labor

New Labor Secretary is Brown and Green

President-elect Barack Obama got it right when he announced Representative Hilda Solis as his pick for the next secretary of labor. Headlines are heralding her as the first Latino to hold the post. But the green jobs movement is jumping for joy not only because she's brown. It's because she's green. Through Solis, Obama makes clear his commitment to creating green jobs to lift the nation out of its current economic crisis.

Posted in green economy, labor

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 18, 2008
3:12 PM

CONTACT: American Rights at Work
Josh Goldstein 202-822-2127 x118

American Rights at Work Statement on Secretary of Labor Nomination

Executive Director Mary Beth Maxwell and Chair David Bonior

WASHINGTON - December 18 - Following media reports that Congresswoman Hilda Solis (D-CA) will be tapped by President-Elect Obama as our nation's next Secretary of Labor, American Rights at Work Executive Director Mary Beth Maxwell and Chair David Bonior released the following statements:

Mary Beth Maxwell: "What a great choice. Rep. Solis brings the expertise and leadership required to a department in desperate need of reform and will champion common sense policies like the Employee Free Choice Act to restore balance and create an economy that works for everyone.

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American Rights at Work is a nonprofit advocacy organization dedicated to promoting the freedom of workers to organize unions and bargain collectively with employers. Through action, research findings, and outreach inside and outside of the labor community, we expose injustice in the workplace and fight for the rights of America's workers.

As a leading advocate, American Rights at Work is a readily available resource on workers' rights and labor-related issues. We can also connect you with other advocates, policy experts, activists and figures within the labor movement.

American Rights at Work Links:

Posted in labor, Politics

Auto Bailout's Death Seen as a Republican Blow at Unions

Washington - The congressional push to help U.S. automakers was generally cast in terms of protecting the reeling national economy from another body blow -- the collapse of one or more of Detroit's Big Three.

But in killing the stopgap rescue plan worked out by President Bush and congressional Democrats, conservative Republicans -- many from right-to-work states across the South -- struck at an old enemy: organized labor.

Posted in auto bailout, labor

Senate to Middle Class: Drop Dead

Friends,

They could have given the loan on the condition that the automakers start building only cars and mass transit that reduce our dependency on oil.

They could have given the loan on the condition that the automakers build cars that reduce global warming.

They could have given the loan on the condition that the automakers withdraw their many lawsuits against state governments in their attempts to not comply with our environmental laws.

Posted in auto bailout, labor

Human Rights and The Economy Crisis

Sixty years ago this week, the United Nations adopted he Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It codified liberties Americans had long supported: freedom of speech, assembly, association, belief and worship; legal rights and due process; rights to a job at good wages under reasonable conditions, and economic security.

Posted in employeesfreechoice, labor

Labor Victory in Chicago

When Barack Obama revealed after the election that he was reading a book on Franklin Roosevelt's first 100 days as president, the "new New Deal" discussion went into overdrive. Progressives dared to believe that Obama's presidency might, due to economic necessity and the president-elect's interventionist inclinations, be a reprise of the last extended period when economic fairness was on the agenda.

Posted in beyond obama, financial crisis, labor

A $15 Billion Jumpstart for the Big Three?

After digesting an abysmal November unemployment report, House Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is a "car czar" away from working out the kinks for a $15 billion auto Hail Mary, less than half the amount requested by the Detroit Three. This bridge loan will supposedly keep the auto industry running on fumes until March, when Obama's pit crew can step in.

Posted in bailout, labor, transportation

Workers of America: Wake Up! We All Need a Union!

We workers of America, white collar, pink collar, blue collar, and no collar at all, have just gotten a wonderful example of the power of having a union. It¹s an example that should have every unorganized employee in America looking for a union organizer.

With the recession deepening, it¹s clear that major layoffs are in store, and that employers are going to be putting the squeeze on employees, even if they don¹t drop them. Individually, workers have little leverage in such a situation.

Posted in Activism, labor

Workers Win a Big Round in Chicago Factory Sit-In

CHICAGO - The creditor of a Chicago plant where laid-off employees are conducting a sit-in to demand severance pay said Tuesday it would extend loans to the factory so it could resolve the dispute, though the workers declared their protest unfinished.

A resolution seemed nearer as Bank of America, which yanked the plant's financing last week, announced it sent a letter to Republic Windows and Doors offering "a limited amount of additional loans" to resolve its employee claims.

Posted in labor, protest

Workers Occupy Chicago Factory: Echoes of Argentina's 2001 Worker Uprising

When the 250 workers at the Republic Windows and Doors factory in Chicago were told that the plant was shutting down, they decided to take matters into their own hands. On Friday, December 5, the workers occupied their factory in an act that echoes the sit-down strikes of the 1930s in the US and the occupation of factories during the 2001 crisis in Argentina.

Posted in financial crisis, labor