Labor in the News: EFCA and Obama, DC Day Laborers, New DC Employment Chief, & Other Voices on School Reform

(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)

Labor & Bosses Face Off Over Employee Free Choice: "Bolstered by exit polling data showing that union members played a pivotal role in President-elect Barack Obama's victory, the AFL-CIO served notice yesterday that it views the election results as ratification of organized labor's ambitious agenda," wrote Michael Fletcher in The Washington Post - Labor Seeks Election Rewards - on Thursday. "In an economy that gives corporations far too much power, a union card remains the single best ticket into the middle class," said AFL-CIO President John Sweeney in the Post report. "The Employee Free Choice Act, which would require employers to recognize unions once a majority of workers sign cards of support, is fiercely opposed by business groups that argue the measure would cost jobs and further weaken the nation's economy," wrote Fletcher. In the Wall Street Journal, Kris Maher reported on how "Labor Wants Obama to Take on Big Fight" and in the Washington Business Journal, Kent Hoover reported that the Chamber of Commerce is urging Obama to defer the union agenda. Few Options For Cheated Day Workers: "Day laborers in the District are often cheated out of wages and subjected to unsafe conditions, yet they receive little help from city and federal agencies charged with protecting them, according to a survey of 140 workers released last week," reported N.C. Aizenman in the Washington Post Thursday. Day laborers have been organizing against these issues and recently protested at a Fenty press event (Day Laborers Protest Fenty’s Disregard for Workers’ Rights 10/15/08 UC). Fenty Names New DC Employment Chief: "Mayor Adrian M. Fenty this morning announced that he has hired a Massachusetts official as the new director of the District's troubled Department of Employment Services, the agency that mishandled the mayor's summer jobs program and overspent its budget by $30 million," reported David Nakamura in Thursday's Washington Post. "Joseph P. Walsh will leave his job as director of policy and planning for the Massachusetts Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development to take over the District's jobs agency.” Workers at the Department are represented by AFGE Local 1000. A Third Way: Other Voices on School Reform: "A new group has organized around the proposition that fixing DC's schools will require nurturing and developing teachers -- not just threatening them with dismissal for failing to raise student test scores," reported Marcia Davis in Thursday's D.C. Wire. "Teachers and Parents for Real Education Reform, which gathered at Nineteenth Street Baptist Church last night, was co-founded by a core of activists who agree with Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee that DCPS is in need of dramatic change. But they say that school reform requires a broader conversation than the one taking place between Rhee and the Washington Teachers Union (WTU) over a new labor contract." Got Labor News? Email it to us today at streetheat@dclabor.org!