IEA - A lot has happened in the past month...

I haven't written anything in a while, but in my defense, I was working on an election that ended last Wednesday night with a victory for adjunct faculty at Joliet Junior College. What have I missed in the past month?

Yesterday, longshoremen on the West Coast struck for one 8-hour shift to protest the war in Iraq. They're also in negotiations for a new contract, so the strike showcased their strength and militancy.
The Service Employees International Union has opened a two-front war on The California Nurses Association (CNA) as well as one of its own affiliates on the West Coast. This feud has even spilled over to this year's Labor Notes Convention, where SEIU members made their presence known, shouting down representatives from the CNA during workshops. In These Times has a great in-depth piece about the issues at stake.
Another Cal State University employee is being fired for refusing to sign a loyalty oath as a condition of her employment. You may remember that a Cal State graduate student won a termination grievance with the help of her union, the United Auto Workers over this same issue.
Home health care employees at Chicago’s Resurrection Hospital chain won over $300,000 in lost overtime wages. The hospitals had created a wage reported system that routinely cheated the workers out of their right to overtime pay. AFSCME has been engaged in a multi-year campaign to organize Resurrection’s health care employees.
Yesterday was May Day, celebrated around the world as International Labor Day.

That's about it for now. Let me know in comments if there's anything big in the labor world you want people to know about.

***This is huge. And amazing. New Jersey has passed a paid family leave law which entitles working families to 2/3rds of their earnings (up to $524 per week) while they undergo a medical leave. The benefit will be paid for through a payroll tax that will cost workers no more than $33 a year. Congrats to the New Jersey state AFL-CIO who has worked long and hard on this endeavor.***