Mon - December 5, 2005

Internation Human Rights Week


This week is International Human Rights Week

Many events will kick off this week to highlight the barriers that workers face in trying to get rights at work. You can find a list at our web site www.paaflcio.org . It is important that we get this information out to as many people as possible. Poll after poll shows that the majority of Americans would join a union if they could. But many folks are afraid and can't afford to lose their jobs if they try to organize. So it's up to us to try and change the way folks organize. So let's make this a great week and rededicate ourselves to organizing and the growth of the labor movement.

Posted at 12:54 AM    

Wed - July 27, 2005

Convention 2005 day 3


A brief rundown of the days events.

So far this morning we have heard from many International labor leaders. They spoke passionately about the need to work across international borders. We heard from leaders in Australia, Britain, Scotland, China and Mexico. In many countries they are making great strides against corporate greed, but in others they need our help more than ever. A young woman from China spoke with much emotion about the plight of young girls working in factories in Shanghai to provide goods to Wal-Mart. On the good news side Larry Cohen the incoming PResident of CWA spoke jointly with the leader of the Mexican counterpart of CWA about their joint efforts to work together to build a cross border alliance for communications workers.

We also passed a resolution opposing the bad corporate practices of Wal-Mart. The fight against Wal-Mart as we learned from the young Chinese woman is an international fight and a local fight against greed. The Canadian labor leaders said that for every job Wal-Mart creates in a local community they destroy 3 jobs in that same community. They use taxpayer dollars to provide their workers with healthcare, and then ask communities for tax breaks.

Wendell Young III moved the convention delegates with an impassioned statement about unity and the greater labor movement. He thanked the National for focusing on the fight against Wal-Mart even as his own union, UFCW, is still talking about disaffiliating. For those of you who don't know Wendell, he is the President Emeritus of UFCW L. 1776. He also serves as a vice-president of the Pa. AFL-CIO. As long as I have known Wendell he has been a strong supporter of labor unity and solidarity. Whenever there's a union in a fight Wendell and his local local are there to help. Even though he is semi-retired he is still active on many fronts.

The day wrapped up with the nomination and re-election of Pres. Sweeney, Sec-Treas. Rich Trumka , Exec. Vice-Pres. Linda Chavez-Thompson and 43 vice-presidents on the Executive Council. It was an emotional and exciting day.

Posted at 12:34 PM    

Convention 2005


So far this has been a convention to remember.

Well its the end of Day 2 of the convention. Again an excitement filled day of great speeches, spirited debate on resolutions and amendments. But before I get into that let me give a quick summation of the first day and the weekend pre-convention conference on diversity.

After arriving Friday night on the crazy flight I mentioned in my previous entry, we started at 9:00 am Saturday morning on ways to grow the labor movement through greater diversity. It was a great conference with lots of feedback from unions, Central labor Councils and State Federations on how they are increasing membership in their states by being more inclusive and opening up the labor movement to all workers.Bill and I got some ideas that we will be discussing with our Executive Council. On Sunday State Federations met with President Sweeney, Rich Trumka, and Linda Chavez-Thompson to talk about our roll in the changing labor movement. I can't express enough about the commitment of the union members and leaders I have met this week. Everyone is serious about growing the movement. I couldn't comment to honestly without mentioning the fact that some unions talked about and then disaffiliated. SEIU and the Teamsters informed President Sweeney on Monday that they were withdrawing from the AFl-CIO. The other unions in their coalition, UFCW and Unite-HERE, are still in for now. Both of those unions have a long history of being active and integral parts of the broader movement and it would be great if they stay in the AFL-CIO.

Notwithstanding the unfortunate news of the disaffiliation the first day of the convention was electrifying. There were great speeches by Senators Kennedy, Durbin, Reid and Obama, Congresswoman Pelosi and John Edwards. They talked about issues we care about: Social Security, the minimum wage, and defeating unfair trade agreements like CAFTA. We debated a major resolution about how we were going to strengthen the labor movement and empower our members.

And todaywe got into politics and organizing. Jesse JAckson gave a great speech on how we need to put Democrats and Republicans on notice, we will only fight for those who fight for us. He stressed that we need to be third rail. The rail with the power. He, of course, was alot more eloquent than my brief summation. We heard from union members who had elected friends and defeated enemies. Given our political agenda next year it was very inspiring. So that's the quick report for the first two days. I apologize that there's no space for comments. This Blog software does not include that, but I am trying to find a way to get that feature. However if you wish to comment please e-mail me at rbloomingdale@paaflcio.org and I will try and integrate your comments the best I can. Thanks

Posted at 02:14 AM    

Thu - July 14, 2005

Community Services Institute


A wrap-up of the 46th annual Pa. AFL-CIO Community Services Institute.

We had a great week in Pittsburgh. First a note of thanks to our staff. Carl Dillinger,Judy Staker, Bob Harvison from the United Way of Pa.,and Bill Hauenstein,National AFL-CIO Community Services Northeast Regional Director, did an outstanding job. A special thanks to the our host Labor Council President Jack Shea and his staff and our host Allegheny United Way, President Bill Myer and his two great Labor Liasons Butch Burgoon and Joe Desale.
And another special thanks to the National AFL-CIO staff Frank Snyder for their leadership in putting together the town hall meeting.

As you can see on PCN or hear through a podcast (see our website on where to get the podcast) we had a very informative and moving town hall meeting. We heard about workers struggles to organize new unions or to keep their current unions at cable giant Comcast . During the rest of the week about 100 delegates from unions all across the state learned new skill on how to help their communities. We heard from United Way and the Red Cross and the services they provide during disasters but also year round to our communities. We heard from our local United Way Labor Liasons on the projects they work on to better their community. And our delegates learned from each other about successes in their communities. Wednesday night the delegates went through their graduation and heard from President Bill George on the important issue of CAFTA, the Central American Free Trade Act. It was a great week and many thanks again to all those who made it possible.

Posted at 10:09 PM    

Sun - May 8, 2005

Mother's Day


Remembering our moms and an appreciation of all the work they do.

Today as we remember our moms and spouses who are also the mothers of our children let us not forget all the work they do to make our lives better. Not only did our mothers do the constant and tireless work of running a household but many of them have and continue to work outside the house. And as they do that work they face work rules and conditions that are less and less family friendly.

After gains made in the 80's and 90's with flex time, day care center's at work and a general trend towards family friendly workplaces, now we seem to be regressing towards harsher and harsher work sites. With the insatiable drive for profits and greed we now have employers forcing employees to accept mandatory overtime. This is especially true in the health care industry where employers in order to stay profitable and also the need to be staffed 24-7 have forced more and more folks predominately women to work overtime. It is of course cheaper to pay someone to work 2 eight hour shifts than to pay 2 people with benefits.

So how can this be family friendly to take parents away from their kids by forcing them to work overtime. Of course it isn't. But our Republican controlled legislators won't do anything, even though they could, because their corporate masters won't let them. So they use the rhetoric of being for families but then do nothing to help the middle and low income families.

So what can we do? We need to hold the politicians accountable. When they say they are for the family, ask them to support an increased minimum wage and banning mandatory overtime. Those would help the family. And instead of taking care of the rich by repealing the inheritance tax, why not expand the tax break for child care and how about a higher wage for the child care workers who take of the kids since both parents have to work. We also need to make it easier for people to form unions so that the workers can bargain for those things instead of having to wait for the politicians.

Let's celebrate with our moms and hope that next year things are a little better for families.

Posted at 11:50 PM    

Mon - July 19, 2004

An Action in Utah


An attempt by management to intimidate workers trying to organize

This is a story from 2004 not 1904. Here at the Voice@Work conference held in conjunction with the National Conference of State Legislatures. We had terrific sessions on the right to organize, health care, pensions, all the things that we do a s a labor movement. And is often the case we are asked to assist our host State Fed or Central Labor Council, or an affiliate. This time it was all three. There is a mine here in Utah that is trying to cast off the company union and organize into the United Mineworkers of America. So we went to the company headquarters and set up a picket line/ rally. All legal we had the appropriate permits, as soon as we got there a car pulls up with a guy in it and starts taking pictures. At first we thought it might be the press so we crossed the street and asked. No he was a lawyer and photographer for the Kingstons, the owners of the mine. So we left and he kept taking pictures. Next thing we know someone comes out of the headquarters with a camera and starts taking pictures.

So we ask who he is and he won't tell us. Turns out he is one of the Kingstons. So for a while he takes pictures, we start asking questions. The next thing I know he has two of his wives come out to talk to us. Two wives you say, yes this Utah and polygamy is still tolerated. Then we find out that this Kingston had gone to jail for beating up his 16 year old daughter. He wanted her to marry her Uncle, when she refused he beat her so severely that she almost died. He did 26 weeks in jail. It's probably a good thing we didn't know that while he was still outside taking pictures.

So we marched and got good news coverage for our brothers and sisters in Utah, and we wish them luck and let them know that they had support from the entire labor movement.

Posted at 01:10 AM    

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