United Staff of Columbia College

It’s up to us to fight for them… NOW!

Six U.S. senators and six members of the U.S. House of Representatives — who make up what’s known as the Supercommittee — face a Nov. 23 deadline to cut the deficit by a staggering $1.5 trillion.  Pell Grants help millions earn their way into the middle class and strengthen our economy, yet Pell is a prime target for crippling cuts.

We cannot balance the budget on the backs of hard-working students.  Tell the Supercommittee to SAVE PELL. Do it today! 

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WASHINGTON — In their latest effort to aid the Boeing Company, House Republicans took the extraordinary step on Thursday of voting to strip the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) of much of its power.

The bill, entitled the Protecting Jobs from Government Interference Act, would bar the federal labor board from ordering a company to close or relocate a workplace, even if that company has violated labor law. Thursday’s House vote fell along party lines, with 238 Republicans for the bill and 186 Democrats against it.

The bill is designed expressly to thwart a controversial complaint brought by the NLRB against Boeing that has put the future of a South Carolina Boeing plant into limbo. Continue reading →

Striking housekeepers and other hotel workers decry Hyatt as worst employer in the hotel industry

In an emblematic fight over the direction of our economy, today Hyatt workers in Chicago join thousands of Hyatt hotel workers in launching week-long strikes in cities nationwide, including Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Honolulu.

Workers from the Hyatt Regency Chicago and the Hyatt McCormick are participating in local strikes. By striking, workers are standing up for decent jobs for themselves and their families, but they are also fighting for the right to take a stand against an abusive employer that is destroying good jobs in their North American hotels.   Continue reading →

Amid efforts to limit the power of unions nationwide, labor activists try to galvanize members and recruit new blood by holding one-day Troublemakers School sessions that are part pep rally, part instruction.

By Alana Semuels, Los Angeles Times, July 5, 2011 (read original)

There was no room left so the students piled onto stools and folding chairs and sat on the floor, clogging the aisles of this stifling classroom on a recent Saturday morning.

They shifted in their seats as the teacher, who wore his politics on his sleeve in the form of a red “We Stand With Wisconsin” T-shirt, started to lecture. At first they checked their cellphones, doodled on the pages of their notebooks, and munched on the free chocolate chip cookies and potato chips they were provided, uninterested.

“Who are the people here facing budget cut issues?” asked the teacher, Paul Krehbiel, a grizzled activist who has organized nurses and factory workers over a long career, which includes serving as the chief negotiator for registered nurses at Los Angeles County government hospitals and clinics.

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By Audrey Williams June, Chronicle of Higher Ed, 4/12/11 (read original)

At an annual labor conference here [in New York], one message was clear: Faculty members, union leaders, and administrators share a common plight more than ever these days and need to work together to help shape public policy and public perception about higher education—or get prepared to deal with the consequences. Continue reading →