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Longshore Workers Commemorate Bloody Thursday |
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Up and down the West Coast today, members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) are commemorating the 74th anniversary of "Bloody Thursday."
On July 5, 1934, San Francisco police, backed up by the National Guard, opened fire on a group of 2,000 dockworkers, sailors and other maritime workers, killing two and wounding scores of others.
The longshore workers had struck San Francisco and other West Coast ports May 9. They demanded recognition of their union and the ouster of a company union—one that controlled who got work, who didn’t, what workers were paid and what meager benefits, if any, they received for their backbreaking and dangerous work in cargo holds and on the docks. Other maritime workers joined them in solidarity.
Union Members, Union Patriotism |
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This July 4, there will be lots of speeches about freedom and patriotism. Politicians will talk about the nation's struggle for independence and how we must fight to defend what we have achieved. But especially since the terrorist attacks in 2001, such talk has defined patriotism as fighting terrorism and standing up for the flag—yet it goes no further.
But it should.
Among those in the country embodying patriotism are the women and men who make up our nation's unions.
Union members demonstrate their patriotism by taking on the most fundamental of roles: Defending our nation. Thousands of union members have joined the National Guard and the military. Union members—firefighters, police, medical technicians—were the first to respond on Sept. 11, and hundreds more risked their lives to help recover bodies from the rubble. These union members put their lives on the line on Sept. 11—as they do every day.
Trumka: Don’t Let Opponents Divide Us by Race in 2008 Election |
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Barack Obama is the only candidate in the presidential race who is on the side of working people, and we must defeat attempts to divide workers by race and put him in the White House, AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka says.
Speaking to the United Steelworkers’ (USW) convention in Las Vegas this week, Trumka said:
[At] the end of the day, what people are going to need to hear is that when it comes to protecting jobs, when it comes to protecting pensions, when it comes to health care, child care, pay equity for women, Social Security, Medicare, seeing to it that people can afford to go to college and buy a home—and restoring the right to collective bargaining—Barack Obama has always, always been on our side.
McCain’s Flea-Market Economy |
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George W. Bush's solution to our nation's economic mess—that his failed policies helped create—is to applaud people who must work three jobs to make ends meet.
Sen. John McCain colors his solution to working families' financial struggles with similar crayons: He encourages us to make a living selling stuff on eBay. As reported on Bloomberg:
McCain, seeking to address voter anxiety about the economy, uses eBay to signal that he is "fundamentally optimistic about the capacity of the U.S. economy to innovate, for that innovation to give new opportunities for jobs,'' said Doug Holtz-Eakin, the candidate's senior economic adviser. "We shouldn't be obsessed with looking backwards all the time, and saying, 'Gee, where did those jobs go?' "
‘McCain U.’ Teaches Lessons in How Not to Run the Country |
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Tax cuts for corporations, coupled with tax hikes and higher health care costs for working families? That’s no way to turn around the economy and the country. Yet, it’s the likely result of John McCain’s economic agenda, according to analysts.
This week, the Center for American Progress Action Fund (CAPAF) hosted “McCain U.,” a daylong session with economists and policy analysts who say a McCain presidency would be a third Bush term.
McCain’s agenda, these experts say, is quite extreme, taking Bush’s economic theories and pushing them even further, leaving working families behind.
U.S. Jobs: Down Again |
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Jobs tanked again in June, with U.S. employers cutting 62,000 jobs, for a sixth consecutive monthly decline, according to the Labor Department today.
The jobless rate remained at 5.5 percent after jumping in May by the most in two decades.
The Labor Department today also issued a report showing initial claims for jobless benefits rose by 16,000 to 404,000 last week.
According to Bloomberg:
The total, higher than economists forecast, brought the four-week average to the highest since October 2005, just after Hurricane Katrina. The total number of people collecting benefits dropped to 3.116 million from 3.135 million.
Indiana Union Members Tell McCain: ‘Don’t Tax Our Health Care’ |
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Charles Clark, Labor 2008 state director for Indiana, reports on union members’ response to a McCain appearance this week.
When John McCain arrived in Indianapolis on Tuesday morning, he was greeted by dozens of union members chanting “Shame on McCain” and “McSame as Bush” in protest of the presidential candidate’s visit to the state capital.
Protesters from AFSCME Local 661, OPEIU Local 1, IUPAT Local 47, UAW Region 3, UFCW Local 700 and USW Locals 1999 and 715 blasted McCain for his plan to tax health care.
Zimbabwe Union Members Face Continuing Violence |
With its two leaders still awaiting trial, the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) has condemned the continuing violence and intimidation of union members in the country as the government of discredited President Robert Mugabe tries to hold on to power. The violence against union members is taking place within a countrywide surge of brutality against Mugabe opponents.
The AFL-CIO Solidarity Center, along with the international labor movement, is supporting Stand Up for Zimbabwe, a global campaign to end violence in Zimbabwe and show solidarity with its people.
The ZCTU says members of Mugabe’s ruling party orchestrated a national campaign of intimidation, with union members as major targets, to ensure he would win the June 27 presidential runoff. Mugabe was the only candidate in the race. His opponent had withdrawn, saying the election could not be fair because of Mugabe’s reign of terror.
Workers Uniting: The First Global Union |
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In a global economy where multinational companies operate across borders, unions are developing global strategies to better represent their members and sustain the middle class.
Today, the United Steelworkers (USW) and Unite, Britain’s largest union, took a giant step in that direction by formally joining together to form the world’s first global union.
The new union, dubbed Workers Uniting: The Global Union, will draw on the energies of the two unions' more than 3 million active and retired workers from the United States, Canada, Great Britain and the Republic of Ireland. The members work in virtually every sector of the global economy, including manufacturing, service, mining and transportation (see video).
Responsible Employer Bill Now Law in Boston Suburb |
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If construction contractors want to do business with the Boston suburb of Somerville, they must show they are "responsible employers" as a result of new contracting standards. The city's Board of Aldermen passed the new contacting standards after Boston-area unions pressed for the legislation.
The new "Responsible Employer" ordinance, passed earlier this month and signed into law Monday, requires all contractors bidding on city construction work to provide worker health benefits, maintain a state-certified apprenticeship program and classify their workers as employees, not independent contractors.
Union Members Tell McCain: Address Needs of Working Families |
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Frank Snyder, Labor 2008 state director for Pennsylvania, reports on a union rally outside a John McCain campaign stop.
More than 70 union members and activists gathered outside Worth and Co. in Pipersville, Pa., to highlight Sen. John McCain's anti-worker record as he held a town hall meeting inside the building.
Members from AFSCME, AWIU, CWA, IAFF, IBEW, NATCA, SMWIA, UA, UFCW and USW attended the rally, chanting “John McCain is more of the same” and holding signs that read “Turn Around America” and “John McCain Voted Against Health Care for Children.”
Gerard: ‘Our Time Is Now. Seize the Moment’ |
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Asserting that “our time is now,” United Steelworkers President Leo Gerard opened the union’s convention by calling on the more than 3,000 delegates to “seize the moment” to bring fundamental change to the nation’s economy and politics.
In a rousing keynote speech yesterday, Gerard said USW members
share the powerful belief that every human being, no matter where they work—no matter their gender, their race or their creed—every worker has the right to be treated with dignity and respect, and the right to retire with security. This is our moment to challenge that shell game and reassert our rightful place as champions of the middle class.
McCain’s Colombia Trade Policy Hurts Workers Here and Abroad |
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While Sen. Barack Obama campaigns in America's heartland over the Fourth of July holiday, Sen. John McCain is heading out of the country. He's on his way to Colombia, where he plans to stump for anti-worker trade deals like the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement (FTA).
Apparently McCain decided, in the midst of a hot presidential election season, his time is best spent showing he's on the side of Big Business—by supporting trade deals that send family-supporting jobs out of the United States.
Why is McCain so strongly opposed to standards in trade agreements that would not send jobs overseas? Maybe it’s because his campaign is deeply entwined with the lobbyists and corporations who are the real winners in these unfair trade policies. According to reports by The New York Times and the Huffington Post, many of McCain’s top advisers and funders have actively lobbied for the Colombian government and corporations in support of the U.S-Colombia FTA.
Union Members Go Door to Door in Pennsylvania, Missouri |
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In Pennsylvania, Missouri and across the country, union members went door to door last week to educate, mobilize and energize union members for the 2008 elections.
This month’s member-to-member walks are focused on the economy and the Employee Free Choice Act and are part of the AFL-CIO Labor 2008 program, the largest grassroots union political mobilization in history.
In St. Louis, 47 union leaders and members gathered Saturday at the Greater St. Louis Labor Council building for the AFL-CIO’s second labor walk.
Federal Prison Guard’s Murder Points Out Need for Funding, Staff |
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For years, AFGE’s Council of Prison Locals (CPL), the union representing correctional officers in the nation’s federal prisons, has been pushing for more funding and staffing to safely maintain our nation’s prisons and surrounding communities. The union warns that staffing levels are decreasing while inmate population levels are increasing, leaving the correctional officers and the communities in grave danger.
Tragically, on June 20, those warnings were realized when Jose Rivera, a correctional officer at the U.S. Penitentiary in Atwater, Calif., was killed by two inmates with homemade weapons. Rivera, who would have turned 23 this month, had worked for the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) for 10 months when he was killed. A Navy veteran, he served two tours in Iraq. For more information on Jose Rivera and to donate funds to help his family, click here
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