By Doug Cunningham

When the Bush-appointed National Labor Relations Board expanded the definition of supervisor it wiped out union rights for workers who aren’t really in management. Now the Democratically controlled Congress is considering the RESPECT Act to restore union rights taken away by partisan NLRB decisions. Lori Gay, a Salt Lake City RN, testified before Congress on being deprived of her right to join a union by being falsely defined as a supervisor.

[Gay]: “I've been a nurse for 21 years and I've never thought of myself as a supervisor or been compensated as a supervisor. I just go to work and take care of patients and once in awhile I have to be in charge of putting patients in beds and assigning a nurse to that patient - which literally takes ten minutes out of a 12 hour shift. And now I'm being (defined as) a supervisor, therefore I lost my rights to belong to a bargaining unit."

By Doug Cunningham

UE, the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers union, has won an International Labor Organization decision on public employee bargaining in North Carolina. The ILO ruled that by denying bargaining rights to North Carolina public employees, the U.S. is violating international labor and human rights to freedom of association. UE's Joseph Cullen says there's a law in North Carolina that specifically outlaws collective bargaining for public employees. An effort is underway to overturn that law.

[Cullen]: "It's truly a human rights issue. I mean, we saw that there are some really egregious working conditions in North Carolina. Very, very well documented by the state itself that there's very widespread race discrimination and sex discrimination for public sector workers in North Carolina. And we really did feel that the best way to address this is through the collective bargaining process."

By Doug Cunningham

Errol Hohrein is testifying before the U.S. Senate today on the need for the Employee Free Choice Act to restore the real right of workers to easily form unions free of employer intimidation.

[Hohrein]: “Without the Employees Free Choice Act these companies are never going to do the right thing. They’re not going to follow the law. They’re not going to do what’s right for their people.”

Horein says he was fired and his co-workers harassed and threatened when they came together to form a union at Front Range Energy in Colorado. And he says if Republicans block this labor law reform now, they’ll lose again at the ballot box.

By Doug Cunningham

Errol Hohrein is testifying before the U.S. Senate today on the need for the Employee Free Choice Act to restore the real right of workers to easily form unions free of employer intimidation.

[Hohrein]: “Without the Employees Free Choice Act these companies are never going to do the right thing. They’re not going to follow the law. They’re not going to do what’s right for their people.”

Horein says he was fired and his co-workers harassed and threatened when they came together to form a union at Front Range Energy in Colorado. And he says if Republicans block this labor law reform now, they’ll lose again at the ballot box.

By Jesse Russell

New Haven Connecticut Mayor John DeStafano opened fire on Yale New Haven Hospital this weekend for alleged violations of labor law and a truce agreement with the SEIU. DeStafano said the hospital was untrustworthy and has been “misrepresenting the facts.” The comments came after documents were released detailing anti-union tactics endorsed by a hospital vice president that included linking the union to the Mafia.

An attempt by Republicans to block the right of airport screeners to organize has failed. Jesse Russell reports:

New legislation has passed the Senate that could give Transportation Security Administration airport screeners whistle-blower protections and the right to collectively bargain. The legislation is part of the 9-11 Commission recommendations that Democrats have been working to pass now that they have control of the House and Senate. The measure narrowly passed with a 51-46 vote and President George W. Bush has suggested he will veto it when it is put before him. The legislation also includes a provision that requires nearly $10 billion in emergency funding be distributed based on the likely hood that a city is likely a terrorist target.

With Republicans vowing to filibuster the Employee Free Choice Act – labor has received the support of at least one very important Senator. Jesse Russell reports:

Presidential candidate and Illinois Senator Barack Obama was in Illinois on Saturday morning vowing to make sure legislation that would make it easier for workers to join union will pass the Senate. Obama told a gathering of 1500 labor supporters, “we will pass the Employee Free Choice Act. It’s not a matter of if it’s a matter of when. We may have to wait for the next president to sign it, but we will get this thing done.”

By Doug Cunningham

African-American workers have been especially hard hit by the decline in U.S. manufacturing jobs. That’s according to a study from the Center for Economic and Policy Research, which says black workers have lost manufacturing jobs and suffered sharp drops in union representation. Economist John Schmitt says union representation for black workers is dropping faster than for the workforce as a whole. Manufacturing historically was a good path to the middle class for black workers, especially since World War Two. But Schmitt says today 16 percent of African-American workers are in unions. Twenty years ago it was over 25 percent.

By Doug Cunningham

The American public supports unions by the widest margins in at least twenty years, according to a Peter D. Hart Research Associates poll done in December of 2006. Pollster Guy Mollineau says there's much more approval of unions today than during the Reagan era.

[Mollineau 1]: "The attitudes toward organized labor have really changed in a pretty fundamental way. Now only a quarter of the country has what you could characterize in some sense as an anti-union perspective."

Mollineau says this strong public support of unions could make the time ripe for labor law reform. And he says the approval of unions is widespread, across all demographic groups and geographic locations.

By Doug Cunningham

Members of Congress are joining workers and unions nationwide for a series of events this week in support of the Employee Free Choice Act labor law reform. The AFL-CIO and the at least 230 members of Congress who support this reform say it'll strengthen the middle class by taking the fear out of the right of workers to organize. Right now employers are free to intimidate and threaten workers who use their right to join unions because current labor law makes it very hard for workers to form unions and easy for employers to get away with violating the right to organize with no real penalties. This is a week of action nationwide supporting the Employee Free Choice Act and upholding the rights of workers to organize.

Union membership continued to decline across the country, but union workers continue to earn substantially more than non-union workers. Jesse Russell has more:

By Jesse Russell

By the end of 2006 union membership had declined to 12 percent of the workforce. One state that saw numbers drop was Oregon where employed union workers went from 14.5 percent of the workforce in 2005 to 13.8 percent last year. Sheet metal worker
and union organizer Willy Meyers says that's bad news for all Oregon workers
because unions set higher standards for worker rights, benefits and wages.

[Meyers]: "Unions float all boats. If the majority of

By Jesse Russell

Even with multiple high profile organizing campaigns in 2006, organized labor found it difficult to retain members. The number of workers in the United States represented by a labor organization dropped to 12 percent. That’s down from 20 percent in 1983 when the Bureau of Labor Statistics began tracking the numbers. The public sector still has the highest number of organized workers at 36.2 percent. In the private sectors only 7.4 percent of workers are represented.

By Doug Cunningham

The American people support labor unions and if given the chance tomorrow 53 percent of workers would vote to have a union. That’s according to a national opinion poll by Peter D. Hart Research Associates. AFL-CIO Organizing Director Stewart Acuff says with public opinion on labor’s side and the suppression of union organizing by employers rampant it’s time for labor law reform.

[Acuff]: “The time is right for us to escalate this fight and for real action on real labor law reform. There's more understanding than ever that workers need unions in order to improve their lives, more understanding that the economy is not working for workin' people. And the public is staunchly opposed to employer campaigns against workers efforts. And the 2006 elections set the stage for congressional action."

Workers for bankrupt Pittsburgh Brewing Company had little choice when faced with the lesser of two evils. Jesse Russell has more:

By Jesse Russell

It was a slim margin, but workers at Pittsburgh Brewing Company accepted a new contract that slashes wages by 15 percent, cuts vacation time for senior employees, and takes more from the pockets of workers for healthcare. The other option - the plant closes up shop and they have no jobs. Even after the 66-52 vote the future of the plant is uncertain. The salvation of the faltering plant is contingent on Pittsburgh Brewing Acquisition acquiring the plant after it emerges from bankruptcy in late April. The new three-year contract would replace a contract set to expire in 2010 and would cover nearly 130 workers represented by two separate unions.

By Doug Cunningham

Union organizers and activists in Washington for the AFL-CIO Organizing Summit are rallying on Capitol Hill in support of the Employee Free Choice Act that would restore the real right of workers to form unions and collectively bargain. Communication Workers of America President Larry Cohen.

[Larry Cohen]: “When the House of Representatives passes this bill, even before it passes in the Senate it validates that notion that a majority of the House of Representatives stands for collective bargaining again. That House will be out there, as George and Nancy have committed. They will be out there to say to the Comcasts and the Verizons and the Goodyears and the Peabody Coals and the Wal-Marts and Cintas that collective bargaining is comin’ back in America.”

By Doug Cunningham

[Stewart Acuff 1]: “This will be a discussion of what works and how we do more of what works. What doesn’t work and how we change what doesn’t work.”

AFL-CIO Organizing Director Stewart Acuff, describing the upcoming Organizing Summit in Washington, D.C. December 8th and 9th. Hundreds of organizers are gathering with representatives of allied community groups to fine tune a strategy for bringing more workers into unions. Acuff says the summit has two vital goals.

[Acuff 2]: “One is focus with this changed Congress on how we can change America’s labor law - to restore the freedom of workers to form unions and bargain collectively – and pass the Employee Free Choice Act. Then share best practices of how to organize in the current environment.

By Doug Cunningham

Workers at the Catholic News Service says they don't want to give up defined benefit pensions or the right to bargain over them. The news service is owned by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. Paul Reilly is with the Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild representing the workers. He says there's often a gulf between Catholic social doctrine supporting workers and the real life behavior toward labor at Catholic institutions.

[Paul Reilly]: "Well, unfortunately the U.S. Catholic Church - the various dioceses - sometimes talk better than they actually act."

Workers at the Catholic News Service haven't had a contract since January. New talks are supposed to happen this week. The union says management at the Catholic News Service insists on having language in the contract giving them the right to terminate or reduce pensions.

By Doug Cunningham

In a GOP controlled Congress labor is within a hair’s breadth of passing the Employee Free Choice Act to give workers the power to join unions simply by signing cards. AFL-CIO organizing director Stewart Acuff.

[Stewart Acuff]: "When we have a president who will sign this legislation we'll pass this legislation. And when we pass this legislation we will change America. Look, we're in a fight. We're in a fight for the values of this country - traditional American values of an honest day's work deserves an honest day's pay. Render justice every morning, deliver those who have been oppressed from the power of their oppressor. Traditional American values that look to reward work with respect. And to dignify workers, which are now being trampled by a right-wing Republican ideology and corporations that don't value human kind."

By Doug Cunningham

The National Air Traffic Controllers Association is still talking with the FAA to reach agreement on a new contract for 16,000 controllers. But the FAA can impose significant wage and benefit cuts if talks reach an impasse.

Ruth Marlin, Executive Vice-President of the union, says this isn't 1981 all over again, when air traffic controllers went on strike and were fired en masse.

[Ruth Marlin 1] : "The FAA has a different type of hammer hanging over our head, which is this issue where they can force an impasse and then wait out Congress and impose their offer on us."

Today in St. Louis, a new federation of unions representing more than five million workers is holding its founding convention. The Change to Win Coalition's focus is on improving the living conditions of working people and organizing the 9 in 10 American workers not yet in union. The coalition consists of major unions that are dissatisfied with that organization's inability to combat slipping membership, including five that left the AFL-CIO this summer.

Participants include the the Service Employees International Union, the Teamsters, United Food and Commercial Workers, UNITE HERE, the Un