John McCain paid a visit to Portland, Ore., this week. As usual, AFL-CIO union members came out to try to speak to the presumptive Republican presidential nominee about important issues—and, as usual, they were turned away.

In fact, McCain campaign aides were so unhappy to be confronted that they threatened these union members with arrest if they approached the room in which McCain was holding an event.

Tom Chamberlain, president of the Oregon AFL-CIO, says McCain has shown he’s not willing to listen to working families:

Sen. McCain had an unprecedented opportunity today to show that he is as concerned about working folks as he is about his wealthy friends. Instead, he reaffirmed that he doesn’t share the priorities of working folks and he is not the candidate to turn around America.

Alan Kistler, who held union cards as a hotel elevator operator, copy boy, cub reporter and steel mill laborer shoveling molten steel and spent 13 years as the director of the AFL-CIO's Organization and Field Services, died May 10 at his home in Silver Spring, Md. He was 87.

Said AFL-CIO President John Sweeney:

All of us in the union movement mourn the death of Alan Kistler, one of the most respected, creative, and best-loved leaders in our movement for more than a half-century.

Several thousand Detroit-area school kids will get a sneak peak at the 70th annual AFL-CIO Union Industries Show tomorrow when, before the doors open to the public, they get a preview of the more than 300 exhibits and interactive games at the Cobo Center.

The 2008 America@Work show, sponsored by AFL-CIO Union Label and Service Trades Department (UL&STD), runs through Sunday. It spotlights the skills and services of union workers throughout America and the Made-in-the-USA products they produce. The displays feature the latest technology and union craftsmanship.

 

Wages for low-income workers, such as food service employees, get a boost when workers join a union.

A new report emphasizes the importance of a union contract for workers at every level, especially low-wage workers.

The report, The Union Advantage for Low-Wage Workers, released today by the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR), shows that union membership boosted the wages of workers on the bottom rung of the wage ladder (the 10th percentile) by 20.6 percent, from 2003 to 2007. For a worker at the 20th percentile, who earns less than 80 percent of the workforce, the boost from being a union member is 18.9 percent and for the average worker at the 30th percentile, the union benefit is 16.8 percent.

AFL-CIO President John Sweeney says:

For millions of workers who work hard and take home less to show for it, being part of a union that provides a say on the job is all the more important. This study proves that for workers on the bottom rungs of the pay scale, bargaining power is the best, and often only, means to gain a leg up to the middle class.

The United Steelworkers (USW) union has endorsed Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) for president. USW President Leo Gerard reported the union’s Executive Board unanimously voted to endorse Obama this morning.

The USW first endorsed former Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.) last summer. Edwards suspended his campaign in February and yesterday endorsed Obama.

Gerard says Obama will be a strong leader on working family issues and that he shares Edwards’ commitment to fair trade, workers’ rights and health care.

Sen. Obama’s call for a significant change of direction amounts to far more than a compelling rallying cry. It is buttressed by his record of consistent support for workers, by his call for sweeping changes to our health care system, by his unflinching support for Employee Free Choice, and by his insistence that America’s trade policies must, first and foremost, serve the interests of America’s working families.

The 800 office-technical and administrative-technical employees in Tulsa, Okla., now have a voice on the job after joining AFSCME Local 1180.

Says Laureen Gilroy, who works in the city’s Public Works Department:

Forming a union is our legal and democratic right, and we decided to exercise that right. Having a union means that we can work to improve conditions on the job and give employees a voice at work.

Indian workers from the Signal International shipyard in Pascagoula, Miss., rallied in front of the White House last month.

Guest workers who risked everything to come from India and work on the Gulf Coast, only to find abuse and injustice, now are risking the only thing they have left—their lives—to gain the justice they have been denied on the job.

The water-only hunger strike began today in Lafayette Park, across from the White House, with six of the more than 500 workers who came to this country beginning in 2006 in what turned out to be a human-trafficking scheme under the guise of the H-2B guest worker program. Some 30 more workers will join the hunger strike in two waves, on May 21 and on May 28.

The workers, who are welders and pipe fitters, paid $20,000 to recruiters who promised permanent residency and citizenship under the H-2B guest worker program, which business interests want to expand. When they got to this country, they say their employer, Signal International, held them in modern-day forced labor at its shipyard in Pascagoula, Miss. Signal makes the huge floating oil rigs for the offshore fields in the Gulf.

As the climate of fear and intimidation against union members continues in Colombia, the U.S. Congress must not approve the Colombia Free Trade Agreement (FTA), lawmakers and Colombian union leaders said today.

Seven Colombian trade union leaders traveled to the United States to lobby Congress to oppose the agreement. They say despite claims by the Bush administration and Colombia’s President Alvaro Uribe that progress has been made in stemming the violence against union members, the reality is that violence has increased against labor leaders in Colombia.

Intensive care nurse Geri Jenkins says that a 67-year-old male patient with a history of four heart attacks, a quadruple bypass and an implanted defibrillator and about to take a high stress job "would be uninsurable for having a pre-existing condition."

Unless, of course, he was Dick Cheney and about to become the vice president of the United States in 2001. Rose Ann DeMoro, executive director of the California Nurses Association/ National Nurses Organizing Committee (CNA/NNOC), says Cheney

can have the choice of doctors. He can go to any hospital. He can have excellent standard of care. And he's alive today because of it. And there are a lot of people who aren't….We, as the public, pay for Dick Cheney's care. Why not—why is the government not providing the same type of care to all Americans?

New Jersey State AFL-CIO President Charles Wowkanech describes yesterday's municipal election victories by union members across the state.

The New Jersey State AFL-CIO is proud to announce the victories of four union members who were elected to public office yesterday, bringing the total number of rank-and-file union members elected to public office in New Jersey to 499 since 1997.

For the fourth time this year, an AFL-CIO-endorsed candidate has won a special congressional election. Last night, Travis Childers won a striking (54 percent to 48 percent) victory in Mississippi’s 1st Congressional District (CD), by emphasizing the issues that matter most to working families.

The Mississippi AFL-CIO endorsed Childers, a Democrat, for the seat left open by the appointment of Republican Rep. Roger Wicker to the Senate. Childers pledged in his campaign to support affordable health care for working families and to fight bad trade deals that would cost Mississippi jobs. He also pledged to support the Employee Free Choice Act.

Colorado working families yesterday hit the streets, gathering the first of the 76,000 signatures needed to put what The New York Times calls the "nation's toughest corporate fraud law" on the November ballot.

Union, community, environmental and other activist members of the Protect Colorado's Future coalition also began collecting signatures to qualify for a spot on the ballot, a measure to protect workers from being fired for no reason.

The corporate fraud measure would make CEOs and top execs personally liable if they commit fraud or condone it by not reporting it. It establishes both civil penalties and criminal—i.e., jail time.

Robert Masciola, deputy director of the AFL-CIO Center for Strategic Research, describes the current efforts of the Building Justice Campaign. The campaign, which seeks to raise standards in the residential construction sector, currently is focused on Pulte Homes and its Del Webb subsidiary to increase Pulte’s accountability for the actions of its subcontractors. Until Pulte does so, the campaign is cautioning union members and retirees before purchasing a Pulte or Del Webb home.

Arizona and Nevada are two of the fastest growing states in the country as retirees flock West for warm weather and lower taxes. The retiree housing boom has been profitable for Pulte Homes, which owns Del Webb, the biggest national builder of “active adult” (55 years and older) communities.

Around the country this Saturday, thousands of union members will get a visit from their fellow union members and have a chance to learn about the issues they care about in November’s elections.

This weekend’s door-to-door canvass is at the center of the AFL-CIO union movement's effort to mobilize more than 6,000 union volunteers to knock on 200,000 doors and engage union members in 20 states this spring. These volunteers will discuss issues such as health care, jobs, the economy and trade, and how John McCain's pro-Bush voting record in the Senate has worked against the interests of America's workers.

Saturday’s door-to-door walks to educate and energize union members are part of the AFL-CIO’s Labor 2008 political program, set to be the largest union mobilization in history.

The U.S. Senate today moved a step closer to approving legislation that would protect the collective bargaining rights of tens of thousands of firefighters, police officers, emergency medical technicians and other public safety officers.

By a 69–29 vote, the Senate killed a filibuster led by several extreme anti-worker Republican senators against the workers' rights bill. Eighteen Republicans joined all Democrats in backing the move to end the filibuster. The vote on final passage is expected later this week.

Union activists from across the state came together in Philadelphia in recent days for a two-day training session in getting out the vote as part of the union movement’s Labor 2008 political mobilization program.

Members of more than a dozen unions participated in presentations that overviewed key working family issues like health care, the economy and Sen. John McCain’s anti-labor voting record. Attendees engaged in dynamic discussions about effective communication, worksite visits and activist recruitment.

The Philadelphia training is one of a series of Labor 2008 trainings that have taken place around the country in key states like Missouri, Ohio and Colorado.

Here's one from the "just-when-you-think-you've-seen-it-all" file.

California is facing a $20 billion budget shortfall. Teachers are getting pink slips. Health care, social service, education and other budgets are being slashed to the bone. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) warns that all Californians should get ready for some budget belt-tightening.

Well, almost all Californians.

Republican legislators twice this year blocked moves to close a tax loophole for their super-wealthy friends—the ones who just can't live without yachts or jet planes. The loophole let's the uber-rich buy their floating and flying palaces tax free!

Survivors of the cyclone in Burma line up to receive donated food and supplies.

Despite the refusal by Burma’s military dictatorship to allow relief agencies to deliver food, medical care and supplies to survivors of the devastating May 2 cyclone, the Federation of Trade Unions of Burma (FTUB), the country’s underground democratic union movement, is delivering aid to some affected villages. We cannot report exactly which villages are receiving the aid for fear the government will intercede to stop the assistance. But AFL-CIO Solidarity Center representatives in the field confirm that FTUB unions are delivering some aid. But much more help is needed.

Click here to make a donation to help Burmese workers.

Patrick O'Meara, corporate finance specialist in the AFL-CIO Office of Investment, updates us on recent shareholder action at Verizon by union members and retirees.

Union members and retirees continue to challenge Verizon to become a better company. Sporting red T-shirts, some 50 current and retired members of the Communications Workers of America (CWA) and the Electrical Workers (IBEW), including members of the Association of BellTel Retirees, traveled to Lincoln, Neb., last week for the annual Verizon shareholders meeting.

This week, May 11–17, is National Women's Health Week. Beginning on Mother’s Day, Women’s Health Week encourages women to make their health a top priority and take simple steps for a longer and healthier life. Families, communities, businesses, government, health organizations and other groups will work to educate women about steps they can take to improve their physical and mental health and prevent disease.

With women making up nearly half of all union members, the Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW) is encouraging union members across the country to promote women’s health by urging women to maintain a healthy lifestyle. In addition to engaging in some form of physical activity most days of the week and eating a nutritious diet, CLUW, one of six AFL-CIO constituency groups, is urging women to avoid risky behaviors such as smoking or not wearing a seatbelt.