Working Life

The United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) has just voted to leave the AFL-CIO. That’s no surprise–I had written earlier in the week that they would leave the Federation. That mean’s the Federation will lose another $7.35 million in per capita taxes. If you add that to the already lost per capita with the disaffiliation […]

Read the full story

Yesterday, I was advocating big-time punishment. Now, I’m getting more specific–spanking is the road to take with the CAFTA 15–the so-called Democrats who voted for the Central American Free Trade Agreement. I’m still flogging the notion that labor has got to exact a price from the CAFTA 15, and I take up the cause again […]

Read the full story

Here I was going about my usual business this morning, flipping through the paper of record, only to find that The New York Times has decided to pick on little ‘ole me–and many of you’all who weighed in with your interesting comments in yesterday’s debate over the CAFTA 15. I’m pasting the editorial below–see bold. […]

Read the full story

On the last day of the convention, John Sweeney has issued a three-page letter to all principal officers of state federation and Central Labor Councils. It’s darn tough and gives a sense that the Federation and the disaffiliated unions (SEIU and Teamsters) are headed for confrontations all across the country. In introducing the letter, Sweeney […]

Read the full story

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 […]

Read the full story

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.

Read the full story

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 […]

Read the full story

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 […]

Read the full story

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 […]

Read the full story

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 […]

Read the full story