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AFL-CIO NOW BLOG

• ‘Brotherhood Outdoors’ Takes Sheet Metal Worker on Bow Hunt for Elk
  

  On this week’s episode of “Brotherhood Outdoors,” Lee Hengsteler, a member of Sheet Metal Workers (SMWIA) Local 359 in Arizona, gets to realize a dream he’s had since he was 6 years old:  He heads to Montana to hunt elk.

  The show airs on the Sportsman Channel at 8 p.m. EST and PST every Thursday.

  His bow hunting expedition was made possible when his wife, Neva, applied to the show on his behalf. Says Hengsteler:

  People like me don’t win things like a guest shot on a nationally televised show, but Neva insisted on applying for me. I have one heck of a wife.

  The award-winning “Brotherhood Outdoors,” Union Sportsmen’s Alliance’s (USA‘s) hunting and fishing series pairs union members with renowned outdoorsman Tom Ackerman for a guided hunting or fishing trip in North America or the opportunity to show off their skills by taking Ackerman to their own favorite hunting or fishing sites.

  You can click here to apply to be a guest on “Brotherhood Outdoors.” Says Hengsteler:

  Tell all those union men and women out there to apply for a guest shot on “Brotherhood Outdoors,” and tell them they can win. I’m just a normal blue-collar working guy, and I won, thanks to my wife.

  Click here for more photos form his elk hunt and here for more on the hunt.

  
  
  
• Rep. Ellison Calls for End of Crystal Sugar Lockout
  

  Wednesday marked the six-month anniversary of America Crystal Sugar Co.’s lockout of 1,300 workers and Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) told the U.S. House: “It’s time for the company to negotiate.”

  In a speech on the House floor, Ellison said the workers, members of Bakery, Confectionary, Tobacco and Grain Millers (BCTGM) Local 167G at plant sin Minnesota, North Dakota and Iowa, have been

  denied the basic and most fundamental right to work and support their families. These workers have gone to bat for the company. These workers stood shoulder to should with the company to fight for a better sugar program in the farm bill just because that’s how dedicated they. What have they got in return? They’ve gotten locked out. They are not on strike. They are locked out because they refuse to accept an unfair take it or leave contract. They have been locked even though they have agreed to a no-strike guarantee.  It’s wrong, these 1,300 folks deserve better from this company.

  Locked out worker Jay Holter told Steve Share, editor of Minneapolis Labor Review,

  We’ve given the best we’ve got to this company and this is how we are treated. It’s probably only a year and a half ago the company gave us shirts that said, “You’re the best at what you do.”

  Click here for Share’s full update on the lockout.

   

   

  
  
  
• Hey, ALEC! Gotcha!
  

  Not that we ever believed right-wing lawmakers in the first place. But the cover’s been blown on all who claim that the extremist bills they introduce—uncannily similar from state to state—are the works of their own fertile but twisted minds.

  They fervently deny that the legislation designed to strip workers of their rights, voters of their franchise, bust unions and boost corporate profits and power are handouts from the American Legislative Exchange Council’s (ALEC’s) corporate power toolkit.

  Click here to take a look at a bill introduced last fall by Florida state Rep. Rachel Burgin (R) to reduce corporate taxes. Notice the second paragraph, “Whereas is the mission of the American Legislative Exchange Council….” That’s right ALEC’s mission statement is smack dab near the top of Burgin’s measure.

  The next day Burgin apparently realized she had left the smoking gun at the scene and withdrew the bill only to reintroduce it later with ALEC’s mission statement removed. H/t to Common Cause for uncovering the deception.