Labor Updates

(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)

President Barack Obama told the AFL-CIO Executive Council last week that he intends to pass the Employee Free Choice Act. “To me, and to my administration,” Obama said, “labor unions are a big part of the solution. We need to level the playing field for workers and the unions that represent their interests – because we cannot have a strong middle class without a strong labor movement.” Obama also ordered the Office of Management and Budget to undertake an in-depth review of the government's contracting efforts, including the outsourcing of work historically performed by federal employees. "We hope this is the end of the era of privatization during which agencies were forced to contract out regardless of cost or quality, and at the expense of integrity and accountability of federal programs," said John Gage, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, said in a story on Government Executive.com by Elizabeth Newell. - photo courtesy Corbis Images