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The long list of social service and regulatory agency victims of Bush budget cuts now includes the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the federal agency that investigates claims of racial and gender bias on the job.

On May 5th, 2007, Phillip Hodges, a member of CWA Local 4100 and a Construction and Special Services (CSS) Technician employed by at&t, suffered fatal injuries when he fell from a ladder while performing work on an outdoor residential telecommunications cable/strand. After hearing Brother Hodges fall to the ground, the customer contacted emergency medical services. In turn, Phillip was taken to Sinai-Grace Hospital in Detroit.

Last January, they had demonstrated outside the state capital over their low salaries – and this week 30 Local 2055 members in Charleston, W.Va. rallied at the same spot to thank lawmakers and the governor for boosting pay for corrections officers by $2,000 with the prospect of another $3,000 the next two years.

Seeking fair wages and job security, 76 of the 91 workers at the AT&T Local Services customer service maintenance center in Monmouth Junction, N.J., gained representation with CWA Local 1150 under the union's card check and neutrality agreement with the AT&T. The workers' majority union support was certified on May 1 by the American Arbitration Association.

IBM has quietly laid off more than 1,300 workers in the U.S. over the past week as part of its ongoing effort to shift work to low-wage workers in India, China and Brazil.