Dozens of retired US Airways employees traveled to a courtroom in Alexandria, Virginia this week, where a judge is weighing a bid by the airline to abrogate labor contracts and eliminate retiree health care benefits.

Retirees Confront US Airways Execs at Courthouse

Dozens of retired US Airways employees from Pennsylvania, Delaware and New Jersey traveled to a courtroom in Alexandria, VA this week, where Judge Stephen Mitchell is weighing a bid by the airline to abrogate labor contracts and eliminate retiree health care benefits.

The IAM retirees aimed poignant signs at US Airways’ executives as they arrived at the courthouse for the latest bankruptcy hearing. “Let us die with dignity – don’t cut off our health benefits,” declared one handmade poster. “US Airways needs to restructure from the top – not the bottom,” read another.

The courtroom quickly filled with reporters, attorneys and spectators as the high stakes hearing got underway. But it was the rows of stern-faced seniors sitting shoulder to shoulder that put a human face on the legal proceedings. “They’re trying to take our benefits away,” said Paul Illian, a retiree who worked at US Airways for 31 years. “That’s what we’re fighting here. Win or lose, we’re not going down without a fight."

US Airways claims it needs more than $1 billion in new concessions from all labor groups, including pilots, flight attendants and ground personnel. A ruling on the airline’s motion could come at any time. Click here to view Don't Take Away Our Medical Benefits, an IAM video of the courthouse rally.

Unions Oppose NMB Bid to Silence Safety Concerns

Lawmakers and unions are lining up to block the National Mediation Board’s (NMB) plan to suppress rail workers from speaking out on critical issues of working conditions, safety and pay.

More than 120 U.S. Representatives wrote the NMB to oppose the agency’s plan that would require new ‘filing fees’ as a means to stifle employee complaints about unsafe and unfair conduct by rail management. A number of key senators, including Senators Specter (R-PA), Harkin (D-IA) and Kennedy (D-MA) also sent letters in opposition to the NMB proposal.

“This growing momentum on Capitol Hill is shining a light on the fact that government officials are doing the bidding of giant railroad companies,” said Edward Wytkind, President of the AFL-CIO’s Transportation Trades Department, representing 35 member unions in aviation, rail, transit and maritime related industries.

Federal Workers’ Free Speech Rights at Risk

The Department of Homeland Security has issued a chilling new directive that requires federal workers to sign a “secrecy pledge” that forbids them from releasing unclassified information to the public. The new directive also allows the government to search workers’ homes and belongings for any unclassified information an employee may have.

“This directive places significant and unwarranted limits on the free speech rights of hundreds of thousands of federal workers,” said Frank Carelli, Director of IAM Government Employees Dept. “We reject the suggestion that federal workers are somehow less trustworthy or loyal than any other U.S. citizen. The idea that government employees should lose their rights in the name of preserving our nation’s security is outrageous.”

In the past, such secrecy pledges were only required for classified information. Unions representing federal workers are calling on outgoing Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge to rescind the order.

GOP Prepares for ‘Nuclear Option’ over Judges

In a bare knuckle bid for unprecedented control over the confirmation of future Supreme Court nominees, GOP leaders are preparing to eliminate a tradition of minority dissent that goes back more than two hundred years.

Since 2000, Democrats used the filibuster procedure to keep debate open and block confirmation votes on just 10 of the president’s 229 judicial nominees. Despite the highest success rate ever for presidential nominees, Senate majority leader Bill Frist (R-TN) recently called filibusters a “formula for tyranny by the minority” and declared “one way or another, the filibuster of judicial nominees must end.”

Under the GOP power play, Vice President Cheney, as the Senate’s presiding officer, would declare that filibusters against judicial nominees are unconstitutional. Following an all but certain appeal, it would only take a simple majority of 51 votes to uphold Cheney’s ruling – far less than the 67 votes normally needed to change Senate rules.

The change would have far-reaching implications for cases involving women’s rights, worker’s rights and civil rights that come before the courts. Incoming Senate Minority leader Harry Reid (D-NV) promised severe consequences if the GOP moved to end filibusters for judicial nominees. “They will rue the day they did it, because we will do whatever we can to strike back,” warned Reid.

Author Thomas Frank Named ‘Working Class Hero’

The author of “What’s the Matter With Kansas,” was a featured speaker at the recent meeting of the JOBS NOW Coalition in St. Paul, MN, where he was also among five recipients of the organization’s annual “Working Class Hero” award.

Thomas Frank said the real divide in the United States is not between red states and blue states, but between ordinary Americans and wealthy corporations who use divisive social issues to advance a business-friendly economic agenda. “Cultural anger is marshaled to achieve economic ends,” said Frank, whose books expose the corporate agenda behind the “fake populism” of the conservative right wing.

The author’s latest book, “What’s the Matter With Kansas,” analyzed the tendency of large numbers of people to vote against their own economic self-interest in the name of cultural issues such as abortion, gay rights and prayer in the public schools.

Deficit Soars as Fed Boosts Interest Rate

The Federal Reserve raised the benchmark interest rate for a fifth time to 2.25 percent just hours after reports that the October U.S. trade deficit shot up 9 percent, to a monthly record of $55.5 billion.

Continued demand for Chinese imports and the high cost of oil contributed to the growing deficit, which was much larger than the $52.4 billion Wall Street analysts were expecting.

In addition to the deficit, the falling value of the U.S. dollar could impact future interest rates in two ways: it would push up inflation, or foreign investors could start demanding higher interest rates on Treasury bonds and other securities to offset a potential slide in the value of American assets.

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