weekend. Grassroots activists and progressives from across the country came together to build new alliances, create new strategies and put new energy into the movement to turn around [...]

Poll Finds AmericaSpeaks Participants Poorly Informed About the Deficit and Economy

The Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) conducted a poll of people leaving the AmericaSpeaks 21st Century Town Meeting sessions on June 26th. The poll of 74 participants revealed a surprising lack of knowledge among people who had just sat through a 6.5 hour-long discussion of the budget. For example, the vast majority had [...]

G20 Failing to Meet Jobs Challenge, ITUC Says

G20 Leaders risk sleepwalking into a double-dip recession due to their haste to halve fiscal deficits by 2013 or even sooner, according to an international trade union delegation in Toronto at the end of the G20 Summit. “Jobs and better wages are at the heart of economic recovery, and last year G20 Leaders seemed to [...]

Former SEIU President Andy Stern joins Board of Pharma Company

by Mike Wilzoch A June 21 press release from SIGA Technologies, Inc., “a company specializing in the development of pharmaceutical agents to combat bio-warfare pathogens,” announced that Andy Stern, “labor leader and prominent advocate for reform” has joined their Board of Directors. Now why would Big Pharma, and especially one focused on bio-warfare, be interested [...]

Trumka: Immigration reform necessary for new economy

by James Parks The United States needs a new economic strategy to replace the failed model of the past 30 years–one that focuses on developing a workforce with world class skills and world class rights and trade policies that serve the interests of the American people, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka told the City Club of [...]

Arizona’s New Laws: An Attempt to Secure Cheap Labor?

by  Paul Ortiz, t r u t h o u t | Op-Ed María Elena Durazo, Executive Secretary-Treasurer of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, encourages people to organize: “When we build a movement of the working poor, we will have the power to end poverty.” (Photo: L.A. Union AFL-CIO) Why are there 40 [...]

In Memory of the Foxconn Suicide Victims

by Paul Garver On June 13, as part of an event honoring progressive community and union activists, fifty members and friends of Boston DSA commemorated the suicide victims at Foxconn in Shenzhen, China. After paying tribute to them and to the courageous strikers at China Honda, persons present signed the following statement: Remembering the suicide [...]

Jobs bill needs action

Image via Wikipedia by James Parker, AFL-CIO blog As the U.S. Senate considers a much-needed jobs bill with no certain date for a vote, the AFL-CIO union movement continues to push lawmakers to put the needs of workers and the economy before concerns over the nation’s budget deficit. Of the nation’s 15 million jobless workers, [...]

New Outrage Exposes Obama’s Failure To Help Unions

by Randy Shaw On June 11, St. Joseph’s Health Systems (SJHS) did something that employers have long done but which Barack Obama’s presidency was supposed to stop: it filed a frivolous NLRB appeal to delay unionization for workers who won an election. In this case, SJHS is denying unionization to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital workers [...]

ITUC Annual Survey: 101 Trade Unionists Murdered in 2009

The International Trade Union Confederation’s Annual Survey of Trade Union Rights has documented a dramatic increase in the number of trade unionists murdered in 2009, with 101 killings – an increase of 30% over the previous year.  The Survey also reveals growing pressure on fundamental workers’ rights around the world as the impact of the [...]