News & Public Affairs

200 CIW farm workers and allies protest Publix listen

11/16/09 Seán Kinane
Listen to this entire show:

Tags: Coalition of Immokalee Workers, Publix, labor, Eckerd College, social justice

A penny per pound of tomatoes. That's the pay increase a group of Florida farm workers is asking for. But the supermarket chain Publix does not want to get involved in negotiations.

The Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) campaigned across Pinellas County over the weekend. On Sunday, close to 200 farm workers, church members, college students, and other social justice activists marched the five blocks from one Publix to another in south ...

Be the first to comment

Musicians in labor dispute with Sarasota Orchestra management cancel concert listen

11/12/09 Seán Kinane
Listen to this entire show:

Tags: labor, Sarasota Orchestra, Sarasota

A labor dispute between the Sarasota Orchestra and its unionized musicians has caused a benefit concert to be canceled. The Sarasota Orchestra Players’ Association had planned to play tomorrow night at the First Congregational Church of Christ, but because of threats from management they will hold a town hall meeting instead.

Betsy Hudson Traba is the principal flutist of the Sarasota Orchestra and chair of...

Be the first to comment

Seymour Hersh: Secret assassination operation was run by Bush White House

03/12/09 Robert Lorei
Listen to this entire show:

Tags: Hersh, unions, labor, assassination, Cheney

"At a “Great Conversations” event at the University of Minnesota [Monday] investigative reporter Seymour Hersh talked about new alleged instances of domestic spying by the CIA, and about an ongoing covert military operation that he called an “executive assassination ring,” according to Eric Black at MinnPost.com,

The evening, featuring Walter Mondale and Hersh, moderated by Jacobs and titled “America’s Constitutional Crisis,” looked to be a mostly historical review of events that have tes...

Be the first to comment

Labor reacts to bid to kill Employee Free Choice Act in Florida listen

02/19/09 Mitch E. Perry
Listen to this entire show:

Tags: Employee Free Choice Act, labor, unions

Hoping to head off a controversial organized-labor bill in Congress, two Republican legislators today introduced a constitutional amendment that would require secret ballots in union elections.

Naples Sen. Garrett Richter and House Majority Leader Adam Hasner announced their proposal in Tallahassee, where they said that without the amendment, employees could be pressured by their bosses or union organizers to vote for or against representation.

But organized Labor strongly disagrees. ...

Be the first to comment

Debating the Employee Free Choice Act

02/17/09 Robert Lorei
Listen to this entire show:

Tags: Politics, labor, unions, Employee Free Choice Act

There’s a battle looming in Congress between organized labor and big business- it’s over the proposed Employee Free Choice Act. The bill was passed by the House back in 2007- but it’s been filibustered in the Senate since 2007.

President Barack Obama says he supports EFCA. Labor unions say it would make it easier for employees to form unions. They say that over the past 30 years the balance of power has shifted and that companies have gained too much power to fight union organizing driv...

3 comments

Employee Free Choice Act a possibility in Obama administration listen

12/17/08 Seán Kinane
Listen to this entire show:

Tags: Politics, labor, unions

With a Democratic president and large Democratic majorities in both houses of Congress, labor organizers are optimistic that pro-union legislation can win passage in 2009. At the top of the wish list is the Employee Free Choice Act. Over the last 20 years, an imbalance has been created between employers and employees, according to Rich Templin, communications director with the Florida AFL-CIO, a labor union that supports the Employee Free Choice Act.

“What the ...

Be the first to comment

USF Trustees agree to contract with faculty and ponder tuition hike listen

12/11/08 Seán Kinane
Listen to this entire show:

Tags: USF, UFF, Ray Sansom, labor

This morning the University of South Florida Board Of Trustees approved a new contract with its faculty union for the current academic year. The contract was ratified by the union on Wednesday.

Sherman Dorn is an associate professor of education and the president of USF’s chapter of United Faculty of Florida, or UFF. He said 98 percent of employees who voted were in favor of the contract; all members of the bargaining unit were e...

1 comments

Job fair offers hope to the unemployed listen

07/21/08 Seán Kinane
Listen to this entire show:

Tags: Tampa Bay unemployment, jobs, labor, economy

More jobs were lost in the Tampa Bay area in May and June than in any other area of the state, and Florida led the entire nation in job losses in June. With the backdrop of such a dismal employment outlook, WMNF spoke with job seekers and their potential employers at a job fair at the St. Pete Times Forum today.

More than 23,000 people have lost jobs in the Tampa Bay area in just the last two months, bringing the regions unemployment rate to 5.9 percent in June. That’s up from 4.2 percent ...

Be the first to comment

Firefighters boycott Clearwater listen

06/23/08 Seán Kinane
Listen to this entire show:

Tags: labor

This month the Florida Professional Firefighters association voted to boycott the City of Clearwater for what Clearwater firefighters are calling “unethical and illegal treatment.”

Firefighters from Clearwater have set up a website called Save Clearwater Fire to publicize their reasons for boycotting the city. John Lee is president of Clearwater Firefighters local 1158.

“Well, we’re just asking our union members statewide to boycott the city of Clearwater due to the unfair treatment and...

Be the first to comment

St Pete Police demand fair negotiations with city listen

06/10/08 Seán Kinane
Listen to this entire show:

Tags: unions, labor, St. Petersburg Police

On the steps of the St. Petersburg City Hall, the Pinellas County Police Benevolent Association (PBA), today protested what they said was the city’s lack of action on contract negotiations.

Jim Spearing, campaign coordinator for the state PBA in Tallahassee, said there was "frustration" that the St. Pete police have not had any offers on an employment agreement from the city since last October. Spearing said “the turnover rate in this city is appalling.”

With about 30 police officers ...

Be the first to comment