Labor

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA (5/20/08) -- Silicon Valley janitors, mostly immigrants from Mexico and Central America, walked out of Cisco Systems and Yahoo buildings in the first day of a Bay Area-wide strike intended to force building service contractors to sign a new agreement with their union, Service Employees Local 1877.

OAKLAND, Calif. — They’re the only workers inside Kaiser health care facilities, whether employed directly or contracted, who are denied the right to form a union.

LANSING, Mich. — They came from the American Federation of Teachers, the Michigan Educational Association, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, ACORN, Working America, Triangle Foundation, NOW, the Sierra Club, Health Care for Michigan and many other organizations and unions.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Jobs with Justice continues as a tremendous asset for organized labor, but new and exciting trends were also evident at its national conference here May 2-4. The organization that was founded by five industrial unions in 1987 has continued to grow and fulfill its original purpose of reaching outside labor’s ranks to assist the union movement. Now, it is also organizing the broader working class in the United States and abroad.

WASHINGTON--Top company officials at the Crandall Canyon Mine in Huntington, Utah, where nine miners perished in August 2007, concealed facts that would have prevented the deaths and should be criminally charged, according to a Congressional report released May 8.

DETROIT -- No one at American Axle expected to be out for three months, but workers continue to keep the dozen or so gates of the sprawling American Axle complex in Detroit fully staffed. While there have been different proposals to end the strike it seems like every time a possible solution is at hand, American Axle steps back to ask for more concessions. While American Axle has previously demanded the closing of forge plants in Detroit and New York, its latest demand was to add yet another third plant (in New York ) to the hit list.

“Why don’t young workers have an affiliate within the AFL-CIO?” This was one of the questions raised on May 3rd in a strategy session held at the National Conference of Jobs with Justice. young workers, organized and unorganized, discussed the relationship between the younger generations and the labor movement.

Newly organized union members, activists and community leaders gathered in New Haven on Sunday May 4 to celebrate the annual presentation of Peoples Weekly World Newsmaker Awards for International Workers Day.

Reflecting the holiday’s origins, when immigrant workers played a big part in the fight for the eight-hour day, this year’s observances melded workers’ struggles for decent wages and conditions with the struggles of largely working-class immigrant communities for human and civil rights. Hundreds of thousands of immigrants were joined by many union contingents as they marched in cities throughout the country.

We thought the push to privatize Social Security was dead. Failing to privatize Social Security, the administration has slashed the agency’s budget. These tactics ensure that the next time we have to fight to save Social Security, the public’s view of the Social Security Administration (SSA) might not be so favorable.