General President James P. Hoffa

On the Wrong Road Again

Unemployment is still high in Michigan and will remain so for some time. The economic recession blew a hole in the state budget, and government workers’ wages are likely to be cut. Given this bleak picture, it makes no sense to let Mexico’s trucking companies take American truck drivers’ jobs and depress American workers’ wages.

Coming to the Rescue

In recent weeks, we’ve learned the right way and the wrong way to bail out struggling industries. The government’s rescue of the auto industry looks like a success. Now the Big 3 are profitable, moving into the electric car future and putting Americans back to work.

The Four-Letter Word We Want To Hear From Congress: J-O-B-S

Members of the 112th Congress have their work cut out for them if they don't want to meet the same fate as many members of the 111th Congress. They've got to do something to create jobs.

The 'Little Guy' Is Losing In American Politics

If you understand politics as a battle between liberal and conservative, then you don't understand politics at all. The central political battle today is between the corporate billionaires on one side and the little guy on the other.

Put American Jobs First

The official unemployment rate in Detroit was 28.9 percent in July, the highest since Michigan started keeping modern numbers. This is a frightening sign of a city in deep trouble.

Thirty million Americans who want a full-time job can’t find one. This is a catastrophe of the magnitude of a war, a flood or a hurricane. Countless lives are being ruined, families shattered, communities impoverished.

A Government for the People, Not for Fred Smith

In the U.S. free enterprise system, corporations are not supposed to use the government as a weapon to punish their competitors. They certainly aren’t supposed to manipulate federal law so they’re treated differently than every other company in America.

And yet that is exactly what FedEx CEO Fred Smith has been getting away with for 14 years.

Labor Day: The Union Family

The first national Labor Day was celebrated six days after workers were killed in the Pullman strike of 1894. This Labor Day, we must remember those who were senselessly killed at Hartford Distributors in Connecticut.

When Did 'Pension' Become a Dirty Word?

Pension Funding Relief Becomes Law
The United States is the greatest country in the world, but unfortunately it isn’t perfect. Our economic system is falling far short of what it’s supposed to be doing: creating a decent job for everyone who wants one.

To generate more jobs, we need an end to bad trade deals, better regulation of the financial industry and fairer rules for unions to organize workers. We also need to fix our pension system.

A Truck Driver is a Truck Driver, Not an Airline Pilot

A truck driver is a truck driver is a truck driver. All the bullying and threats by FedEx Chief Executive Fred Smith to Congress won’t change that simple fact.

But Smith is demanding that Congress preserve a special loophole that applies only to FedEx Express – or else.

Finally, the Labor Department is on the Side of Workers

It is a national disgrace that so many workers are killed on the job in this country. They’re killed in fields and factories, on oil rigs and in coal mines, in refineries, on utility poles and driving trucks. Last year, an average of 14 people died at work every single day.

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