Democrats urged to back union rights

The AFL-CIO union federation president was responding to US Labour Department figures that revealed the past 10 years were a "lost decade" for US workers.

For the first time ever, there was zero net job creation during an entire decade.

In the 10 years from December 1999 more jobs were lost than created, while workers' wages registered a fall in real terms for the first time since the 1960s.

Labour Secretary Hilda Solis insisted that President Obama was determined to "turn this around" and added that her department was committed to "aggressively" enforcing workers' rights.

Highlighting bosses' widespread evasion of minimum wage and health and safety laws, Ms Solis, who is the daughter of two Latino union organisers, declared that the administration "will not rest until the law is followed by every employer."

"Each worker must be treated and compensated fairly," she stressed, announcing that the Labour Department was taking on 250 workplace inspectors to crack down on bosses cheating workers out of minimum wage and night-shift premium payments.

Ms Solis also revealed that the government had taken on 100 workplace safety inspectors and had begun targeting and fining companies with "egregious" health and safety violations.

She said it would also introduce rules forcing bosses to disclose whether they were employing union-busting "consultants" to undermine union organising campaigns.

AFL-CIO chief Mr Trumka welcomed the announcements and urged Congress, which is dominated by President Obama's Democrats, to follow through on a campaign promise to pass the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), which will give legal protection to activists trying to organise a union in their workplace.

"We need to give workers the ability to bargain for a fair share," the AFL-CIO leader asserted.

"That means passing EFCA to give workers the freedom to form a union and get a fair contract."