Look at all the labor news from Arkansas!!!!!

[Omaha Steve]

National labor leaders to host rally for Employee Free Choice Act
Texarana Gazette
http://www.texarkanagazette.com/news/localnews/2009/07/10/national-labor-leaders-to-host-rally-for-2.php


Little Rock - center of union gravity
Arkansas News Bureau
http://arkansasnews.com/2009/07/11/little-rock-%E2%80%94-center-of-union-gravity/


Official confident of bill's passage
Northwest Arkansas News
http://nwanews.com/bcdr/Area/75232

AFL-CIO working for passage of labor-organizing bill
Northwest Arkansas News
http://nwanews.com/bcdr/Area/75231

Arkansans Rally For Employee Free Choice Act
KARK-TV Channel 4
http://arkansasmatters.com/content/fulltext/?cid=237381

Free Employment Rally
KATV-TV Channel 7
http://www.katv.com/news/stories/0709/639614.html

Rally For Free Choice Act
KTHV-TV Channel 11
http://www.todaysthv.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=87859&catid=2

Union supporters rally for Employee Free Choice Act
FOX 16
http://www.fox16.com/news/local/story/Union-supporters-rally-for-Employee-Free-Choice/B-BE7rCQzkC6QHEyFXOR3A.cspx


Look for the union marchers
Arkansas Times
http://www.arktimes.com/blogs/arkansasblog/2009/07/look_for_the_union_marchers.aspx


On the march
Arkansas Times
http://www.arktimes.com/blogs/arkansasblog/2009/07/on_the_march.aspx

Issue of the day in Arkansas: Card Check
Arkansas Under the Dome
http://www.underthedome.com/2009/07/issue-of-day-in-arkansas-card-check.html


Supporters say bill misrepresented
Texarkana Gazette
http://www.texarkanagazette.com/news/localnews/2009/07/12/supporters-say-bill-misrepresented-98.php


Opponents: Legislation will hurt economy
Texarkana Gazette
http://www.texarkanagazette.com/news/localnews/2009/07/12/opponents-legislation-will-hurt-economy-9.php


Union advocates tout employee legislation
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
http://www2.arkansasonline.com/news/2009/jul/12/union-advocates-tout-employee-legislation-20090712/


UNIONS RALLY IN PINE BLUFF, ON THEIR WAY TO LITTLE ROCK
Pine Bluff Commercial
http://www.pbcommercial.com/articles/2009/07/12/news/news3.txt

Here's the full text from the Dem Gazette article:

Union advocates tout employee legislation
LR march calls for Lincoln’s approval

By L. Lamor Williams

LITTLE ROCK - About 500 union leaders, members and supporters gathered
at Little Rock Central High School on Saturday before marching to the
state Capitol, along the way calling for Sen. Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark.,
to support the Employee Free Choice Act.

“When one worker is not safe, all workers are not safe,” former
state Court of Appeals Judge Wendell Griffen said. “When one worker is
not paid fairly, all are not paid fairly.

“Sen. Lincoln has not been converted. She’s been sitting around the
mourners’ bench so long she’s got splinters,” said Griffin, who is
also a minister.

Lincoln has supported and co-sponsored union bills in the past, but has
said she could not support the Employee Free Choice Act as it is
written.

The Employee Free Choice Act is pending legislation first introduced in
the U.S. House of Representatives that would “establish an efficient
system to enable employees to form, join or assist labor organizations,
to provide for mandatory injunctions for unfair labor practices during
organizing efforts, and for other purposes.”

Labor leaders and business owners have lined up on opposite sides of
the issue. Labor leaders and supporters generally see the proposal as
one that would increase the number of unionized workers. Business
owners, among other things, believe the methods proposed by the act will
not protect employee privacy in elections. Also, it is possible the act,
if approved, might result in more unionized businesses.

Lincoln was unavailable for comment Saturday, but Katie Laning Niebaum,
her press secretary, gave an e-mail response:

“Senator Lincoln continues her work in the Senate to create new jobs
for Arkansans and fix our broken health-care system. She appreciates the
visit to Little Rock today from national labor leaders. In fact, she has
met with most of them in recent weeks and believes that she shares their
goals for health care reform and better paying jobs for workers.”

At present, workers may attempt to organize after signing up at least
30 percent of their colleagues. Employers then usually demand an
election before accepting a new union. The proposed legislation provides
that if a majority of employees sign pro-union cards, the union would
automatically be certified and no election would be necessary.

Organizers of the rally initially said about 1,000 union members and
workers would attend the protest, but police estimate that about 500
people marched. Little Rock police officers escorted the group from
Central High School to the Capitol, where they gathered on the steps
before retiring to a large tent for a catfish lunch.

Steelworkers International President Leo Gerard led the group from the
school to the Capitol steps, where Richard Trumka, national AFL-CIO
secretary-treasurer, was the keynote speaker. Arlene Holt Baker, AFLCIO
executive vice president and the first black executive officer for the
group, also spoke.

Gerard said the group gathered at Central High School because the
location has been a hub of civil-rights activity in Arkansas.

“Workers rights are civil rights,” Gerard said.

The school became internationally known on Sept. 2, 1957, when Gov.
Orval Faubus sent Arkansas National Guardsmen there “to maintain ...
the peace and good order of the community” and directed the Guard to
prevent nine black students from entering the all-white school,
notwithstanding a court-approved desegregation plan.

State Sen. Joyce Elliott also spoke during the rally and said those
students, now known as the Little Rock Nine, should have had a choice
and workers should have a choice also. She said it was fitting to start
the rally at Central High, which is in her district.

Several business leaders from around the state denounced the rally and
said they fully support Lincoln and her stand on the proposed
legislation.

Sylvester Smith, Arkansas state director for the National Federation of
Independent Business, said in a written statement that the rally never
should have been at Central High.

“As an African-American, I am deeply offended that an organization
known for a complete lack of diversity, which has never had a minority
at its helm, would come lead a civil rights march from Central High
School, which is the holy grail of the civil rights movement in
Arkansas,” he said. “Today in 2009, African-American members of the
AFL-CIO are still fighting for diversity in its leadership.”

Randy Zook, president of the Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce, called
the Employee Free Choice Act “a poorly written piece of legislation
that would unfairly saddle Arkansas businesses with burdensome added
costs.”

“It would deprive workers of the fundamental right to a secret ballot
in organizing elections,” he said in his statement. “The current
system, run by the National Labor Relations Board, works and needs no
radical change, as the bill would impose.”

Near the end of the event, Steve Morgan, an electrician from Jonesboro
and a member of International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local
1516, stood in the shade of a tree on the Capitol lawn. He said he came
out because the Free Choice Act is needed.

“We’d just like to ask all our state representatives and senators
and our U.S. representatives and senators to support this act,” he
said. “They ask us for our help to get re-elected and we want them to
help us in our time of need.”