Miguel Contreras

In a last minute surprise move last week, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) vetoed all state funding for the respected University of California’s Miguel Contreras Labor Program.

The program is named after Contreras, a longtime labor leader and head of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor until his death in 2005. (Click here for more on Contreras and here for more on the labor studies program.)

California governors have line-item veto power, meaning they can reduce or completely eliminate funding for any item in the state budget. The $5.4 million for the labor studies program was part of the budget Schwarzenegger and the legislature agreed on after months of stalemate. State Assembly Speaker Karen Bass (D) says lawmakers were led to believe Schwarzenegger would leave the labor studies funding in the budget.

 

Wow. Just wow. When AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka gave a heartfelt speech at the United Steelworkers (USW) convention last July about the need for all of us to overcome racial prejudice when voting for president and instead cast our ballots for our economic interests and in support of America's future prosperity, we knew he hit it out of the ballpark.

Now, literally millions of others know as well. This past week, Trumka's speech went viral, spreading from a post by Platypus on Daily Kos—where an astounding 440 people took time to comment, nearly all offering amazing support—to dozens of blogs and online news sites. A video clip of the speech posted at YouTube, now has nearly 260,000 views—and continues to grow.

 

With only 29 days to go before the election, it’s more important than ever for union members to volunteer with the Labor 2008 political program, and members of the AFL-CIO Building and Construction Trades Department (BCTD) are turning out to make sure pro-worker candidates win this fall.

Sen. Barack Obama is offering real solutions to the challenges facing America’s working families, but Sen. John McCain, who thinks the campaign shouldn’t be “about issues,” hopes he can count on dishonest smears to distract voters from what’s really at stake.

Through the AFL-CIO Labor 2008 political mobilization program, union members are connecting directly with undecided voters and giving them the truth about Obama’s pro-worker record and McCain’s disastrous economic policy agenda.

Sean McGarvey, BCTD secretary-treasurer, says the nation's economic crisis tops the concerns of union members this election. The building trades are particularly hard hit by the housing crisis and are already seeing the effects of the financial meltdown, as the credit markets are essential to new construction.

 

U.S. House candidate Ben Ray Lujan and CWA member Al Kogler

Don Manning, Labor 2008 state director for New Mexico, reports on ongoing member-to-member phone banking in this key battleground state.

 

Zone Three of the New Mexico Federation of Labor and Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) Local 480 put on a creative and incredibly successful “Phone Bank with the Stars” night last Thursday. More than 60 people crammed into the IATSE office in Santa Fe—so many that some had to make calls from the kitchen.

 

Morty Simon and Carol Oppenheimer, co-coordinators for Zone Three, says IATSE leaders Jon Hendry and Deborah Cohen deserve thanks for making the event happen.

 

Two years ago, members of UAW Local 2488, working at the Mitsubishi Motors plant in Normal, Ill., agreed to major job security concessions to keep the company afloat. Now that Mitsubishi's net sales have rebounded, the workers have ratified a new four-year contract that provides job security.

UAW President Ron Gettelfinger says the agreement will

protect jobs and provide four years of stability for our members and their communities.

 

A new study by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) looks at Sen. John McCain's plan to tax your employer-provided health care on a state-by-state basis and estimates as many as 27 million of us could lose our work-based coverage under McCain's tax plan. Two more recent reports look at other aspects of McCain's health care plan, including its impact on women.

McCain's health care tax could mean the loss of health care coverage for as many as 1.3 million Ohioans, 1.2 million Pennsylvanians, 1.1 million Floridians, 800,000 Virginians and nearly 600,000 Wisconsinites.

 

Some 28,000 workers at Boeing remain on strike, with no negotiations since the strike began Sept. 6, and more news from the "Bargaining Digest Weekly." The AFL-CIO Collective Bargaining Department delivers daily, bargaining-related news and research resources to more than 900 subscribers. Union leaders can register for this service through our website, Bargaining@Work.

WORK STOPPAGES AND ACTIONS

IAM, Boeing: There have been no negotiations between the 28,000 Boeing strikers, represented by the Machinists (IAM), and the company since the strike began Sept. 6 over job security, pay and benefits. Doug Kight, a negotiator for Boeing, says federal mediators are in constant contact with both sides. "The differences in our positions are wide," says Kight. Mark Blondin, a national aerospace coordinator for IAM, concurred: "There's no movement," he says. Health coverage for the strikers ended Oct. 1.

 

(10/06/08) Oct. 6 is the voter registration deadline in seven states, with the cut-off date approaching in many others. States with an Oct. 6 deadline include Florida, Colorado, Indiana, and Virginia, which are considered "battleground states." Georgia, Arizona, and Kentucky also close their voting rolls Oct. 6.

(10/06/08) In the month of September, nine more members of the U.S. House of Representatives signed on to the Mail Network Protection Act (H.R. 4236), a bill that would limit wasteful, inefficient, and detrimental subcontracting practices by the U.S. Postal Service.

In four weeks, millions of voters will go to the polls to choose our next president, Congress and state and local officials. But even if you are eligible to vote, you could be denied a ballot, illegally purged from the voting rolls or face challenges to your voting status.

To ensure that every eligible voter can vote and have their vote counted, union members and activists are working through the AFL-CIO My Vote, My Right voter protection project to ensure the ballot process is run fairly. (A new website now offers help to voters who have questions about voting, including where to register. The National Campaign for Fair Elections launched www.866ourvote.org and spotlighted a toll-free voting rights hotline, 1-866-OUR-VOTE, operated by a nonpartisan coalition of groups, including the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and the AFL-CIO. Also check out the Voter Bill of Rights for Michigan, Missouri, Ohio and Pennsylvania by clicking the state name.)

 

If the efforts of union members and progressives across the country are successful, Sen. Barack Obama will be elected president this fall. He’d take office in January and face a set of extremely serious challenges and promising opportunities. Would he be able to turn the country around and make it work again?

Obama’s Challenge, a new book by Robert Kuttner, looks at the policy agenda and outcomes of the past eight years to answer this question. Kuttner asks how previous presidents have transformed the nation and what policies can be implemented to move us forward.

Only a president, Kuttner says, can assert a robust policy agenda and fix the failures of our economy through broad, comprehensive solutions. Small, micropolicy shifts are inadequate The next four years are an opportunity for real leadership—an opportunity that is as challenging as it is necessary.

Kuttner, co-founder of The American Prospect and author of The Squandering of America, discussed his new book this week at the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) with Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne and EPI President Lawrence Mishel.

 

AFL-CIO General Counsel Jon Hiatt explains how the union movement's campaign for justice for car wash workers in Los Angeles could become a model for future organizing.

A newly launched campaign on behalf of some 10,000 car wash workers in Los Angeles offers one of the most exciting examples of a genuine community-labor coalition that could provide a model for similar efforts in other industries and other cities around the country.

California leads the nation in the number of car wash operations and they are highly profitable, with a typical return on investment of more than 40 percent. However, the profits from this industry are largely derived from violations of workers' legal rights, with rampant non-compliance with minimum wage, overtime, rest and meal period requirements. Car wash workers routinely work between 50 and 60 hours a week and average $12,500 a year with no benefits.

 

After four months of negotiations, some 1,800 analysts at the federal Government Accountability Office (GAO) will vote next week on a tentative interim contract agreement. The workers are represented by GAO Employees Organization/International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE) Local 1921.

If ratified, the interim agreement will be in effect until a master agreement is reached. The tentative pact sets up the basic rules for the new union’s relationship with GAO management, such as dues collection, use of GAO resources and grievance arbitration.

Last week, a West Virginia coal company tried to drive a wedge between the Mine Workers (UMWA) and Barack Obama. The UMWA members showed they wouldn’t stand for it.

On Monday, more than 440 UMWA members called a one-day work stoppage at the Blacksville, W.Va., mine to protest an attempt by Consol, the coal company for which they work, to manipulate the election. Every member took part, halting coal production for the day.

Consol had allowed a camera crew from the National Rifle Association (NRA) onto their worksite, and management instructed miners to talk with the camera crew, who asked dishonest and leading questions meant to sow doubts about Obama.

The U.S. House reversed course today and approved a $700 billion Wall Street bailout package aimed at calming jittery nerves in the financial markets and reviving the credit markets. The vote was 263–171.

On Monday, the House narrowly defeated a similar bailout bill. The new bill, unchanged from the version passed by the Senate on Wednesday, was immediately signed by President Bush.

But action on an economic recovery package for working families remains stalled. Today's unemployment numbers—159,000 jobs gone in September and more than 760,000 so far this year—shows the desperate need for Main Street relief.

SMWIA Local 10 member Jim Bowman and granddaughter Victoria

We try to keep all our fishing, hunting and outdoors enthusiasts up to date with the latest from the Union Sportsmen's Alliance (USA)—such as the NASCAR trip for two and the group's bass boat giveaway.

But for even more outdoor news, check out USA's Notes from the Woods and Water monthly newsletter. In the current issue, you can learn more about:

* The USA Best Shot Photo Contest that offers a monthly prize of a #110 American-made Buck knife to the best photo, judged on quality, creativity and content.

* The premiere this weekend of season four of the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership's "Life in the Open" on the Versus Country network. Support from the Machinists (IAM), Electrical Workers (IBEW), Sheet Metal Workers (SMWIA), Fire Fighters (IAFF), Plumbers and Pipe Fitters (UA), Painters and Allied Trades (IUPAT) and Bricklayers (BAC) help make the show possible.

 

Joining in one of the most unusual political coalitions of this election season, Colorado unions and business groups have come together to fight three anti-union ballot measures—including a "right to work" for less initiative.

The agreement, announced yesterday, calls for business leaders and business-backed groups, such as Colorado Concern, to join with unions and the union/community coalition Protect Colorado's Future in mobilizing, voter outreach, debates and fundraising to defeat the anti-worker ballot initiatives.

 

The union movement’s Million-Member Mobilization to get 1 million signatures supporting the Employee Free Choice Act has nearly reached its goal. With just over 30 days to go before the November elections, some 822,500 people have signed cards and petitions calling on the new Congress to immediately pass and the new president to sign the legislation when they take office in 2009.

The Mine Workers (UMWA) and the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee (CNA/NNOC) are the latest unions to exceed their goals for members supporting the bill. Between them, the two unions collected 20,000 signatures—11,000 for CNA/NNOC and 9,000 for UMWA.

 

(10/03/08) In an Update for union members, APWU President William Burrus says that although the threat of postal layoffs is real, the USPS' first-ever layoffs would affect very few APWU-represented employees.

Some 159,000 jobs were lost in September, the largest monthly drop in five years and the ninth straight month—in all of 2008—the U.S. economy lost jobs.

This from Bloomberg business news service:

The world's largest economy may be headed for bigger job losses as the worst financial meltdown since the Great Depression causes consumers and companies to retrench.

The U.S. Department of Labor report released today also shows the unemployment rate remained at 6.1 percent, largely due to the large number of jobless workers who no longer are counted because they have given up looking for work. In addition to the 9.5 million workers who meet the Labor Department's official definition of “unemployed,” another 6.1 million are working part-time because they can’t find full-time work, and half a million have given up looking for a job.