Articles: Challenges Lay Ahead for American Middle Class, Says Author
Region: United States
AFL-CIO recently spoke to Steve Greenhouse, author of The Big Squeeze: Tough Times for the American Worker Question: Why did you title your book The Big Squeeze? Greenhouse: I really feel there’s a squeeze on workers. In many ways, corporate America is clamping down on its workers. Wages have been cut over the past few years. We’ve seen health benefits get worse. Middle-class Americans have health insurance while the typical worker has to pay twice as much for health insurance a... more
Views: 830We Can't Afford Another Train Wreck, Says Bestselling Author
Region: United States
The views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of GroundReport. ALF-CIO recently spoke to Bill Press, author of New York Times bestseller Train Wreck: The End of the Conservative Revolution (And Not a Moment Too Soon) This upcoming election is the most important one of our lifetime because there is so much at stake for working families. Americans will make a historic decision on Nov. 4. It’s about much more than choosing between Barack Obama and John McCain... more
Views: 707Hunger Striker Hospitalized, Others Rally on Capitol Hill
Region: United States
by Mike Hall This morning, Christopher Glory, in the eighth day of a water-onlyhunger strike to demand the U.S. government put an end to the abuses in a visa program that workers’ rights advocates liken to human trafficking, was rushed to a Washington, D.C., hospital for strike-related health problems. A spokesman for the New Orleans Workers’ Center for Racial Justice (NOWCRJ) says that Glory’s condition was improving and he could be rel... more
Views: 1402Mine Workers Back Obama for President
Region: United States
by Seth Michaels The Mine Workers (UMWA) union has endorsed Sen.Barack Obama (D-Ill.) for president. The National Council of the Coal Miners’ Political Action Committee of the 105,000-member union voted unanimously today to back Obama and mobilize its members in support of his campaign. UMWA President Cecil Roberts said Obama will fight for issues important to miners and all working families, such as health care, Social Security and sa... more
Views: 1582McCain: Out of Touch on Trade
Region: United States
by Seth Michaels At a speech in Florida yesterday, Sen. John McCainmade a baffling pronouncement: The rising discontent in our country is not due to job losses, home foreclosures or the health care crisis, but rather the fact that we aren’t passing a bad trade deal with Colombia. Here’s what McCain had to say at yesterday’s event: We have made progress toward this vision by expanding the benefits of free commerce, through [the North A... more
Views: 1233Kentucky, West Virginia Union Members Ask McCain About the Economy
Region: United States
by Seth Michaels On Friday, Sen. John McCain took a campaign swing through two states and, as they have in cities and towns across the nation, union members mobilized to ask him about the important issues in this election. In St. Albans, W. Va., the West Virginia AFL-CIO organized a rally that drew 75 activists to a gun shop where McCain had stopped in for a visit. The union members who came out hoped to get answers from McCain about key economic iss... more
Views: 1283Casino Workers Protest Unfair Treatment at Foxwoods
Region: United States
by James Parks As the celebrities and invitation-only guests poured into the new MGM Grand at Foxwoods Resort and Casino in Ledyard, Conn., over the weekend, they met some unexpected greeters—casino employees and their supporters who were protesting the owner’s unfair treatment of workers. For two days, May 17–18, members of the UAW, along with state Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, state legislators, union leaders and their supporters, protested at t... more
Views: 2356How Fast Can You Surf? Take CWA’s Speed Test
Region: United States
by Mike Hall Are you one of the millions of Americans in rural or low-income urban areas who doesn’t have access to high-speed Internet and can only go online via frustratingly slow dial-up? You wait and wait for a connection so you can pay a bill, find some important medical information, or just the latest ball score. Or maybe you’ve got so-called “high-speed” Internet access and the big monthly bill that goes with it. But you still find yoursel... more
Views: 5036Strike Set at GM Factory in Ohio and More Bargaining News
Region: United States
by May Silverstein Some 1,650 hourly workers at a General Motors metal stamping factory in Ontario, Ohio, gave the company notice it will strike, and more news from “Bargaining Digest Weekly.” The AFL-CIO Collective Bargaining Department delivers daily bargaining-related news and research resources to more than 900 subscribers. Union leaders can register for this service through our website, Bargaining@Work. WORK STOPPAGES AND ACTIONS UAW, General Motors:... more
Views: 2820New Initiative and Websites Help Fight Poverty
Region: United States
by James Parks America is the richest nation in the world, yet nearly 40 million Americans, about the population of California, live below the poverty line and millions more struggle to get by every month. Over the past seven years, the number of poor Americans has increased and inequality has increased. A major study last year by the Poverty Task Force of the Center for American Progress(CAP) took a look at the extent of poverty and outlined a pragmati... more
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