| Capital District Area Labor Federation |
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Due to the great weather, Saratoga, Schenectady and Troy CLC's will be taking August off. We look forward to seeing everyone back in September. The elections this year come down to a choice between leaders who will stand with working people or those whose right-wing agenda will choke off economic recovery and put corporations back in the driver’s seat. With that said, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka outlined plans for an aggressive and massive mobilization of working people this Labor Day weekend and for the fall election. During a press conference this morning at the AFL-CIO, Trumka also announced the federation will run TV and radio ads Labor Day weekend in key markets around Major League Baseball games, NASCAR, and college football games. Click headline to read more>> 
Milwaukee AFT Local 2169 member Ashleigh Lund says she hopes that President Obama’s Labor Day appearance with AFL-CIO President AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka at the annual Laborfest "can spur people to get to the voting booths in support of worker friendly candidates this November…I am excited because this shows me that the rights of workers are still important to Obama." Click on the headline to read more>> 
How badly do we need our elected leaders to come off their extended vacations and get to work stimulating the economy and creating real jobs? Take a look at two items in the news. First, bankruptcy filings nationwide reached their highest level in five years between April and June, up 11 percent from the same period in 2009. For the fiscal year that ended June 30, consumer bankruptcies jumped 21 percent, to 1.51 million, from the previous year.Click the headline to read more>> Management at Mott's in Williamson, New York thinks the workers who make their popular - and profitable products aren't "worth" what they're getting paid as members of RWDSU/UFCW Local 220. Mott's is a subsidiary of the Dr. Pepper Snapple Group, the North American beverages division spun off by Cadbury Schweppes in 2008, whose leading brands in addition to Mott's include Snapple, Yoo-hoo, A&W and Hires Root Beers, Crush, Sunkist, Hawaiian Punch, Canada Dry, Squirt, RC Cola, Diet Rite, and Schweppes, among others. As many of you know, things were coming to a crisis on the picket line at the Holiday Inn Express in Latham. Even though Jim Morrell signed a settlement with the NLRB n February promising to give the strikers' their jobs back and hold a rerun election, and though a week later he announced he had hired a new manager so that the hotel wasn't bound by his agreement, the NLRB was poised to rule that Morrell's breach of their agreement was OK with the NLRB. We've withdrawn the complaints to preserve our right to refile them when Obama gets his appointment on the National Board settled in. Click the headline for full story written by Rev. Mike Roberts 
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The AFL-CIO held a young worker summit in D.C. in early June and it was awesome. There with over 450 members, staff and leaders in the labor movement under the age of 35. The summit was focused on how we engage the next generation in the union movement. Click to watch some great videos from the event. Click to see another article about the event. 
On June 4th the Capital District Labor movement and friends joined IUE-CWA 81359 in rallying for a fair contract. Over 200 supporters were on hand in the hot sun to give the contract negotiating team a proper send off to Rochester. Their contract ends June 20th and the company needs to settle a fair and just contract inculding the backpay for all of the workers whose wages were stolen illegally over a year ago. For a wonderful article on the event inculding pictures and video click on the Troy Record's Dannielle Sanzone. Jon Flanders also wrote a great article for Labor Notes here.
The Gala was a wonderful night of dear friends and supporters breaking bread with each other and honoring Alan Lubin, Paul Tonko, and Mike Keenan. With over 190 friends and family the event was very well attended. The evening helped the CDALF raise some much needed funds to continue doing the work for all of our affiliates. The Capital District Area Labor Federation along with IUE-CWA 81359, PEF, IUPAT DC9, CSEA, LCLAA, Hudson Valley Area Labor Federation and community activists marched on Apollo Management and Wall Street in NYC. Click on the article for more videos and news coverage. Thanks to the over 100 Labor and our community friends hit the street to protest Bank of America in Albany, New York on April 1st. Despite taking 45 billion in taxpayer cash and trillions in federal loan guarantees to underwrite their bad debt. Bank of America chose to hand out huge bonuses to their executives to the tune of 4.4 billion dollars and reaped a profit of 6.3 billion dollars in 2009. So the same industry “Investment Banking” that was at the heart of the economic collapse and received all of the upfront funding through TARP to prevent the recession is posting record profits while the rest of us suffer. In the same year Bank of America spent 3.7 million on lobbying fees to fight financial reform. We made sure that we told Bank of America this behavior is no longer going to be accepted. We want financial reform as was laid in the petition letter. We also encourage everyone to switch their bank to a community bank that works in and benefits your community. 
175 delegates and guests came to the Clarion in Albany to commit to taking action on making the economy for us. The theme of the day was "Organized Labor... Leading the Fight for Main Street!" and was developed by the recommendations of those that attended our economic forum in February. Please email the CDALF and let us know what you are willing to do and don't forget to bring friends with you! For some great pictures check out the photo album. To read more click here. If you would like a copy of the video please email Kevin@cdalf.org. Two important resolutions passed for a Labor March on Washington and to Win Single Payer Heathcare. For a copy of the Labor March on Washington resolution click here. For a copy of the Single Payer resolution click here. As all of you know on January 28th, we met and celebrated the worker's victory at the Holiday Inn Express, Latham. An NLRB settlement had been reached including the reinstatement of the fired workers, full back pay and a new election. A month later the hotel is completely disregarding the law and the conditions we all fought so hard for. Local 471 has represented workers at the Saratoga Race Track for over 40 years. The New York Racing Association (NYRA) has proposed changes, including the elimination of union jobs, for the 2010 racing season at the Saratoga Race Track. Braving freezing temperatures not far from the shore of the Hudson CWA 1118 found out that Verizon was bringing 40 workers to the capital region to do work starting on Jan 7th, 2010. Verizon was going to put the workers up at the Holiday Inn Express in Latham, the same Holiday Inn that has been on strike! After some quick action and the promise that no CWA member would cross a picket line, Verizon backed down. At more than $4,000.00 dollars a day in bookings for Verizon, Jim Morrell takes yet another finacial hit for his anti-union behavior. www.cwa1118.com On Mother's day of 2009, in Selkirk, NY, locomotive remote control operator Jared Boehlke was killed while attempting a repair as the sole member of a yard switching crew. He left a wife and a 2 year old daughter. 
There was a fantastic turnout for the Stony Brook Research assistants who have been waiting for their first contract for almost a year. After some picketing around the GIANT inflatable corporate pig, everyone was able to listen to some of the RA's that are on the bargaining committee. Video thanks to Jim McCasey |
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