The clock is ticking on Governor Jerry Brown’s deadline to decide which bills from this legislative session he’ll sign into law. A bill promising to curtail a practice that’s both harmful to workers and disturbingly on the rise in workplaces across California is more than worthy of his signature. Mandatory arbitration waivers have been sneaked into countless piles of paperwork for workers to unknowingly sign their rights away on the job or when they’re first hired.
Read MoreStop the Shutdown: FAQ’s from AFGE
The Government Could Shut Down October 1. Have questions? The American Federation of Government Employees has answers!
Read MoreNational Voter Registration Day Is a Civic Duty
Michael Davis
Since the 2000 elections, when I was first awakened to the fight for voting rights, I’ve come to realize the importance of National Voter Registration Day as a civic duty, and a means to proactively combat the divisive aims and effects of voter suppression. Steeped in oppressive roots, voter suppression laws and tactics continue to undermine democracy in the United States. Since January 2013, 15 states have introduced bills that make it harder to vote, particularly for people of color and the economically disadvantaged.
Read MoreOC Register Shines a Spotlight on Forced Arbitration
What would you do if your boss told you that either you sign away your rights or you won’t get your holiday bonus? That was the dilemma facing Steve Hamil, who worked as a machinist at a Southern California surgical device company.
Hamil’s story was detailed in Sunday’s Orange County Register…
Read MoreLatinos at the Forefront of Advancing Workers’ Rights
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Throughout this month, the AFL-CIO and the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement (LCLAA) are profiling past and present leaders in the intersecting movements to protect and expand the rights of Hispanics, Latinos and working families.
Beyond the Brink: The Impact of California’s Broken Child Care System
The California child care system is broken. All across the state, parents are struggling to pay for quality child care – while child care providers struggle to earn a living wage.
Read MoreNews & highlights affecting working people this week: September 7-11
The Healthcare Transparency Bill that has Big Insurance Reeling
By Rachel Johnson
There is a crisis in the healthcare industry harming workers and their bosses. Premiums for employer health insurance plans have risen 185% since 2002, more than five times the increase in the state’s overall inflation. As a result we’re seeing many workers giving up raises to pay for health care while also paying more and more out-of-pocket. Discussions about raising wages at the bargaining table are getting shelved as even more cash goes to the pockets of giant corporate health plans. These skyrocketing healthcare premiums and costs are clearly taking a toll on workers and employers.
Read MoreThis Labor Day Celebrate Unions: A Beacon of Hope for Millions
In 1936, during the throes of the Great Depression, FDR addressed a deeply divided and economically insecure nation on the eve of Labor Day.
“There are those who fail to read both the signs of the times and American history. They would try to refuse the worker any effective power to bargain collectively, to earn a decent livelihood and to acquire security. It is those short-sighted ones, not labor, who threaten this country with that class dissension which in other countries has led to dictatorship and the establishment of fear and hatred as the dominant emotions in human life.”
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