Senator Franken sponsors his first piece of legislation

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Video: Vice President Biden: 'Labor built this country and labor should get a share of the benefits of this country...'

The Real News: Unions in America

Former General Electric CEO Gives President Obama An 'A' For Leadership

High marks from Jack Welch, former CEO of GE, who has been a supporter of Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney, and John McCain.

Thumbs Up

I was watching Olbermann as he teased his way to the end of the show where he finally made 'the announcement'.

Ed Schultz will have his own show at what I like to call the 5 PM time slot because I live in the Central Time Zone. For everyone else apparently, the time will be 6 PM.

I have caught pieces of Ed on 1600 when he has subbed for Shuster and I have been impressed, although not totally captivated. Impressed is very good though, don't get me wrong. The fact that anyone on television has the audacity to stand up FOR unions and make the case FOR unions and give context to the positions that affect unions and working people scores some high marks with me.

David Shuster will take over the 2-4 PM CST slot so he won't be gone, nor forgotten.

The fact that MSNBC is giving Schultz a spot in their line up is astounding to me, but most welcome.

I used to wish that everything could be fair and balanced. I don't mean that in the Fox News way. I mean really fair and balanced news coverage. But if there must be Fox News, and it appears that they are here to stay, there has to be a counter balance as well and MSNBC provides it with some factual information.

Be afraid... be very afraid: Scary Movie - The Horror of the Employee Free Choice Act

It's about time news...

Yay!

NPR BREAKING NEWS:

Solis Confirmed As Labor Secretary

Rep. Hilda Solis, a California Democrat, overcomes GOP concerns about her work for a pro-labor group and her husband's unpaid taxes.

More at NPR.org:

My Friend Tony

Julie and I hosted an Obama event during the campaign seasons because there was nary a one in our community. Twas my idea but Julie provided the digs and was the organizer. Two low incomers asserting ourselves we were. Still are acutally.


I think we were both pretty amazed when we got like 30 RSVPs for the event and they showed up too. I can't say we didn't pull it off without a hitch though. During the gathering which was called 'Fired Up and Ready to Grill!', as guests arrived they were continually asking to meet Julie. Julie was stuck behind the grill. Tony's son obliged my request to take over the grillmeister duties, which was actually a perfect fit for him.

That was the day that I met Tony and his family. He's a great guy, a hard worker, an vocal supporter of working people, and he has an Editorial in the Post Trib (Sun Times New Group Member), that I just had to share with you.

Here a smidgen of what Tony had to say this time. You can click the link to check out the rest if you like.

As all you unemployed iron workers and boilermakers know, companies don't hire people because they get a tax break. They hire people when they have work that needs to be done.

It was a unanimous GOP vote in the House. You've got to be kidding me. All independent thought has been banned, lest Lord Limbaugh get mad at them. How disgusting is it that an elected representative of the American people would have to grovel before a convicted drug addict -- but I digress.

Stop rewriting history. If you work for a living, the New Deal has given you every piece of economic security you have -- unemployment insurance, federal deposit insurance and labor reforms, without which your workplace would look like a third-world sweat shop. The government work programs of the 1930s kept people from starving in the streets. The economy was coming back until the conservatives of the day demanded FDR raise taxes to balance the budget. Read a book, talk to someone who was there, or at least listen to someone who doesn't have a wealth agenda to sell you. Thinking is hard to do in your own echo chamber. Tony Capriglione, Valparaiso

Tony keeps sending this e-mails and I keep thinking he should publish. Today I found out that he is.

Keep up the good work Tony. I like the way you tell it like it is.

Hoosier Union Members hit the sreets to rally for 'Buy American'

Union members across Indiana participate in rallies to urge people to 'Buy American'.

"Every time you turn around you see 'made in China' and stuff getting imported here. We're losing jobs," said Gregory Jones of Lafayette.

..."We're here to have our voices heard. It's time American workers take a stand," said Jerry Misner, president of USW Local 115A, who cited the nation's growing job losses.

One Union official said that "the U.S. government is not telling Americans that other countries "like Japan, like Brazil, like France, like South Korea, like India, they all have more restrictive policies themselves.""

Unions raise wages, not only for union workers, but for other working people as well. Unions also lobby for safety standards, and other benefits that also trickle out to other people in the work force who are not unionized.

You might have heard lately of the statistics that show decline in wages for working people and a shift a larger percentage of the nation's wealth upward to the top 1% over the course of the last 30 years. This redistribution of wealth just so happens to coincide with the beginning of the effective busting up of unions the strength of which was derived from the firing of 11,000 unionized Air Traffic Controllers by President Ronald Reagan in 1981.

This was a pretty big blow to public perception of unions, but as the effectiveness and prestige of unions and union membership has somewhat declined over the years, wages for many working people have stagnated. This is income disparity and it has been happening without most even realizing it.

Maybe it is time for unions to make a comeback and regain more of their influence and power.

What do you think?

Is Organized Labor Important to Democracy?

Uh. Sheyeahhhh! Non-unionized people who labor increase their benefits by 30% when organized labor is strong.

What big business doesn't want you to know about 'The Employee Free Choice Act'

I'm workin' on a dream --are you?

My eyes fill up with big fat tears when I listen to this song. It's an extraordinary sense of mixed emotion. Sadness and regret, a sense of awesome hope and pride knowing that something really good is going to happen. There is going to be a rebuilding. A Rising.

Then again, this song calls me back to so many voices I have heard throughout my life. The voices of so many strong men I have known who have worked so hard physically in their jobs. They have rough hands, nicks and cuts, sore backs, laboring daily to provide for their families, build a better life for their children and 'workin' on a dream'.

Springsteen frequently gives these working men (and many women too these days) their due, their respect. I have been sitting quietly listening to the radio when this song came on. I could feel the emotion that this song inspired in the man to my left, without even having to look at him. It's a powerful song.

The laborer, the electrician, the carpenter, plumber, auto worker, the people who take a shower after they get home from work and not before need to be counted again and I think they will. I'm not discounting the women who do these jobs, but certainly the men, the prideful men who have and still build this country need to know that this new President is really going to rebuild and remake this great nation from the bottom up.

Peace and Love to you and yours.

Studio Version

Remember when garments were made in the U.S.A.: Look for the Union Label ILGWU ad spot 1978

The International Ladies Garment Workers Union

A 15 Year Struggle Reaches Conclusion: North Carolina Workers Finally Vote To 'Go Union!'

After 15 Years, North Carolina Plant Unionizes

Sangjib Min/Daily Press, via Associated Press

Workers demonstrating against Smithfield Foods in August 2007 during a shareholders’ meeting in Williamsburg, Va.

By STEVEN GREENHOUSE

Published: December 12, 2008

After an expensive and emotional 15-year organizing battle, workers at the world’s largest hog-killing plant, the Smithfield Packing slaughterhouse in Tar Heel, N.C., have voted to unionize.

The United Food and Commercial Workers, which had lost unionization elections at the 5,000-worker plant in 1994 and 1997, announced late Thursday that it had finally won. The victory was significant in a region known for hostility toward organized labor.

The vote was one of the biggest private-sector union successes in years, and officials from the United Food and Commercial Workers said it was the largest in that union’s history.

The union won by 2,041 votes to 1,879 after two years of turmoil at the plant. As a result of a federal crackdown on illegal immigrants, more than 1,500 Hispanic workers have left the plant. Its work force is now 60 percent black, up from around 20 percent two years ago.

After the results were announced, Wanda Blue, a hog counter, was among the many workers who were celebrating. source: NYT - read more here

High Fives - Union Workers: The Workers Win! Republic Window and Doors workers win!

All I can say is Yay! Hip Hip Hooray!

CHICAGO – The creditor of a Chicago plant where laid-off employees are conducting a sit-in to demand severance pay said Tuesday it would extend limited loans to the factory so it could resolve the dispute, but the workers declared their protest unfinished.

The Republic Windows and Doors factory closed last week after Bank of America canceled its financing. About 200 laid-off workers responded by staging a sit-in at the plant, vowing to stay until getting assurances they would receive severance and accrued vacation pay.

Their action garnered national attention, seen by some as a symbol of defiance for workers laid off nationwide.

A resolution appeared closer when the bank announced that it had sent a letter to Republic offering to "provide a limited amount of additional loans" to resolve the employee claims.

The bank appeared to side at least in part with disgruntled workers, expressing concern in a statement Tuesday "about Republic's failure to pay their employees the Employee Claims to which they are legally entitled." source: AP

Obama cautions that recent appointments "are not the sum of my economic team..."

I listened to the President-elect's press conference today and never would have dreamed that the statement below was to reassure labor unions. Just reaffirms my status as a peon and a very poor critical thinker.

But now that Mike Allen of Politico has pointed it out to me I wonder if it will be reassuring to the labor unions.

It may be a reassurance to union leadership, but I doubt it will be reassuring or noticed by the average union working stiff. Some of us just don't get those subtle cues.

I guess that's why we have to the media. Sometimes though I can't understand what the media is saying either. I am so totally doomed.

I keep trying though. I really keep trying.

In part to reassure labor unions, Obama sketched an expansive view of his economic team. “Now, let me be clear: these appointments and the appointments I announced yesterday, are not the sum of my economic team,” he said in his prepared remarks. “These appointees are going to work closely with those I have yet to announce – including the secretaries of energy and labor, commerce and health and human services and others in my administration – to design a recovery plan for both Wall Street and Main Street, and to put our economy on a path to long-term growth and prosperity.”

Politico

Passionate 'Suits' arguing about whether or not the auto makers should bankrupt or be bailed

You know I don't know what the answer is. I can barely fathom what is going. One thing I do notice as they discuss this is that people and their lives and livelihoods are not in the equation for most of them.

Yes. Somebody said overpaid managers. How about the shareholders? I've heard that when a corporation goes into bankruptcy, the creditors and the shareholders get a 'shave'. Why don't the shareholders take a voluntary 'shave' without bankruptcy?

If unions can make concessions, and management can make concessions, then why can't shareholders make voluntary concessions?

I suppose that is because that's not the way the free market works. It works to benefit the shareholders the most.

Nevermind.

I don't call myself Political Peon for nothing.

It's a scary time for the little guys and gals, when the allegedly 'best and brightest' among us are arguing and can't agree. We're doomed.

Or maybe this is simply the process that must be undertaken in order for us to make our way out of this situation and on a better path that will lead us toward peace and prosperity again.

Rahm Emanuel doesn't give up much at WSJ CEO Counsel Conference

Rahm Emanuel speaks in vagaries like a good Chief of Staff.

Emanuel said he sees opportunities for government and business to work more closely together to help the public sector reorganize and retool for dealing with a global economy in a way that business has been doing for the past 20 years.

He also called on business leaders to “stay with us” as the administration undertakes a massive reform of the health-care industry.

The former Clinton staffer and congressman from Illinois was determined not to make news in his appearance before the Journal’s CEO Council conference. And he was largely successful. for WSJ source - click here

Emanuel did address the up and coming hot button topic The Employee Free Choice Act.

...Emanuel responded to a question on the Employee Free Choice Act, a measure backed by organized labor but strongly opposed by business, saying, “Let me take your question and go somewhere else.” Instead, he spoke about the need to address falling income among middle class workers. for WSJ source - click here

I find it slightly amusing that the author's last sentence above starts with the word 'Instead'. Although Emanuel was intentionally vague, The Employee Free Choice Act is a matter of great importance to the middle income earners in this country --those people who in large numbers, voted to elect Barack Obama for President of the United States of America.

But then again, I guess that WSJ CEO Counsel Reporter is looking to discuss how the Act would affect business (shareholders) so I am probably just being a bit oversensitive and possibly testy.

Snark-a-doodle.

Anyway, no blunders so it was a good day for Rahm Emanuel, White House Chief of Staff to President-Elect Barack Obama.

Pennsylvania: Joe Biden talks with steel workers in Philadelphia, PA, September 05, 2008

Two United Steel Workers union leaders talk about
Joe Biden's speech today at the
Iron Workers Local 401 in Philadelphia, PA,
then on to Joe Biden's speech.