Day 1 of AFSCME’s 38th International Convention: President Gerald W. McEntee got delegates jumping to their feet when he asked them to, “stand up if you’re ready to make a better America happen!”

In his keynote address, McEntee told the crowd of nearly 6,000 that, “Together we will build an even more powerful union! Together we will reach out and organize the unorganized! We will negotiate contracts that make our families strong! Together we will fight for a new America!” Watch an excerpt below:

Reposted from the AFL-CIO Now Blog.

Employees at the University of New Hampshire (UNH) are seeking a voice on the job through a historic coordinated effort by two unions – AFSCME and UAW.

Kelly Hinton, an eight-year financial support specialist, says:

This is great news for all UNH employees. We feel that the two unions working together will be a good fit for the University alongside of the faculty union. Working together with AFSCME and the UAW means we are united and stronger.

Says Lonn Sattler, a veterans coordinator who has worked at UNH for 26 years:

This is a terrific opportunity for us to have a real, effective voice on the job. With two great unions working together, we can make UNH a better place to work.

Last year, the state Legislature passed legislation allowing state employees, including those at UNH, to form unions and bargain with their employers when a majority of workers sign union authorization cards.

AFSCME and UAW agreed to coordinate organizing efforts and support the negotiating teams of all UNH workers who are successful in forming their own local unions and bargaining units. Under the agreement, clerical, technical, skilled trades and administrative employees and certain supervisory employees will be eligible to join AFSCME. Service and professional staff, adjunct faculty members and some supervisors will be eligible to become part of the UAW.

Both unions say the partnership will help the workers. Says Bob Madore, director of UAW Region 9A:

Our goal is to help workers who want to form their own unions. By combining resources so we can work with AFSCME, we can be even more effective.

Alva Arellano, AFSCME’s director of organizing in New England, adds:

This is the right approach for UNH workers and for our two unions. We’re going to help UNH workers join together so they can have a voice in the decisions that affect their lives and improve the important public services they provide.

The 800 office-technical and administrative-technical employees in Tulsa, Okla., now have a voice on the job after joining AFSCME Local 1180.

Says Laureen Gilroy, who works in the city’s Public Works Department:

Forming a union is our legal and democratic right, and we decided to exercise that right. Having a union means that we can work to improve conditions on the job and give employees a voice at work.

A majority of the employees submitted union interest ballots to the state’s Public Employees Relations Board this month. State law allows municipal employees in Oklahoma cities with populations of more than 35,000 to form unions.

Local 1180 President Mark Stodghill said he is proud to have the employees join the union.

They have gone much too long without a strong, organized voice in the workplace. Now it’s time that the union members of this new unit all roll up their sleeves and get their first contract to cement their rights as employees represented by a union.

The new union members join the city’s 911 operators, airport police and municipal labor and trades employees as members of Local 1180.

(crossposted from the AFL-CIO Now Blog)

You’ve heard the union slogan, ‘the folks that brought you the weekend.’ Well, the labor movement has helped make possible not just a few days off, but a wide range of benefits and rights that we all too often take for granted.

A clever blog post illustrates what unions and their allies have done through the eyes of an average guy somewhere in America. It’s worth a read:

Joe gets up at 6:00am to prepare his morning coffee. He fills his pot full of good clean drinking water because some liberal fought for minimum water quality standards. He takes his daily medication with his first swallow of coffee. His medications are safe to take because some liberal fought to insure their safety and work as advertised. All but $10.00 of his medications are paid for by his employers medical plan because some liberal union workers fought their employers for paid medical insurance, now Joe gets it too. He prepares his morning breakfast, bacon and eggs this day. Joe’s bacon is safe to eat because some liberal fought for laws to regulate the meat packing industry. …

Real the full story at Union Review.

If given the chance, says the AFL-CIO, 60 million American workers say they would join a union. Now we have unbiased evidence of just how true this is: Union membership in the United States grew – overall – by 311,000 members last year, according to this report by the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics.

As noted in Think Progress, this is the first increase in 25 years and the largest single-year increase in overall membership since 1979 – a jump from 12.0 percent in 2006 to 12.1 percent in 2007. That growth – led by health services – happened despite significant employer opposition. That’s what happened to employees of Walker Methodist Health Center in Minnesota, as reported last year in this AFSCME WORKS cover story.

Last year, 48,000 workers chose AFSCME as their union. In a statement, AFSCME Pres. Gerald W. McEntee says:

“AFSCME’s growth, which has been consistent even during challenging times, is now part of a broader trend that’s spreading throughout the union movement.”

We’re reassured that workers are organizing in ever-greater numbers, but we’ve got to end the harassment. We need to keep up the pressure on Congress to pass the Employee Free Choice Act, which will makes it easier – and more fair – for workers to form and join unions. Read more about this great news at the AFL-CIO blog.

Richard Womack, an assistant to AFL-CIO Pres. John Sweeney, is the latest recipient of the Bill Lucy Lifetime Achievement Award.

As Womack said:

“I was surprised and honored that they were considering me. I consider Bill Lucy to be the consummate labor statesman because of the stands he has taken over the years to enhance the lives of working people both in this country and around the world.”

Named after AFSCME International Secretary-Treasurer and Coalition of Black Trade Unionists (CBTU) Pres. William Lucy , the recognition is given to a trade unionist whose life work demonstrates a commitment to activism and engagement on behalf of working people. It is presented by the Memphis, Tenn., regional chapter of the CBTU .

To read more, see the post on the AFL-CIO blog.

Corrections officers, child care providers, first responders, health care workers and now bank employees. That’s right, bank employees. Meet the new members of the 1.4 million AFSCME family in one of our latest Online Xtras detailing how 500 tellers and other white-collar employees of U.S. Bank in Milwaukee voted overwhelmingly to join AFSCME Council 48.

While you’re at it, check out the latest on AFSCME members in action as corrections officers from Local 3361 (Council 75) in
Oregon fight to secure safer conditions at work – and win.

Over the past few years, the misleadingly-named National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has made sure to let workers know which side its bread is buttered on. Officially charged with governing relations between unions and employers, the NLRB has all too often stacked the deck in favor of management. That’s why some people think a better name for the NLRB is the “No Labor Relations Board.”

With four of its five members appointed by President Bush, the board has made it harder for workers to join unions but easier for employers to block unions and fire workers for organizing. In one of its more infamous rulings, the NLRB reinterpreted the definition of “supervisor,” expanding the number and type of workers who could be barred from joining a union. The decision affected thousands of workers, including the nearly 60,000 nurses represented by AFSCME in 35 states and the District of Columbia.

Today, Nov. 15, thousands of workers, union leaders and activists in over 20 cities will rally at NLRB offices to protest the board’s egregious actions. Participants will call for the board to be “closed for renovations” until it is capable of operating in an unbiased and responsible manner.

The rallies are part of a nationwide week of action to raise awareness of the NLRB’s assault on workers’ rights. More than 1,000 people are expected to converge in front of the NLRB headquarters in Washington, D.C. For more information on events in your area, contact your central labor council.

It was only a year ago that the Bush-appointed and Republican-dominated National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) denied millions of men and women the chance to bargain for a better future. The infamous party-line vote on the so-called “Kentucky River” cases reinterpreted the definition of “supervisor,” expanding the number and type of workers who could be classified as such – and be barred from joining a union.

The decision affected numerous workers, including thousands of nurses who coordinate the work of other employees to deliver services. According to NLRB-speak, they are now “supervisors,” a decision that does not bode well for the nearly 60,000 nurses represented by AFSCME in 35 states and the District of Columbia. The sheer absurdity of the situation prompted this outrageous spoof by comedian Stephen Colbert, host of Comedy Central’s “The Colbert Report.”

Enter the RESPECT Act, a bipartisan initiative to redress the NLRB’s decision and allow more than eight million workers to regain their right to join a union. The Re-Empowerment of Skilled and Professional Employees and Construction Tradeworkers Act was recently passed by the House Education and Labor Committee and is now headed for debate in the full House of Representatives. It presently has 149 co-sponsors (and counting).

It’s time to restore the American Dream for working families. After all, it’s just a matter of RESPECT.

More and more workers want to assert their right to bargain for a better future. Like the song says, “Who you gonna call?” The answer, for many companies, is simple: Union busters!

As the cover story of the latest issue of In These Times reports, union busting “has become a multibillion-dollar industry encompassing more than 2,500 lawyers and consultants offering their services.”

One such outfit is Jackson Lewis, which Steve Perez describes in his Daily Kos diary as “one of the go-to law firms” in the blossoming field of “union prevention” (a.k.a. denying workers their right to organize).

To find out more about Jackson Lewis and the dirty tricks of union busters, check out this must-read In These Times article.