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Labor applies Capitol Hill heat for worker rights
June 22, 2007WASHINGTON — No matter how hot and sweaty it got here June 19, support for the Employee Free Choice Act was hotter. Some 3,000 union members and allies rallied on Capitol Hill for the most radical reform of U.S. labor law in over 70 years.
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THIS WEEK IN LABOR
June 15, 2007Who’s the boss? A series of recent decisions by the National Labor Relations Board has raised the possibility that millions of Americans may have their right to join together in unions stripped away because of word games played by corporate bosses. Under U.S. labor law, “employees” have a right to join unions, but “supervisors” do not. In recent years corporations have begun arguing that workers like nurses, computer programmers, accountants...
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June 08, 2007A voice for nonunion workers Working America — the AFL-CIO’s influential grassroots organization for people who don’t have a union — is sending an army of activists to the streets this summer to strengthen the voice of working people in nine states. By the end of the summer, Working America will have 180 staff members talking face to face with people around the country, mobilizing them around both local and...
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THIS WEEK IN LABOR
June 01, 2007Security workers march for health care, respectPrivate security officers and their supporters marched May 24 through downtown Oakland, Calif., past the high-rise commercial office buildings they work to protect, to demand decent wages, affordable family health care and respect. A master contract covering 5,000 security officers employed by leading security companies in San Francisco, the East Bay area and Contra Costa County expires June 30. The march was the start...
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THIS WEEK IN LABOR
May 25, 2007Presidential hopefuls back unionists at D.C. rallyThree Democratic presidential candidates — Sens. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) and Joseph Biden (D-Del.) and Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) — talked union at the Machinists’ “Enough is Enough!” rally near the U.S. Capitol May 17. The rally drew participants from major national unions representing hundreds of thousands of workers, including the International Association of Machinists (IAM) and the Transportation Workers Union (TWU). The purpose of...
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May 18, 2007Iraq unions fight oil theft law The Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions has put the Iraqi government on notice that it intends to strike as early as next week to demonstrate the federation’s strong opposition to what amounts to a proposed oil theft law now pending before Iraq’s Parliament. The Bush administration has made adoption of the oil law one of the “benchmarks” of “progress” and Iraqi “cooperation.” The law...
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New labor editor joins Worlds staff
May 18, 2007The People’s Weekly World/Nuestro Mundo editorial board welcomed John Wojcik to the newspaper’s staff as labor editor May 1. Wojcik, 56, replaces Roberta Wood, who was elected secretary-treasurer of the Communist Party USA last November. Wood will remain on the editorial board.
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Undue influence: Wal-mart, Google, GE press China to curb workers rights
May 11, 2007There is a “tug of war” raging worldwide over reforms in China’s labor law, according to Brendan Smith, Tim Costello and Jerry Brecher, authors of a report released April 5 by Global Labor Strategies (GLS). On one side of the battle, the report says, is Wal-Mart, Google, General Electric and other transnational corporations that have been lobbying to limit rights for Chinese workers. On the other side are workers’ rights...
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May 11, 2007Union membership would double with EFCA Union membership in the U.S. would almost double from the current 12.4 percent of all workers to 22 percent if the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) were to become law, a new report says. Speaking at an April 30 press conference organized by the Institute for America’s Future, Ross Eisenberg of the Economic Policy Institute and Eric Latke, co-author of a report on the...
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May 04, 2007Greetings from France The first round of the French elections saw 80 percent of the eligible voters turn out, the highest percentage since 1965. Since 2002, every person turning 18 years old is automatically registered to vote. Amazing. With right-wing Nicolas Sarkozy heading into the second and last round with about 30 percent of the vote, and Ségolène Royal, a right-of-center Socialist, being his opponent, progressive people in France are...
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