Lesson for Vanderbilt Students: Solidarity Scares U.S. Employers

by Tula Connell, Mar 10, 2010

Warning to college students: Joining in solidarity with low-wage workers on your campus can be hazardous to your freedom of speech.

At Vanderbilt University, members of Vanderbilt Students of Nonviolence recently met with campus workers to talk about working conditions for the lowest-paid employees and hammer out concrete actions all could take to make Vanderbilt a safer and more just place to work and learn.

Thousands Tell Big Insurance: Blocking Health Care Reform Is a Crime

AFSCME members declaring the Ritz-Carlton a crime scene.

by James Parks, Mar 9, 2010

Thousands of union members, community activists, religious leaders and others turned out in Washington, D.C., today to confront Big Insurance and demand insurance companies stop plotting to kill health care reform even as Congress debates bills to reform the nation’s broken health care system.

The Master Recovery Act Transportation Map

Posted by Jesse Lee on March 11, 2010 at 02:57 PM EST

Sometimes it's good to look up close at how a single Recovery Act project is changing a community for the better and putting people to work. Other times it's instructuve to take a few steps back and look at the big picture. As an example of the latter, the web team at the Federal Highway Administration created an online map of the U.S. that shows over 12,000 Recovery Act road projects. Each of the dots represented on the map represents a project. The full, interactive version on the map allows you to click the dots in order to learn more about these projects.

When Health Insurance Companies Attack

Posted by Dan Pfeiffer on March 11, 2010 at 01:22 PM EST

In recent weeks, you’ve probably heard a lot about WellPoint, the big insurance company that reported earning $2.7 billion in one quarter, and then promptly raised rates on some customers in California by up to 39 percent. Those aren’t the only big increases WellPoint has attempted to implement. In 2009, the company sought a 24 percent increase for its customers in Connecticut, and it’s asked to raise rates by 23 percent in Maine this year.

Middle Class Bailout: Celebrating Henry Hopkins' 120th Birthday with 4 Million Jobs by August 17th

Thu. March 11, 2010

The middle class needs a bailout for the same reason the banks needed a bailout--long-term systemic risk. If the (much smaller) government during the Great Depression could hire 4 million people in 4 months, why can we not do that today, now, immediately during the Great Recession?

Like the as-yet to be incurred, but already embedded, long-term costs of the Iraq War, the psychological and career trauma inflicted by prolonged unemployment are yet to be felt. But, they are real, they are profound, and they are increasing every day.

FAA Invites Recipes for Recovery

Thu. March 11, 2010

“Without a serious commitment to protecting jobs, without new limits on unrestrained outsourcing and without a second stimulus program that is equal to the crisis this nation is facing, the airline and aerospace industries will continue to struggle, even if the rest of the economy recovers,” said International President Tom Buffenbarger, who spoke as the sole labor representative at the FAA 35th Annual Aviation Forecast Conference in Washington, D.C.

The two-day conference, titled “Looking Ahead in Aviation: Rational Rebound or Irrational Instability,” was hosted by Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt and included panel discussion with experts in aviation, aerospace and business aviation.

House Introduces Public Jobs Bill

Thu. March 11, 2010

After more than a year since the launch of the IAM’s JOBS Now! campaign, legislation to quickly reverse high unemployment by hiring the unemployed to work in the public sector has finally been introduced.

Rep. George Miller, Chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, released details of the “Local Jobs for America Act” Wednesday. The legislation aims to invest $75 billion for local communities to hire vital staff immediately. Miller estimates the bill will create a million full-time public and private jobs this year.

Charlie Cooke Prdicts Mid-term Shakeup

Among the speakers at this year's MNPL Planning Committee Meeting in Savannah, GA, was well-known political analyst Charlie Cook, who blamed sustained high unemployment for incumbents' dismal prospects in the 2010 mid-term elections.
Thu. March 11, 2010

Members of the 2010 MNPL National Planning Committee meeting in Savannah, GA, welcomed the opportunity this week to ask questions and share insights with Charlie Cook, one of the nation’s most highly regarded political analysts and odds makers.

Cook, who edits the Cook Political Report and is regularly featured on national news programs, was characteristically blunt about the prospects for incumbents in the upcoming mid-term elections. “I don’t think the Democrats will lose their majority in the Senate,” opined Cook, who also said it was very hard to come up with a scenario where the Democrats do not lose control of the House of Representatives.

IAM, Alaska Airlines Open Negotiations

The District 143 negotiating committee prepares for a bargaining session. (L-R) Sandy Field, Bea Knott, Jeff Tobius, Joe Shultz and Kiana Peacock

Thu. March 11, 2010

District 143 announced it has opened collective bargaining for an amended contract covering 2,800 Alaska Airlines employees in the clerical, office and passenger service (COPS) group. The current agreement becomes amendable on July 19, 2010.

We Remain United: In Zimbabwe's Labor Movement, A Voice for Human Rights and Democracy

Bernard Pollack, who is taking a leave of absence from the AFL-CIO to travel through Africa, and Danielle Nierenberg describe their visit with Wellington Chibebe, the secretary general of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU).

In Harare, on the way to our meeting with Wellington Chibebe, the secretary general of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), even our driver was excited for us.