UE members have just concluded a series of twelve meetings with U.S. Senate offices in eight states during the Week of Action to demand passage of the Employee Free Choice Act. Five more visits will unfold in three states in the coming week, rounding out this phase of our union wide political action push.
With growing public support for economic policies that will bring real change to America, Representative George Miller (D-CA) and Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA), today introduced the Employee Free Choice Act, legislation giving workers a fair and direct path to form unions.
In a White House interview on the economic stimulus yesterday with reporters from regional newspapers, President Barack Obama reiterated his support for the Employee Free Choice Act, legislation sought by organized labor that would make it easier for workers to organize, gain bargaining rights and negotiate first contracts. He told the journalists that he would not urge Congress to delay action on the bill, and he rejected the arguments of big business groups that the bill would increase costs and is therefore bad for the economy.
In the coming weeks UE members need to phone the U.S. House of Representatives to urge their members of Congress to pass legislation to repair the broken U.S. healthcare system. Passage of the United States National Health Insurance Act/Expanded and Improved Medicare for All Act (HR 676) would begin a process of sweeping healthcare reform. The health insurance companies would be removed from the system, along with their waste, redundant paperwork, second-guessing of doctors, profit greed and sky-high CEO salaries and bonuses.
Washington, D.C.
Meeting in Pittsburgh January 15 and 16, UE’s General Executive Board adopted a statement condemning the current war in the Gaza Strip. The union’s national leadership body reiterated the position adopted by delegates to UE’s 70th Convention in 2007, which called for "replacing the lopsided pro-Israel policy of the U.S. with a good faith, even-handed effort to achieve lasting peace between Israel and Palestine based on full justice and mutual respect." The GEB called on the incoming Obama administration to move quickly to initiate such a new policy.
When the new president and Congress take office in January, workers in this country will have their best opportunity in decades to change the federal labor laws and make it easier to organize unions.
Throughout the presidential campaign, Barack Obama repeated his commitment to passage of the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), which would give workers union recognition and the right to negotiate a contract when a majority of employees sign union cards. In early December an Obama spokesperson reaffirmed the president-elect’s strong support for EFCA.
Four-term U.S. House of Representatives member Hilda Solis (D-CA) has been chosen by President-elect Obama as the next Secretary of Labor. What do we know about Representative Solis? And what do we know about the direction in which she's likely to take the Labor Department? Let's start with a look at her background and her record in the U.S. House of Representatives.
It appears likely that the Bush administration will soon do what Congress failed to do because of Republican obstructionists in the Senate: Provide a bridge loan to the auto companies to prevent an immediate collapse of that industry.