Shouting slogans and flashing banners, 20 ver.di members protested the anti-worker policies of Deutsche Telekom subsidiary T-Mobile USA at the International Broadcasting Fair in Berlin.
“We think it is not OK that the Telekom presents a nice facade here at IFA, while our colleagues in the USA lack essential rights” said Tomas Lenk, ver.di shop steward, adding that US employees face anti-union harassment and intimidation. “It’s because of these things that we join the solidarity campaign: We expect better from Deutschen Telekom."
Watch CWA President Larry Cohen discuss the 2012 presidential election and collective bargaining on The Ed Show.
“Mitt Romney brought us a new verb in the English language called ‘Bain-ed,’" he says. "Workers know they are Bain-ed when their jobs are sent out of the country. They’re Bain-ed when their pay is cut. They’re Bain-ed when they lose their pensions and health care. That’s what Mitt Romney is about.”
In accepting the GOP nomination for president, Mitt Romney vowed to restore America’s economic prosperity. But Romney isn’t the kind of guy you take at his word. Allow us to translate.
Last night Paul Ryan stepped into the Republican National Convention spotlight and delivered an anti-Obama speech riddled with holes. Here are three things workers need to know about the vice presidential candidate:
First came the news that 40 percent of workers are living paycheck to paycheck, according to a new CareerBuilder survey.
Then the Pew Research Center released a deluge of economic data -- The Lost Decade of the Middle Class – demonstrating that the middle class is shrinking. Today, 85 percent of middle-class Americans says it is more difficult now than 10 years ago to maintain their standard of living. Families are feeling pinched, and “for the first time since the end of World War II, mean family incomes declined for Americans in all income tiers,” says the report.
The government recently approved the Big Cable deal. But opponents of the monopoly aren’t staying quiet.
David Balto, a former FTC policy director and trial attorney at the Justice Department’s antitrust division, recently analyzed why this “cartel in disguise” will hurt consumers and workers. He wrote in the Huffington Post:
Perhaps the DOJ accepted at face value Verizon's 2009 claims that it did not intend to further deploy FiOS. The DOJ ignores the obvious when it listens to these self-serving declarations: FiOS is a profitable endeavor, and one that Verizon would likely pursue if not for these deals. However, strategic redlining by Verizon as it has expanded FiOS has left many particularly susceptible locations without this important alternative. Millions of consumers in Albany, Baltimore, Boston, Buffalo, Syracuse, and Wilmington will likely never know the benefits of competition because the DOJ action fell short of addressing the harm to competition.
The Michigan Court of Appeals ruled Monday afternoon that a proposed November ballot question to enshrine collective bargaining rights in the state’s constitution should be put before voters.
Paul Krugman just tore into New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s so-called “Jersey Comeback,” debunking his oft boasted claim that big spending cuts have boosted his state’s economy. While Christie talks a good game about making tough choices, the truth is that he’s full of budget gimmicks and some “curiously selective” cuts.
Support for Proposition 32 -- a Republican-funded proposal that would essentially bar union workers from having a voice in politics – is steadily dropping.
Last week tens of thousands of young undocumented immigrants flooded churches, law offices and help centers across the county to begin applying for relief from deportation. Thanks to an executive order by President Barack Obama those who entered the United States illegally as children can now defer deportation and work for at least two years.
Nearly 700,000 Michigan citizens petitioned to put the right to collectively bargain on the November ballot. But despite collecting twice the number of signature needed, the state won’t let the people vote.
Why? This week the Michigan Board of State Canvassers deadlocked – along party lines – to keep the measure off the Nov. 6 ballot. The 2-2 vote comes less than two weeks after Republican Attorney General Bill Schuette – acting on the request of GOP Governor Rick Snyder who opposes the initiative to enshrine collective bargaining rights in the state’s constitution -- issued an erroneous legal opinion to kill the proposal.
Andrew Nickelhoff, a Detroit attorney representing Protect Our Jobs, said after the meeting in the Capitol he was going straight to the Michigan Supreme Court about two blocks away to file a legal action requesting the court to order the board to certify the ballot measure. He acknowledged his group faces “a tight timetable” because elections officials say they need the issue resolved by Aug. 27 to have time to prepare and print the ballots. That’s one reason the group wants to bypass the Michigan Court of Appeals and go straight to the Supreme Court.
Here at CWA headquarters we're starting a blog: Resistance Growing. It'll be a place to join a conversation around the issues of the day, to keep tabs on important stories in the labor movement and to get quick takes on breaking news.
The outlook is grim for American workers.