]> http://www.laborradio.org/taxonomy/term/32/0 en http://www.laborradio.org/node/9159 <p>By Doug Cunningham</p> <p>The AFL-CIO’s Executive Council, meeting in Chicago, says three more National Education Association locals have affiliated with the labor federation. They’re in Santa Maria, California, Kenosha, Wisconsin and Massachusetts. AFL-CIO President John Sweeney says the groundbreaking arrangement with the NEA allowing its locals to affiliate with the AFL-CIO means greater collaboration in the fight for a better future for the next generation. Also at the Chicago meeting, the AFL-CIO announced three new members on the Executive Council that runs the federation. They are AFT President Randi Weingarten, Matthew Loeb, President of the International Association of State and Theatrical Employees and Jill Levy, President of the American Federation of School Administrators.</p> AFL-CIO Wed, 06 Aug 2008 17:00:25 -0700 http://www.laborradio.org/node/8763 <p>By Doug Cunningham</p> <p>The U.S. House voted Thursday to extend unemployment benefits for 3.8 million workers. The vote is short of what would be needed to override a threatened Bush veto. The AFL-CIO says if just five Republicans had voted with Democrats to extend help to unemployed workers there would be enough votes to override the veto. Despite the economic hard times pummeling workers Bush and congressional Republicans continue to refuse to extend jobless benefits. </p> AFL-CIO Thu, 12 Jun 2008 16:53:55 -0700 http://www.laborradio.org/node/8682 <p>By Doug Cunningham</p> <p>Mark Ayers, President of the AFL-CIO Building Trades Department, says the recent spate of construction fatalities in New York City and Las Vegas are disturbing and most are preventable. Ayers says 22 percent of all worker deaths on the job are in construction. The Building &amp; Construction Trades Governing Board is meeting this week to examine the issue and make recommendations to improve job site safety.</p> AFL-CIO Sun, 01 Jun 2008 14:48:07 -0700 http://www.laborradio.org/node/8649 <p>By Doug Cunningham</p> <p>The AFL-CIO and Working America are launching "Ask A Working Woman”, an election-year survey letting women speak directly to politicians about working women’s issues. Women workers still earn on average just 77 cents for every dollar a man makes. The on-line survey asks working women how much time they have for themselves, what their work lives are like, and whether men they work with make more money for the same jobs. The "Ask A Working Woman" survey also asks women directly what they need on a range of issues from health care to pension benefits to flex-time at work.</p> AFL-CIO Tue, 27 May 2008 15:34:33 -0700 http://www.laborradio.org/node/8404 <p>By Doug Cunningham</p> <p>Thousands of workers are still dying on the job each year in the U.S. and in some cases employers are paying as little as $750 in each death. The AFL-CIO’s annual report on death and injuries on the job says in 2006, the latest year for which numbers are available, more than 5800 workers were killed on the job. There’s an increase in the number of Latino workers being killed at work. The AFL-CIO says inspections and enforcement of workplace safety rules has seriously diminished under the Bush administration.</p> AFL-CIO Thu, 24 Apr 2008 15:34:21 -0700 http://www.laborradio.org/node/8392 <p>By Doug Cunningham</p> <p>The AFL-CIO and six Guatemalan unions are filing a first-of-its kind complaint alleging violations of the Central American Free Trade Agreement. Filed with the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Trade and Labor Affairs, the complaint details five specific cases where the Guatemalan government has failed to protect workers' labor rights. The AFL-CIO says violence against union activists, including murder and rape, have actually escalated since the Central American Free Trade Agreement was implemented.</p> AFL-CIO Wed, 23 Apr 2008 16:16:06 -0700 http://www.laborradio.org/node/8191 <p>By Doug Cunningham</p> <p>Tales from the nation's healthcare crisis front gathered in an AFL-CIO healthcare survey vividly illustrate the tragedies and hardships of a broken U.S. health care system. AFL-CIO President John Sweeney.</p> <p>[Sweeney]: "The survey results paint a devastating picture of a health care system that costs too much, covers too little, leaves too many behind, and is getting worse."</p> <p>Heather Booth heads the AFL-CIO’s health care reform effort aimed at achieving reform in 2009 around basic principles that include providing quality health care to all with controlled costs and a public alternative to private insurance.</p> AFL-CIO Tue, 25 Mar 2008 15:16:21 -0700 http://www.laborradio.org/node/8113 <p>By Doug Cunningham</p> <p>The AFL-CIO's Karen Ackerman says the labor federation's "McCain Revealed" campaign will shine a bright light on Sen. John McCain’s real economic record on working family issues.</p> <p>[Ackerman]: "We will expose Senator McCain’s record on economic pictures, complete his profile to include his unwavering support of George Bush’s failed economic agenda, and call on him to adopt instead working families policies that offer a clean break from that agenda."</p> AFL-CIO Wed, 12 Mar 2008 16:03:09 -0700 http://www.laborradio.org/node/8098 <p>By Doug Cunningham</p> <p>AFL-CIO Organizing Director, Stewart Acuff says what working people really need to rise above these hard economic times is a restoration of real union collective bargaining rights. Acuff says people are hungry for fundamental economic change that truly restores opportunities to achieve the American Dream. Acuff says eroded union rights is a big reason that American workers are in this economic crisis.</p> <p>[Acuff]: "And that is the real economic crisis facing the country today. That’s why the economy is so soft. That’s why we’re headed into a recession, and that’s why we have this huge inequality and this huge gap between the rich and the rest of us.</p> AFL-CIO Tue, 11 Mar 2008 17:41:12 -0700 http://www.laborradio.org/node/8063 <p>By Doug Cunningham</p> <p>Six National Education Association chapters of the California Teachers Association are directly affiliating with the AFL-CIO. It’s part of a groundbreaking pact between the AFL-CIO and the independent NEA that allows local chapters of the NEA to directly affiliate with the AFL-CIO. Over ten thousand NEA members are in the AFL-CIO as a result.</p> AFL-CIO NEA Wed, 05 Mar 2008 17:32:09 -0800 http://www.laborradio.org/node/7918 <p>By Doug Cunningham</p> <p>AFL-CIO President John Sweeney is delivering an important address to the UN Summit On Climate Risk today. Sweeney will call for green jobs and greater awareness of global warming's impact on working people around the world. Sweeney will join Al Gore and a diverse group of interests to discuss what needs to happen to stop the accelerated impact of global warming. Sweeney says global prosperity cannot be achieved and maintained unless we secure a stable climate and sustainable energy.</p> AFL-CIO Wed, 13 Feb 2008 16:18:55 -0800 http://www.laborradio.org/node/7878 <p>By Doug Cunningham</p> <p>The U.S. Senate passed an economic stimulus plan Thursday without any extension of unemployment benefits and without any new heating assistance for the poor. The package did extend tax rebate checks of $300 to retirees and disabled veterans. Taxpayers will get $600 checks, couples $1200. The AFL-CIO says denying the jobless an extension of benefits show Republicans believe working people should fend for themselves in an economy stacked against them.</p> AFL-CIO Thu, 07 Feb 2008 17:38:32 -0800 http://www.laborradio.org/node/7864 <p>By Doug Cunningham</p> <p>[Booth]: “There’s at a minimum 18,000 people a year who die because they didn’t have health insurance.”</p> <p>Heather Booth, director of the AFL-CIO’s campaign for universal health care coverage. The campaign is building a million-person army of activists to make universal health care a focus of the 2008 presidential election in an effort to secure universal health care coverage in the U.S. by 2009.</p> <p>[Booth 2]: “Our focus in this AFL-CIO health care reform campaign is to build together that kind of army with educating and engaging our members, inoculating them against some of these lies and false statements that are gonna be said, and then in organizing, organizing, organizing.”</p> AFL-CIO Wed, 06 Feb 2008 18:15:09 -0800 http://www.laborradio.org/node/7738 <p>By Doug Cunningham</p> <p>World stock markets nose-dived Monday in reaction to U.S. recession fears. The AFL-CIO is urging quick Congressional action on an economic stimulus package. And while the labor federation says it’s encouraging that Bush recognizes a substantial stimulus is needed, the Bush plan isn’t likely to benefit working families to provide them the boost they need to weather a recession. Instead of a focus on tax relief, the AFL-CIO wants to see spending stimulus, including an extension of unemployment benefits, increased food stamp payments, more fiscal relief to state and local governments, and investments in ready-to-go school, bridge and sewage construction projects. On top of that, the AFL-CIO says tax rebates targeted to middle- and low-income taxpayers is also needed to help working families weather the recession. </p> AFL-CIO Mon, 21 Jan 2008 15:58:06 -0800 http://www.laborradio.org/node/7726 <p>By Doug Cunningham </p> <p>In Memphis the AFL-CIO is part of a several day long conference around King Day called "Labor and Civil Rights: 40 years of Keeping The Dream and The Movement Alive”. Nearly a thousand people are coming together between now and Monday to commemorate Dr. King’s work and the labor-civil rights alliance. AFL-CIO President John Sweeney, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, and Reverend Al Sharpton will be among the speakers. Donations of computer equipment and school supplies will be given to Memphis students.</p> AFL-CIO Thu, 17 Jan 2008 17:19:28 -0800