The outcome of the November 6 election is, for the most part, welcome news for working people. The anti-worker Romney-Ryan presidential ticket was defeated, and anti-labor Republicans were beaten in a number of key Senate races, giving the Democrats an enlarged majority in the U.S. Senate.
Workers at a U. S. Citizenship and Immigration Service Center in Chicago have chosen to join UE in an National Labor Relations Board election on October 18, by a margin of 36 to 1. These workers have the same employer - Fed Consulting Incorporated - as the members of UE Local 208 in St. Albans, Vermont and Local 1008 in Laguna Niguel, California, and perform similar work processing forms for the federal government.
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| Union members at a campus rally protesting the college's plan to outsource jobs. |
The following report comes from a Warehouse Workers for Justice press release issued October 6.
In an historic victory, all striking Roadlink workers at Walmart's Elwood warehouse near Joliet have won their principal demand, for an end to illegal retaliation against workers protesting poor conditions. They will return to work with full pay for the period they were on strike. Workers returning to work plan to continue their fight for safe working conditions, fair pay for all hours worked and an end to discrimination.
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| Local 165 Vice President Pat Kunkle led the successful organizing campaign. |
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| Police in the service of Walmart, the riot squad marches out from the warehouse grounds to confront peaceful demonstrators. |
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On Wednesday, September 12, UE's Political Action Director Chris Townsend debated Mallory Factor, author of a new anti-union book that's being heavily promoted in right-wing media and by big business groups. The debate took place, as Townsend likes to say, "deep behind enemy lines" - at the Washington headquarters of the ultra-conservative Cato Institute.
Click "read more" to read Chris Townsend's review of Factor's book Shaddowbosses: Government Unions Control America and Rob Taxpayers Blind. We present this for your information; neither Townsend nor UE encourage anyone to buy this malicious book.
On Saturday, September 15, workers at a key Walmart distribution center here joined warehouse workers from Mira Loma, CA on strike to protest illegal retaliation and other labor abuses. On September 17 they planned to visit Walmart's regional offices in Rosemont, IL to deliver tens of thousands of signatures in support of the workers. Read more about the walkout by clicking here.
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| Bernice DeLong speaking at the 2011 UE convention. |
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