Labor News

The power and advantage of collective bargaining often outlasts a union member’s active employment. This was demonstrated again by the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of Ohio when it agreed with the UAW that the lifetime health care benefits the union negotiated for Honeywell workers in Greenville, Ohio, in 2003 are just that: lifetime.

UAW Local 2413 retirees who retired from Honeywell prior to June 1, 2012, and their spouses are entitled to lifetime benefits the company agreed to in collective bargaining in 2003.

 http://uaw.org/harvard-student-workers-win-new-union-election/
After weeks of hearings and deliberations, the NLRB in a report filed Wednesday affirmed that the Harvard Graduate Students Union-UAW’s concerns over Harvard’s list of eligible voters was valid and could lead to another election. In the report and recommendations of the NLRB hearing officer the NLRB wrote:

Four national unions that are part of a new Labor For Our Revolution network are supporting the May 1st worker protests dubbed "A Day Without Immigrants". The Communications Workers of America, Amalgamated Transit Union, National Nurses United and United Electrical Workers are calling for broad labor support for the May Day actions. There will be strikes, protests and marches in cities across America. Our Revolution says The American Postal Workers Union and the International Longshore and Warehouse union are also helping to spearhead Labor For Our Revolution.

As worker issues get addresses by Trump and Republicans in Washington AFL-CIO President Rich Trumka says the labor movement's job is to let workers know how those policies impact working families.

And Trumka says if workers get the truth of how they are being affected you will see more worker unity on issues all workers have in common.

"We're gonna let them know what he does, how it affects their income - their wages - whether positively or negatively. We are truly going to call balls and strikes.

New Mexico House Speaker Brian Egolf says Democrats will continue to push to improve the lives of working families after GOP Governor Susana Martinez vetoed minimum wage increases.

The House bill would have increased New Mexico's minimum wage of $7.50 per hour to $9.25 per hour. A state Senate bill would have hiked the minimum wage to $9 an hour.

College students are spreading a fast for justice aimed at the Wendy’s fast food chain. Sarasota Florida New College students went on a five day fast in solidarity with fasting Ohio State students urging a boycott against Wendy’s.

The fasting students support the Coalition of Immokalee Workers efforts to get Wendy’s to join the Fair Food Program. That program gets restaurants to pay farms a penny more per pound for tomatoes used in the U.S. fast food industry. The money is used to improve farm workers working conditions.

Workers at a Nestle logistics and distribution center in Georgia will be represented by the RWDSU after a union election. The workers at the McDonough Georgia shipping center fought for several months to create a strong voice in the workplace.

RWDSU will represent 102 workers at the facility. Edgar Fields, President of the Southeast Council, RWDSU, says “Neither union busting efforts nor flood and gale-force winds could deter these workers from defending their right to organize and now it’s our turn,"he says, "to fight for them."

UAW President Dennis Williams says Trump's new Supreme Court Justice "has a clear anti-worker record and has shown little concern for how his decisions impact ordinary people and the real dangers workers in hazardous industries face every day. "

The United Auto Workers leader says Justice Gorsuch "has a clearly demonstrated track record of issuing rulings and judicial opinions which side against working people and instead align with powerful corporations and the well connected."

[CWA President Chris Shelton]: "This is a company who can easily afford to do what we want. They make a billion dollars a month in profit. They are continually sending jobs overseas. They are following the dollar to the lowest common denominator and we shouldn't be letting them, period."

Communications Workers of America President Chris Shelton talking about the year-long effort to reach a new contract with AT&T for 17,000 California and Nevada workers.