Stand Up! Chicago Applauds CME Decision to Return $15 Million in TIF Funding

Move Follows Last Tuesday’s Golden Toilet Delivery and Protest Stand Up! Chicago welcomes the decision by the CME Group to respond to criticism by Chicago taxpayers by relinquishing its claim to the $15 million TIF awarded to the exchange for high-end renovations to the Chicago Board of Trade building. The move follows a dramatic protest [...]

Airline Workers Blast Bain, Brace for Bankruptcy Proposal

by Josh Eidelson TWU members picket Romney appearances in Florida as they await management’s bankruptcy proposal As Mitt Romney campaigns in today’s Florida presidential primary, airline workers have been following him with a message about one of his old company’s newest clients: Airline giant AMR, the parent company of American Airlines and American Eagle. AMR, [...]

China’s advantage- Serfdom

by Tula Connell. AFL- Cio A much-discussed report in the Sunday New York Times on why iPhones are made in China highlights the transition of Apple guru Steve Jobs who, a few years after Apple began building the Macintosh in 1983, bragged it was “a machine that is made in America.” Today, millions of Apple [...]

Fact-checking Obama’s State of the Union Speech: Jobs

by Jack Rasmus Last Tuesday, January 24, 2012 President Obama delivered his latest ‘State of the Union’ (SOTU) speech to Congress.  It heavily emphasized economic themes, among which were jobs, manufacturing, trade, the auto industry, teachers, taxes, medicare, financial regulation, and growing income inequality in the U.S.  Claims were made and general proposals offered for [...]

Union Membership Holds Steady in 2011

by Center for Economic Policy and Research In stark contrast to the decline in union membership in recent years, union membership levels held steady at 11.8 percent in 2011, falling a mere 0.1 percentage compared to 2010. Though cash-strapped state and local governments cut jobs, the percentage of public sector workers in unions increased from [...]

Jobs, Jobs, and Cars

Paul Krugman.  NYT. Jan. 26,2012. “Mitch Daniels, the former Bush budget director who is now Indiana’s governor, made the Republicans’ reply to President Obama’s State of the Union address. His performance was, well, boring. But he did say something thought-provoking — and I mean that in the worst way… Clearly, Mr. Daniels doesn’t have much [...]

The Mother of All Union Trusteeships–Three Years Later

Steve Early

Three years ago this Friday (Jan. 27), Service Employees International Union (SEIU) President Andy Stern declared war on one-quarter of his California membership. Mimicking the Pentagon, SEIU headquarters in Washington dispatched an army of paid staffers to seize the Oakland office of United Healthcare Workers (UHW) and other union facilities around the state. Stern’s trusteeship over UHW was aided by scores of high priced union lawyers, uniformed local police officers, and private security personnel from the OSO Group, which hires ex-cops, former FBI and Secret Service agents, and even retired CIA employees to provide corporate clients with surveillance, intelligence, and counter-terrorism protection. (OSO’s bill for its services totaled $2.2 million.)

Generals Still in Charge Tough Days Ahead in Egypt

By Carl Finamore Cairo, Egypt (Jan. 26, 2012)—The most populated country in the Arab world took the day off on Wednesday, January 25. Tahrir Square was overloaded with people stretching and squeezing into every nook and cranny on adjacent streets, storefront alcoves and building doorways. Still, thousands were simply unable to ever reach the center. [...]

Labour leaders demand jobs, growth and equity as Chief Executives gather in Davos for World Economic Forum

ITUC OnLine The international union movement will put its case for the reform of capitalism at the World Economic Forum in Davos this week with five principles for dealing with current economic challenges. Addressing political and business chiefs, trade union leaders from Indonesia, USA and the UK and the international trade union movement will call [...]

Occupy Atlanta, Unions Getting Together

by Barbara Joye Some 30 Occupy Atlanta participants showed up on short notice in the pouring  rain at an African American church in one of Atlanta’s poorest neighborhoods on January 21 to take part in a workshop on labor unions, organized by some  of Atlanta’s progressive union activists and Jobs with Justice/DSA member Roger Sikes. [...]