Labor Pains: Because Being in a Union can be Painful

Category Archive: AFL-CIO

  • Unions Help Drive Amazon out of New York City Area…Again

    Posted on Jul 08, 2022 by LaborPains.org Team

    In 2019, New York City’s labor unions played a key role in tanking the development of an Amazon location in Queens – and the thousands of jobs that went with it. Now, it looks like unions are once again behind a failed deal for a new Amazon cargo hub in Newark, New Jersey. Labor unions […]

  • Delaware AFL-CIO Leaders in Hot Water After Anti-Asian Comments

    Posted on Aug 20, 2021 by LaborPains.org Team

    Back in April 2020, James Maravelias — president of the Delaware AFL-CIO and president of the Delaware Building Trades — posted a number of “public Facebook posts that seem[ed] to cross the line into racial remarks by blaming Asians for the coronavirus.” One post implied that Greeks and Sicilians — Maravelias’ own heritage — were […]

  • Out-of-Control Union Spending: Super Bowl Edition

    Posted on Jan 22, 2020 by LaborPains.org Team

    In honor of the upcoming Super Bowl, it’s time to round up the amount of money labor unions have spent on sporting events. Several unions are guilty of using members’ dues money to buy tickets to professional sporting events or purchase advertising at arenas. According to Department of Labor filings, in 2018 Plumbers AFL-CIO spent […]

  • Did Unions Drive Amazon Out of NYC?

    Posted on Feb 25, 2019 by LaborPains.org Team

    Mayor Bill de Blasio claims that Amazon’s tragic break up with NYC was simply “scuttled by a few very powerful people sitting in a boardroom in Seattle.” But it takes two to tango and de Blasio would be wise to consider what the city—or more specifically, what the city’s labor unions—did to push Amazon away. […]

  • Unions Spend Big to Curtail Worker Freedom

    Posted on Aug 15, 2018 by LaborPains.org Team

    The AFL-CIO— along with other major labor unions— recently poured money into an anti-right-to-work campaign led by advocacy group We Are Missouri. The group spent about $16.3 million on their campaign to vote “No” on Proposition A. The vote— which took place last week— removed Missouri as the 28th right-to-work state in the country. Unions spared no expense in overturning this […]

  • DC Metro Union Workers Don’t Realize They Work For Taxpayers

    Posted on Jul 23, 2018 by LaborPains.org Team

    Amalgamated Transit Union Local 689– which represents the employees of the Washington Metropolitan Transit Authority (WMATA)–made headlines by voting to authorize a strike a few days before the MLB All-Star Game. The threat follows a recent “late out” where over 500 employees showed up late to work and severely interfered with the morning commute for thousands of […]

  • Supreme Court Backlash Highlights Union Hypocrisy

    Posted on Jul 16, 2018 by LaborPains.org Team

    President Trump’s nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court has incensed union officials, who cite the nominee’s “pro-business stance” as cause for concern. AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka recently warned that Kavanaugh “too often sides with employers in denying employees relief from discrimination in the workplace.” He even claimed the nominee has a “dangerous track record of protecting the privileges […]

  • SEIU Scraps Health and Safety Program. Too Much Politics?

    Posted on Jun 21, 2018 by LaborPains.org Team

    According to Jordan Barab, a former Labor Department official under President Obama and longtime union staffer, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) is scrapping its health and safety program. The SEIU—America’s largest labor union and one of its most politically active—is laying off its last health and safety official, Mark Catlin, next month. As Barab […]