Swapping Stories: Politics
FIRE FIGHTERS TO STOP GIVING TO FEDERAL CANDIDATES
FIRE FIGHTERS TO STOP GIVING TO FEDERAL CANDIDATES
By Mark Gruenberg
PAI Staff Writer
WASHINGTON (PAI)—The Fire Fighters, long known for their bipartisan impact on Capitol Hill, have become the second big union to decide their campaign finance committee will no longer give money to federal candidates, at least for now.
They may not be the last.
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.
TRUMKA REDEFINES FIGHT WITH RIGHT AS MORAL STRUGGLE
TRUMKA REDEFINES FIGHT WITH RIGHT AS MORAL
STRUGGLE, ADDS FED WILL RE-DO POLITICAL PROGRAM
By Mark Gruenberg
PAI Staff Writer
WASHINGTON (PAI)—AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka is redefining workers’ battle with the Radical Right as a moral struggle, saying it involves the nation’s future.
But since the moral struggle also has a political aspect, Trumka adds the Fed is planning an overhaul of its political program to make it a year-round operation.
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.
RIGHT-WING ATTACKS EXTEND TO GAINS DR. KING WON FOR WORKERS
RIGHT-WING ATTACKS EXTEND EVEN DOWN
TO GAINS DR. KING WON FOR WORKERS
By Mark Gruenberg
PAI Staff Writer
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (PAI)—Even in Memphis.
That’s how far down the chain of state and local governments the Right Wing’s war on workers has extended – and take it from one who knows, Alvin Turner.
Is labor fighting its own civil war?
Is labor fighting its own civil war?
The Civil War in U.S. Labor: Birth of a New Workers' Movement or Death Throes of the Old?
By Steve Early
Haymarket Books
ISBN 978-1-60846-099-1
Reviewed by Mike Matejka
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.
EQUAL PAY DAY PROMPTS NEW CALL FOR PAY EQUITY LEGISLATION
EQUAL PAY DAY PROMPTS NEW
CALL FOR PAY EQUITY LEGISLATION
WASHINGTON (PAI)—Equal Pay Day, the day each year when median hourly wages for a working woman equal those of a working man in identical circumstances the year before, prompted renewed calls for pay equity legislation on Capitol Hill.
UNION LEADERS CONFRONT POLITICAL DILEMMA
UNION LEADERS CONFRONT POLITICAL DILEMMA
By Mark Gruenberg
PAI Staff Writer
WASHINGTON (PAI)—Union leaders, meeting April 13 in D.C., spent their time confronting a political dilemma: What do you do when your supposed allies let you down a lot of the time – but at the same time know they can take you for granted?
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
