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Trade unions

  • For Blacks, a Dream in Decline
    24 October 2005 par (Open-Publishing)
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    By LOUIS UCHITELLE
    THE Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. set forth the goal. Civil rights and union membership were to be intertwined. The labor movement, Dr. King wrote in 1958, "must concentrate its powerful forces on bringing economic emancipation to white and Negro by organizing them together in social equality."
    That happened in the 1960’s and 1970’s. But then unions lost bargaining power and members. And while labor leaders called attention to the overall decline, few took notice (…)

  • Desperation deal at GM
    23 October 2005 par (Open-Publishing)
    2 comments

    By Robert Kuttner
    THE UNITED Autoworkers union has agreed to save General Motors over a billion dollars a year in health insurance costs. This is a disguised pay-cut, since workers will now pay more out of pocket for their healthcare.
    The union agreed to this desperation deal to help keep GM alive. The once-dominant auto-maker posted a record $1.1 billion loss in the third quarter; and its former parts division, Delphi, with 34,000 union jobs, has just gone into bankruptcy. If and when (…)

  • As goes General Motors
    20 October 2005 par (Open-Publishing)
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    By Derrick Z. Jackson, Globe Columnist
    THE SIGH of relief for General Motors is a fresh reason for Americans to scream for a national solution on healthcare. Staggered by $3.8 billion in losses so far this year, but holding the leverage of cutting jobs, GM got the United Auto Workers to agree to a tentative contract that will probably triple or quadruple the contribution of workers to their healthcare.
    Up to now, union members paid 7 percent of healthcare costs. Salaried GM employees are (…)

  • Both Labor Federations Fail Test of Strike Solidarity
    13 October 2005 par (Open-Publishing)

    By Steve Early
    Having two labor federations, instead of one, is not a new idea in America—or necessarily a negative development.
    Prior to the 1955 merger of the American Federation of Labor (AFL) and Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO), union competition was more often the norm in the U.S. than not. As a result, workers often had a wider range of options when they decided to organize or became dissatisfied with their existing union representation.
    In the 1880s and ’90s, for (…)

  • A New Labor Federation Claims Its Space
    13 October 2005 par (Open-Publishing)

    If Enthusiasm on Display Were Substance, CtW Could Claim a Good Start
    by Jerry Tucker
    The founding convention of the Change-to-Win labor federation held in St. Louis on September 27, 2005 was, if nothing else, filled with enthusiasm and efficiently managed. The founding unions’ top leaders put forward a lean and specifically organizing-focused agenda, and it was adopted without even a hint of dissent. The longer-term question is whether this self-described new direction in unionism will (…)

  • Immokalee Workers Take Down Taco Bell
    13 October 2005 par (Open-Publishing)

    by Elly Leary
    On March 8, 2005, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) in Immokalee, Florida won a significant victory. In a precedent-setting move, fast-food giant Yum! Brands Inc., the world’s largest restaurant corporation, agreed to all the farm workers’ demands (and more!) if the CIW would end the four-year-old boycott of its subsidiary Taco Bell. (Yum!, a spin off from Pepsi, includes Taco Bell, Kentucky Fried Chicken, A&W, Long John Silver’s, and Pizza Hut franchises.) As (…)

  • Union leader accuses Mbeki of betrayal over Aids
    29 September 2005 par (Open-Publishing)

    By Basildon Peta, in Johannesburg
    South Africa’s senior labour leader has launched a scathing attack on President Thabo Mbeki, accusing him of "a failure of leadership" in dealing with the HIV/Aids pandemic which is wreaking havoc in Africa’s richest country.
    South Africa has the world’s biggest number of people who have HIV/Aids, with more than five million of its 45 million citizens affected. Mr Mbeki’s remarks five years ago that poverty, not HIV, was the real cause of Aids earned him (…)

  • America Needs a New Direction: Good jobs. Stronger Communities. A just economy
    29 September 2005 par (Open-Publishing)
    3 comments

    AFL-CIO Executive Committee Statement
    The devastation caused by hurricane Katrina has led millions of Americans to open our hearts to the helpless victims of the Gulf Coast communities. Donations by the millions have poured in. Volunteers by the thousands have rushed to disaster sites to help with rescue work and reconstruction. And the unions and union members of our country have been among those who have given generously.
    AFL-CIO unions have already pledged more than $10 million (…)

  • Union women unite in Detroit
    24 September 2005 par (Open-Publishing)
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    The 600 union members gathered Friday for a national convention in downtown Detroit were buzzing about the nomination of John Roberts to be the chief justice of the Supreme Court - because of his positions on issues such as reproductive rights and pay equity for women.
    At the plenary session at the Marriott Renaissance Center, speakers talked about cervical cancer and contraceptive equity. And among the topics for that afternoon’s workshops : A Man is not a Financial Plan, Personal Safety (…)

  • The AFL-CIO has lost another member, shrinking its numbers even more.
    18 September 2005 par (Open-Publishing)

    By Harold Meyerson
    UNITE-HERE has left the AFL-CIO, and what I want to know is whether the name of the union is being changed to UNITE-THERE. On Tuesday, the executive board of the 450,000-member union — the product of a merger last year between UNITE (formerly the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees) and HERE (the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International Union) — voted at a meeting in St. Paul, Minnesota, to leave the federation. UNITE-HERE joins the (…)