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Catholic hospital chain pressed on low wages
August 10, 2007CHICAGO (PAI) — Four years ago, Araceli Romero’s son Julio developed a serious infection. Romero, a laundress at Resurrection Medical Center in Chicago — flagship of one of the nation’s largest Catholic health care medical chains — had no health insurance. On what Resurrection paid, she couldn’t afford it. First, Romero tried to get her teenage son private care by taking him to clinics, but the money soon ran out....
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We salute Joyce Wheeler
July 27, 2007We salute Joyce Wheeler on her retirement from the Baltimore City Public Schools.She has given 38 years of devoted service to the children of our city. We love and admire you, Joyce, for: • being an exemplary elementary classroom teacher for 27 years • being a staunch BTU building rep who walked the picket lines in 1975 • toiling for 11 years to raise science literacy as Baltimore’s only elementary...
Read moreTHIS WEEK IN LABOR July 28
July 27, 2007New Kennedy bill would further boost minimum wage Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) announced July 24 that he has introduced a new minimum wage hike bill that would raise the minimum wage to $9.50 an hour by 2011 and index it to inflation after that. The new bill was unveiled at a Capitol Hill celebration on the day that marked the first of the three stages in the minimum wage hike...
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As nightmare scenario unfolds in one plant, auto union fights for American way of life
July 27, 2007BELVIDERE, Ill. — Pretend you’re an autoworker and you’re having a bad dream. In your dream it’s 2008, one year after the Big Three — GM, Chrysler and Ford — got away with murder in contract negotiations. There are now two “classes” of workers in your plant doing exactly the same work but earning unequal pay. The companies said they had to have this “two class” system because it would...
Read moreIraq Inc.: Corporate hogs feed at war trough
July 20, 2007Privatization, a strategy to eliminate public control over vital sectors of the economy, is nothing new. What is new, and perhaps more ominous, is that privatization has become the preferred method by which the Bush administration neoconservatives and transnational global corporations take over and occupy whole countries. Recent revelations that the number of U.S.-paid private contractors now far exceeds the number of American combat troops in Iraq show that Bush...
Read moreThis Week In Labor: July 21
July 20, 2007Gov’t agency a union buster A watchdog is needed to keep an eye on the government’s “watchdog.” Mirroring private sector union-busting tactics — but paid for with our tax dollars — the Government Accountability Office has hired a private counsel and a union-busting firm to help the agency fight a unionizing drive by more than 1,400 analysts who want to form a union with the Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE)....
Read moreJuly 14: This Week in Labor
July 13, 2007Supreme Court slaps workers The Supreme Court, determined to roll back living standards for workers and strengthen corporate power and control, issued another ruling that does just that. On June 26, the court abandoned a 96-year ban on manufacturers and retailers conspiring to set price floors for products. In an absurd 5-4 decision, the court said that “agreements” on minimum prices are legal “if they promote competition.” The ruling means...
Read moreJune 30 THIS WEEK IN LABOR
June 29, 2007Labor support grows for single-payer health insurance Communications Workers of America locals in New York state and Transport Workers Union locals in Florida have endorsed HR 676, single-payer health care legislation introduced by Michigan Rep. John Conyers. One of the Florida locals, TWU Local 561 in Virginia Gardens, is a 900-member group that represents aircraft mechanics at American Airlines. Jorge Rojas, the local vice president, said his union endorsed the...
Read moreThis Week In Labor
June 22, 2007LGBT unionists fighting on several fronts Pride at Work, an AFL-CIO affiliate, is a group of labor union activists who seek full equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) workers in their workplaces and their unions. The group has fully mobilized this month, Pride Month, to bring its concerns into many gay pride activities. Pride at Work continues as the lead plaintiff in National Pride at Work vs. Granholm....
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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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