Swapping Stories: Economy
Labor and democracy: Why is ALEC attacking labor?
Why is ALEC attacking labor?
by Scott Marshall, Peoples World
Have you met ALEC yet? ALEC is the American Legislative Exchange Council. Basically it is one of the main ways big business drafts legislation for its "friends" in state legislatures to pass. ALEC's private sector board of directors reads like the "Who's Who" of big business. If you really want to get to know ALEC, read the American Association for Justice's report here.
WEEK OF CALIF. TEACHER PROTESTS INCLUDES ARRESTS
WEEK OF CALIF. TEACHER PROTESTS INCLUDES ARRESTS
SACRAMENTO (PAI)—A week of statewide teacher protests in California, over threatened budget cuts that would devastate elementary and secondary schools and their students, included the arrest of 26 members of the California Teachers Association on May 13 after a sit-in at the capital building in Sacramento.
LABOR, DEMS PUSH NEW LEGISLATIVE PACKAGE TO REVITALIZE U.S. MANUFACTURING
LABOR, DEMS PUSH NEW, BIGGER LEGISLATIVE
PACKAGE ON REVITALIZING U.S. MANUFACTURING
By Mark Gruenberg
PAI Staff Writer
WASHINGTON (PAI)—Organized labor and congressional Democrats are pushing a new, bigger package of legislation to help revitalize U.S. manufacturing, after a previous effort – which was more to score political points – failed in the last Congress.
MACHINISTS GATHER ALLIES AS BOEING BATTLE TURNS POLITICAL
MACHINISTS GATHER ALLIES AS
BOEING BATTLE TURNS POLITICAL
By Mark Gruenberg
PAI Staff Writer
WASHINGTON (PAI)—The Machinists are gathering allies as the battle over a top National Labor Relations Board official’s statement that Boeing broke labor law by moving aircraft production to anti-union South Carolina to retaliate against IAM heated up and turned political.
IKEA in Virginia: A Modern Sweatshop
IKEA in Virginia: A Modern Sweatshop
by John Wojcik, Peoples World
May 9, 2011
DANVILLE, Va. - "Your daughter gets sick. You take her to the hospital and turn in a doctor's note when you get back - one demerit. Death in the family, you stay home - one demerit. Going to the restroom when not on break - one demerit.
"With the fifth demerit, you get a written warning. Ninth: Go home and don't come back.' You're out of a job."
AFL-CIO: GOP CUTS PUT JOB SAFETY IMPROVEMENTS AT RISK
AFL-CIO: GOP CUTS PUT JOB
SAFETY IMPROVEMENTS AT RISK
By Mark Gruenberg
PAI Staff Writer
WASHINGTON (PAI)—Potential Republican cuts to future job safety and health spending put improvements in occupational safety and health at risk, a new AFL-CIO report says.
UNIONISTS, ALLIES BRAINSTORM ON HOW TO RESTORE U.S. MANUFACTURING
UNIONISTS, ALLIES BRAINSTORM ON
HOW TO RESTORE U.S. MANUFACTURING
By Mark Gruenberg
PAI Staff Writer
WASHINGTON (PAI)—Unionists and their allies brainstormed on April 14 on ways to restore the eroded U.S. manufacturing industrial base, using national security and holes in vital defense items as a “hook” to get policymakers’ attention – but then spreading their restoration effort far beyond key defense technologies.
WITH FEDERAL SHUTDOWN LOOMING, AFGE SUES GOVT. TO FIND OUT WHO’S ‘ESSENTIAL’
WITH FEDERAL SHUTDOWN LOOMING, AFGE
SUES GOVT. TO FIND OUT WHO’S ‘ESSENTIAL’
By Mark Gruenberg
PAI Staff Writer
CLINTON, Md. (PAI)—With a federal government shutdown looming, Elaine Mitchell is wondering if she’s “essential” and if she’ll get paid, or when.
Her union, the American Federation of Government Employees, has been forced to sue in federal court to find out.
Mitchell, a 59-year-old African-American grandmother, works for the appeals
HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS MASS AT ‘WE ARE ONE’ RALLIES, EVENTS
HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS MASS
AT ‘WE ARE ONE’ RALLIES, EVENTS
By Mark Gruenberg
PAI Staff Writer
Hundreds of thousands of people, many of them wearing red or sporting red-white-and-black pins, massed at rallies, teach-ins and other events nationwide on April 4 in a show of strength for workers’ rights.
JOBLESS RATE DROPS TO 8.8%; BUSINESSES SAY THEY CREATE 230K JOBS
JOBLESS RATE DROPS TO 8.8%; BUSINESSES SAY THEY CREATE 230K JOBS
WASHINGTON (PAI)—The nation’s unemployment rate dropped 0.1% in March,
to 8.8%, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported. Private businesses said they created
230,000 new jobs, a gain partially offset when state and local governments fired 14,000.
Economist Heidi Shierholtz of the labor-backed Economic Policy Institute
welcomed the gain, but said it’s not enough to get people to start jumping up and down.
