Workplace Issues Today
Daily News for Friday, May 9, 2008
Selected by the Catherwood Library Reference Staff each Monday through Friday, excluding University holidays, WIT is a free alert service, providing abstracts and links to workplace-related news stories covered in the major media. Subscribe to WIT »
Established in 1999, this service also includes a searchable archive.
Obama gets more union endorsements
Barack Obama all but erased Hillary Rodham Clinton's once-imposing lead among national convention superdelegates on Friday and won fresh labor backing as elements of the Democratic Party began coalescing around the Illinois senator for the fall campaign. Obama picked up the backing of nine superdelegates, including Rep. Donald Payne of New Jersey, a member of the Congressional Black Caucus who had been a Clinton supporter. In addition, the American Federation of Government Employees announced its support for Obama. The union claims about 600,000 members who work in the federal and Washington, D.C., governments. Obama, who won a convincing victory in the North Carolina primary and lost Indiana narrowly on Tuesday, has been steadily gaining strength in the days since.
See “Obama picks up 9 superdelegates, union endorsement,” by Associated Press, The New York Times, May 09 2008 (JRL)
Labor Department demands union leaders reveal internal finances
Unions should be required to make public more details of their internal finances, the Labor Department said Thursday as it proposed new changes to union disclosure forms. Unions are required every year to file financial disclosure forms with the Labor Department. But federal officials are proposing a more detailed form, and penalizing small unions who get into trouble with the law by prohibiting them from filing a simple form. The proposed changes will be printed on Monday in the Federal Register. "This proposed rule provides union members with more complete information about union finances and will better protect their legal rights to transparency and accountability under the law," said Don Todd, deputy assistant secretary for the Office of Labor-Management Standards.
See “Labor Department wants more info from union officials,” by Jesse J. Holland, San Francisco Chronicle, May 09 2008 (JRL)
Also on the political front, labor increases attacks on McCain
Organized labor is paying more attention to Republican John McCain as Democrat Barack Obama solidifies his status as the front-runner in the Democratic contest against Hillary Rodham Clinton. The AFL-CIO, which has not endorsed anyone in the Democratic primary, announced Wednesday that it is sending more than 6,000 of its people to more than 22 states during the next two weekends to talk to more than 200,000 union voters about McCain. "Senator McCain's economic path would lead to disaster for America's working families," said John Sweeney, president of the AFL-CIO, the nation's largest labor organization.
See “Organized labor sharpens campaign against John McCain as Barack Obama solidifies front-runner status,” by Jesse J. Holland, Minneapolis Star Tribune, May 09 2008 (JRL)
