Working Life

Enough. Enough. Enough. If we ever want to make politicians take us seriously when it comes to important laws touching the lives of workers, we must punish the 15 so-called Democrats who voted for the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA)–and punish them hard. Not a single one of those cowardly 15 should receive a […]

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I know this will come as shock but…John Sweeney, Richard Trumka and Linda Chavez-Thompson have just been re-elected without opposition for the positions, respectively, of president, secretary-treasurer and executive vice-president. The suspense killed me.

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So, yeah, the affiliates are going to be a little lighter in the pocket starting right away. The delegates approved raising the per capita tax to 65 cents per month per member. A little financial crunching: the per capita tax had been 61 cents. But that was made up of 53 cents that was permanent […]

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Gerry McEntee, president of AFSCME, has just sent this letter to his members giving his views on the causes for the disaffiliation of SEIU and Teamsters from the AFL-CIO. Also, there is a background document that lays out AFSCME’s views of the issues. What’s particularly interesting is the last part of the background document which […]

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The morning session today at the convention focused on the global economy, with a particular emphasis on my favorite bad-boys, the Beast of Bentonville…Wal-Mart. I decided to pick out two people in particular to give you a feel for the words circulating around the hall. The most impressive speaker was Jenny Chan, from Students Against […]

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In answer to a query from a reader…you’re right, I owe a follow up on the tussle inside the Building and Construction Trades Department. Sorry…events just pushed it off the “front page” briefly. So…to recap, a few days ago, I wrote about a constitutional amendment that was being pushed by the BCTD. It said, in […]

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Last night, a meeting was held between representatives of the Change To Win Coalition and a small group of Central Labor Council and State Fed reps. “They are really discouraged,” says my wag early this morning (I’m not even dressed…I can’t speak for my source since we did this my phone…yes, folks, you can call […]

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Wow, have we come a long way or what? The resolutuon against the war in Iraq passed on the floor just moments ago. The convention avoided a bitter debate after the Executive Council and the Resolutions Committee agreed to strengthen the proposed resolution: by replacing the wording around bringing the troops home in the second […]

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Rep. Melissa Bean from Illinois might vote for CAFTA–but she could face the wrath of labor if she does. As will other Democratic members of Congress who vote for the Central American Free Trade Agreement, if a small but growing movement among union presidents takes hold. It’s about time. I’ve argued for a long time […]

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I hear that this morning at a special meeting of the Executive Council (which started at the ungodly hour of 7:30 a.m…ungodly for those who have been out late at night and up early in the a.m…), a motion was passed to add 4 cents to the per capita rate of the affiliates that would […]

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