AFSCME backs challenger in Detroit mayoral race
In a reversal that caught few by surprise, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) withdrew its endorsement of Detroit Mayor Dave Bing giving it to challenger Tom Barrow for the city's upcoming November election. The November election will be for a full, four year term.
A labor convention like no others opens in Pittsburgh
PITTSBURGH - A labor convention different in more ways than one from any prior gathering of the labor movement in U.S. history opened here yesterday.
Transit workers launch anti-Bloomberg campaign
NEW YORK—The powerful Transport Workers Union Local 100 unveiled a new campaign aimed at ridding this city of its current mayor, the billionaire Michael Bloomberg.
AFL-CIO forsees victory on public option, EFCA
PITTSBURGH – Leaders of the U.S. labor movement, during interviews an hour before the 26th Convention of the AFL-CIO began its first full day of business here, expressed certainty that, before the year is out, the nation will have a new system of health insurance that includes a public option and that the Employee Free Choice Act will become the law of the land.
Future for the Mon Valley? ‘Hell doesn’t have to last forever!’
On Friday, I and three other labor journalists paid a visit to the mayor of a town some folks in the Monongahela Valley call “Hell.”
Braddock is the poorest town in Allegheny County and John Fetterman, 39, its chief executive, presents himself quite differently than do most mayors. Among the first things that strike you about this young white mayor of a largely African American town are his 380 lbs., six foot and eight inches of height, his bald head, and the town’s zip code tattooed onto one of his enormous arms.
An EFCA majority sign-up “trigger”?
Some Blue Dog Democrats, fearful of a public option in a health care bill, have signaled that they might be willing to support a compromise measure that allows for creation of such an option once insurance companies show, under the president’s new plan, that they are continuing to charge customers too much. They are saying the “threat” of a public option might, by itself, force insurance companies to charge less.
Steeler Nation fights its way back
It was crazy here Thursday night. The sportscaster on the huge flat screen at one of the bars on Smithfield Street was talking about how the Steelers continue to amaze him, what with the huge following they have all over the country.
Republic Windows workers hail arrest of former boss
The former chief executive of Republic Windows and Doors, the company that abruptly closed here last winter without paying its workers severance and vacation pay, has been arrested and charged as part of a major financial crimes investigation.
Pride at Work: We’ve come a long way, still further to go
As union members get ready for the 2009 AFL-CIO Convention, Pride At Work (PAW), an AFL-CIO constituency group, is among several union-related organizations meeting in Pittsburgh to plan for the future.
Obama speech boosts labor activist's fighting spirit
President Barack Obama’s dramatic re-framing of the national debate on health care this week has electrified labor leaders, progressive activists, union journalists and others pouring into the Steel City this week in advance of the AFL-CIO convention that opens here Sept. 10 and a meeting of leaders of the G-20 nations that will convene a week later.
