(A few union news stories out there today)
Jim Hoffa applauds Obama for moving in a positive direction in proposing stricter bank regulation.
"President Obama is clearly moving in the right direction on this issue," Hoffa said. "He understands that our financial system deserves special treatment because it serves a crucial function: providing capital to businesses so they can create jobs. Unfortunately, financial firms are selling irresponsible products such as credit default swaps that destabilize U.S. businesses and jeopardize jobs. It is crucial to regulate these little-understood, 'financial weapons of mass destruction,' to borrow Warren Buffett's term."
The Teamsters Union supports policies that would regulate these financial instruments and other shadow financial market practices currently under consideration by Congress. These instruments and the way they are packaged create perverse economic incentives that favor short-sighted financial gains to Wall Street over restructuring strategies designed to save jobs and preserve workers' standard of living.
Has there ever been a greater need for EFCA? From ABC News
The number of union workers employed by the government for the first time outnumbered union ranks in the private sector last year, the result of massive layoffs that plunged the rate of private sector union membership to a record low.
Local, state and government workers made up 51.5 percent of all union members in 2009, up from 48.7 percent a year ago, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday.
Overall, union membership declined by 771,000 workers, to 15.3 million...The shift shows the continued difficulty unions face in trying to revive a movement that has declined steadily since its peak of about 35 percent of workers in the 1950s. And it undermines the traditional ability of unions to push private sector wages higher.
AFL CIO President Richard Trumka emphasizes this a problem that needs to be dealt with.
The loss in union membership, says AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, is another indicator of the terrible toll the economic crisis is taking on the nation’s middle class—not just union members.
This is about what’s happening to real wage earners across the country, not just unions or union membership. It matters to us all that we have a strong middle class to build a strong economy. These numbers cry out for urgent, bold action by our leaders to invest in America and create good jobs.
Along with immediate and decisive action and investments in jobs and economic recovery, Trumka says workers’ freedom to form unions and bargain to make their jobs into good jobs with fair wages and better benefits must be restored by passing the Employee Free Choice Act.
Meanwhile, the unions in the state of New Jersey can look forward to a long four years of having a right-wing governor.
Governor Christie as his first day of Governor signed an executive order limiting the power of Unions in the state.
On his first day on the job, Christie signed eight executive orders including on which labor leaders and democrats are calling an attack on their current system of pay to play politics in New Jersey. The order states that unions are now added to the list of groups who are barred from receiving state contracts of more than $17,500 if they had donated more than $300 to a campaign for Governor or county political committee in the previous 18 months. The order is expected to curb the union influence and patronage that was prevelant during the Corzine administration.
State Democrat leaders protested, claiming the inability to grease the unions will hurt their future campaign efforts since there will no longer be a motivation for unions to contribute at state and county levels as they would be barred lucrative contracts in return for political support.
Ok, so this sucks for NJ, corporations can now dominate an already rigged electoral system, and labor unions are restricted even more to exert their influence...
Lastly, the need for the Employee Free Choice Act is clear. "If a majority of workers want a union, they should get a union. It's that simple. We need to stand up to the business lobby and pass the Employee Free Choice Act. That's why I've been fighting for it in the Senate and that's why I'll make it the law of the land when I'm president of the United States." --Barack Obama
I hope to see Obama doing a lot more standing up to the business lobby/ hopefully then we won't see blue collar workers vote out of frustration or despair for the phony right-wing populism, a populism that does nothing to make our country more equitable, or less dominated by corporate interests.