Union members from across Iowa took proposals for a citizens’ budget to the State Capitol on Jan. 15, stressing that cuts in services and layoffs are no solution to the State’s budgetary crisis. UE represents more than 6,000 working families in Iowa, largely in the public sector.
Call it on-the-job training: for fully one-third of the UE General Executive Board, including the national union’s financial officer, the meeting here Jan. 17-19 was their first. Not that any of the new board members were unfamiliar with the issues facing the union. Each brought years of UE membership and experience to the table.
Launched February 1st, the UE web has a new feature designed to bring more news, frequently updated, to our members and website visitors. It’s called “UE News Update.” The new service will function much like a news wire, displaying headlines and stories in the order they were posted on our website. The most recent UE News Update headlines will be displayed on our main UE News Online page.
On Jan. 29, the mostly women workers at Berlin Health and Rehabilitation made history again – by gaining a first contract after an extraordinary, 15-month struggle.
Berlin workers made history in August 2000 by becoming the first nursing home employees in Vermont to organize, and the first U.S. employees of CPL/REIT to gain union recognition.
The largest owner/operator of nursing homes in Canada, where it is based, CPL/REIT owns 20 nursing homes in the United States. Ninety-five percent of the Canadian facilities are unionized, none in the U.S. – except for Berlin.
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