The U.S. economy added 151,000 jobs in August and unemployment was unchanged at 4.9%, according to figures released this morning by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
In response to the August jobs numbers, AFL-CIO Chief Economist William Spriggs said:
Good union jobs allow workers to earn better wages and benefits like health care and retirement security. Good union jobs help women earn equal pay.
VW is appealing an NLRB unanimous ruling that the automaker must bargain with UAW Local 42 in Chattanooga Tennessee.
UAW Secretary Treasurer Gary Casteel says the union is disappointed that VW is thumbing its nose at the federal government. Casteel says courts have consistently upheld the NLRB labor standard that enabled Local 42 to organize skilled trades workers in Chattanooga.
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The Economic Policy Institute says if union membership rates in the U.S. today were as high now as in 1979 non-union working people would get $133 billion more per year. EPI has found that the decline of labor unions as a percent of the U.S. workforce has hurt both union and non-union wages. EPI's Larry Mishel. |
Last Tuesday marked a win for labor relations in academia, with the National Labor Relations Board ruling that graduate students working as academic assistants at private colleges are employees with organizing rights. The 3-1 vote followed a petition from a Columbia University graduate student organization and the United Auto Workers Union, which has expanded its reach to graduate student assistants at Columbia.
Monday’s Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling, that workers cannot be forced to sign away their rights to class-action lawsuits in favor of private arbitration, may influence other cases currently underway. Read More...
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About 5,000 Minnesota Nurses Association members at Allina Health have voted to authorize an open-ended strike. The union is trying to bargain a new labor contract and Allina is demanding the nurses give up all their union health plans for a corporate one that costs them more and covers less. Angela Bechhetti an RN on the union's bargaining team. Read More...
The Chicago Teachers Union says it will strike if the schools try to impose a seven percent cut on its members. Strike preparation is underway. Teachers are scheduled to return to classrooms August 29th. CTU President Karen Lewis says teachers have already given back about $2 billion in salary and benefits to the district and there's nothing left to give. Read More...
