The Philadelphia AFL-CIO  Listening Sessions are an ongoing conversation about building a workers’ movement that can win power in a globalized economy, drawing on the strength of every type of organization: including student groups, organized labor, faith-based communities, seniors, community organizations.  Don’t miss out on the conversation!

Next Session:

Tuesday, July 9th

6:00 – 7:30 PM

Transport Workers Union Local 234, 500 N. 2nd St, Philadelphia (1/2 block south of Spring Garden)

TOPIC: Building genuine, durable community partnerships and effective grassroots power

Please email Nick Alpers at: Nalpers@philaflcio.org to RSVP.

Dear Friends and Family of the Philadelphia Area Labor Movement and Beyond,

As we celebrate Independence day and the independence that our forefathers fought so hard to obtain and maintain for our country, let us also celebrate and remember the forefathers of the labor movement, who also fought hard for our rights as a union movement to organize and bargain collectively so that we may have the opportunity at a living wage, proper working conditions and benefits for our families.

Let us also remember that we face constant attacks on these rights as union members and that our fight is NEVER over. Thus we can use the example set by the forefathers of our country to NEVER give up and ALWAYS fight for what we believe in!

Happy Independence Day In Solidarity!

PhillyLabor.com

From PA. AFL-CIO –

Thanks To The Activism Of Workers Across The State Governor’s Anti-Worker Agenda Is Derailed

This year began with the Governor promising an onslaught of anti-worker legislation designed to drive down wages, privatize public institutions, and undermine retirement security.  Many of these initiatives came closer to passing than they ever have before.

– In March the House approved for the first time a plan to expand and privatize liquor sales, a move that would have cost thousands of families their livelihoods.

– Only two years after the major pension reforms of Act 120, and the significant concessions made by workers to speed the recovery of SERS and PSERS, legislation was introduced in both the House and Senate that would further reduce benefits for current employees and eliminate pensions for all new teachers and State workers after 2015.

– A package of right-to-work bills and more than a dozen bills designed to undermine prevailing wage laws were introduced in the House, and two of the prevailing wage bills made it to third consideration and were poised for a full vote in the House, something that has not happened in Pennsylvania for decades.

– And earlier this year, our Attorney General Kathleen Kane was the only thing that stood in the way of a British company taking over the management of the Pennsylvania Lottery.

With the members of the State House now home in their districts until September 23, it is time to declare that, for now, Pennsylvania workers have won on all of these issues!

Over the past several months, and particularly in the past week, we have been encouraging all of you to write and call your legislators in the House and Senate, to urge them to vote in the interest of working families in Pennsylvania, and the response has been overwhelming.

The many thousands of e-mails and phone calls that you made to your Senators and Representatives let them know that working families in Pennsylvania were watching their votes closely, and that you were invested in these fights.  Your calls and e-mails, tweets and Facebook shares complimented the hard work of union members and allies who were in Harrisburg every day, crowding the halls of the Capitol, filling committee meetings, or rallying on the Capitol steps.  You absolutely helped to kill these attacks on workers through your activism and vocal opposition.

These battles are not over.  We expect an even harder fight in the fall to prevent these and other attacks on workers from reaching the Governor’s desk.  But if we remain, as we have been, a united Labor Movement; if we reach out to our fellow workers and encourage them to raise their voices with ours; and if we visit our Representatives and Senators in their district offices over the summer, then we can continue to hold the line on these issues that are so vital to the lives of millions of Pennsylvanians.

Thank you for all you have done this year to stand up for and defend Pennsylvania’s working families; and congratulations for all you achieved!

Go To: http://www.paaflcio.org/?p=2249

I want to give a shout out to my old high school football coaches Bob Wagner, Mike Gibbs, Rocky and company for their commitment to bringing more out of me than I ever thought possible in the days of my youth.

Everyday whether in my family life or my business life, I benefit from running those 100 yd wind sprints and use those lessons you taught me, including to NEVER give up, to work hard as a part of a team, to believe in myself, to have discipline and to get up whenever I get knocked down, in my never ending journey towards success! I CAN NEVER EVER REPAY YOU for the things that you taught me that far exceeded just football that I use EVERYDAY in my life.

I only hope that the Philadelphia School District, The City of Philadelphia and the State of Pennsylvania officials read this and understand what I’m talking about before they discontinue sports, art and music so the school kids of today may continue to have the same opportunities that I had in my life that literally saved my life!

TO WHOM THIS MAY CONCERN, LET’S NOT BE THE ADULT GENERATION THAT FAILS OUR KIDS AND TAKES THEIR HOPES, SELF ESTEEMS AND DREAMS FROM THEM. LET’S GIVE THEM THE SAME OPPORTUNITIES WE ALL HAD AND LET’S STRIVE FOR GREATNESS AND SAVE SOME OTHER KID’S LIVES IN THE MEANTIME!

Joe Dougherty.
Philly Labor

By the PA. AFL-CIO

– Silly season has officially descended on Harrisburg, with the State Budget and the horse trading on various pieces of union-busting legislation playing out like a real life game of whack-a-job.

Just in the past day, the Governor’s rejected bid to outsource the Pennsylvania Lottery to a British company appeared to get new life, with rumors of a budget amendment that would expand the Governor’s ability to enter into such contracts on behalf of the Commonwealth.  This creates the very real prospect that the Governor could resubmit the contract ahead of a June 30th deadline.

While transportation funding continues to be debated in the State House, efforts continue by some to tie this critical funding to attacks on workers, such as prevailing wage.

It just so happens that one of the anti-prevailing wage bills in the House, HB 665, will be proceeding to a full house vote on the measure today.  This is the bill that would reclassify a huge number of road construction projects so that they would no longer be subject to prevailing wage laws.

Both the job-killing McIlhinney plan to privatize the State’s Wine & Spirits Stores, and the original house bill, HB 790 that was passed back in March, are both alive in the Senate and could see amendments or even votes later today.

And finally, there is legislation in both houses to destroy retirement security and bankrupt our pension systems by putting new employees into an expensive 401(k)-type plan.  These bills would cost taxpayers over $33.5 billion, and the House bills contain unconstitutional provisions to reduce the benefits of current employees.

We now have 59 hours to go until the end of the June 30th budget deadline, but that is still time for legislators to hear from their constituents.

If you have not yet e-mailed your legislators and asked them to OPPOSE the attacks on workers, and to SUPPORT a reasonable budget that invests in the future of the Commonwealth, then please do it now!

Go Here To E-Mail Your Legislators Now! – http://act.aflcio.org/c/236/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=6779

If you are one of the thousands who have already contacted their legislators this week, then please forward this page to your friends, family, co-workers, neighbors, and social networks.  During these final hours we need EVERYONE engaged, and telling our politicians in Harrisburg to do the right thing!

Go To: http://www.paaflcio.org/?p=2201