Union Labor News Archives, 2000-2011

Union Labor News: November 2011

• Labor and School Officials Join Forces To Demand Passage of Federal Jobs Act
  Organized labor, Madison teachers and the Madison Metropolitan School District are joining together to demand that the federal government pass the Jobs Act to create jobs, improve the nation’s infrastructure, keep teachers in the classroom, and upgrade public schools for a 21st century education. Doug Kirkeeng, member of IBEW Local 159, stressed the impact passage of the Act would... [More]
• Profitable Wisconsin Company Finally Admits To Using ‘Extreme Tax Avoidance Techniques’
  It took awhile, but SC Johnson (SCJ) eventually fessed up to its tax-avoidance schemes. It started when the last issue of this publication disclosed that SCJ paid no state income tax in 2000-2008. This prompted an SCJ insider to release a secret tax-avoidance report prepared for the firm in 2006 by accounting giant PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). The report went anonymously to the Institut... [More]
• Wisconsin Runaway Shop Exposes Fraud of Business ‘Uncertainty’ Claim
  By Mike Konopacki According to Glenn Hubbard, former Council of Economic Advisers Chair under President George W. Bush and current advisor to Mitt Romney. “Uncertainty over future tax and spending policy ... weighs heavily on household and business spending decisions.” As a result, the reasoning goes, “job creators” won’t create jobs until the uncertainty is... [More]
• Occupy Wall Street is Helping to Bust Economic Myths
  By Dave Johnson For decades the corporate media has force-fed “conventional wisdom” free-market economic nonsense to the American public. We have been told that it’s good to give more and more to the wealthy few, that it’s good to send jobs and money out of the country, and especially that the people who run the big corporations are better and more “efficien... [More]
• We Have A Voice Thanks to Labor Radio & WIN
  By Norm Littlejohn When the media in the United States talk about the economy, do you feel that something’s missing? Does the daily update of how investors are doing on Wall Street have anything to do with you? Since 1995, radio listeners in the Madison area have been able to tune in to Labor Radio and hear stories that relate to the real lives of working people. La... [More]
• Obama Signs ‘God-Awful’ Free Trade Bills
  On October 21 President Barrack Obama signed three so-called “free trade” agreements between the United States and Korea, Panama and Colombia. Defeat of these bills--termed “God-awful policies” by Arthur Stamoulis, of the Citizens Trade Campaign--was a high priority of the AFL-CIO and its allies over the past three years. The week before Obama signed the bills the... [More]
• You Receive Prestigious Letelier-Moffitt Human Rights Award
  The Institute for Policy Studies issued this year’s Letelier-Moffitt Human Rights Award to Wisconsin’s Progressive Movement. Each year the IPS makes the award to an outstanding group or individual in the United States. This year it goes to “those who are gallantly fighting to preserve workers' rights and dignity in Wisconsin.” “Their protest began as a respo... [More]
• Postal Service Union Proposes Reasonable Alternatives to Unreasonable Mandates
  The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) is facing long-term financial challenges due to the increased use of the Internet as a substitute for first-class mail. In order to survive the Postal Service will need to transform its business model to succeed in the 21st century. But use of the Internet is not the principal cause of the Postal Service’s losses of nearly $12 billion over the last th... [More]
• Unions Hit Privatization at UW ‘Red Tie Gala’
  On October 14th members of AFSCME Locals 171, 2412, and other campus unions and community members picketed the Wisconsin Alumni Association's 150th Anniversary "Red Tie Gala" at the Wisconsin Institutes of Discovery on the 1300 block of University Avenue. Most food service on campus is provided by UW employees who are guaranteed benefits and are members of AFSCME Local 171. U... [More]
• Report: Teachers Can Counter Labor History Distortions In School Textbooks
  By Ron Blascoe Anyone who’s done any union organizing recently will tell you about the appalling lack of information people in this country have about unions. Basic things, like what unions are and what they do. And, while initial knowledge of unions and the labor movement is lacking, one of the encouraging things about it is that most working people quickly come around to s... [More]