Chicago’s city council passed a “Big Box Ordinance” on July 25 requiring large retailers (those with stores over 90,000 square feet) to pay their employees $10 an hour, plus another $3 an hour in benefits, by 2010...
Chicago’s “Big Box” ordinance requires large retailers to pay wages of at least $10 an hour plus $3 in benefits by 2010. Photo: SEIU Local 880.
Chicago’s city council passed a “Big Box Ordinance” on July 25 requiring large retailers (those with stores over 90,000 square feet) to pay their employees $10 an hour, plus another $3 an hour in benefits, by 2010.
Since its founding in the spring of 2005, the rank-and-file reform group Railroad Operating Crafts United (ROCU) has been plugging away at organizing around the twin themes of rail labor unity and internal union democracy...
Since its founding in the spring of 2005, the rank-and-file reform group Railroad Operating Crafts United (ROCU) has been plugging away at organizing around the twin themes of rail labor unity and internal union democracy.
After a year of hard member-by-member organizing, ROCU, whose members come from the United Transportation Union (UTU) and the Teamster-affiliated Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers (BLET), has some reasons to celebrate.
First, back in February, leaders of UTU and BLET called for a truce in the long-running war that has wracked the two unions for years. UTU President Paul Thompson and BLET President Don Hahs issued a joint statement of unity, agreed to put a halt to their respective raiding activities, and called for a united front against rail carriers’ proposals for massive givebacks in the current round of bargaining.
In the 1980s Chevrolet proclaimed itself the “Heartbeat of America.” Today many would say that the American auto industry qualifies for life support. Last November, General Motors announced that it was cutting 25,000 jobs and closing up to 12 factories by 2008...
The labor studies department at Indiana University (IU) needs you to speak up and defend labor education. The effort underway to dismantle the department is a violation of academic freedom and university policy.
The Department of Labor Studies (DLS) faced a 20 percent cut in operating funds for 2005. As a result the DLS faculty increased their teaching load, and they radically increased income. In the just-concluded 2005-06 fiscal year DLS netted $2 million in income, doubling the income goal set by the university administration.
Despite that, academic administrators are working on a reorganization plan that would close DLS offices at the university’s Fort Wayne, South Bend, and Kokomo campuses, merge the department with another (to be determined), and possibly eliminate all non-tenured DLS faculty.
Public Services International (PSI), a global federation of public service unions, is calling for the release of the democratically elected Palestinian National Authority Minister of Labor, Mohammed Barghouthis. Barghouthis and some of his colleagues have been held in Israeli prison for over 20 days.
According to the Palestine Health Services Union, they are being detained in horrific conditions and subjected to abusive interrogations.
PSI General Secretary Hans Engelberts said their detention is “on political grounds only. The current Palestinian Legislative Council was elected by a democratic process and its members should not be arrested for the mere fact that they are taking part in the government… We call upon the Israeli government to release the Minister of Labor and others immediately.”
Miami-based Dole Fresh Flowers, a subsidiary of Dole Food Company, is stalling negotiations with its workers. The Miami Flower Worker Committee is asking unions and organizations to support its campaign to force Dole to negotiate in good faith with its Colombian flower workers.
There are more than 125,000 Colombian flower workers. The majority of them are single mothers who earn less than $6 per day. Their average work week is about 60 hours. Many women are forced to take pregnancy tests to get hired and if they do get pregnant while employed, they are often fired or don’t have their contracts renewed.
The United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) and Teamsters (IBT) are petitioning the U.S. Department of Labor to stop risking workers’ health by exposing them to diacetyl. Diacetyl is a chemical used in artificial butter flavoring.
UFCW International President Joseph T. Hansen and Teamsters General President James Hoffa have petitioned Labor Secretary Elaine Chao to issue an Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS) regarding the chemical’s use. An ETS would provide for immediate regulations for working with diacetyl until further investigations and regulations can be made. Without an ETS, workers would continue to work with the chemical until further investigations are completed and official OSHA standards and regulations are drawn up.
