News Monday 29 December 2008

UFW: The Official Web Page of the United Farm Workers of America


Food products carrying the Union Label
Farm workers under UFW contract enjoy decent wages, benefits & working conditions. When you purchase agricultural products, please help farm workers maintain hard won victories in the fields by looking for these labels: Read more




Burdens That All Should Share
In hard times like these, a president's most reliable compass is a commitment to shared sacrifice. Barack Obama prominently embraced that idea during his recent appearance on "Meet the Press." The "notion of shared benefits and burdens is something that I think has been lost for too long," the president-elect insisted, "and it's something that I'd like to see restored." Read more




Union label

The quarterly Newsletter of the Union Label Department of the AFL-CIO


Veterans fundraising event canceled
How bad is Brevard County's economy? A nonprofit group that finds housing for struggling veterans had to cancel its only public fundraiser. Read more





The Personal Politics of Hopelessness
As I write this I'm eating a sub I bought from across the street. While it was being prepared I chatted with the young woman making it, and she told me about moving from the Canadian Maritimes to Toronto, to, in essence, get a job that pays a little more than minimum wage. Because out in the Maritimes she had trouble getting even that. Read more

Commentary

Sometimes You just gather a bunch of stories and there seems to be no Preason to their selection. Today was one of those days, yet I seemed to have a theme. Maybe the order is wrong, but still a message to me. What is our shared burden? Do we as organizations and individuals share the burden of the homeless vet. They did their share to defend our country. Is it our turn?

We can end the politics of hopelessness by supporting the passage of the Employee Free Choice Act. Not only do unions build wage, they provide dignity and respect for the workers.
KRS

News 22 December 2008

USA Today vs EPA on Schoolyard Air
 Recently, USA Today published a series of alarming articles about air pollution near schools. It plotted school locations against results from an EPA model, and found that 435 were likely to have dangerous levels of pollution; then, it took air samples near 95 schools and found elevated levels of toxic chemicals outside 64 of them. Read more...
Madoff talked softly, wrote big DC checks:
Bernard Madoff, Wall Street's alleged Ponzi king, made political donations to Washington types which evidently bought him some access in here. Read more....
Sands' losses could be in the millions
House Democratic Leader Franklin Sands, D-Weston, reported his net worth last year at $7.3 million, most of it in cash investments that now could be wiped away by the alleged Ponzi scheme of Bernard Madoff. Read more...
Commentary
Tis a sad day when the sharks start feeding on each other, Oh I apologize to sharks for that last remark!
Property Developers Request Bailout:
Some of the biggest U.S. property developers are asking for government money in the face of $160 billion in maturing commercial mortgages next year, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday. Read more
Commentary
Help! The sharks are feeding on us! Maybe it's time to get out of the waters! They sure wish that a gopher turtle or scrub blue jay would go to Congress for them

News 21 December 2008

The Big Three and TARP: What Happened to Democracy?
What's happened to democracy? GM and Chrysler say they desperately need money to avoid bankruptcy in the next few weeks. Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson now says the Big Three "will get the money as quickly as we can prudently do it." Read more...

House Democratic leader ask for funds for committee posts

House Democratic Leader Franklin Sands of Weston has issued a statement in response to today's Palm Beach Post story about Sands asking his own members to raise coin for the state Democratic Party in exchange for plum committee posts. Read more...

The Obama stimulus: Bigger and better than ever

In Bonita, Florida, the city council is fast-tracking a road-improvement program while crossing its fingers and hoping that the Obama stimulus plan will pick up the bill. In Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania, local leaders have already prepared a $98 million "wish list" for a slew of environmental cleanup projects. Read more....

Obama to name Rep. Solis to Labor post:
Rep. Hilda Solis of the Los Angeles-area is reportedly President-elect Barack Obama's choice for Labor Department secretary and the raves are coming in. Read more

News 15 December 2008

Obama's stimulus spurs lobbying frenzy:
Since President-elect Barack Obama laid out plans for the largest injection of federal spending into the economy since the New Deal, just about everyone has started angling for a piece of the action. Read more...

Blagojevich may quit on Monday: Illinois official

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Scandal-plagued Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich could announce on Monday that he will leave office, the state's top legal officer said on Sunday. Read more...


Seven myths about American car makers
There are plenty of reasons to dislike a federal bailout (or loan, as they like to describe it) of the Big Three U.S. automakers. But as our sister Gannett newspaper in Detroit puts it, you can't blame today's struggles on yesterday's bad or unpopular cars. Instead, it's all about overhead. For the sake of well-informed argument, we present Detroit Free-Press auto critic Mark Phelan's list of "Seven myths about American automakers:" Read more....

Stop Trading, Listen to Cramer!
Cramer added that Boeing is looking a lot like the auto industry with its labor problems and commented; “Americans are starting to recognize that you may love unions or hate them but you can’t invest with them.” View video...

News 13 Dec 2008

Is Senate GOP trying to break union?
There's a lot of suspicion in Washington and throughout the nation that Senate Republicans who thwarted the auto bailout last night were operating from a range of motives, including a desire for payback against the United Auto Workers, Read more....

Administration changes to farm worker hiring afoot
WASHINGTON (AP) — As it prepares to leave office, the Bush administration is moving to make it easier for U.S. farming companies to hire foreign field workers, which farmworker groups say will worsen wages and working conditions. Read more....

Take Action: Ask President-Elect Obama not to let the outgoing Bush Admin Steal Farm Worker Protections

NASA's Griffin and Obama team square off
CAPE CANAVERAL - NASA Administrator Mike Griffin is not cooperating with President-elect Barack Obama's transition team, is obstructing its efforts to get get information and has told its leader that she is "not qualified" to judge his rocket program, the Orlando Sentinel has learned. Read more...

Health care town hall meeting
President-elect Obama has made it clear that health care reform is one of his top priorities. That's why the Obama-Biden Transition is asking people to give their own thoughts and ideas for how to fix the system at Health Care Community Discussions all across the country.
Melbourne Public Library Meeting Room
530 Fee Avenue Melbourne, FL
Monday, December 29^th , 20087:00 PM
For further information please call my office.321-674-9220

National Review: Get in the race, Jeb!

This just in from the editors of the National Review on Jeb Bush's expressed interest in running for the U.S. Senate: Read more

DiPatri: School cuts to be 'devastating'

Brevard Public Schools could lose another $10.8 million by February, according to recent state projections, Superintendent Richard DiPatri told the Brevard County School Board Tuesday night. Read more...

Chase offers $400,000 in Chicago factory sit-in | Reuters

CHICAGO (Reuters) - JPMorgan Chase & Co offered $400,000 on Wednesday to help pay severance to laid-off workers occupying a Chicago factory, whose protest has come to symbolize resentment over the federal bailout of big banks while workers suffer. Read more...

Chicago Workers Occupy Factory

From Chicago IMC: The worker occupation of the Republic Windows and Doors factory on Chicago's Goose Island by members of UE (United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America) Local 1110 went into its third day on Sunday, and workers have vowed to continue the occupation until they are paid back pay and benefits, or until the plant is re-opened. Read more...

News 10 Dec 2008 Summary

Chicago Workers Occupy Factory

Chase offers $400,000 in Chicago factory sit-in

DiPatri: School cuts to be 'devastating"

National Review: Get in the race, Jeb

Labor News 9 Dec

Merrill's Thain Wants $10 Million Bonus: Report
Merrill Lynch Chief Executive John Thain has suggested to directors that he get a 2008 bonus of as much as $10 million, but the battered company's compensation committee is resisting his request, the Wall Street Journal said, citing people familiar with the situation Read more...

Legislators return to town, start chasing coin
Lobbyists may still be nursing their overworked checkbooks from the election season that culminated last month, but with the Florida Senate beginning its first committee work-week today the fundraisers for 2010 are ready to launch. Read more...

Chrysler’s Friends in High Places
In early November, as America’s automakers grasped for a lifeline from Washington, the Treasury secretary, Henry M. Paulson Jr., placed a call to his predecessor, John W. Snow. The topic: Chrysler L.L.C. Read more..

Area’s unions ponder role Membership remains relatively high here
The union membership rate in the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton labor market sharply outpaces national figures, a legacy of the region’s stormy relationship between workers and management. But while working conditions have greatly improved since the era when dozens of coal miners died underground and young children picked rock from chutes of coal, local union leaders believe American workers still need organized representation. Read more...