Local Spotlight
UWUA Protest at American Water “Investor Day” Conference at NYSE Share
The union protest criticized exorbitant consumer rate hikes being pursued by American Water subsidiaries across the country, as well as the company’s attacks on affordable health care for its unionized employees during current negotiations for a new national benefits agreement. Read More

PUC Approves Merger of Allegheny Power, TrAILCo and FirstEnergy Share
The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) approved the joint application filed by West Penn (Allegheny Power), Trans-Allegheny Interstate Line Company (TrAILCo) and FirstEnergy to obtain approval for a change of control of Allegheny and TrAILCo. Allegheny and TrAILCo will become a wholly owned subsidiary of FirstEnergy. Read More

New Jersey Coalition on Privatization Share
So consider this thought, why do the men and women who work in the public sector have to sacrifice their jobs and place their families in turmoil to balance the state budget for the sake of privatization? They have their own Household Budgets to worry about. That would consist of paying mortgages, rent, food, utilities, and college and car payments to name a few. Yet while they struggle on a daily basis to make ends meet the wealthy have been given a pass to pay their fair share of Taxes which could go a long way to balance the budget and not place the full burden to do so on the backs of these workers and the middle class. Read More

CLUW: Excitement Builds for International Women's Day Event Share
On March 8, 2011, women around the world will celebrate with the Women's Information Network (The WIN) to mark the 100th anniversary of International Women's Day. Read More

Anti-Union Bills
100,000 Strong In Madison Share
More than 100,000 union members and their supporters rallied in Madison, Wis., on Saturday to tell Gov. Scott Walker to stop the attacks on public employees’ right to bargain for middle-class jobs. Tens of thousands more rallied in solidarity with Wisconsin workers in cities across the nation. Read More

Protests Take Center Stage at Ohio Statehouse Share
The day of theater began at noon with a press event sponsored by the Ohio AFL-CIO in the Ladies' Gallery of the Senate. More members of the rank and file attended than reporters as Dave Caldwell, Ken Lortz, Dennis Duffey, Randy Quickel, Don Opatka (UWUA Region 3 Director) and Burga reiterated how SB5 "is a misguided measure that does nothing to create jobs and will hurt all workers in Ohio," as the AFL-CIO said, and "Gov. [John] Kasich's broader assault on [public sector] workers' rights and protections and how [SB5] will hurt private-sector workers." Read More

Outrageous and All About Politics Share
Union Member Across the Country have spent the last week standing in solidarity with Wisconsin Workers. John Duffy, the National Vice President of the Utility Workers Union of America, said the whole situation was “outrageous” and “all about politics.”

“It’s not about the budget…when you create phony budget shortfalls by giving tax breaks to the rich,” he said. Read More and Discuss This

Obama Says Public Employees Shouldn't be `Vilified' as States Trim Budgets Share
President Barack Obama said public employees shouldn’t be “vilified” or lose collective bargaining rights as states seek to balance their budgets. The president, speaking to a bipartisan group of the nation’s governors at the White House, said that while everyone will need “to give up something” to bring state and federal spending into line, government workers shouldn’t have to bear the entire burden. Read More and Discuss This

New Jersey State AFL-CIO Unity Rally: We Were There, We Are One Share
The unity rally at the State House was a tremendous success, and you made it happen. Union members from across the state and nation, from all sectors of our labor movement, joined with our community partners and stood together – over 4,000 strong – to show solidarity for the Wisconsin workers. Read More

Enviro Groups Align with Unions in Fierce State Labor Battles Share
Most Americans view the intense political protests in Wisconsin through an apt but narrow prism: unions versus the governor and his allies. Yet many environmentalists are standing by labor's side in the fray at the state capital. Read More

Right to Work for Less
Indiana Workers Win One Share
Republican lawmakers in Indiana yesterday withdrew a “right to work” for less bill that drew thousands of Indiana workers to the Capitol in protest this week. Indiana’s Democratic lawmakers boycotted state Senate proceedings to prevent a vote on the anti-worker bill. Workers at the Capitol are now protesting other anti-worker bills. Read More

Human Rights
EEOC Investigates Discrimination Against Unemployed for Jobs Share
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission held a hearing last week to examine the treatment of unemployed Americans in hiring: Are employers discriminating against job seekers who are out of work? Read More

Public Worker Proclamation Share
Americans are served every day by public service workers at the federal, state, county and city levels, the City of Pittsburgh has a long and proud tradition of providing a wide variety of services to its citizens. The Council of the City of Pittsburgh does hereby proclaim Tuesday, February 15, 2011 Service Worker Day in the City of Pittsburgh. Read More