Audio File Of The Week- WIN Radio- UAW-American Axle strike, WI nurses, online rally for paid sick days and news about Obama regarding NAFTA

*Click to listen to 2:59 minute program

This weeks audio file of the week is from WIN: Workers Independent News, this weeks show highlights:

• Economic Report: Low-Tech Budgeting 101 - 02/29/08
• First National Online Rally For Paid Sick Days Launches Today - 02/29/08

You can be a part of the online rally by checking out the National Partnership for Woman and Families Everyone Gets Sick website

• Wisconsin Nurses Urging State Legislature To Ban Mandatory Overtime - 02/29/08
• UAW American Axle Strike Begins To Shut Down GM Plants - 02/29/08

The UAW strike at American Axle is shutting down GM plants. Truck plants in Pontiac & Flint, Michigan, Fort Wayne, Indiana and Oshawa, Ontario are being idled due to parts shortages. The UAW strike was triggered by an attack on wages and benefits. The unfair labor practices strike came after American Axle refused to provide the UAW with detailed financial information. The company wants wages cut in half and wants to wipe out pensions and health benefits for future retirees.

Another story of interest is that of Obama, which can be read here:

• Is Obama Telling U.S. Voters One Thing And The Canadian Government Another On NAFTA?

Canada’s CTV News says a senior economic advisor to Barack Obama’s campaign phoned the Canadian ambassador to the U.S. and told him that Obama’s anti-NAFTA statements are just campaign rhetoric not to be taken seriously. CTV says Austan Goolsbee, a free trader economist at the University of Chicago, made the call. Rick Sloan of the International Association of Machinists says it’s outrageous.

[Sloan]: “I think this story has such powerful resonance that if it’s out people are going to stop and say wait a second. Now, he tells us one thing, but before he tells us that he signals the Canadian government that it’s only just campaign rhetoric? That’s unconscionable.”

The Obama campaign denies that it’s saying one thing in public on NAFTA and secretly communicating the opposite to Canada’s government. But CTV News stands by its story, citing sources at the highest level of the Canadian government.

Heres some more headlines from WIN:

• Federal workers at Laguna Niquel gear up for elections - 02/27/08
• Economic Report: U.S. Dollar Is World Currency 98- lb Weakling - 02/28/08
• SEIU Pours Money And People Power Into Texas And Ohio For Obama - 02/28/08
• Striking Puerto Rican Teachers Union Decertification Upheld By Appellate Court - 02/28/08
• Public Health Worker Crisis Looms In U.S. - 02/28/08
• Economic Report: U.S. Economy Takes Triple Whammy - 02/27/08
• UAW Strikes American Axle As Company Seeks To Destroy Wages & Benefits - 02/27/08
• California Labor Federation backs Bill Guaranteeing Paid Sick Days - 02/27/08
• Crandall Mine Owner Subpoenaed By U.S. House - 02/27/08
• Economic Report: Existing Home Sales Fall To Lowest Level Since 1999 - 02/26/08
• Unions Wrestle With Airline Merger Issues - 02/26/08
• 48 Million U.S. Workers Are Missing Out On Good Middle Class Jobs - 02/26/08
• After Contentious Campaign Nurses at Parkview Community Hospital Join Union - 02/25/08
• Date Set for Consideration of GM Retiree Health Care Trust - 02/25/08
• WIN Week In Review February 22-242008

Be sure to check out last weeks audio file: Building Bridges Radio on Labor's agenda fighting corporate greed- Where Ken Knash and Mimi Rosenberg interview Richard Trumpka, Secretary Treasurer of the AFL-CIO and William Scheuerman, Pres. National Labor College, on labor's agenda in fighting corporate greed.

More news about the American Axle strike can be found at the AFL-CIO WebBlog:
American Axle Workers Strike