RichardN's blog

Over the last few weeks I have fielded a few calls, emails and blog comments from union workers that seem to sound a little defeated.

Tonight I posted a piece to Union Review called What's the use? with the hope I could outline some of what the chorus is all singing about and provide some ideas. If anything, perhaps it will get people to talk a little.

I came over to Communicate or Die to share a little about this because I know many of you are deeply entrenched with technology that assists unions. I also know some of you are organizers and have a great deal more union-business experience than me and some of the readers/chorus singing their frustrations. I thought to reach out with some very broad questions:

Why is there such a huge gap in communications between the unions and their members ... and what can be done about that?

What is being done about educating union members of their rights? As we campaign endlessly to organize the nonunion worker, what is being done to strengthen the membership we have?

What do we tell an online community of concerned active workers so they stay encouraged in these times of doubt?

If anyone has any thoughts, please let me know ... I have a few people asking :)

All the best to you all,
-Richard

Reposted from the AFL-CIO blogs, thought to share.

When President Bush vetoed legislation setting timetables for U.S. troop withdrawals from Iraq yesterday, he also vetoed the first increase in the minimum wage in a decade.

That means Republicans for 112 days have held hostage a minimum wage increase. While minimum wage workers have not had a pay raise since 1997, Congress gave itself nine pay hikes, totally more than $36,000.

Here's how it got to this point:

The U.S. House passed a bill Jan. 10 that would have boosted the federal minimum wage from $5.15 an hour to $7.25, without another round of tax breaks for business. Senate Republicans filibustered the House bill for a week in January, using Senate rules to force minimum wage backers to win 60 votes instead of a simple 51 majority and then killing the House bill on Jan. 24. By killing the House bill, Senate Republicans forced Senate Democrats to add $8.3 billion in business tax breaks. They then refused to allow the combined minimum wage and tax package to move to a conference with the House until the House produced its own package of tax cuts for business. Members of the House and Senate announced April 20 that they had reached agreement on $4.8 billion in tax relief for small businesses that will be paired with a minimum wage increase. They then added the minimum wage increase to the supplemental spending bill (H.R. 1591) conference report, which both houses passed and Bush vetoed yesterday.

Supporters of the minimum wage increase are disappointed, but undaunted. They vow to continue to send the package of tax breaks and a minimum wage increase back to the president until it is signed.