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Middle class shrinks further as more fall out

The middle class that President Obama identified in his State of the Union speech last week as the foundation of the American economy has been shrinking for almost half a century. In the late 1960s, more than half of the households in the United States were squarely in the mi [...]

Koch brothers budget $889M for 2016 elections

The political network overseen by the conservative billionaires Charles G. and David H. Koch plans to spend close to $900 million on the 2016 campaign, an unparalleled effort by coordinated outside groups to shape a presidential election that is already on track to be the mos [...]

Secretary of Labor’s Statement on Union Membership

WASHINGTON – U.S. Secretary of Labor Thomas E. Perez issued the following statement on the department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics report released today on union membership in 2014: “Today’s report confirms what we’ve always known: that belonging to a union makes a powerful d [...]

Oil train spills hit record level in 2014

American oil trains spilled crude oil more often in 2014 than in any year since the federal government began collecting data on such incidents in 1975, an NBC News analysis shows. The record number of spills sparked a fireball in Virginia, polluted groundwater in Colorado, an [...]

Bargaining Update for Sheet Metal Mechanical and Engineering Members

The BMWED/SMART-Mechanical bargaining coalition met for the first time with the National Carriers’ Conference Committee (NCCC) yesterday at the NCCC’s offices in Crystal City, Virginia. The parties reviewed and discussed in general terms their respective “Section 6 notices” s [...]

Texas Short Line Workers Vote to Join SMART

Train and engine-service employees at the Alliance Terminal Railroad LLC have voted in favor of being represented by SMART. The National Mediation Board certified the election results on December 30. Owned by OmniTRAX Inc. and based in Haslet, Texas, Alliance Terminal Railroa [...]

NLRB Takes Steps to Level Playing Field for Workers

In the biggest policy boost to Union organizing in decades, the National Labor Relations Board issued a long-awaited final rule speeding up the union election process.  This rule comes after years of legal challenges to the Obama Administrations attempts at leveling the play8 [...]

Ohio Agreement Allows Sheet Metal Apprentices to Transfer Credits

An articulation agreement between the Ohio Board of Regents and the seven unionized sheet metal training centers in the state will make it easier for new apprenticeship graduates to earn their associate’s degrees. The first state-wide agreement of its kind in the nation, it a [...]