Alliance Leaders Demand Alan Simpson Resign From Presidential Panel The Alliance For Retired Americans has written President Obama to demand the resignation of Alan Simpson as Co-Chair of the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform. Alliance President Barbara Easterling and Executive Director Ed Coyle wrote the White House in the wake of a more»

(BUFFALO) – Buffalo Professional Firefighters Local 282 has announced its political endorsements for the 2010 election. “The list of Local 282’s endorsed candidates includes a variety of offices and individuals with diverse backgrounds. Although the Buffalo Professional Firefighters Union is choosing to announce - at this time - its list of more»

(ACROSS NEW YORK STATE) – In advance of the Labor Day Weekend, CSEA (Civil Service Employees Association) has launched a public awareness campaign called Don’t Zone Out, which confronts the issue of distracted driving – particularly in road and highway work zones. The Statewide Employees Union is convinced that better attention on New York’s more»

(PITTSBURGH) - Strengthening bargaining policy and member activism to support it, improving Health and Safety, playing an active role in policy issues that affect the industry, while building stronger international ties, were the focus for the recently-held United Steelworkers (USW) Paper Sector Conference in Pittsburgh that drew more than 400 delegates. more»

Pictured Above: IBEW (International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers) Local 106 Business Manager David Wilkinson (on the left) and Local 106 Membership Organizer David Painter (on the right) show off one of the 1,000 Made In The USA plastic Frisbees - with the words: IBEW Local 106 – Electricians of Chautauqua, Cattaraugus, Allegany Counties printed on more»

Labor-endorsed- and -supported New York State Senators George Maziarz, William Stachowski and Antoine Thompson, as well as State Assemblyman Mark Schroeder, all have something in common - after years of receiving Labor endorsements and monetary support from Unions, they are all being treated quite differently by Organized Labor these days after what some in more»

(KINGSTON, NEW YORK) - Registered Nurses (RNs) at Kingston Hospital have filed a petition for election with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), representatives of the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA) said today. The nurses are seeking to join their Health Alliance of the Hudson Valley colleagues at Benedictine Hospital in being more»

News, Notes & Observations collected while covering the Western New York Labor Community over the past several days: It was disturbing watching news reports of the Tea Party rally that was held in Washington, D.C. on Saturday, which was hosted by FOX Commentator Glenn Beck and featured Sarah Palin as its main speaker. Billed as a “Restoring more»

President Obama, Alliance Activists Defend Social Security Against Threats From the White House to cities and towns across the country, supporters of Social Security honored its 75th birthday last week and pledged to fight benefit cuts, an increase in the retirement age, or a privatized system tied to the volatile stock market. President Obama lauded more»

Judge Rules Albany (N.Y.) Newspaper Broke Law, Orders Laid-Off Workers Reinstated New York's Albany Times-Union broke the law by dismissing 11 workers last year when the newspaper was supposed to be negotiating lay-off criteria with TNG-CWA, an administrative law judge ruled. His decision also finds the company guilty of unlawfully declaring impasse in more»

(BUFFALO) – The Buffalo AFL-CIO Central Labor Council is expecting to have more than 100 area Labor Unions take part in the 2010 Labor Day Parade on Monday, September 6th in South Buffalo, with recently-retired Labor Leader Bill Greeley serving as its grand marshal. Held in honor of the hard-working men and women of Western New York and to more»

Editor’s Note: Richard Negri is Editor/Publisher of UnionReview.com - an interactive publication of Labor-related News & Views. The Union Review’s mission is to provide an on-line venue to share such news and opinions, and its primary goal includes creating a forum for both rank-and-file and non-Union workers - where both can openly speak out more»

It’s a speech that is getting a big reaction from the press and pundits across the country. National AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka told the Alaska AFL-CIO convention in Anchorage last night that former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin -the self-appointed queen of the ultra-conservative movement - has betrayed her fake populist image and, instead, is more»

In yet another sign of thawing between the two rival factions of the Labor Movement, leaders of the National AFL-CIO and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) have agreed to pool their resources between now and the November elections. The Wall Street Journal has reported the two Labor Organizations would combine forces to spend $88 million in a more»

(BUFFALO) – Representatives of the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA) held a vigil today for a Registered Nurse (RN) employed by the Erie County Medical Center (ECMC), who suffered major injuries after being recently attacked on the job by a patient in its psychiatric ward. Unionized RNs and their community allies joined together outside the more»

(BUFFALO) - A three-year agreement has been ratified between NABET-CWA (National Association of Broadcast Employees & Technicians-Communications Workers of America) Local 25 and WIVB-TV, Union Representatives announced today. Local 25 managed to keep many important jurisdiction and seniority provisions intact while allowing more»

(ALBANY) – The New York State United Teachers (NYSUT) today welcomed New York's selection as a Race to the Top winner, saying the U.S. Department of Education recognized the involvement of NYSUT as a key stakeholder in a state application that focused on real reform. NYSUT President Richard C. Iannuzzi said the 600,000-member Union has taken on a major more»

(BUFFALO) – New York State Assemblyman Sam Hoyt (D-144th Assembly District/Buffalo-Grand Island) applauded today’s announcement that New York State received up to $700 million in funding from Phase II of the federal Race to the Top program - a Federally-funded education grant program that rewards states for adopting comprehensive reforms. A long-time more»

Pictured Above: Buffalo’s new U.S. Courthouse project features a unique Unitized Curtain Wall glass product and system that is locally-made- and -installed by CBO Glass of Alden, a Union employer whose Glazier Workforce is represented by IUPAT (International Union of Painters & Allied Trades) District 4 in Cheektowaga. A stellar Labor-Management more»

(TAR HEEL, NORTH CAROLINA) - The owner of the world's largest hog slaughterhouse and the Union it fought in one of the South's longest-running Labor Disputes have buried more than 15 years of animosity. A year after their first Labor Contract took effect in the Union-hostile region, the United Food & Commercial Workers (UFCW) and managers of the more»

Editor’s Note: The following information appears on the New York State AFL-CIO’s website. For a full list of the New York State AFL-CIO’s individual candidate endorsements, including the New York State Assembly and Senate, visit www.nysaflcio.org. New York State AFL-CIO Announces Endorsement Of Andrew Cuomo For Governor The 2.5-million member more»

Pictured Above: WNYLaborToday.com has received a great response on its recently-published story involving Unionized Workers at Crawford of Jamestown’s furniture plant in the Southern Tier, as well as inquiries for further information on a 20% discount the company is offering to Union Members across Western New York on the purchase of any of their many more»

CWA Local 1298 Reaches Tentative Agreement For AT&T Workers CWA (Communications Workers of America) Members' solidarity during 18 long months of bargaining paid off last week in Connecticut when Local 1298 reached a tentative agreement with AT&T that includes job protection language the company had refused to include earlier. "We hung tough, the more»

Pictured Above: IBEW (International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers) Local 106 Business Manager David Wilkinson (right) inspects and discusses his Chautauqua County Union’s new solar cell panel system that is located atop the Union’s newly-expanded Green Headquarters in Jamestown with Local 106 Membership Development Director David Painter. more»

(NEW YORK) - The statewide New York Industrial Development Agency Coalition (NY/IDAC) has released a report that finds New York State's main economic development tool - Industrial Development Agencies (IDAs) - are spending spiraling amounts of tax dollars each year while failing to create jobs and hiding from public scrutiny. No Return On Our Investment: more»

(DES MOINES, IOWA) - Workers at the Trinity Structural Towers plant have voted to Go Union after a series of high-profile accidents due to company neglect in Iowa. As a result, more than 130 workers at Trinity Structural Towers – Iowa’s leading manufacturer of wind towers – have voted to join the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) more»

(WASHINGTON) - Working America, a community affiliate of the National AFL-CIO, is launching a campaign that will organize & mobilize hundreds of thousands of unemployed workers across the United States for the November elections, it was announced today. The campaign will engage unemployed Working America members who are registered voters by reaching more»

(BUFFALO) – Republican State Senator George Maziarz - who’s already received several endorsements from Organized Labor in his re-election campaign - has come under fire from the Communications Workers of America (CWA). Union officials charge Maziarz is refusing to support and is personally blocking a bill in a committee he chairs that would protect more»

Pictured Above: IUE-CWA Local 81045 President Howard Lyon takes WNYLaborToday.com on a tour of the Jamestown-headquartered Crawford of Jamestown Furniture Company, where an array of high-quality furniture products are constructed by his Union’s 90-member workforce. Crawford, which was founded in 1883, offers a wide selection of hardwood furniture, more»

Editor’s Note: Heather Stefan (pictured above) is a Labor Advocate with a strong focus on Public Relations and Social Media for Labor Organizations. She got her first taste of the Labor Movement as a public school teacher and area coordinator for a Local with the American Federation of Teachers (AFT). She left the classroom to take a position with the more»

(ALBANY) – The New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA) is praising Governor David Paterson for signing the Violence Against Nurses Bill into law, which now makes it a felony in New York State to assault a Registered Nurse (RN) or Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN) while on duty. “Providing for a felony charge against those who assault an RN or LPN at more»

(ALBANY) - The New York State Public Employees Federation (PEF) - the State’s second-largest State-Employee Union that represents 58,000 professional, scientific and technical employees - announced today that it has endorsed Richard Brodsky for Attorney General. In a prepared statement, PEF President Kenneth Brynien said: “In the Assembly, Richard more»

(HARTFORD) – Hundreds of friends and family of the eight workers who died in the senseless act of workplace violence on August 3rd at Hartford Distributors in Manchester, Connecticut, joined together yesterday to pay tribute to the victims and honor their lives. Representatives from the Teamsters Union, Hartford Distributors, Anheuser-Busch, elected more»

In Williamson, New York – located 20 minutes from Rochester – Union-Represented workers at the Dr. Pepper/Snapple-owned Mott’s plant have been walking a picket line outside the juice and applesauce manufacturing facility since 300 RWDSU (Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Workers)/UFCW (United Food & Commercial Workers) Local 220 employees more»

Pictured Above: Dunkirk AFL-CIO Central Labor Council President Doug Stock holds up the Council’s original 1959 charter that was believed to have been lost in a major fire that destroyed the Masonic Temple Building on Central Avenue in Dunkirk earlier this year. The AFL-CIO Charter was discovered – surprisingly in tact and with little damage - during more»

(WASHINGTON) - The Laborers International Union has agreed to rejoin the National AFL-CIO - sparking hopes that a once-splintered Labor Movement is moving closer to reuniting under a single umbrella, according to a report on the Huffington Post. "We’re very excited that the Labor Movement is headed toward becoming more unified just as we need it more»

News, Notes & Observations collected while covering the Western New York Labor Community over the past several days: Last week was indeed a very busy week for WNYLaborToday.com, which hit the road and traveled to Williamson, New York – just outside Rochester – to interview striking RWDSU (Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Workers)/UFCW (United more»

CWA, Steelworkers Awarded Grant For Worker-to-Worker Health & Safety Training The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences has awarded a five-year grant to the Communication Workers of America’s Occupational Safety and Health Department and the United Steelworkers' Tony Mazzocchi Center for health, safety, and environment education. more»

Alliance Celebrates the 75th Birthday of Social Security Today - August 14th - is the 75th Anniversary of the day that President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed the Social Security program into law, and the Alliance has put together more than 100 birthday parties and other events across the United States to highlight both the occasion and the importance more»

Pictured Above: WNYLaborToday.com Editor/Publisher Tom Campbell interviews National Labor Organizer Stewart Acuff during the annual Buffalo AFL-CIO Central Labor Council’s Summer Picnic in Elma. Acuff, who’s been involved in organizing for 35 years, once served as president of the Atlanta AFL-CIO Labor Council and now champions passage of the more»

Today is the 75th birthday of Social Security, and while the Nation’s retirees have much to be proud of as Social Security reaches this milestone, they also are anxious as more and more short-sighted politicians take aim at the program. The Alliance for Retired Americans is holding events across the country to help preserve Social Security for more»

On Saturday, August 14th, 2010, the Social Security Act will mark the seventy-fifth anniversary of it being signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Since August 14th, 1935, the Act has admirably served millions of disabled and retired Americans and is our country's greatest social insurance program. Sadly, it is under constant attack from more»

State Senate Candidate Tim Kennedy Unveils Job Creation Strategy (BUFFALO) – “Hard-working Western New Yorkers need good-paying jobs,” said 58th District New York State Senate candidate Tim Kennedy, as he unveiled his job creation strategy Wednesday at Industrial Support Inc. - a Buffalo-based manufacturing facility. Standing in the local factory more»

(WASHINGTON) - The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), which represents 600,000 workers in 75 different Federal and Washington, D.C. government agencies, has launched a nationwide radio ad campaign to remind the general public of how many areas of their lives are served by government employees. Over the past 18 months there’s been a real more»

Pictured Above: These are some of the 300 members of RWDSU (Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Workers)/UFCW (United Food & Commercial Workers) Local 220 in the Wayne County Town of Williamson who are in their 12th week of a strike at the Dr. Pepper/Snapple-owned Mott’s manufacturing plant. The strike, which centers on wage, benefit and Health more»

Statement by National AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka on House of Representatives Saving Hundreds of Thousands of American Jobs: “Tuesday’s vote means that hundreds of thousands of teachers, firefighters and public safety officers will keep their jobs. It will prevent layoffs and provide aid to struggling state and local governments so that critical more»

(BUFFALO) – WNYLaborToday.com recently caught up with newly-appointed National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) Member Mark Pearce (pictured above during an interview with WNYLaborToday.com Editor-Publisher Tom Campbell) as he made a return trip home to Buffalo. During a brief interview with Your Regional, On-Line Labor Newspaper, the former local Labor more»

(SYRACUSE) – The proposed privatization of Health Care Services at Onondaga County’s correctional facilities would have a negative impact on the quality of patient care, according to the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA), the Union that represents the county’s Registered Nurses (RNs). County officials have been seeking bids from private more»

(NIAGARA FALLS) – The Niagara County Building & Construction Trades Council, which represents 10,000 Unionized Construction Workers and has built a stellar track record with Project Labor Agreements (PLAs) on numerous construction projects, and the Niagara Falls School District recently agreed to a PLA on a $5.5 million renovation project that more»

News, Notes & Observations collected while covering the Western New York Labor Community over the past several days: Now that the ambitious UB 20/20 program has been redefined as UB 20/30, there’s more than enough time for all involved – including the University at Buffalo, the Buffalo Building & Construction Trades Council, the United more»