On the New Orleans docks: Workers fight to rebuild their city
NEW ORLEANS — A small sliver of downtown New Orleans has bounced back as a neighborhood of gleaming corporate office towers and a playground for the rich.
House GOP upholds Bush veto on SCHIP, union leaders vow retribution
WASHINGTON (PAI) — Despite strong lobbying by unions, health care groups, children’s groups and their allies, House Republicans mustered enough votes on Oct. 18 to uphold anti-worker President George Bush’s veto of children’s health care. Union leaders vowed the Republicans would receive retribution at the election polls a year from now.
RNs strike over patient care
BERKELEY, Calif. — Nearly 5,000 registered nurses at 15 northern California hospitals walked the picket line Oct. 10-11 in the largest strike of RNs in the state in a decade. Most struck hospitals belong to the Sutter Health chain; two are associated with the Fremont-Rideout Health Group.
Up to a third of U.S. jobs are low-wage, researcher says
WASHINGTON (PAI) — “One-fourth to one-third” of all U.S. jobs “are low-wage jobs” whose workers need not just a raise, but a support system to help lift them out of poverty, a top researcher says.
Save home hotline launched
CLEVELAND — More help is now available to union members caught in the mounting home mortgage crisis, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said at a press conference here Oct. 15.
Bulgarian teachers strike for wage hike
Bulgarian teachers began a nationwide strike late last month, calling for higher wages and increased spending on education.
Germans grapple with train strike, jobless pay
BERLIN — Among the issues grabbing the headlines in Germany these days are a big train strike and Social Democratic Party infighting over jobless insurance.
Unions, rights groups praise no-match ruling
Unions and immigrant rights organizations praised a federal judge’s Oct. 10 decision barring the Social Security Administration from using “no-match” letters to force employers to fire workers who cannot quickly clear up discrepancies. At the same time, the groups said, much work lies ahead to achieve fair immigration policies.
U.S. govt, bosses use racial profiling
Fernando Rodriquez, director of Local 7 of the United Food and Commercial Workers union in Colorado, took time out from the Congreso Latino meeting in Los Angeles last week (see story, page 3) to tell the World about immigration raids the government conducted at Swift & Co. meatpacking plants in December.
Auto pact: the good, the bad and the ugly
The wages and working conditions of union autoworkers have always set standards for all manufacturing. These in turn have put upward pressure on wages and benefits for all workers. But in today’s political and economic climate, major contract negotiations in the manufacturing sector are hell.
