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Trade unions

  • French unionist seriously injured
    21 March 2006 par (Open-Publishing)
    2 comments

    Riot policemen drag away an unidentified unionist from the PTT-Sud who was seriously injured on the Nation square in Paris, Saturday, March 18, 2006, during clashes between protesters and riot policemen, following a students and unionists demonstration against the First Job Contract, known as CPE.
    The unionist was unconscious and in serious condition Monday, March 20, 2006, police and hospital officials said.
    The PTT-SUD union claimed the 39-year-old man had been "violently trampled by a (…)

  • French Union Leaders Threaten Strike
    19 March 2006 par (Open-Publishing)

    By Philip White
    (EUNN) London - French union leaders threaten to strike over a contested jobs plan for youths that sparked violent protests in Paris over the weekend.
    French union leaders have given Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin until tomorrow night to withdraw the plan that would provide jobs for the young that critics of the jobs plan see as a reduction of older workers rights.
    Speaking on France-Inter radio, Bernard Thibault, head of the CGT union, said, "If the government (…)

  • Labor movement gets a face-lift
    17 February 2006 par (Open-Publishing)

    By Jane M. Von Bergen
    "Awesome night," said Stephani Passaro, 21, shivering as she ducked into a minivan after a cold night knocking on doors this week in Bensalem’s suburban cul-de-sacs to talk about issues affecting working families.
    It was awesome. No dogs chased Passaro and her nine fellow canvassers. Hardly anyone slammed doors on them, and they signed up 275 members to Working America, a 1.2-million-member grassroots affiliate of the AFL-CIO, the nation’s largest federation of (…)

  • Lobbyist Aims to Show Labor Groups to be ’Duplicitous’
    17 February 2006 par (Open-Publishing)

    Full-Page Ads Launch Anti-Union Drive
    By Amy Joyce
    The full-page newspaper ads that ran yesterday showed a "Closed" sign over a padlocked gate, declaring the sign "The New Union Label. . . . Brought to you by the union ’leaders’ who helped bankrupt steel, auto, and airline companies.
    The advertisements in The Washington Post, New York Times and Wall Street Journal, introduced the Center for Union Facts and its Web site, UnionFacts.com. The group was created by Richard Berman, a (…)

  • In Search of Solidarity
    11 February 2006 par (Open-Publishing)

    By Christopher Hayes
    It’s a week before the holidays in New York City and there’s a transit strike. A strike? In 2005? It seems an anachronism, like meat rations or air raid drills. There’s a frisson of excitement in the air mixed with logistical dread and disbelief.
    The morning the strike begins, billionaire mayor Mike Bloomberg accuses the largely black and Latino union of acting "thuggishly" and then proceeds to class-bait the transit workers. "You’ve got people making $50,000 and (…)

  • Facing Movement for Democracy, SEIU Gives Massachusetts Members to Teachers Union
    31 January 2006 par (Open-Publishing)

    by Ferd Wulkan
    More than 2,000 SEIU members who work for the University of Massachusetts (UMass) left SEIU in late 2005, just as SEIU was leaving the AFL-CIO. What’s most surprising is that SEIU preferred to lose these workers, rather than let them have a democratic local.
    Members on four UMass campuses, in 10 bargaining units, were represented by four different SEIU locals until 2003. Through a top-down reorganization of locals under SEIU’s New Strength Unity Plan, all these units were (…)

  • Iraqi unions launch united struggle
    31 January 2006 par (Open-Publishing)

    by Susan Webb
    Iraq’s labor movement has formed a united permanent coordinating committee to “make its positions known” to the Iraqi government, and to challenge the dictates of international financial institutions like the World Bank and International Monetary Fund.
    Six union federations, including two Kurdish labor organizations, issued a joint statement, Jan. 16, stressing “the importance of complete sovereignty for Iraq over its petroleum and natural resources” to “develop them in a (…)

  • BOLIVIA: Indigenous Leaders, Women Head New Cabinet
    27 January 2006 par (Open-Publishing)

    by Franz Chávez
    LA PAZ, Jan 24 (IPS) - Reforms to Bolivia’s current "neoliberal" free-market policies and the fight against corruption and red tape announced by incoming President Evo Morales, an Aymara Indian, were put in the hands of a cabinet made up largely of indigenous people, trade unionists and women.
    Bolivia’s first-ever indigenous president, sporting the same red, grey, white and blue sweater that became famous on his tour to Europe as president-elect, swore in his new cabinet (…)

  • RIGHT-TO-WORK, PREVAILING WAGE FIGHT MAY STIR ALL CAMPAIGNS
    27 January 2006 par (Open-Publishing)

    Labor becomes election issue
    By Ryan Alessi
    FRANKFORT — Regardless of whether it was intended, Gov. Ernie Fletcher’s forceful push for legislation targeted at organized labor is morphing into more of an election issue than a legislative one.
    Fletcher’s aggressive support for the repeal of the prevailing wage law and enactment of so-called "right to work" legislation has pleased many business leaders, who often show appreciation through campaign donations.
    Some Democrats have said (…)

  • What Was the Matter with Ohio?: Unions and Evangelicals in the Rust Belt
    27 January 2006 par (Open-Publishing)

    by James Straub
    It was a fittingly ironic end to an election full of grotesque twists: When George W. Bush was narrowly reelected president of the United States, it was the electoral votes of the state he had harmed most that gave him the final nudge across the finish line. Ohio went for the second election in a row to the Republican clown prince. But if the first Bush victory was tragedy, the one in 2004 was surely farce: has world history ever turned before on the artful elevation of gay (…)