Unions

New Data Available in Report Released Today to Mark Workers Memorial Day

April 27, 2009 -- The nation’s workplace safety laws and penalties are too weak to effectively protect workers, according to the new AFL-CIO annual report released today: Death on the Job: The Toll of Neglect.

There were a total of 5,657 fatal workplace injuries in 2007, a slight decrease from the year before, according to the AFL-CIO’s analysis of the newly available data. In 2007, employers reported more than 4 million workers having a work-related injury or illness, more than 10,950 each day. Due to the impact of underreporting of injuries and illness, the true toll may be as high as 12 million workers experiencing an injury or illness in 2007.    » read more »

April 21, 2009 -- SEIU International Executive Vice-President Eliseo Medina released the following statement on today's report by the Southern Poverty Law Center examining the discrimination and abuse of Hispanic workers in the South:

"A basic moral test for our society is how we treat the most vulnerable in our midst. Today's report by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) is a remarkable indictment of the prejudice, racial profiling and outright abuse faced by hardworking Hispanics, some of our country's most vulnerable workers.    » read more »

Proposal, Approved by Union Leaders, Now Headed to Rank-and-File State Employees for Consideration

April 21, 2009 -- Connecticut Governor M. Jodi Rell today announced that the tentative agreement between her Administration and state employee labor unions makes significant changes in employee benefits that will result in cost savings to taxpayers now and in years to come. In addition, union leaders have made tentative agreements on their individual labor contracts that include wage freezes and furlough days for all state employees. The combined changes will save more than $637 million in the next two budget years, while a furlough day and the deferral of certain pension payments included in the agreement will also allow the state to achieve some savings in the current fiscal year.    » read more »

SEIU Master Trust May Seek Legal Action; Calls on Shareholder Corporate Governance Firm Grant & Eisenhofer to Send Letters, Monitor Boards' Response

April 20, 2009 -- WASHINGTON, DC--Today the SEIU Master Trust, a consortium of pension funds with approximately $1.3 billion in assets, threw down the gauntlet to executives profiting off the risk shouldered by shareholders. In letters addressed to the Boards of Directors of 29 major companies in its investment portfolio, the SEIU Master Trust demanded that directors investigate a total of more than $5 billion of incentivized executive pay that may have been tied to poorly understood derivatives and other financial instruments that are now worthless.    » read more »

WASHINGTON (April 20) – The United Steelworkers (USW) today announced the filing of a major trade case against the flood of imported consumer tires from China that have led to thousands of job losses and a growing number of plant closings throughout the U. S.

Leo W. Gerard, USW international president, declared: “American workers are struggling to make it through the worst economic crisis in 80 years. Our tire industry is collapsing under the weight of 46 million Chinese tires entering our shrinking market annually.”    » read more »

Website Includes Latest CEO Pay Data, Bailout Bonuses

April 14, 2009 -- (Washington) - Retention bonuses. Golden coffins. Turbo-charged pension plans. Hefty severance packages. Lavish “executive physicals.” These are some of the outrageous CEO pay practices highlighted in the AFL-CIO’s 2009 Executive PayWatch website launched today at www.paywatch.org.

Despite the worst economic slump in decades, companies continue to heap millions of dollars in pay, bonuses and perquisites on CEO for poor performance, according to the latest data for 2008. The 2009 PayWatch site highlights 10 of these worst CEO pay practices through case studies and includes a comprehensive database of new CEO pay figures.    » read more »

Urges Special Inspector General To Determine Whether Public TARP Funds Were Inappropriately Used For Lobbying Efforts

April 14, 2009 -- WASHINGTON, D.C. – Change to Win called on the Office of the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (SIGTARP) today to conduct an audit to determine whether the financial services industry inappropriately used public TARP funds to protect excessive bonus payments from legislative reform initiatives.    » read more »

Second ad in a week builds on hundreds of grassroots events and momentum for legislation during Congressional recess

April 9, 2009 -- WASHINGTON, D.C. – Greeted with a new massive ad campaign along with over 350 grassroots actions, members of Congress returned to their home states and districts this week to be reminded that a majority of the public demands passage of the Employee Free Choice Act. A new, hard-hitting television ad will hit national airwaves today exposing the real motives of those who oppose the Employee Free Choice Act. It joins another ad already on the air and grassroots events across the country highlighting the broad support for the bill.    » read more »

Pittsburgh (Apr. 9) – The United Steelworkers (USW) announced it has challenged the pending federal permit in the controversial $5.4 billion TransCanada Keystone Pipeline that’s using under-standard thin-wall pipe for transport of crude oil from Alberta, Canada to Houston, Texas.

USW International Vice President Tom Conway transmitted a formal complaint to the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) on Apr. 6, urging the special permit requested by TransCanada be denied. He said the 2,000 mile pipeline is planned using a 36-inch thin-wall pipe at higher maximum operation pressure than is safely permitted under existing regulations. Read the entire Conway letter here.    » read more »

March 26, 2009 -- Washington, DC - Today, Senators Richard Durbin (D-IL) and Richard Lugar (R-IN) introduced the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act in the U.S. Senate while Representatives Howard Berman (D-CA) and Lincoln Diaz-Balart (D-FL) introduced it in the House of Representatives.    » read more »

March 24, 2009 -- In the middle of this economic crisis, passing the Employee Free Choice Act is exactly the right thing to do to give workers the chance to level the playing field. Majority Leader Reid said today, and as even Sen. Specter acknowledges, we need strong labor reform. Now more than ever, America's workers need a choice, free from intimidation and harassment, to bargain for job security, better wages and health care. Our President, Vice President and majorities in both houses of Congress share this goal, and we will not stop in our efforts to achieve it.    » read more »

Demands Swift Action to Eliminate Health Care Disparities Through Healthcare Reform; Leading Labor Groups, Community Organizations, Health Advocates, Civil Rights Groups, Social Justice Advocates, and Faith Networks Join Together to Announce Major New Campaign, Website Launch, Events in 13 States

March 24, 2009 -- Washington D.C - More than 20 major labor, community, health, civil rights, social justice, and faith organizations gathered in Washington today to kick off a major coalition campaign, the Healthcare Equality Project, to fight healthcare disparities.    » read more »

Appears before House Trade Subcommittee, cites options for job security

Washington (Mar. 24) – Leo W. Gerard, international president of the United Steelworkers (USW) appeared today before the U.S. House Trade Subcommittee, saying “the potentially catastrophic issues posed by climate change is the challenge of our generation, and meeting that challenge will require the mobilization of everyone in the world behind a common purpose.”

He told the hearing, “America can and must lead this effort, not only by taking a bold stand to limit greenhouse gas emissions, but by harnessing this nation’s greatest resource, the ingenuity and creativity of the American people.    » read more »

March 20, 2009 -- WASHINGTON, D.C. – Change to Win called on Congress today to amend the critical tax legislation to recover the unwarranted and outrageous bonuses to failing managers of AIG and other bailout recipients to include the $3.6 billion in bonuses Bank of America allowed Merrill Lynch to secretly pay in advance of its merger.

“The Merrill Lynch bonus pool is one of the most egregious bonus fiascos on Wall Street,” said Change to Win chair Anna Burger. “American taxpayers are tired of repeatedly seeing corporate excess rewarded, but adding insult to injury, they are now being asked to reward corporate failure. Enough is enough.”    » read more »

March 19, 2009 -- United Steelworkers (USW) President Leo W. Gerard today applauded an effort by the Obama administration to guarantee loans for strapped auto industry suppliers through a credit insurance program. The program makes an immediate $5 billion in financing available to suppliers to major car companies to collect against receivables owed to them by auto manufacturers.    » read more »