May
2012 16
2012 16
Walker’s Billionaire “Divide and Conquer” Backer, Diane Hendricks, Isn’t Paying State Corporate Taxes
It seems the billionaire Scott Walker-backer with whom the Governor shared his “divide and conquer” strategy toward unions can give $500,000 to her favorite anti-worker puppet despite not paying a cent in state corporate income tax between the years of 2005 and 2008, the most recent years with records to show. Diane Hendricks, the...
May
2012 14
2012 14
Labor Professor: In Pennsylvania, “Union Busting Won’t Help…”
The story of Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett begins with Pennsylvania unions being busted and ends with privatization in the name of “tax relief.” While the state’s money woes could easily be solved by higher taxation on corporations, Corbett is taking pages out of the American For Prosperity/ALEC playbook and demonizing...
May
2012 7
2012 7
WaPo: VA GOP Holding Up Dulles Metrorail “Just to Stick It to Labor Unions and their Democratic Allies.”
Never is the partisanship of politics more rampant than in an election year, but what has been taking place in Virginia over the Dulles Metrorail extension (get background from our previous pieces here, here, here, here and here) could make even the most extreme gridlock artist tear up. The Washington Post‘s Steve Pearlstein penned a ...
May
2012 4
2012 4
“So far this year, shareholders at five companies have voted against CEO pay packages.”
After Citigroup shareholders gave a vote of no confidence to the $15 million pay package of CEO Vikram Pandit, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka and Pennsylvania AFL-CIO President Richard W. Bloomingdale pointed out that the public is quickly tiring of the runaway pay of CEOs in an opinion piece for the Allentown Morning-Call. Trumka and...
Apr
2012 30
2012 30
A Moving Tribute to New York Building Trades Members Who Died in 2011
In a recent piece, “A Family in Mourning,” Bill Hohlfeld describes a moving tribute to New York Building Trades members who died in 2011. It was held last Tuesday at New York City’s St. Patrick’s Cathedral. Speaking of the “extended family” that is the building trades industry, Hohlberg describes how members of...
Apr
2012 26
2012 26
“Chances are at least one of your neighbors belongs to a union. Their kids play on your kids’ Little League team. They do charity work and volunteer. They attend your church.”
Delaware State Senator Michael P. Mulrooney’s op-ed,...
Apr
2012 19
2012 19
Zero Hedge: “Number of people not in the labor force is now at an all time high.”
As candidates use charts and numbers to prove their points about unemployment during the election season, some observers are noting that many may look upside down compared to those using some more logical numbers. “If you’re looking strictly at a chart of the “official” unemployment rate,” ZeroHedge.com says,...
Apr
2012 6
2012 6
UTU/SMWIA: Conservative Cuts to Transportation Would Threaten 500,000 Jobs
In the event you haven’t already identified the potential harm that could be done to workers by Right-Wing legislation, the United Transportation Union (UT) and the Sheet Metal Workers International Association (SMWIA) -– now combined into the Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers (SMART) — have arrived with an...
Apr
2012 3
2012 3
The SAG-AFTRA Merger Changed One Union Critic’s Opinion of Streamlined Certification Votes
The vote last week that merged the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) has caused one former union critic, Jon Healey, to rethink his support of the GOP’s anti-union talking points with respect to union certification votes. From his piece in the Los Angeles Times: The overwhelming ...
Mar
2012 27
2012 27
Mass. AFL-CIO, Building Trades Issue Response to Negative Attacks on Vicksburg Square Project Ahead of Tonight’s Vote
On Monday, Nashoba Publishing ran an article, “Mass. AFL-CIO appeals to “Brothers and Sisters” on Vicksburg Square vote,” that suggested there had been “mixed reaction” to a letter sent by labor officials concerning a pending vote on a 246-apartment construction project in Vicksburg Square. The project aims to...
Mar
2012 26
2012 26
VIDEO: AFGE Local 3258 President Gives Fantastic Anti-Spending Cut Presentation
In the two videos below, Vice Chair of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) HUD council, Carolyn Federoff (also president of AFGE Local 3258), gives an amazing presentation that takes down the idea of cutting government spending as a means of ditching the deficit. The videos were posted on New Hampshire Labor News. The ...
Mar
2012 22
2012 22
“Sports drinks when the workplace feels like an oven?! They’d get more than sports drinks if they could collectively bargain with the boss.”
Last Friday, on the Washington Monthly’s Political Animal blog (which took a big hit when Steve Benen was wooed to the Rachel Maddow blog because of his excellent work), a piece appeared titled, “Undercover Boss and the Decline of the Working Class.” It begins by explaining the premise of the CBS television show Undercover Boss ...
