West Virginia Teachers' Strike May Soon Sweep The Nation

At a Steel Plant, Layoffs and a Request: Train Your Replacement

language  kingshighway folks in canco had this in 1980s  regannomics

Twenty Myths About Unions

mixed view

The Teamsters - The Latest Attack On Workers

Obama administration cracking down on bosses who use temp workers to dodge labor laws

Obama administration cracking down on bosses who use temp workers to dodge labor laws:



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Businesses don’t just use temp staffing agencies to add workers for short periods when they need extra hands. Staffing agencies can also serve the valuable (to crappy employers) purpose of dodging responsibility. “That person may work in our business on our terms, but the staffing agency is their employer, so we’re not responsible for violating labor laws to exploit them,” is how the dodge basically goes. Now, the Department of Labor is taking steps against that, issuing guidelines on when the company using the staffing agency to hire temp workers should be considered a joint employer that’s responsible for the people working in its facilities.

“I think the majority of noncompliance that we see is people just not getting what the law is, and what their responsibilities are under it,” [Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division director David] Weil said in an interview. “We also find cases of people who are clearly playing games, and clearly trying to shift out responsibility, and often have structured things in a way that lead towards more noncompliance.”

Hillary Clinton Rally Missouri 12/10/15

2007: Barack Obama promised to "walk on that picket line" if workers are...

where is this guy? seems to be missing in action

ArcelorMittal workers clash with police over Belgium closures | euronews, world news

ArcelorMittal workers clash with police over Belgium closures | euronews, world news:

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A protest against planned job losses at ArcelorMittal has led to clashes between riot police and workers in Belgium’s Wallonian capital of Namur.

Water cannon were used to drive back protestors who were throwing small items at the police.

The world’s leading steel and mine company has decided to close a plant in Liège and six production lines in Belgium, putting 1,300 jobs at risk.

Workers have the backing of Belgium’s prime minister Elio Di Rupo, who said he supports efforts to find an industrial solution after meeting with ArcelorMittal union leaders.

The world’s biggest steel maker, headed by Lakshmi Mittal, is blaming the closures on a fall in demand of up to nine percent last year.

Labor Unions and the Minimum Wage: A Debate Between Dr. Walter Block and...

USW Blog--gop delivers uncertainty---happy holidays

USW Blog

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 Happy Holidays: GOP Delivers Uncertainty to Middle Class

Apparently, uncertainty is a fate worse than death for a CEO. Billionaires bellyache about it constantly on TV, contending they must know, right now, whether next year’s tax rates will rise. Republicans bewail uncertainty, insisting CEOs must know, right now, whether they’ll get a tax holiday for overseas profits.

Their deep, abiding concern about the ill effects of uncertainty doesn’t extend, however, to the middle class. To Republicans and far too many billionaires and CEOs, weighing down workers with uncertainty about wages, health insurance and retirement is a fate well deserved.

In fact, Republicans in the past two years have gone hog-wild heightening middle class fear and uncertainty. In addition to demanding cuts to programs crucial to middle class certainty like Medicare and Social Security, Republican lawmakers in GOP-controlled states across the country have passed laws prohibiting union security clauses in collective bargaining agreements. This results in weaker unions and lower benefits and wages, not just for union workers but for everyone in union insecurity states. That creates financial insecurity, the worst kind of uncertainty.

Union security clauses give labor organizations some financial certainty. They require any worker who benefits from a collective bargaining agreement to either join and pay dues or to decline membership and pay a smaller fee covering the cost of union services like negotiation and grievance resolution.

Black Fury (1934) Muni.--labor movie

----- Published on Nov 25, 2012 Black Fury (1934) Muni An immigrant coal miner finds himself in the middle of a bitter labor dispute between the workers and the mine owners. Director: Michael Curtiz Writers: Abem Finkel (screenplay), Carl Erickson (screenplay) Stars: Paul Muni, Karen Morley and William Gargan http://archive.org/details/BlackFury1934 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0026121/ This film was ripped from a VIDEO_TS file.

Busted! Fox News Union Fight Tape Selectively Edited

Why Couldn't Unions Defeat Michigan Anti-Union Bill?

right wing money in Mich--jennifer granholm

Chris Matthews attacks Michigan GOPer over Koch ties

Chris Matthews attacks Michigan GOPer over Koch ties

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Why are we standing up to live better?

Walmart Workers Promise Strike on Black Friday

alas, I do no shopping at this store nor does most of the folks at soar 11-3

Fiscal Cliff: Richard Trumka, Head Of AFL-CIO, Calls Out 'Manufactured Crisis'

Fiscal Cliff: Richard Trumka, Head Of AFL-CIO, Calls Out 'Manufactured Crisis':

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 WASHINGTON -- Digging in for the looming battle over deficit-reduction, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka will make organized labor's case Thursday against cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, declaring the doomsday debt talk in Washington a "manufactured crisis."

"There is no fiscal cliff," Trumka says in prepared remarks to the National Mediation Board Conference in Washington on Thursday. "What we’re facing is an obstacle course within a manufactured crisis that was hastily thrown together in response to inflated rhetoric about our federal deficit."

Democrats and Republicans are headed to the bargaining table to address the so-called fiscal cliff that Trumka alludes to -- the point after the New Year when painful automatic cuts hit the federal budget, unless legislators can find other ways to reduce the $16 trillion debt. Negotiations last year indicated that Democrats are open to cutting social programs that liberals have long considered sacrosanct, as well as trimming programs that aid the poor and elderly.

President Barack Obama met with labor leaders, including Trumka, on Tuesday, assuring them he was committed to letting the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy expire. But organized labor is just as concerned about social insurance programs. The failed "grand bargain" nearly struck by Obama and House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) last year reportedly included cuts to Medicare and Social Security.

Trumka told HuffPost last week that the AFL-CIO, a federation of unions representing 11 million workers, will not support any deal including such cuts. "The voters yesterday rejected that notion soundly," he said the morning after the election. "The answer is, if it includes benefit cuts to Social Security, Medicare, or Medicaid, we'll oppose it."

Walmart Workers Issue Black Friday Ultimatum

Why Unions Matter - Harold Meyerson

old one, but still true. meyerson did oped in wall street journal yesterday on subject http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/what-happens-if-america-loses-its-unions/2012/06/12/gJQA1d7UYV_story.html