• ILWU Stays At The Table, Determined To Win Continued Good Wage & Benefits
• Ford Cuts More Shifts As U.S. Autoworkers Keep Getting Rocked By The Economy
• Economic Report: State Unemployment Funds Are Running Out

Economic Report:

According to the U.S. Department of Labor, 33 states have unemployment funds below the recommended level. If states don’t replenish the funds, half of them could run out in less than six months with all 33 being out of funds in less than a year. According to a federal mandate, states don’t have the option to just stop paying unemployment benefits, so they will be forced to take the funds from other areas of the budget, raise taxes on businesses, or cut the amount of benefits the each unemployed worker receives.

More bad news for U.S. workers as the country celebrates America’s most important holiday. Jesse Russell reports:

Ford Motor Company continues to cut shifts at plants around the country. The most recent notification went out to workers at a Kentucky truck plant where a shift is being dropped in late August; as a result 300 jobs could be lost. The company continues to urge employees to take advantage of buyout offers that are on the table until September 26. The packages range in size from $40,000 to $150,000 depending on length of employment. Layoffs at plants for the major U.S. automakers are having ripple affects throughout the industry.

By Doug Cunningham

The 25,000 members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union are still on the job as their union reps continue to negotiate a new labor agreement. The ILWU’s Craig Merrilees
Says a good agreement has been reached on health care and the union is continuing to bargain over other issues. He says the ILWU is determined to win continued good wages and benefits…

[Merrilees]: “This union is well-positioned and I would say unusually well-positioned to try and be a beacon for folks that are holding out against the tide. I mean, how many Americans can’t think about having the kind of health care and retirement benefits that longshore workers have, let alone the pay – starting pay of $22.11 an hour, moving up to a basic wage of $30.68.”

• U.S. Economy Bleeding More Jobs As Things Get Worse For Workers
• United Steelworkers Make It Official As They Form Global Union With Unite
• AFL-CIO, Teamsters Blast McCain's Colombia Trip Lauding Free Trade Agreements
• NYC Concrete Truck Drivers Strike Brings Construction To A Near Halt
• Economic Report: Rising Fuel Prices Most Important Issue To Americans

Economic Report:

Nine out of ten Americans are feeling more than a pinch in their wallets due to rising fuel prices. A study from Associated Press found that two thirds of those polled think rising fuel prices are more important than the economy, healthcare, and the War in Iraq. As a result of the gushing prices, most are driving less and finding new ways to save on energy costs, such as using less air conditioning.

By Doug Cunningham

Wages and working conditions are at the heart of the trucker’s strike by Teamsters Local 282 in New York City. The strike by 400 cement truckers has shut down most of the city’s major construction projects. The new Yankees and Mets stadiums are among the affected projects. The union is seeking an improve in both wages and working conditions. Further talks on the contract aren’t expected until next week.

By Doug Cunningham

The AFL-CIO says John McCain’s trip to Colombia and Mexico in support of trade deals show how out of touch he is with American working families. The labor federation says trade deals like the proposed Colombian agreement have decimated jobs in communities across the U.S. The Teamsters, meanwhile, have launched radio ads blasting McCain’s trip.

It is official. The world now has the first global union. Jesse Russell reports:

With companies stretching around the globe, it was only a matter of time for organized labor to realize it needed to also span the circumference of Earth. On Tuesday, the United Steelworkers and Great Britain’s largest labor union, Unite, signed an agreement to form a new union called Workers Uniting: The Global Union. The union includes 3 million workers in the U.S., Canada, Britain, and Ireland.

In a press video, Unite’s General Secretary Derek Simpson explained why the global union is necessary:

[Simpson]: "At the end of the day that has got to be the objective. How do we fight back against global capital, multi-national, global companies?"

By Doug Cunningham

Seventy-nine thousand more private sector jobs vanished in June. Layoffs are 50 percent higher than a year ago. The June job loss was the biggest drop in jobs since November of 2002, according to ADP Employer Services. When the government’s comprehensive jobs report is released Thursday, some economists are expecting it to show an incredible drop of 200,000 in the overall jobs count. Offically, unemployment was at 5.5 percent in May. That's the highest in three and a half years. These numbers are a sign that for workers, the economy is continuing to get worse.

• Deadline Is Today For West Coast Longshore Workers Contract
• McCain’s Offshore Drilling Proposal Won’t Lower Your Gas Cost
• Wal-Mart Guilty Of Two Million Violations Of Minnesota Labor Law
• Starbucks To Close 600 Stores, Wiping Out 12,000 Jobs
• New York Labor Department Will Invest $26 Million In The State’s Workforce

New York’s Department of Labor announced plans on Monday to invest nearly $26 million in the state’s workforce. Since 2000, the state has watched federal funding for workers decline from $305 million to a proposed $136 million in the 2009 federal budget. Six point two million of the state’s investment will go toward AdvanceNY, a program that helps businesses train workers in necessary skills that lead to career growth.

Starbucks is closing up nearly 600 shops across the country, a move that would result in the loss of more than 12,000 full and part-time jobs. That size of a cut would amount to 7 percent of the coffee company’s global workforce. Earlier this year, the company had only planned on closing 100 stores. It is also adjusting the number of stores it plans to open in the coming fiscal year, down to 200 stores.

How many times did Wal-Mart violate Minnesota state labor laws? Jesse Russell has the number.

Two million times. That is how many times Dakota County Judge Robert King, Jr. says Wal-Mart violated labor laws by cutting worker break time. The ruling came on Monday as part of a class action lawsuit and the world’s largest retailer has been ordered to pay $6.5 million in damages. For Wal-Mart, that $6.5 million is a drop in the bucket, but a flood could be coming in October. That’s when a jury will assign civil penalties and punitive damages to the company. The class-action lawsuit covers 56,000 Minnesota Wal-Mart employees who worked for the company between September 1998 and January 2004. Wal-Mart is considering an appeal of the judge’s decision.

By Doug Cunningham

Is off-shore drilling for oil in the U.S. going to lower the price you pay for gas at the pump? Not a chance. The Center For Economic and Policy Research says if off-shore drilling is opened up as Republican presidential candidate John McCain wants to do, it will be close to a decade before the first oil can even be extracted from the currently protected off-shore sites. The Energy Information Agency says peak production from off-shore U.S. sites would be an estimated 200,000 barrels a day in twenty years' time. That’s just two tenths of a percent of projected world production and is far too small to have any significant impact on prices.

By Doug Cunningham

West coast dockworkers are nearing the deadline to settle a new labor contract. Members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union were locked out for ten days back in 2002. The union represents about 25,000 workers on the west coast. The old six-year contract expires Tuesday at 5 p.m. Talks are continuing, but details on where things stand aren’t being released by either the union or management.

By Doug Cunningham

Governor David Paterson has intervened in contract talks between Con Edison and New York City’s Utility Workers union. The union says ConEd is trying to force the union to go on strike. ConEd is offering just a 1.5 percent total raise in wages over four years and wants to eliminate pensions for new employees, replacing them with 401 (k)’s. ConEd is also demanding that workers pay much more for health insurance, while threatening to reduce those benefits. The strike deadline has been extended to Wednesday.

• Unemployed Workers Who Have Exhausted Benefits Get An Extension
• Chrysler Cutbacks Destroy 2400 Jobs
• New York Nurse's Unions Gets Law Passed Banning Mandatory Overtime
• Michigan Nurses Association Leaves The ANA
• Union Says ConEd Is Trying To Force A Strike

Economic Report:

Even the world’s oldest profession is feeling the pinch from rising fuel prices. According to a recent article by the Associated Press, truckers account for 75 percent of business at Nevada’s brothels and with diesel fuel costs up 67.5 percent in less than a year, truckers have less to spend. As a result, the legal brothel business is down 25 percent from the same time last year. To encourage more visits, many brothels are whipping out customer incentives, such as gas cards for big spenders.

By Doug Cunningham

The Michigan Nurses Association says its decision on Friday to leave the American Nurses Association happened because the ANA’s stance on issues is doing little or nothing to address the real crisis that the nursing profession faces, including staffing and mandatory overtime issues. The MNA was the third largest affiliate in the ANA.