Hello and welcome to another session of Labor Diary Rescue. Diaries are below the fold.
You guys know the drill. The LDR is done every Monday and Thursday night, barring a bad internet connection, my insane work schedule, or Acts of God. In order for your diary to be rescued, you must have a pro-union diary with less than 100 comments, with the word "union" or "labor" in the tag line, and your diary must not have been on any front page rescue list or the rec list.
Seven diaries up tonight.
First up, Shirah continues his series Amending the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), Part 5 - Strengthening Employer Rights (pssst, Shirah. Where’s part four?)
This is the fifth in a series on pending bills to amend the National Labor Relations Act. The series so far has examined the RAISE Act. Prior parts may be found at my Daily Kos user page here. This part discusses a different bill.
The second bill amending the National Labor Relations Act that we’re looking in on is S.1227 / HR 2808 A bill to amend the National Labor Relations Act to protect employer rights.
Thank goodness someone is worried about employers in these trying economic times. Really. I mean that. They have a lot on their plates what with banks folding and not lending money. And what with orders tanking. And what with having to tell employees the bad news, that they have no jobs.
They say sarcasm doesn’t print well. I beg to differ.
Jeff in CA writes about a union representing a nuclear power plant. It’s another day, another company trying to screw over working men and women in Diablo Canyon: disgruntled nuclear employees protest, NRC investigates.
Their complaints have stretched beyond the walls of Diablo Canyon and PG&E to the NRC. Typically, the NRC focuses on the stability and safety of nuclear plants rather than labor issues. But at Diablo Canyon, they’re taking a special interest. In other words, the relationship between the employees and company management has NRC staff looking at whether it could endanger the public.
On May 29, the Diablo Canyon engineers bused to San Francisco where they met up with others from the union to protest.... That protest was the boiling point after more than a year of failed labor negotiations with PG&E’s newest union.
According to union representative Joshua Sperry, PG&E’s management is punishing the engineers and technical workers who decided to join the union last April. When negotiations reached an impasse, he said, PG&E forcibly implemented a salary and benefits package that was handily rejected by the union members months earlier.
Vikingkingq gives a long, but well read post about economic conditions in this country in After Detroit: Rethinking Industrial Policy for a New Era.
It may be the fastest and most unexpected revolution in political economy since the fall of the Soviet Union, but it is still startling to realize that the United States government currently owns the largest insurer (AIG), mortgage provider (Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac), multiple banks (Citigroup and Bank of America), as well as a majority stake in GM and a significant share in Chrysler. Contrary to some, I don’t think this heralds the emergence of American socialism – although it might begin to shift the Overton window in regards to the public/private divide. What I do think it does herald is the re-emergence of industrial policy in America.
(For those who’ve never heard of this rather wonkish term, industrial policy refers to government intervention into the economy to promote or encourage not just industrial development, but particular industries: steel, railroads, textiles, or automobiles, and so forth.)
ChicagoACTS has reason to celebrate. A local charter school has voted to unionize. Details are given in Chicago Charter School Teachers Vote Yes! For Union.
Teachers and staff at the Chicago International Charter Schools’ Civitas campuses voted on Thursday to form the first union among the charter schools in the city. Nearly 60% of the 125 faculty and staff voted in the union – the Chicago Alliance of Charter Teachers and Staff or ChicagoACTS – to assure that their voice is added to the school’s operations and future success.
NLinStPaul tells us about the labor unions in Iran and how they’re helping to support the uprising in Labor Unions Join the Resistance in Iran.
There's been a lot of speculation about the make-up of the protesters in Iran. Is it made up of just young people? Those only in Tehran? Only the ruling/middle class?
Now we get word that labor unions have joined the fray. Specifically, Al Giordano at The Field notes that both auto workers and bus workers are taking action.
I still don’t know if this is a spoof or not, but Tula Connell writes about some people who have started an insulting Facebook page in STEELING a Union's ID.
Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele has been called a lot of names. Here's another one for him: cheater.
It's not surprising Steele and the Republicans are embarrassed about their party. But Steele has hit a new low (insert Munch's "Scream" here): He's set up an RNC fundraising page on Facebook made to look like it's the United Steelworkers union.
The "United STEELE Workers Union" page even features a hard hat with an American flag sticker front and center.
Just curious, Michael: Doesn't a white hard hat clash with your designer suits?
And finally, TomP writes about a civil war going on between two unions in Workers and Progressives Can't Afford Labor Civil War.
This is a story about two unions who came together, fell apart, and now are harming the labor movement with their continued civil war. Several labor leaders have called for binding arbitration to resolve the dispute over the failed merger between UNITE and HERE, which has led to the creation of Workers United as over 150,000 workers left UNITE-HERE.
Treat the comments as an open thread.