William Pryor: 'A threat to the rights of all Americans'
In a mostly party line vote last night, William Pryor became the third Bush judicial appointee to be confirmed by the Senate in the last week. Pryor’s confirmation was met by sharp criticism...In his activist and ideologically motivated quest to advance a far-right agenda, Pryor has used his various positions to attempt to strip and chip away at a whole range of civil rights protections.
Campaign to Defend Venezuelan Labor Movement
...The U.S. government wants to set the stage for a direct military intervention in Venezuela -- and that one key piece for this is to secure a condemnation of the Venezuelan government for alleged “violations of labor rights.” This would permit Bush, the No. 1 warmaker and unionbuster in the world, to claim that Venezuela is a “rogue state” that must be removed by force.
Wal-Mart Stingy on Health Benefits, Say Activists
The company spends so little on providing health insurance to its workers and their wages are so low that many of them are eligible to receive public assistance to cover the costs of health insurance and for other needs...The retail giant took in over $10.5 billion in profits alone in 2004 and frequently tops the Fortune 500 list of the richest companies in the world.
Australia: New laws will lead to unprecedented exploitation of workers
“This is one of the worst examples of an industrialised country government riding roughshod over the rights and interests of working people”, said ICFTU General Secretary Guy Ryder, adding “Workers’ incomes will fall, particularly affecting the most vulnerable, and important employment and health and safety protections will be undermined”.
AFL-CIO and Differences in Labor
For me, the all out attack by the top leaders of these four big and important unions on the leadership of the AFL-CIO has made me appreciative of the historic contribution of that leadership. In some ways the attack has brought out the best of the AFL-CIO
leadership.
