Mid-South Union Leadership Institute Scholarships Available!

Scholarships Available!!! Mid-South Union Leadership The Arkansas and Oklahoma AFL-CIO are offering to fund scholarships to this year's Mid-South Union Leadership Institute to international or multi-state unions in their state.For every five participants a union registers, a scholarship covering registration fees will be awarded. Please contact your participating state federation if you qualify.

The Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Mississippi, and Tennessee AFL-CIO are jointly sponsoring the 2009 Mid-South Union Leadership Institute. Hosted by the Labor Education Program at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, the Institute will be held November 5-7 at the Clarion Resort on the Lake in Hot Spring, AR.

Leadership development is critical to the success of the labor movement. Union officers and representatives with leadership responsibilities are strongly encouraged to attend. Participants will choose from two major workshop tracks: "Effective Local Union Administration" and "Union Building," as well as special topic workshops on communicating in the YouTube Age and opportunities for workers in a new, green economy. There will be updates on labor's legislative agenda, and discussions of enforcement of existing labor and employment law under the Obama administration.

To find out more, go to http://www.aiea.ualr.edu/lep/events/2009-mid-south.php.

Labor Education Program

Mid-South Union Leadership Institute

Sponsored by the Arkansas AFL-CIO, Mississippi AFL-CIO,
Oklahoma AFL-CIO, Tennessee AFL-CIO, and Texas AFL-CIO

October 16, 2009

Upcoming Seminar - Register Now!!!

November 5 - 7, 2009

Clarion Resort on the Lake, Hot Springs, AR
4813 Central Ave
Hot Springs, AR 71913
(501) 525-1391

www.clarionhotel.com

Sponsored by the Arkansas AFL-CIO, Mississippi AFL-CIO, Oklahoma AFL-CIO, Tennessee AFL-CIO, and Texas AFL-CIO

Who Should Attend? Union officers and representatives with leadership responsibilities.

Major Workshops (Choose Track A or B)
Track A: Effective Local Union Administration	Track B: Union Building
Roles of Officers and Executive Board Members	Using Power to Lead the Local
Conducting Effective Local and Committee Meetings	Setting and Achieving Goals
Legal Responsibilities under the Labor Management Reporting and Disclosure Act	Growing and Mobilizing the Membership
Conducting Local Union Elections	Dealing with Conflict in the Local
Parliamentary Procedure

Special Topic Workshops (Choose One)

1. Communicating in the YouTube Age

Learn how to use online social networks, video hosting services and microblogging/texting sites to communicate your union's message.

2. From Smokestacks to Wind Turbines: Unions in the Green Economy

Exploring the opportunities the new Green Economy offers to unions and their membership.

General Sessions

• Legislative Update
• Understanding the Current Economic Crisis and Labor's Response
• The "New" Department of Labor: Enforcing OSHA, FMLA, FLSA, and the NLRA

AFL-CIO State Caucuses

Mock Meeting to showcase skills and information learned during the conference.

Seminar Hours

Thursday, November 5, 2009

Seminar Check In	8:00 a.m. - 8:45 a.m.
Sessions and workshops	8:45 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.

Hospitality in the evening

Friday, November 6, 2009

Sessions and workshops

8:30 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.

Saturday, November 7, 2009

Sessions and workshops	8:30 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
Graduation Luncheon	12:00 p.m. - 1:30 p.m.

Registration Fees and Options

Please register early!

By October 2 - Early Bird $200

By October 23 - Regular $225

If registering after October 23, call LEP at 501-569-8483 to confirm your registration.

Options

1. Download the brochure here, and fill out the registration form.
2. Online registration available here.
3. Agenda available here.

A minimum number of registrations are required for this seminar.

Sleeping Rooms

Please call the Clarion Resort on the Lake at (501) 525-1391 to make your sleeping room reservations.

A block of rooms has been reserved until October 5 at the rate of $82, single or double. Please mention the UALR Labor Education Program to receive this rate.

Questions??

For more information contact the Labor Education Program at 501-569-8483, fax at 501-569-8538 or email lep@ualr.edu.

'Whose side are you on?' Rally

In front of Senator Blanche Lincoln's Fayetteville Office

3 buildings south of Dickson, on the east side of 71 business. (Map)
Fayetteville, AR 72701
Wednesday, October 14th, 4:30 PM

AMERICA’S WORKERS JOIN CALL FOR A WORLD DAY FOR DECENT WORK

Today America’s workers joined with trade unions in more than 100 countries in support of the International Trade Union Confederation’s call for a World Day for Decent Work. The AFL-CIO believes decent work standards are a key part of the solution to the global economic and jobs crisis. It means ensuring job creation and protection of workers’ rights, especially the freedom to organize a trade union and bargain collectively. It means ending discrimination, stopping child and forced labor and providing social security safety nets for those in and out of work.

At its recent convention the AFL-CIO strongly underscored its support for decent work for workers in the United States and around the world by unanimously passing a major resolution, ‘A Labor Movement Agenda for a Stronger, Cleaner and More Just Global Economy.’ The resolution affirmed the ILO’s statement ‘The Financial and Economic Crisis: A Decent Work Response’ and stressed the need for the global labor movement to promote the ILO’s Global Jobs Pact to help coordinate government efforts to respond to the employment crisis.

Significant priorities for the AFL-CIO include passage of the Employee Free Choice Act to enable workers to freely choose to have a union and collectively bargain in the United States and passing major health care reform that covers all families.

Following the convention, the newly elected leadership traveled to meet with working families around the country, leading up to the G 20 meeting in Pittsburgh. At the G20 President Trumka and ITUC General Secretary Guy Ryder, along with other international trade union leaders, met with President Obama. They stressed the elements of the June 2009 ILO ‘Jobs Pact’ and the importance of enacting coordinated policies to create decent and environmentally sustainable work to combat growing unemployment, enact comprehensive and effective regulation of financial markets and promote the inclusion of key international labor standards in all assistance programs of the IMF and World Bank.

September Jobs Report

The economy shed another 263,000 jobs in September and unemployment rose to 9.8 percent. These numbers are worse than previously forecast and represent the highest unemployment rate in 26 years. There are now six job seekers for each available job and over one-third of the 15 million unemployed workers have now been without a job for over 27 weeks. The only factor that kept the unemployment rate from rising even more is that 571,000 workers dropped out of the labor force last month.

The pace of economic decline and job loss has clearly let up from earlier this year, due in large part to the impact of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. However, without further fiscal stimulus, it seems very likely that heavy job losses will continue for several quarters and it will take years for unemployment to fall to pre-recession levels.

The economic crisis is a jobs crisis and there can be no strong and sustainable recovery until employment begins to grow. The Obama administration’s aggressive actions have clearly brought us “back from the brink” of what might have been a second Great Depression, but we will need sustained and expanded fiscal support if we are to see a robust recovery.

The Administration and Congress should continue to extend unemployment benefits and bolster aid to budget-constrained states and cities. Further, the Administration must speed public investment in education and training, repairing our nation’s deteriorating infrastructure and building a greener economy.

Statement by AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka on September Jobs Report, October 2, 2009

Workers can go to www.unemploymentlifeline.com for Assistance

NWA Labor Supports the United Way of NWA

The AFL-CIO is actively involved in the United Way at the national level, and Northwest Arkansas Labor Council members have a long tradition of supporting the work of the United Way of Northwest Arkansas. In these difficult economic times, it is even more important that we share what we can.

* Giving $1 week (just $52 a year) provides 288 pounds of food for the hungry in our community or transportation to doctors’ appointments for a senior citizen for a year.
* Giving $2 week provides dues for three low-income children, allowing them to attend an after school program, or provides for 50 snack packs for children, who might not otherwise have food on the weekends.
* Giving $5 week provides delivery of 74 meals to the elderly in their homes, or helps six victims of domestic violence rebuild their lives.
* Giving $10 week provides help for one month’s utility bill for six families, or helps provide 40 prescriptions to individuals without insurance.
* Giving $20 per week provides one month’s scholarship for tuition for an infant in a high-quality learning environment, or provides adult day care services for an adult for one year, or supports one youth for one year of one-on-one mentoring.

Please help the needy in our community, and remember that you not need to give a lot to make an impact.