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>More that a thousand employees at hip clothing retailer H&M finally have a union contract! Workers at Manhattan H&M stores were organized by Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union Local 1102 and, as a result of the new contract, will have a 3% wage increase per year and scheduling protection, among other benefits.

The H&M organizing effort involved majority sign-up, where a majority of H&M employees signed union cards to gain recognition. Sometimes called “card check,” majority sign-up is a provision of the Employee Free Choice Act which, if passed, would make it easier for more workers to get a union the way that the H&M workers did.

The majority sign-up model used to organize at H&M allowed workers to form a union more quickly than they would otherwise have been able to.

UFCW congratulates the members of RWDSU Local 1102 on their new contract!

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U.S. Court Circuit Judge Sonia Sotomayor’s nomination to the SCOTUS is praiseworthy for many reasons. She’s bright, she seems fair-minded, she’s got lots of experience, not to mention a compelling personal story for women, Hispanics, and all who aspire to the American Dream.

Sotomayor was:

raised in a housing project in New York’s South Bronx by Puerto Rican parents who came to the United States during World War II. Her father was a factory worker who had a third-grade education and spoke no English. He died when she was 9, a year after she was diagnosed with Type 1, or juvenile, diabetes.

Sotomayor said she was strongly influenced by her mother, who served in the Women’s Army Corps and often worked two jobs to support Sotomayor and her brother, Juan.

“I have often said that I am all I am because of her, and I am only half the woman she is,” Sotomayor said, recognizing her mother and other family members seated in the audience as the president announced her nomination.

And she just happens to be fair-minded when it comes to labor laws, too. AFL-CIO President John Sweeney on Sotomayor:

Sotomayor has consistently interpreted our labor laws in the manner in which they were intended. She has enforced the right to be free of all types of discrimination in the workplace, to be paid the correct wages and to receive health benefits to which employees are entitled. She has recognized that persecution for union activity can be a basis for granting asylum in
this country.

Congratulations to Sotomayor, and to Obama for a wise choice. For many reasons.

>The battle on health care is heating up between Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill. Republicans have proposed a health care plan with numerous flaws that will continue to hurt working America. Among other problems with their health care plan: they want employer provided benefits to be taxed as income to help fund the nation’s health care system.

Every 30 seconds someone goes bankrupt due to the high cost of health care. Taxing health care benefits this will only extend the current crisis.

Republicans also believe implementing a “trigger” proposal will help the health care crisis. Of course, a trigger proposal is not effective if the trigger never gets pulled. What this plan is really doing is not giving people the freedom to choose a health care plan that they feel best suits them and their needs and raising the cost of much needed health insurance.

This is not the correct approach to mending the broken health care system. It will only continue to drive more people away from affordable health insurance. Having a health care plan where no one is left out is what we truly need. People should have options when it comes to health care such as private insurance plans, keeping your current plan, or public health insurance that offers affordable coverage.

Help us fight on the right side of the health care debate. Join President Obama and Health Care for America Now in the fight for quality, affordable health care for all at Health Care for America Now!