Voices At Work

This week, Dick Meister discusses Labor's Big Loss.  The senate Democrats loss of a filibuster proof 60-vote majority with the election of Massachusetts Republican Scott Brown seems almost certain to doom attempts to revive the barely functioning National Labor Relations Board, the country's chief labor law administrator and enforcer.  That, along with its effect on health care reform, is certainly one of the most serious consequences of Brown's victory.   It threatens to seriously weaken the union right's of America's working people.

We also played a speech from Richard Trumka, AFL-CIO President, addressing the National Press Club on January 11, 2010.  The newly elected leader of the nation's largest labor union spoke about the state of the economy and its impact on families, as well as some of the proposed legislation that could impact the labor movement.

Christine mentioned the recent launch of "UCubed".  Ur Union of Unemployed, nicknamed UCubed, is a community service project of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM). With over 31 million Americans idled to some degree by this Grave Recession – and no relief in sight — the IAM and its partners saw a need to unify the unemployed in a unique and useful way.