Working Life

UPDATES: I’ve received all the key documents that relate to what I think is a pretty significant deal between AFSCME and SEIU to cooperate and avoid raiding situations. Here are the documents: The deal covers home care workers in California (as well as side letters to that agreements), child care workers in California and Pennsylvania […]

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Here’s a bit of a surprising revelation—though maybe it’s naïve to label any strange/perplexing bedfellows story as surprising in the world of politics. There’s an organization called the New Democratic Network (NDN)—it’s website says it “works with other allied groups to build a strong, vibrant and powerful progressive politics capable of meeting the challenges of […]

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You have to read this piece today by The New York Times’ Mary Williams Walsh, who, by my way of thinking, has done one of the best jobs in the MSM (and even the non-MSM) in covering the debacle facing the private pensions system. Walsh chronicles the business strategy of one Robert Miller which can […]

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So, the Change To Win coalition rally came off quite nicely and the coalition also donated $125,000 to the strikers. Check out the photo here. But, what caught my eye this a.m. is the fact that the strike by more than 18,000 machinists at Boeing has even the business press confused–and critical of the company. […]

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Yesterday, I promised to come back to the attack on workers’ wages unleashed by the Administration under the guise of New Orleans recovery. Today, a part of the attack has taken on a new face: the conservative wing of the Republican party is already calling for cuts in spending to offset any of the tens […]

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A reader wrote me with a splendid idea: the new federation, which is currently working under the title Change To Win, needs a new name. So, the floor is open for suggestions. Now, I’ll make a plea: be creative and fun and INSPIRING…and, if possible, let’s try to minimize nasty suggestions. It’s only a name. […]

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Hey, you’all out there in the D.C.-Northern Virginia area, here’s a chance to have some fun tomorrow. Thanks to reader Jonathan Marks, we know that Rep. Jim Moran, one of the enthusiastic CAFTA 15, is going to be at the Lake Anne Coffee House in Reston, VA this Saturday from noon to 2 p.m. for […]

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Hmmm…this might be a good primary option to take out one of the CAFTA 15. Seems like Rep. William Jefferson has even more ethical problems. As I reported before, Jefferson is under FBI investigation. Now comes a new report that might indicate a pattern: CNN’s John Mercurio’s The Morning Grind reports on a Roll Call […]

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Who says Bush and Boeing are all bad for labor? You have to give them credit for this: they are showing that, despite all the huffing and puffing after the AFL-CIO convention, unity is possible between the two national labor federations. Yesterday, three union presidents–Carpenters’ President Doug McCarron, Laborers President Terry O-Sullivan and Operating Engineers […]

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The life for airline workers is just getting worse. As reported today in the major newspapers (see The New York Times–registration required), Northwest and Delta are poised to file for bankruptcy as soon as today. What will likely come in pretty quick succession is further demands for wage and benefits cuts, particularly termination of the […]

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