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Labor's Edge Articles by James Parks
9/1/10
Trumka: Labor Day a Defining Time for Working People
The elections this year come down to a choice between leaders who will stand with working people or those whose right-wing agenda will choke off economic recovery and put corporations back in the driver’s seat.
With that said, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka outlined plans for an aggressive and massive mobilization of working people this Labor Day weekend and for the fall election. During a press conference this morning, Trumka also announced the federation will run TV and radio ads Labor Day weekend in key markets during popular sports broadcasts.
8/13/10
Trumka: ‘We’re Going to Rebuild America With Jobs’
by James Parks. Crossposted from AFL-CIO Now Blog
In the political showdown between Wall Street and Main Street, California is a key battleground. With the third highest jobless rate in the country and a towering budget deficit, California needs leaders who can create and save jobs, not just spout ”more of the same corporate bull,” AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka told 
a crowd of thousands at a mass jobs rally in Los Angeles today.
“How are we going to rebuild America? With jobs! Who’s going to rebuild America? Working people with jobs!”
The choice for voters is clear in California, said Art Pulaski, executive secretary-treasurer of the California Labor Federation. The Republican candidates for governor and U.S. senator, respectively, Meg Whitman and Carly Fiorina, are mirror images of each other.
8/5/10
UC Postdoctoral Researchers Reach Tentative Deal
by James Parks
They are some of the smartest people in the nation. Proving just how smart they are, the 6,500 postdoctoral researchers in the University of California (UC) system became union members and negotiated a first-ever union contract even though Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger proposed cutting $2.5 billion from education in his budget proposal. These members of Postdoctoral Researchers Organize/UAW (PRO/UAW) reached a tentative agreement with university administrators Aug. 1
6/24/10
Workers Rally to Make It Right at Rite Aid
by James Parks
Hundreds of Rite Aid workers and supporters from Pennsylvania, New York and California rallied this morning outside the company’s annual shareholder meeting in Harrisburg, Pa., to demand good jobs and a voice at work.
During the rally, Sylvia Estrada and Angel Warner, two workers from Rite Aid’s massive distribution center in Lancaster, Calif., described the five-year struggle by 550 employees to form a union.
2/2/10
600 Miners Locked Out at Rio Tinto Mine Near Boron
by James Parks
Some 540 workers were locked out of the giant Rio Tinto Borax mine in Boron, Calif., Jan. 31 after the workers, members of International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) Local 30, unanimously rejected the company’s latest contract offer. The company shut off further contract talks and brought in replacement workers.