Albania Deleon, Owner of Environmental Compliance Training of Methuen, Sold Training Certificates to Hundreds of Undocumented Workers Who Had Not Taken a Mandatory Training Course.  See the Attached Article in the Boston Globe.

This Year's Honorees at the Greater Boston Labor Council’s Fifth Annual Salute to Municipal Officeholders are Boston City Council President Maureen Feeney, Dennis Sullivan President of the Somerville Board of Alderman and Frank Callahan, President of the Massachusetts Building Trades Council. 

The Diocese of Springfield has given priority to awarding its construction work to companies that support the standards of a dignified workforce by employing union labor.  Ours is a goal that ultimately benefits all of society and serves the common good.  These standards also ensure that conditions are safe, training is adequate and that the total needs of the worker, both now and in the future, are met.

Helmets to Hardhats, founded in 2003 by the AFL-CIO’s Building and Construction Trades Department unions, together with employers with union workforces, has since helped thousands of military vets find new careers as electricians, plumbers, roofers and other skilled trades.

On election day, Union members did what they do every day, they went to work, they worked hard and they got the job done.  Only this time, they went to work making phone calls, delivering literature door-to-door, driving voters to the polls, and holding signs. 

To each of the thousands of members who participated, Thank You for a job well done.

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled today that, on work for which a prevailing wage rate applies, overtime must be calculated based on the hourly prevailing wage. The Massachusetts Building Trades Council filed an amicus brief in support of the plaintiffs in this case.

Members of various labor unions are angry that Genzyme Corp. appears to be benefiting from the taxpayer funds...saying the Cambridge-based company hires contractors who violate state laws and standards by not paying prevailing wages or providing health insurance.

“This is not a union/non-union issue. It’s the act of contractors coming in, depressing wages and benefits and not hiring local residents,” said James Pimental, organizer of Local 3 of Bricklayers and Allied Craftsman.

Barack Obama’s historic election as president last week has instilled a sense of hope and change within America’s labor movement.

America's working families and our unions were a steady force powering the engine of change throughout this campaign, knocking on door after door, talking to person after person.  In the last four days, 250,000 AFL-CIO union volunteers nationwide visited more than 3.9 million union households, made 5.5 million calls and distributed more than 2 million leaflets at worksites. 

On November 4th, 2008, a majority of Americans voted for Senator Barack Obama for President!

One unanticipated fall out of the financial crisis is that now, lo and behold, Sen. John McCain has proclaimed: “Workers are the backbone of the economy.” As somebody who studies how people work, I welcome his sudden awakening, even if he only got it half right. But workers are too smart to fall for empty rhetoric, especially when it is outdated.