Working Life

It’s been a fairly accepted idea that many unions are abandoning the process of organizing workers via the National Labor Relations Board election procedures. According to Steve Greenhouse’s piece today, card check is overwhelmingly becoming the accepted route to unionization: Card checks were used to sign up roughly 70 percent of the private-sector workers who […]

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When the attacks on pensions hit blue-collar workers, people shrug. But, increasingly, the disappearing pensions are a fact of life for white-collar workers. GM is now going after its white-collar workforce. The General Motors Corporation announced extensive changes to the retirement plans of its salaried employees on Tuesday, a decision that will cut its pension […]

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Here’s an interesting pairing of events. Even though there have been a spate of deaths and accidents at mines, the Bush Administration has “decreased major fines for safety violations since 2001,” as The New York Times reports today. The Mine Safety and Health Administration’s response: last year’s fatalities of 22 miners was “the lowest number […]

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Here’s a rare piece of good legal news for workers: Court Blocks DOD’s New Rules for Workers Collective Bargaining Hurt, Judge Says A federal judge blocked the Defense Department from implementing much of its new personnel system yesterday, handing the Bush administration a major setback in its efforts to streamline work rules and install pay-for-performance […]

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It will be an interesting day in New York. Over at the union hall for SEIU’s 32BJ, there will be a public briefing for the bi-partisan Secure America and Orderly Immigration Act of 2005. Here’s another place where I part with the AFL-CIO. I think this is a pretty decent bill, though not perfect, while […]

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This is not a new story but it’s always nice when the mainstream media highlight something we’ve been discussing here for many months, and something so many people have pointed out for a long time. The Sunday New York Times Business Section has a front-page story headlined, “Two Tiers, Slipping Into One: As Workers Retire, […]

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Check out today’s front-page story in the biz section of The New York Times on the Communications Workers of America’s success at organizing Cingular Wireless. The main reason for the success is obvious: Cingular has agreed to be neutral in organizing drives. Indeed, that’s even more obvious when you consider that of the 225,000 workers […]

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This is a very distressing story out of Los Angeles: L.A. County Labor Chief May Quit in Funds ProbeBy Patrick McGreevy and Steve Hymon, Times Staff Writers Former Los Angeles City Councilman Martin Ludlow is considering stepping down as head of an influential and politically active labor group and is weighing a plea bargain with […]

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The Laborers International and the Operating Engineers announced that they were leaving the AFL-CIO’s Building Trades Department to form a new construction trades alliance called the National Construction Alliance. I had written that the Laborers were going to leave the AFL-CIO–but, at least, on the timing, I jumped the gun. But, Laborers president Terry O-Sullivan […]

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You may have noticed, for those of you who read the national press, that a new organization popped up called the “Center For Union Facts.” On the one hand, it’s actually quite a lame operation–and you have to chuckle at the stereotypes it tries to promote. And, you have to question any operation that features […]

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