HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY!!!

To my mom, Loretta Rector and every other mom that has not only brought life into this world but have continually made our world a little bit more compassionate, loving and communal place, God bless you and Happy Mother’s Day!  President Matt Rector

GUAM DOES OUR PART FOR DEMOCRACY

Thanks to the hard work and dedication of thousands of union members and their families as well as the thousands more of Guam’s citizens we made history.  All across the Nation people now know Guam for our great campaign and 7 votes.  We did our part as patriotic Americans have been doing in record numbers all across the Nation by getting involved in our Democracy and voting.  The most difficult part for most voters was to choose between two great candidates which led Guam to a tie.

FUETSAN FAMALAO’AN SPONSOR YOUTH FORUM ON BUILD-UP

Fuetsan Famalao’an is a voluntary non-partisan advocacy group of concerned citizens committed to the inclusion of the needs and concerns of girls and women in official plans for the increased U.S. militarization of Guam.   Next week, Fuetsan Famalao’an will focus on issues central to our island’s youth, by sponsoring a Youth Forum.  The Youth Forum is intended to motivate our youth to come together to discuss their concerns, exchange dialogue, raise questions, and gain information about the ongoing efforts to expand U.S. military forces in Guam and through out the region.   The Youth Forum will feature two separate screenings of the film, Guam: Tip of the Spear, and will also include spoken word poets and local artwork.  This event will take place on:

Tuesday, May 13, 2008, at the Lecture Hall at the Leon Guerrero, School of Business and Public Administration Building at the University of Guam. 

The first film screening will begin at 3:30 p.m. with panel discussion immediately following, and the second screening will begin at 5:30 p.m. with panel discussion to conclude by 7:00 p.m.  The Forum is free and open to all youth.  For more information, please email: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it . 

ADJUNCTS SCORE RESOUNDING VICTORY AT HENRY FORD COLLEGE
The part-time/adjunct faculty at Henry Ford Community College voted overwhelmingly on May 7 to be represented by the Henry Ford Community College Adjunct Faculty Organization to improve their low salaries and other inferior working conditions. The vote among the unit of 580 adjunct faculty was an overwhelming 334 to 41. The AFO began organizing less than a year ago, dismayed by pay scales that maxed out at $1,700 a course, lack of job security and health insurance, and no access to office space to prepare for classes or meet with students. The adjuncts sought help from AFT Michigan, the state affiliate of the full-time faculty local at Henry Ford. "The only way to get salaries that at least match other area colleges is through collective bargaining," says AFT Michigan president David Hecker, who is also an AFT vice president. [Read more.]

DURING NURSES WEEK, SAFE STAFFING IS WHAT REALLY MATTERS
National Nurses Week is held May 6-12 each year in honor of the birthday of Florence Nightingale, the founder of modern nursing. To mark the week, the AFT prepared a sample op-ed article or letter to the editor. The piece points out that flowers and gifts are fine as tokens of appreciation for a job well done, but what nurses really need is "relief from the overwhelming stress they face as a result of being forced to care for too many patients at one time." A new survey of nurses in Wisconsin strongly reinforces that same point. [Read more.]

LATEST 'ASK A WORKING WOMAN' SURVEY NOW ONLINE
As the AFL-CIO and Working America launch their sixth annual "Ask a Working Woman" survey, the latest figures show that women still earn significantly less than men—77 cents to the dollar. The survey gives working women the chance to comment on a range of work- and family-related issues. Since many working women are also working mothers, Mother's Day seems like an especially apt time to take a serious look at these challenges. The survey will remain open online until June 20. The results will then be passed on to lawmakers and politicians to show what working women need. Last year's surveygenerated 22,000 responses, and organizers are hoping for even more this year.

HAPPY 92ND BIRTHDAY, AFT
May 9, 2008, marked the 92nd anniversary of the date the AFT was first chartered by the American Federation of Labor (AFL). The first meeting to discuss the formation of the AFT took place less than a month earlier. The first local—the Armstrong-Dunbar High School Teachers Union of Washington, D.C.—was chartered on June 14. A timeline of AFT history is available online through the efforts of AFT archivist Dan Golodner at Wayne State University.

EXPANDING H-2B VISAS A BAD IDEA
In Congressional testimony, EPI Vice-President Ross Eisenbrey urged representatives to rethink the rapid expansion of a visa program for foreign guest workers, which has grown from 10,000 to 130,000 workers annually in just 15 years. Speaking to an immigration subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee on April 16, Eisenbrey noted that "the H-2B non-agricultural guest worker program has been the fastest growing and most problematic immigration program in our recent history.... This expansion is alarming because the H-2B program undermines the wages and working conditions of U.S. workers; creates dependencies among businesses for docile foreign workers with no voice, no bargaining power, and few rights; and allows abuses that most Americans would denounce if they were aware of them. If our nation is to have a guest worker program for unskilled occupations--and it is far from clear that such a program is necessary or desirable--it must be reformed in significant ways."Eisenbrey elaborated on his concerns in a May 2 opinion piece in the Baltimore Sun and in another piece tailored to the Hamptons in Newsday. "Unemployment is rising, hundreds of thousands of families are facing foreclosures on their homes, and wages are flat-lining (especially for workers without college degrees). Yet a noisy group of Long Island businesses claims the nation needs...more workers willing to accept low wages and less likely to organize or otherwise assert their rights," Eisenbrey wrote. A heartbreaking example of the sort of the modern debt-peonage system that such visas make possible can be seen today in Mississippi, where Indian workers who paid $20,000 each for H-2B visas for Katrina cleanup jobs are planning a hunger strike.

U.S. IS MISERLY ON MATERNITY LEAVE AND PAY
Out of 19 comparable countries, the United States does the least for new mothers in both length of leave and paid time off. While the Family and Medical Leave Act guarantees eligible parents 12 weeks of unpaid leave to care for a new child, it is limited to workplaces of more than 50 employees, leaving out about 48.1 million working Americans. The United States is the only one of the 19 industrialized countries that does not guarantee paid leave at all. The analysis by Heidi Shierholz and Emily Garr is this week's Economic Snapshot.

HELP PROVIDE RELIEF TO BURMESE WORKERS

With more than 22,000 people reported dead and as many as 1 million homeless after a tropical cyclone that struck Burma over the weekend, the Federation of Trade Unions of Burma (FTUB) has issued an urgent plea to the global union movement for aid in launching rescue, relief and rehabilitation work for victims of the storm. The cyclone was the worst to hit Asia in almost 20 years, according to weather experts. FTUB, a partner of the AFL-CIO Solidarity Center, plans to use relief fund contributions to distribute clothing, medicine, and non-perishable food for displaced workers and their families, build temporary shelters and assist in providing needed counseling and health clinics. Click here to contribute to help Burmese workers. Click here to read more

WANT TO HONOR MOTHERS THIS WEEK?

Take a moment to ask your Congressperson to co-sponsor the just introduced Family Leave Insurance Act of 2008 in honor of Mother's Day.  If passed, the Family Leave Insurance Act (HR 5873) would provide paid family leave to care for a new child, sick family member, treat their own illness, or deal with an exigency caused by the deployment of a member of the military.  With the recent passage of Family Leave Insurance bills in New Jersey and Washington, MomsRising.org members have been gaining momentum. Now it's time to bring that momentum to the national level:

Ask your Congressperson to cosponsor the Famiy Leave Insurance Act:
http://www.momsrising.org/Cosponsor_FamilyLeaveInsurance

CHILD LABOR REPORT LATEST EXAMPLE OF CHINA’S DISRESPECT FOR HUMAN, WORKERS’ RIGHTS

Here’s one more reason that the Bush administration’s refusal to push China to respect workers’ rights is wrong. This week, Chinese police rescued 167 village children sold to work as slave laborers in a city in the booming southern province of Guangdong in the Pearl River Delta. The children all came from poor families who lived more than 600 miles away. The Guardian newspaper in London credits Southern Metropolis Daily, an underground Chinese newspaper, for revealing that more than 1,000 children, some as young as 7, had been sold “like cabbages” at a street market in southwestern China. Many had fake papers certifying they were adults, and more had documents saying they were in their early teens.  Click here to read more

HOW CAN WE ENCOURAGE KIDS TO READ?

Visit AFT Voices to share your opinions on the challenges you face in the workplace by answering our new survey question posted on the site. Lots of things hook kids on reading: contests, book clubs, time for free reading—even loaner books from their favorite school staff. Share your ideas about how to encourage reading.  We'll be posting your answers to this important question on the site. Visit AFT Voices to read AFT member comments from previous questions and participate in surveys, polls and other activities. Click here to read more

5/13

Bertha D Meno

Jaime S Villagomez

Audrey Aguon

Mila S Odero

William Payumo

Cristobal A Cruz

Barbara Janssen

Frank Manibusan

Abraham Q Santiago

Lali S Thundiyil