One of the principal thrusts of the new legislation is to force workers on to individual contracts called “Australian Workplace Agreements” (AWAs) thus eliminating collective representation. The new legislation will also make on-the-job access to workers more difficult for elected trade union officials.

Capitalist globalization has to be met with international labor solidarity. The process of building global labor solidarity is an objective process of the class struggle, just as capitalist globalization is an objective process...To quote a trite cliché, labor’s salvation is not in rearranging the deck chairs on a sinking ship, but in navigating the storm...

An independent report concludes the U.S. union election process administered by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) systematically violates the fundamental rights that govern U.S. elections, denying workers the freedom to form unions.

"...given the track record of Priscilla Owens, Janice Rogers Brown, and William Pryor, I wonder how extreme a candidate has to be before these Democrats and their seven Republican colleagues would reject them... Their acceptance invites the Republican right to push the envelope still further."

Despite a lawsuit that challenges a labor union’s method of organizing workers at Cintas, a national uniform manufacturer and laundry company, UNITE HERE, the union involved, says it will continue to help workers fight a laundry list of labor violations and excessive exploitation by the company.

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.

...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.

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.

“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”.

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.

If confirmed, Brown will hear and decide cases involving working families’ fundamental rights and protections, such as the freedom to form unions and the right to safe workplaces.

"...rally participants wore masks of CEO Charles Schwab and held signs saying “Double Talk Chuck,” mocking the company’s current ad campaign to “Talk to Chuck.” Clients and investors called on the company to withdraw from corporate coalitions and groups that are actively promoting plans by President Bush and California Governor Schwarzenegger to slash guaranteed retirement benefits for millions of workers.

Last year we learned the Bush Administration erased fact sheets about equal pay for women workers from federal government web sites. But George W. Bush can't erase his record.

Nationally and locally, right-wing Republicans are out to destroy Medicaid. They believe that the public health and medical service program is inefficient and unprofitable.

The movement of African Americans for full social, economic and political equality has always been decisive to the struggle for democracy and the advance towards socialism.

Religion’s role in the political arena has sharpened because the ruling class has harnessed a sector of the Christian religious community to serve its interests.

Under the Bush administration, the United States is leading the race to the bottom in wages, benefits, working conditions and social protections...The average annual employer contribution for Social Security in the United States is $2,196, compared with $8,274 in Germany, $2,972 in the U.K....

Says more than 12 million are trapped in forced labour worldwide. "Forced labour represents the underside of globalization and denies people their basic rights and dignity." ILO Director-General Juan Somavia called forced labor "a social evil which has no place in the modern world".

Compare CEO compensation; Calculate your earnings in relation to the fat paychecks of the big boys.

The only way the workers at Wal-Mart will get a better deal is as the result of a union contract. Appeals to the company to live up to its “obligations” will fall on deaf ears...