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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...

The AFL-CIO submitted more than 21,000 comments on behalf of people in favor of a new National Labor Relations Board proposed “quickie election” rule change on Monday. If the NLRB finalizes its proposed rule, the time between when union organizers file a petition and when an election takes place would be shortened to just 7–10 days. Traditionally, unionizing elections are held up to six weeks after organizers meet the petition requirements. Union spokesman Josh Goldstein told The Daily Caller that the 21,000 comments submitted right before Monday’s deadline “were organized by the AFL-CIO, primarily through our online tools that allow...

On Tuesday’s broadcast I featured the deranged thinking of the communist Left that was displayed in a column from the Communist Party USA’s website written by someone calling himself Gus Hall (although I doubt it was the Gus Hall, since the column was supposedly written in 2001, and Mr. Hall died in 2000). During my visit to the CPUSA website I also noticed another column in the People’s World section that reported union leadership has declared state attempts to get voter identification laws passed are equivalent to Jim Crow tactics. The term “Jim Crow” refers to a system of laws...

President Barack Obama met behind closed doors with labor union bosses from the AFL-CIO on Tuesday morning. It’s unclear what happened in the closed-door meeting, which Obama fit into his schedule before the smoke began settling after the debt ceiling deal. Spokespeople for the Obama administration have not responded to The Daily Caller’s requests comment on what specifically was talked about with the union bosses, including AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka. Read full story: http://thedc.com/nSIL7N

Obama held a closed-door meeting with leaders of the AFL-CIO, the country's main labor union umbrella organization, and was expected to hear complaints for shrinking from his demand to include tax revenues as part of the debt deal.Stung by a bitter battle over the U.S. debt, President Barack Obama shifted his focus towards putting Americans back to work Tuesday, holding an "urgent" meeting with unions frustrated over the slow pace of job creation. Obama held a closed-door meeting with leaders of the AFL-CIO, the country's main labor union umbrella organization, and was expected to hear complaints for shrinking from his...