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Reid’s floor maneuvers leave some Senate Democrats frustratedBy Alexander Bolton - 02/07/12 05:15 AM ET Some Democrats are grumbling over how Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has run the floor this year. The frustration is felt mostly among junior lawmakers, who want more of a role in decision-making and have yet to resign themselves to the traditional pace of the Senate, where seniority rules and lawmakers often have to wait years to have significant influence. They say Reid’s style leaves them feeling out of the loop. Colleagues have second-guessed Reid’s decision to greenlight a deal with Republicans on the...

HEADS UP CPAC 2012 - Occupiers and Unions to Protest There Keep your powder dry at CPAC this week and be ready. From past experience, when the anarchists know there will be push back, they change their plans. In Oakland this past week the cowardly occupiers “occupied” places where they knew the police were not going to be around. Of course the police finally caught up to them and arrested 400. If anyone has a good contact with the Metro police, you might give them a heads up. And let the Marriott and Omni hotels know that they may have...

On Wednesday the Arizona Senate Government Reform Committee discussed a package of bills that are intended to curb public employee union corruption. SB 1485 would prohibit government bodies from collectively bargaining with public employee unions. SB 1487 would end the practice of automatic payroll deductions for union dues. SB 1486 would ban the practice of compensating public employees for union work.

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka on Wednesday offered a stinging rebuke of the the White House jobs council’s latest report. Trumka, one of two union leaders on the council, said the body is too narrow to provide recommendations to President Obama that are balanced between the interests of business and other groups such as labor. He specifically took issue with the report’s calls for lower corporate taxes and fewer regulations, saying they would not lead to more jobs. “Overall, I disagree that reforming our regulatory system and reducing the statutory corporate tax rate are crucial elements of ‘competitiveness’ for the United...

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said Thursday that climate change deniers call the shots in Congress. “[I]t is clear that as long as Congress is effectively controlled by climate change deniers, all of us — investors, companies, workers and the broader public — must take action ourselves,” Trumka said. In a wide-ranging speech in New York at the Investor Summit on Climate Risk & Energy Solutions, Trumka made the case for creating jobs with the build-out of low-carbon infrastructure. He said the collapse of global warming legislation has prompted the labor federation to seek other means to spur investments in...

From an historian's point of view, one could do worse than studying the United Mine Workers of America. It is a microcosm of the American Labor Movement. It is a startling picture of the role of individuals in the making of American history. It is the story of how a once powerful institution's leaders repeatedly sold out its members as the nation drifted from large scale industrial production of power and goods to being a producer of private and public services . Finally, not least, it is a story of breathtaking betrayal of working men by a man who used...

In a video posted at The Blaze Wednesday, Fred Mason, President of the AFL-CIO in Maryland and the District of Columbia, called former Rep. Cyntia McKinney (D-GA) and Communist guerilla Che Guevara heroes. "Without a person like Cynthia McKinney, there would not have been a Barack Obama," he said while speaking at Baltimore's Union Baptist Church in late August. "And I was reminded of one of my heroes, Che Guevara, and his contribution to the Cuban Revolution," he added. According to Mason, Guevara was "an internationalist," who "was about oppressed people everywhere." "Anywhere there was suffering, he spoke out against...

Dem Keystone support creates tougher fight for Reid, ObamaBy Alexander Bolton - 12/16/11 04:08 PM ET Republicans want to jam Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on the Keystone oil sands pipeline and the Democratic leader will have a tough time resisting, given support within his caucus for the project. GOP leaders have made clear to Reid that they will not approve an extension of the payroll tax holiday unless it includes language to speed up construction of the pipeline. Senate Republicans estimate as many as 14 Senate Democrats support the project. Labor unions have also voiced strong backing, complicating...

In response to rumors, lies, and hearsay that have circulated regarding the 12/12 Walmart Action, we, as the General Assembly of Occupy Denver and the planners of the action in Loveland, hereby reaffirm that the 12/12 Action is and has always been a non-violent action, and that we do not and have never condoned or sanctioned violence of any kind or the destruction of property.......

AFSCME’s International Executive Board voted this week to endorse President Barack Obama for a second term. The vote was unanimous. The board acted after a substantial majority of AFSCME members indicated in a large telephone poll that they wanted the union to endorse the president. President Obama is the only candidate for president who is fighting to put people back to work, make the wealthiest Americans pay their fair share and protect vital public services. Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich (snip) want to privatize your job. They have targeted the modest pension you earn after a career of public service,...

OAKLAND — As anti-Wall Street protesters attempt to regroup and settle in for winter after a series of police raids that stripped much of the movement of its signature camps, protesters on the West Coast are staging a comeback. On Dec. 12, Occupy movements from Seattle to San Diego say they will shut down their local ports, temporarily stopping the flow of capital on the West Coast. Organizers say they aim to disrupt the business of the “1 percent” — in this case, the corporations that own shipping terminals and do business at the ports. If successful, shutting down the...

APPLETON, Wis. - An Appleton native is the creator of the iconic "blue fist" graphic in the shape of Wisconsin used in spring protests at the state Capitol. Graphic artist Carrie Worthen graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. She now lives and works in Los Angeles, but she kept in touch with members of the AFL-CIO and, in February, the union asked her to take the germ of the fist idea and make it stand out. "To me it needed to be bold and clear and loud and simple," Worthen told Wisconsin Public Radio.

Terry Maile’s supervisor called her into a conference room with all of her co-workers to hear the news: It was their last day of employment at Level 3 Communications in Pittsburgh.That was it. The jobs were gone to India.“I couldn’t stop crying,” said Maile, a divorced mother of one, who until that moment had spent her professional life as a telecommunications worker before being laid off first by Verizon and then by Level 3.Even then, Maile said, she still believed in the American Dream. You’ve got to work hard… work hard. Maile owned her own home. Although she had been...

Editor's note: Martin Luther King III is president and chief executive officer of The King Center in Atlanta. Richard Trumka is president of the AFL-CIO. (CNN) -- It is one of the painful ironies of our time that in the same season Martin Luther King Jr.'s memory is finally honored with a memorial in our nation's capital, the state where he began to lead the civil rights movement is once more the center of an ugly conflict over racial injustice. The passage of Alabama's anti-immigrant legislation, HB 56, invokes inhumanity reminiscent of the Jim Crow South. And the police state...

<p>"I don't really care about the economy. I couldn't care two f*cks about what happens if, you know, we have another Great Depression."</p>

Cincinnati Fire Fighters (IAFF) member Doug Stern says yesterday’s overwhelming rejection of Gov. John Kasich’s (R) attempt to eliminate collective bargaining rights of workers like firefighters, nurses, teachers, bridge inspectors and others shows: [T]he citizens of Ohio spoke and they made it loud and clear that the focus of government should be on creating sustainable middle class jobs, rather than  pushing a partisan political agenda. Stern, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka and Louise Foresman, a member of Working America from Cleveland, took part in a telephone press conference this afternoon about the stunning victory for working families that sent Issue 2 down to...

The AFL-CIO, NAACP, the Brave New Foundation and several other groups are urging U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to enforce the Voting Rights Act to stop the discriminatory voter suppression laws the right-wing billionaire brothers David and Charles Koch and the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) have pushed and financed in dozens of states. The Koch Brothers are major funders of ALEC. You can join in the fight to protect voting rights by clicking here and signing a petition to Holder urging him to use his authority under the Voting Rights Act to protect voters’ rights.In this video from Brave New...

People who catch the bus in Detroit may be waiting awhile Friday. About 100 Detroit Department of Transportation bus drivers are at work, but are refusing to drive their buses. WWJ Newsradio 950′s Scott Ryan spoke with Henry Gaffney, spokesman for the D-DOT bus drivers union AFL-CIO Local 26, who said this was not an organized maneuver by the union. Gaffney said it’s a matter of bus drivers fearing for their safety, citing an incident that happened Thursday afternoon. “Our drivers are scared, they’re scared for their lives. This has been an ongoing situation about security. I think yesterday kind...

WWJ’s Scott Ryan spoke with Henry Gaffney, spokesman for the D-DOT bus drivers union AFL-CIO Local 26, who said this was not an organized maneuver by the union. Gaffney said it’s a matter of bus drivers fearing for their safety, citing an incident that happened Thursday afternoon. “Our drivers are scared, they’re scared for their lives. This has been an ongoing situation about security. I think yesterday kind of just topped it off, when one of my drivers was beat up by some teenagers down in the middle of Rosa Parks and it took the police almost 30 minutes to...

DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- The Occupy LA movement grew by the thousands Wednesday as unionized workers, caregivers and their patients joined the call for an end to corporate greed and Congress to put Americans back to work. The demonstrators held large signs, chanted loudly and blew whistles as they marched through the streets of downtown Los Angeles to the steps of City Hall. Organized by the Service Employees International Union, the demonstration was in support of President Barack Obama's American Jobs Act....

"Last night an AFL-CIO sponsored National Teach In was held on line."

The AFL-CIO has endorsed the Occupy Indiana protests, saying they and the protestors have many of the same goals.The Occupy Indiana movement, based on the Occupy Wall Street protests in New York City, picked up an endorsement over the weekend from the AFL-CIO.  Union spokesman Jeff Harris says the labor movement has no intention of taking over the Occupy protests. But he says the two groups share many common goals in speaking out against the corporate takeover of American society. “You know, we’re just excited and encouraging people who feel this way and if there’s things we can do to...

Video AFL-CIO Promoting Anti-Corporate Wall Street Anarchy

Organizers Wanted!!! Working America / AFL-CIO is hiring full time staff to take our country back from the political forces that favor the wealthy and corporate special interests over your well-being! Diversity is highly valued at Working America: Women, people of color, and LGBT applicants strongly encouraged to apply. $11.44/ Hour $457.60 week base pay – Entry Level. Fun work environment. EOE. Rapid advancement opportunities. Call Jared Or Nate 414.257.9433, www.workingamerica.org

New York area union members will join an expected several thousand labor activists and supporters tomorrow in a Wall Street march and rally in support of the Occupy Wall Street protesters.The grassroots-grown protest is now in its third week, with a diverse array of people from across the country camping out in the heart of the financial district to demand Wall Street is held accountable for the schemes and reckless games that led to the nation’s economic collapse.The mostly young Occupy Wall Street protesters are “speaking for the vast majority of Americans who are frustrated by the bankers and brokers who have...

You scratch my back – I’ll scratch your back.Barack Obama’s special guest at his speech to Congress in September was AFL-CIO President Thug Richard Trumka. Obama is counting on the AFL-CIO to get him re-elected. The AFL-CIO is counting on more taxpayer stimulus cash. Barack Obama gifted the Missouri AFL-CIO Foundation with $527,529 in stimulus cash.And, here we thought the Obama Stimulus was a jobs bill. Boy were we duped.

In yet another example the Obama Administration’s pandering to its union cronies while thumbing its nose at the other 88% of America that is union free, Labor Secretary Hilda Solis will be headlining (at taxpayer expense) to an AFL-CIO “summit” later this week in Minneapolis. The subject of the conference? How to unionize young people (and others). Targeting younger workers has been part of the AFL-CIO’s strategy since Richard Trumka took over the reins of the AFL-CIO in 2009. Elizabeth Shuler, the AFL-CIO’s Secretary Treasurer, has been spearheading the effort and is hosting the “Next Up: Young Workers Summit” in...

The AFL-CIO labor union appears, at least theoretically, to support violence and vandalism when union members use those tactics in the interest of furthering ''legitimate union activity.'' Last week, top AFL-CIO lawyer Jonathan D. Newman attempted to file an amicus brief in federal court after local union officials in Buffalo, N.Y. were charged with several acts of violence. The Buffalo News reports that members of Operating Engineers Local 17 are charged with pouring sand into construction vehicles’ engines, stabbing a company executive in the neck, tossing hot coffee at non-union workers and threatening to sexually assault the wife of a

he AFL-CIO announced it has invested  more than $150 million in job-creating infrastructure projects and registered 8,000 more apprenticeships in clean energy training. During the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) meeting in Chicago last June, the AFL-CIO outlined plans to work with member unions, pension funds, investment professionals and the government to invest at least $10 billion in job-creating infrastructure projects. The federation also committed to invest at least $20 million in specific energy retrofits over the next year, to retrofit our headquarters building, and to train tens of thousands of workers in the skills necessary to work on 21st century infrastructure.Here’s what has been...

Madison - The top four spenders on lobbying the Legislature during the first half of 2011 were labor unions fighting against Gov. Scott Walker's proposal to curb collective bargaining, a report released Thursday showed. The four unions spent $6.3 million in the first six months of the year, the Government Accountability Board reported. Walker introduced his plan in February and the Republican-controlled Legislature passed it in March. The unions helped organize rallies at the Capitol in protest over the bill that grew as large as 100,000 people. The debate, which captured the nation's attention, also spurred Democratic senators to leave...

President Obama is changing his rhetoric in trying to get Congress to approve $50 billion in new spending on roads, bridges and railways. Out are the words “stimulus” and even “infrastructure,” a term seemingly tied to the $787 billion economic stimulus package approved in 2009. In is the word “jobs,” which is what the president says will be created if Congress approves his $447 billion package. That Obama would ditch the word “stimulus” is hardly a surprise considering the political bruises he’s taken from Republicans, who say the stimulus failed to create the millions of jobs promised by the administration....

Top AFL-CIO union chief Richard Trumka -- President Barack Obama's guest of honor at his speech to Congress Thursday night -- urged Obama to "go to the mat" for Big Labor. Of course, Obama hasn't been shy about doing just that for the last three years. Trumka just wants more, more, more. Obama's "jobs" proposal appears to be full of it -- more special deals and bailouts for the union hierarchy. And unsurprisingly, Obama made no mention of the Boeing jobs in South Carolina the Acting General Counsel of his National Labor Relations Board is trying to destroy. Meanwhile, Big...

As you read this 9/11 "memorial" missive to rank-and-file union members, bear in mind that its author -- AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka -- was an honored presidential guest at last night's campaign rally disguised as a "jobs speech." This is much, much more offensive than Jimmy Hoffa, Jr.'s juvenile "SOB's" slur on Monday. Without further ado, I present top White House ally Richard Trumka's reflections on the tenth anniversary of September 11, 2001 (emphasis mine): All of us will remember the horror and anguish we experienced 10 years ago. Whether we lost loved ones ourselves—family members, union brothers and sisters—or...

Between Richard Trumka's special invitation to the president's "jobs speech," his despicable AFL-CIO 9/11 "tribute" essay, and the AFL-CIO affiliated ILWU's riot and hostage-taking in Washington State, we've been discussing organized labor quite a lot this week. Luckily for the embattled unions, a reporter from Portland, Oregon-based KGW-TV ventured over to the local ILWU headquarters to cover their side of the story. A friendly, staid, and eloquent employee greeted the news crew and calmly explained the situation. Just kidding. He went ballistic, screeching every profane slur in the book, and threatening to commit physical assault and destroy their equipment. *Extreme*...

A Message from AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka All of us will remember the horror and anguish we experienced 10 years ago. Whether we lost loved ones ourselves—family members, union brothers and sisters—or felt the shock of a society that lost nearly 3,000 people and was forever changed, we need no reminding. Instead, I would like to reflect on doors that were opened on Sept. 11, 2001, and what has come of them in the 10 years since. Working men and women rushed through doors to danger and became America’s everyday heroes. Firefighters, construction workers, nurses and EMTs—all kinds of professionals...

A band I was in years ago had a song titled, “Sheet Rockers vs. Aluminum Siders,” about a fight our singer saw at work on a construction site. I was reminded of it earlier today, when members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) stormed the Port of Longview, Washington, where they held security guards hostage, blocked a train, and destroyed property, damaging railroad cars and dumping grain. They were protesting the hiring at a grain terminal by the employer, EGT, of a contractor employing workers belonging to a different union, the Operating Engineers. Such union turf battles are...

The White House just put out the list for President Obama's jobs-focused address this evening. Those who will be in the gallery with first lady Michelle Obama include: — Jeffrey Immelt, CEO of General Electric. He's chairman of the President's Council on Jobs and Competitiveness. So look for Obama to again stress the importance of technology, research and development. — Steve Case, who co-founded America Online and is, the White House says, "one of America's most accomplished entrepreneurs and philanthropists." He fills the "American can-do/entrepreneurial spirit" slot. — Darline Miller, CEO of Permac Industries, a Minnesota company that makes "precision...

Reuters correspondent Bohan confirms the Presidents of all 3 Unions flew free on AF1 on the taxpayer dime with Obama to his detroit speech. He doesnt even hide his backers now. I'm just disgusted that he gets to use our money this way. Its obvious he has done a deal with unions and this jobs plan is going to be so pro-union its unbelievable.

Thug. (TPM) — Teamsters union president James Hoffa would say it all again if he could, he told TPM Monday. Hoffa riled up Fox News and the right wing Monday with a Labor Day speech in Detroit in which he called Republican members of Congress “sons of bitches” and said union workers are ready to “go to war” with the tea party next year and “take out” Republicans at the ballot box. Hoffa said he’d say the exact same words all over again. “I would because I believe it,” he said. “They’ve declared war on us. We didn’t declare war...

Jimmy Hoffa got his job as Teamster president the old-fashioned way: He inherited from his father who had the misfortune of being offed by mobsters. On Labor Day, the AFL-CIO and the Teamsters decided for irony’s sake to rally in Detroit, a town ruined by the UAW, and the SEIU loaned them President Obama to serve as their main speaker. Hoffa huffed and puffed and actually threatened violence against members of the Tea Party. But while conservatives should be concerned, this is not the pants-wetter it might have been 30 years ago. This is what Jimmy Hoffa said: “We got...

The opposition is called "son of a bitches" at one Labor rally and "barbarians" at another rally. Here's an angry Joe Biden at the AFL-CIO rally in Cincinnati just a short time ago.

President Barack Obama is celebrating Labor Day in Detroit, previewing his ideas for job creation and economic growth at a rally with thousands of supportive labor union members. Obama's speech at an annual event sponsored by the Metropolitan Detroit AFL-CIO was serving as a dress rehearsal for the jobs address he'll deliver to a joint session of Congress on Thursday night.

The United States does not have a short-term debt problem, just a “jobs crisis” that can be solved with greater government stimulus spending, according to AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka. Speaking at a press conference on jobs Wednesday, Trumka called for greater government spending in areas like education and jobs. Asked whether such spending was responsible in an era of record federal debt and deficits, he replied that “the United States doesn’t have a short-term debt crisis, it has a short-term jobs crisis.” The head of the nation’s largest labor union organization then compared increased federal deficit spending to mortgages or...

Here's a novel idea: Have Congress create a "bank" that could borrow huge sums with only a small federal outlay and would be independent of any political interference. If you believe in this miracle, you probably thought Fannie Mae was a private company that wouldn't cost taxpayers a dime. We're referring to Washington's latest marketing tool to sell spending to a skeptical public, a new federal "infrastructure bank." For the low, low price of $30 billion or so, President Obama says Congress can conjure hundreds of billions in new "grants and loans" to rebuild "roads, bridges, and ports and broadband...

Things rarely turn out the way I would have imagined them to, and President Obama and the Democrats might soon find that to be true of AFL-CIO head Richard Trumka. I sure did. As a young lawyer with a few years experience working for the Appellate division of the NLRB, I was asked to join with Joe Rauh and Joseph A ("Chip") Yablonski in representing Chip's dad, "Jock" Yablonski, who was engaged in a rare and difficult fight for leadership of the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA), then under the leadership of a corrupt man named Tony Boyle. After...

The departing chairwoman of the National Labor Relations Board won praise from the nation’s biggest labor group Saturday as she leaves a panel that’s facing key vacancies and an uncertain future. NLRB Chairwoman Wilma B. Liebman’s leaves the board after her term ends at midnight Saturday. She has served on the body for nearly 14 years after an initial appointment under President Bill Clinton. The White House has designated NLRB member Mark Gaston Pearce to replace Liebman as chairman. In addition to Liebman’s tenure ending, NLRB member Craig Becker’s term expires at the end of the year. Without new people...

Politics: Having seen its agenda falter, the AFL-CIO announces that in 2012 unions will scale back working in tandem with the Democratic Party and instead set up its own structures to support candidates. In politics, hell hath no fury like a union scorned, and AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka is not amused by the performance, or the lack of it, by the Democratic leadership in Washington in general and President Obama in particular in crossing items off labor's wish list. On Thursday, Trumka told reporters at a breakfast sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor that organized labor is preparing to go...

Unions splitting from Democrats in 2012, Trumka says Share Tweet posted at 4:05 pm on August 25, 2011 by Ed Morrissey printer-friendly The media likes to push the notion that the Republican Party will split in two because of the Tea Party, but they may have missed a real split on the other side of the aisle. AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka announced the creation of a union super-PAC that will “build our own structure� rather than “build structures for others.� And by “others,� Trumka means the Democratic Party: The growing rift between labor and their Democratic allies was on full...

The AFL-CIO is distancing itself from the Democratic Party, redirecting its funds to build its own permanent political organization, and pressuring President Barack Obama to embrace a big-spending program for job creation, Richard Trumka, the union’s president, said today. The storied labor federation’s level of support for Obama in 2012 will be decided early next year, and will partly depend on whether Obama abandons his current strategy of promoting “little nibbly things,” such as a patent-update law, Trumka told a press breakfast hosted by the Christian Science Monitor. “That’s not going to get the job done,” he said. “Everybody knows...

WASHINGTON -- The AFL-CIO hopes to boost its clout by launching a new political action committee that could raise unlimited amounts of money, part of the federation's goal of building a year-round political organizing structure. Forming a so-called "super labor PAC" would allow the labor federation to raise money from sympathetic donors both inside and outside union membership and mobilize support beyond its traditional base, instead of ramping up political activities each election cycle. The move would also help steer more of labor's money to state legislative battles, where unions have been battling efforts to curb union rights in states...