Now is NOT the Time for the Columbia FTA

[Excerpt] The U.S.-Colombia free trade agreement is the wrong trade model at the wrong time. Instead of helping workers here or in Colombia, the U.S.-Colombia free trade agreement would reward a country with a history of extreme violence that has utterly failed to protect workers\u27 rights. This agreement, negotiated by the Bush Administration before the financial meltdown of 2008 and the current unemployment crisis, contains too many flawed trade policies of the past. Instead of wasting valuable time and effort advancing this inadequate agreement, President Obama should instead focus on effective job creation measures (including currency rebalancing, infrastructure investment, and robust training and education) and reforming our trade model (so that it strengthens labor rights protections for all workers, safeguards domestic laws and regulations, and promotes the export of goods rather than jobs)

AFL-CIO Comparison of 2008 Presidential Candidate Health Care Proposals

The AFL-CIO Comparison of 2008 Presidential Candidate Health Care Proposals lists the key features of health care proposals by Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Mike Huckabee, John McCain, and Ron Paul

Unchecked: How Wal-Mart Uses its Might to Block Port Security

[Excerpt] In spite of the vulnerability of our ports and of supply networks around the world, Wal-Mart and RILA have—time and again since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001—opposed new maritime and port security rules. Their mantra is: “Security requirements should not become a barrier to trade.” The AFL-CIO’s unions represent millions of port, transportation and emergency workers including first responders, whose lives are on the line in the event of a catastrophic attack on America‘s ports. This report details the ways in which Wal-Mart’s lobbyists and allies have quietly and insistently made these workers and all Americans less safe

The Wal-Mart Tax: Shifting Health Care Costs to Taxpayers

[Excerpt] Maryland is the first state to hold giant companies such as Wal-Mart accountable for paying their fair share of workers’ health care costs. Maryland’s legislature voted overwhelmingly in January to enact the Fair Share Health Care Act over the governor’s veto. The new law requires employers with more than 10,000 employees to pay their fair share for health care, defined as 8 percent of wages and salaries, or pay into the Fair Share Health Care Fund. As AFL-CIO President John Sweeney wrote in The Washington Post in January 2006, “Wal-Mart complains that it’s being singled out in Maryland, but Wal-Mart isn’t the only company affected by the Fair Share Health Care bill. It’s just the only company that thinks its workers don’t deserve any better.” Leaders in 32 other states agree and have introduced bills similar to the Maryland fair share legislation. Below is a survey of states that have made public the names of companies whose employees receive free or subsidized health care services from the state, and how these companies — some of America’s biggest — are pushing state budgets and services past their breaking points, forcing states to cut Medicaid benefits and eligibility

AFL-CIO Executive Council Statement: Responsible Reform of Immigration Laws Must Protect Working Conditions for all Workers in the U.S.

[Excerpt] Overhaul of our nation’s immigration laws is long overdue. The current system is a blueprint for exploitation of workers, both foreign-born and native, and is feeding a multimillion dollar criminal enterprise at the U.S.-Mexico border. America deserves an immigration system that protects all workers within our borders—both native-born and foreign—and at same time guarantees the safety of our nation without compromising our fundamental civil rights and civil liberties. Any viable solution to this crisis must address the reasons why people are coming to the U.S. Most immigrants come from countries where the international development process has failed, and many are from countries where International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank and trade policies have weakened countries’ economies and labor protections, causing a devastating impact on all workers. In some developing countries, IMF policies have caused public-sector workers to lose their jobs and their union protections, forcing them into competition in the private sector, where few, if any, jobs are available, driving down wages and working conditions even further. Trade agreements such as the North American Free Trade Agreement undermine the agricultural economies of developing countries, leading workers to leave the fields and consider moving north. Without rising living standards abroad for workers and the poor, the pressure for illegal immigration will continue and escalate

Civil Rights News

Volume 1-2012 of Civil Rights News by the AFL-CIO Department of Civil, Human and Women\u27s Rights. This Issue covers: Civil Rights, Voting Rights, Immigration, LGBT Developments, Women’s Rights, and additional Resource

Washington State Job Exports: An Analysis of the Role Trade Plays in Manufacturing Job Loss

[Excerpt] America’s manufacturing crisis has hit Washington State hard. Since January 2001, Washington has experienced heavy job losses in manufacturing and information technology industries—sectors that typically provide higher wages and good benefits. As the discussion that follows shows, plant closures and layoffs associated with foreign imports and offshore outsourcing are a major cause of manufacturing’s decline in Washington State. Several factors account for manufacturing job loss in Washington and elsewhere, but there is little evidence about the role any single factor plays. Yet identifying causes and measuring their effects is important: Understanding the role of current policies in manufacturing job loss can help shape reasoned and reasonable changes that will maintain American competitiveness while creating and preserving good jobs in America

The Wal-Mart Tax: A Review of Studies Examining Employers\u27 Health Care Cost-Shifting

[Excerpt] As job-based health coverage declines and employers shift ever-growing health costs onto employees, workers increasingly must turn to taxpayer-funded programs like Medicaid to get health care for themselves and their families. Meanwhile, Medicaid is wrestling with explosive cost growth, increasing 56 percent since 2000. Medicaid is the second largest expense for most states, accounting for around 16 percent of state budgets, on average. States’ spending on the program is expected to grow almost 12 percent this year, four times faster than the increase in states’ general fund spending. Recent studies in 13 states have examined the extent to which employers’ workers utilize public health programs to secure health coverage for themselves and their families. As the following summary of those analyses reflects, in each one of these states, Wal-Mart ranks at or near the very top of the list of employers that are shifting to the public the cost of providing health care for their workers. In so doing, Wal-Mart is directly contributing to the nation’s Medicaid crisis

Healthcare Workers in Peril: Preparing to Protect Worker Health and Safety During Pandemic Influenza

[Excerpt] An influenza pandemic is projected to have a global impact requiring a sustained, large scale response from the healthcare community to provide care to sick patients. Healthcare workers will be at very high risk of becoming infected when caring for patients with pandemic flu unless adequate health and safety measures are in place, in advance of the pandemic, that will protect them. There is no existing comprehensive federal OSHA standard with mandatory and enforceable provisions that require planning and preparation designed to protect healthcare workers from exposures to pandemic influenza. Nevertheless, it is essential that workplaces plan and prepare for safety and health issues before the flu arrives

Seven Immigration Myths and Facts

The AFL-CIO prepared Seven Immigration Myths and Facts addressing current immigration issues