10/21/2024 - 6:00pm
Pushing and Kicking Those Doors Open: The Working People Weekly List
Every week, we bring you a roundup of the top news and commentary about issues and events important to working families. Here’s the latest edition of the Working People Weekly List.
Biden Cancels $4.5 Billion in Student Debt for Over 60,000 Public Service Workers: “President Joe Biden on Thursday said an additional $4.5 billion in student debt is being canceled for about 60,000 teachers, nurses, firefighters and others, bringing the number of public service workers to get relief during his administration to more than 1 million. More than $73 billion in loans have been forgiven under a 2007 initiative, according to an Education Department news release. Borrowers eligible for the latest round of relief should learn of their debt being cleared in coming weeks.”
Boston Teachers Push for Better Wages and Working Conditions with More ‘Walk-Ins': “Boston teachers held ‘walk-ins’ outside five schools across the district Thursday morning as they continue rallying support amid ongoing contract negotiations. The Boston Teachers Union is fighting for better pay for teachers and paraprofessionals. They’re also asking for what they’re calling ‘inclusion done right’—they say the district needs to properly staff the inclusion model used in classrooms for students with special needs and English Language Learners. The union, whose contract expired on Aug. 31 right before the start of the new school year, has been in negotiations with Boston Public Schools since February. Right now, 8,000 educators are without a contract in the district.”
Harris, Culinary Local 226 Are Mobilizing Their Efforts for Election Day Push in Nevada: “Before her nationally televised town hall in Las Vegas last week, Vice President Kamala Harris took part in a more private meeting. The Democratic presidential nominee made a visit to the headquarters of Culinary Union Local 226 and Bartenders Union Local 165, taking photos with members and speaking about her proposals, including to tackle housing costs and price gouging. It was also an opportunity for her to remind the powerful union of their shared interests in continuing their work this fall to elect her to the White House.”
Grad Students Are Unionizing in Droves. Can Postdocs Lead the Next Wave?: “When Marjorie Levinstein, 35, began working as a postdoctoral fellow at the National Institute on Drug Abuse in 2021, she knew from the outset that she wanted to advocate for her fellow postdocs. At the University of Washington, where she had received her PhD in neuroscience, she saw firsthand ‘how the union really fought to improve our lives.’ But the unionization movement at her new employer, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), didn’t have that infrastructure. In July 2021, it amounted to ‘five people on a Zoom call,’ Levinstein told The Nation. Now, she’s fighting for her union’s first contract in an over-5,000-strong collective bargaining unit, which won its vote by a nearly 98% margin last year.”
Petitions for Union Representation Doubled Under Biden’s Presidency, First Increase Since 1970s: “There has been a doubling of petitions by workers to have union representation during President Joe Biden’s administration, according to figures released Tuesday by the National Labor Relations Board. There were 3,286 petitions filed with the government in fiscal 2024, up from 1,638 in 2021. This marks the first increase in unionization petitions during a presidential term since Gerald Ford’s administration, which ended 48 years ago. During Trump’s presidency, union petitions declined 22%. President Joe Biden said in a statement obtained by The Associated Press that the increase showed that his administration has done more for workers than his predecessor, Donald Trump, the current Republican nominee who is vying to return to the White House in November’s election.”
More Black and Latina Women Are Leading Unions—and Transforming How They Work: “‘Momentum for Black and Latina women rising into labor union leadership has picked up in the last five years. But the work began long before that by ‘our foremothers who laid this foundation and have been pushing and kicking those doors open for decades,’ according to Liz Shuler, who in June 2022 became the first woman to lead the AFL-CIO, a federation of 60 national and international labor unions. ‘The #MeToo movement, I think, has really emboldened women across the board, including in labor, to say, “You know what? I’m not going to be sitting on the sidelines,’” Shuler said. The pandemic also put a spotlight on essential workers such as nurses, service workers, and care workers, who are predominantly women and minorities.”
Hotel Workers Campaign Among Latino Voters in Arizona: “‘Hello, housekeeping!’ she called, breaking into a laugh upon realizing her mistake. The 57-year-old is a member of UNITE HERE, the hospitality union, and had taken a leave of absence from her job at a nearby Hilton to go door-to-door to keep Arizona blue. ‘I like to step back and wait, so they think I’ve left,’ she said. ‘Then they open the door and here I am.’”
'A True Hero': Pay Equity Crusader Lilly Ledbetter Dies at 86: “Labor unions and women's advocacy groups on Monday paid tribute to Lilly Ledbetter, the former Goodyear employee whose fight for equal pay made it all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court and Congress, after her death at the age of 86—with economic justice advocates hailing Ledbetter as ‘an icon.’ ‘Lilly Ledbetter simply wanted to be paid the same as her male Goodyear co-workers,’ said the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) on social media. But to workers who have benefited from the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009, added the union, ‘she was a true hero.’”
Kenneth Quinnell
Mon, 10/21/2024 - 15:35
10/18/2024 - 4:30pm
Service & Solidarity Spotlight: Montana Cannabis Workers Make History by Joining UFCW
Working people across the United States regularly step up to help out our friends, neighbors and communities during these trying times. In our Service & Solidarity Spotlight series, we’ll showcase one of these stories every day. Here’s today’s story.
Cannabis workers at two Honey Sour dispensaries in uptown and downtown Butte, Montana, late last month voted to join United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 1889.
This election victory marks the first time Montana cannabis workers have successfully organized since the legalization of cannabis in the state three years ago. Staff initially reached out to the union with concerns about workplace safety issues—including mold and lack of running water—job security, customer well-being and more. Now members are looking forward to bargaining with Honey Sour to secure the fair working conditions that reflect their dedication and expertise.
“I am incredibly proud to announce this historic achievement for us cannabis workers in Montana,” said Milo Vukovich, a Honey Sour dispensary worker. “Through today’s victory, we hope that we can pave the way for all cannabis workers in the state to receive the representation and benefits they deserve. This milestone shows just how powerful we are when we stand together, regardless of the industry.”
Kenneth Quinnell
Fri, 10/18/2024 - 09:24
10/17/2024 - 3:30pm
Service & Solidarity Spotlight: St. Charles Bend Techs Ratify New 3-Year Contract
Working people across the United States regularly step up to help out our friends, neighbors and communities during these trying times. In our Service & Solidarity Spotlight series, we’ll showcase one of these stories every day. Here’s today’s story.
Nearly 200 employees from the technical bargaining unit at St. Charles Bend ratified a union contract with 100% of workers voting in favor of the deal. These health care workers are members of the Oregon Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals (AFT Local 5017). The contract includes raises, cost of living adjustments, a predictable pay scale that determines raises according to years of tenure and experience, improved language governing time off, reformed disciplinary procedures, and language to protect workers if St. Charles is ever sold to a new hospital system.
“The ratification of our new contract is a positive step forward, one that will serve our community through better recruitment and retention of highly skilled health providers,” said Tyler Ecklund, a nuclear medicine technologist and member of the union’s bargaining team.
Kenneth Quinnell
Thu, 10/17/2024 - 11:38
10/16/2024 - 2:30pm
One Day Longer, One Day Stronger: What Working People Are Doing This Week
Welcome to our regular feature, a look at what the various AFL-CIO unions and other working family organizations are doing across the country and beyond. The labor movement is big and active—here's a look at the broad range of activities we're engaged in this week.
Actors' Equity:
AFGE:
AFSCME:
Alliance for Retired Americans:
Amalgamated Transit Union:
American Federation of Teachers:
10/16/2024 - 2:30pm
Service & Solidarity Spotlight: Culinary Union Reaches Tentative 4-Year Deal with Eataly at Park MGM on the Las Vegas Strip
Working people across the United States regularly step up to help out our friends, neighbors and communities during these trying times. In our Service & Solidarity Spotlight series, we’ll showcase one of these stories every day. Here’s today’s story.
UNITE HERE's Culinary Union announced a tentative agreement with Eataly Las Vegas at Park MGM on a four-year contract. It is the first union contract for Eataly, which opened in December 2018. The contract, which covers 130 workers, will bring raises averaging $10 an hour for cooks and $3 for fountain workers. The contract also includes access to the Culinary Health Fund, protections for owners and successorship, and strengthened protections against sexual harassment and other issues.
“Eataly Las Vegas workers are the first workers to win union recognition, but they won’t be the last,” said Culinary Secretary-Treasurer Ted Pappageorge. “Currently, we have strong organizing campaigns continuing at Alexxa’s at Paris Las Vegas and Citizens at Mandalay Bay, and Culinary Union will launch more non-union restaurant organizing drives over the next coming months. We won’t stop organizing until we win higher standards for non-union restaurant workers across the Las Vegas Strip.”
Kenneth Quinnell
Tue, 10/15/2024 - 10:35
10/16/2024 - 2:30pm
Service & Solidarity Spotlight: United Health Professionals of New Mexico Members Ratify Contract
Working people across the United States regularly step up to help out our friends, neighbors and communities during these trying times. In our Service & Solidarity Spotlight series, we’ll showcase one of these stories every day. Here’s today’s story.
Members of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) affiliate, United Health Professionals of New Mexico (UHPNM), ratified a contract Sunday with the University of New Mexico Sandoval Regional Medical Center (UNM SRMC).
The union includes nurses and other health professionals who work at UNM SRMC and have been fighting for better working conditions and improved patient safety. Highlights of the agreement include wins like wage increases, job protections, the establishment of a labor-management committee that will look into safe staffing ratios and other ways to improve patient healing conditions, and more.
“This contract represents basic respect for hospital professionals who work tirelessly for their patients,” said AFT President Randi Weingarten. “It shouldn’t have been so hard to get to this place, and the workers’ tenacity and the public’s support for their current or future caregivers moved the needle and resulted in this contract. We need hospitals to work collaboratively with their front-line workers and respect their input. When that happens, workers and patients are better off.”
Kenneth Quinnell
Wed, 10/16/2024 - 10:05
10/15/2024 - 1:30pm
Organize, Organize, Organize: In the States Roundup
It's time once again to take a look at the ways working people are making progress in the states. Click on any of the links to follow the state federations on X (formerly Twitter).
Arizona AFL-CIO:
This morning we joined our fellow #UnionSiblings for a Labor Rally and canvass launch at Arizona Education Assiciation in support of Kamala Harris and Tim Walz!
— Arizona AFL-CIO (@ArizonaAFLCIO) October 12, 2024
California Labor Federation, AFL-CIO:
Check the @aFairHotel website to see all properties that are on strike or in risk of being out on strike! https://t.co/vy6YIK599B https://t.co/vGtnviiCAI
— California Federation of Labor Unions (@CaliforniaLabor) October 14, 2024
Colorado AFL-CIO:
Sign up link in our bio!
10/11/2024 - 5:30pm
Defending Workers' Rights: The Working People Weekly List
Every week, we bring you a roundup of the top news and commentary about issues and events important to working families. Here’s the latest edition of the Working People Weekly List.
Every week, we bring you a roundup of the top news and commentary about issues and events important to working families. Here’s the latest edition of the Working People Weekly List.
Union Leaders Talking with Workers at the Gordie Howe Bridge, Letting Them Know What’s at Stake in the Election: “The president of the AFL-CIO is here in Detroit, on a side street, really, Cavalry Street, off of Ford Street, right at the foot of the Gordie Howe International Bridge. Liz Shuler—she’s talking to Teamsters, operating engineers, 13 different trades unions that are represented here working on the Gordie Howe International Bridge, and like the rest of us, she’s heard the reports that, you know, leadership obviously supports Harris. Some membership doesn’t. She’s not surprised: ‘Just like the country, the labor movement has people with very diverse political beliefs. But what we do is look at the issues. So if a candidate is supporting things like prevailing wage requirements and project labor agreements on a construction site, we want to make sure that those workers know which candidate is actually defending their rights.’”
AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler from Union Headquarters in Washington, D.C., Talking Up Vice President Harris to Trades Workers: “Michigan remains a battleground state in the 2024 presidential election. AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler from union headquarters in Washington, D.C., talking up Vice President Harris to trades workers before their shifts on the Gordie Howe bridge this morning: ‘We want to make sure that those workers know which candidate is actually defending their rights. Who will protect their contract, who will make it easier to join a union, not harder? And since these are unionized workers, we know their union contract means a lot to them, and so we want to make sure they’re aware of where these candidates stand when it comes to union issues.’ Shuler telling us that Harris’ record has earned union members’ support. It’s the first time in recent memory the president of the AFL-CIO has been here personally in Michigan to push for or against a presidential candidate.”
In Support of the Harris–Walz Campaign, AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler Meeting with Detroit-Area Union Members in Construction Trades: “Happening now in support of the Harris–Walz campaign: AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler meeting with Detroit-area union members in construction trades. This is happening at the Gordie Howe International Bridge. They’re talking about what’s at stake for workers this election. About 1 in 5 voters in Michigan will be union voters during this election, which is a key topic.”
Project 2025 Would Erode Labor Rights and Roll Back Child Labor Laws: “On this edition of Your Call, we’re continuing our series on Project 2025 by discussing what the rightwing roadmap means for workers, labor rights, and the right to unionize. Donald Trump says he’s pro-worker, but during his first four years as president, he was anti-worker and anti-union. The National Labor [Relations Board] members he appointed ‘made it more difficult for unions to win representation at nonunion workplaces’ and the Trump Supreme Court ‘issued a devastating ruling against public sector unions’ that made it ‘easier for government employees nationwide to not pay union dues even if their workplace is unionized,’ according to CNN. A second Trump administration stands to be even worse. Project 2025 includes provisions to cut overtime pay for millions of workers and suggests that Congress should consider getting rid of public sector unions altogether. It would also roll back workplace safety laws, including those that protect children.”
Hotel Workers Knock on a Million Doors, Targeting Latinos, to Keep Arizona Blue for Kamala Harris: “Maria Romero became a U.S. citizen in 2016 to vote against Donald Trump, offended by his characterization of Mexicans as criminals and rapists. Adversity motivates her, she said. Now, the hotel housekeeper is pounding the scorching Phoenix pavement, pushing back against growing support among Latinos for Trump, who now leads polling in the key swing state Biden won in the last presidential election.”
U.S. Unions Step Up Efforts to Make Case That Trump Is No Friend of Workers: “‘Trump has found ways to break through with working people,’ Liz Shuler, president of the AFL-CIO, the nation’s main labor federation, told the Guardian. ‘He has the rhetoric down, but he doesn’t have the results to back it up. That’s why it’s important that we, as messengers, combat that with facts.’ The AFL-CIO is urging the nation’s 14.4 million union members to look at its ‘candidate comparison’ website, which makes the case that Trump is anti-union. He crossed a union picket line, praised the idea of firing workers who are on strike, and often used non-union workers at his construction sites.”
AFL-CIO Leads Union Women in Massive Mobilization for the Election: “Quoting Trump’s saying ‘I have the concepts for a plan’ to replace the Obama-era Affordable Care Act, Shuler deadpanned ‘That’s the equivalent of saying “The dog ate my homework.”’ Junking the ACA and turning health back over to rapacious insurers who reap workers’ dollars through high premiums and co-pays while denying care has been a longtime Republican goal.”
Harris Vote Is a ‘No Brainer’ for Transport Workers: Transport Workers Union’s John Samuelsen: “John Samuelsen, international president of the Transport Workers Union, joins CNBC’s ‘The Exchange’ to discuss why the union is backing Kamala Harris in the election, the threat of automation in the transportation sector, and more.”
Biden Announces 10-Year Deadline to Replace All Lead Pipes Throughout the U.S.: “President Biden on Tuesday announced $2.6 billion in funding to replace all lead pipes in the United States as part of a new EPA rule that will require lead pipes to be identified and replaced within 10 years using the new funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act. The EPA estimates that nine million homes in the U.S. have lead pipes. The city of Milwaukee, where Mr. Biden is making the announcement, has 65,000 lead pipes, which the city says will cost an estimated $700 million to remove.”
More Black and Latina Women Are Leading Unions—And Transforming How They Work: “Momentum for Black and Latina women rising into labor union leadership has picked up in the last five years. But the work began long before that by ‘our foremothers who laid this foundation and have been pushing and kicking those doors open for decades,’ according to Liz Shuler, who in June 2022 became the first woman in history to lead the AFL-CIO, a federation of 60 national and international labor unions.”
Jobs Report Blows Past Expectations, Showing Hiring Surge: “U.S. hiring surged in September, blowing past economist expectations and rebuking concern about weakness in the labor market. The fresh report marks one of the last major pieces of economic data before the presidential election. Employers hired 254,000 workers last month, far exceeding economist expectations of 150,000 jobs added, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data showed. The unemployment rate ticked down to 4.1%.”
Kenneth Quinnell
Thu, 10/10/2024 - 12:56
10/11/2024 - 5:30pm
Service & Solidarity Action: Join the Picket and Support Fired Dancers!
Working people across the United States regularly step up to help out our friends, neighbors and communities during these trying times. In our Service & Solidarity Spotlight series, we’ll showcase one of these stories every day. Here’s today’s story.
Dancers at the Dallas Black Dance Theatre (DBDT) organized and unanimously voted for a union with the American Guild of Musical Artists (AGMA) back in May. Then, DBDT did the unthinkable: It fired the entire troupe and hired nonunion replacements. Join us on the picket lines to support the DBDT-fired dancers as we demand fairness. AGMA, the dancers, our affiliated unions and community allies will be on the line, sending a clear message to DBDT: Union-busting is disgusting, and it will not stand.
When: Oct. 11–12, 2024, at 6:30 p.m. CT
Where: One Arts Plaza, 1722 Routh St., Dallas, TX 75201
Register here.
Kenneth Quinnell
Fri, 10/11/2024 - 09:38
10/10/2024 - 5:30pm
Service & Solidarity Spotlight: Mission Nurses Reach New Contract Agreement with HCA
Working people across the United States regularly step up to help out our friends, neighbors and communities during these trying times. In our Service & Solidarity Spotlight series, we’ll showcase one of these stories every day. Here’s today’s story.
A little over a month after Mission Health registered nurses (RNs) voted to authorize a strike, they announced that they had ratified a new three-year contract with HCA. The contract will improve patient safety and nurse retention. The 1,600 nurses, who are represented by the National Nurses Organizing Committee/National Nurses United (NNOC/NNU), said the highlights of the contract include substantial wage increases, new measures that will ensure that nurses are “floated” (temporarily reassigned) to units similar to their normal specialty and the ability of nurses to use preferred names and add personal pronouns to name badges.
“We are excited to have this new contract and ensure that our hospital is on a path to taking the best possible care of our patients and community,” said Huns Brown, an RN working in Mission Health’s pulmonary progressive care unit, in the release. “The devastation Hurricane Helene brought to our region underscores how Mission being the best possible version of itself is more important than ever.”
Kenneth Quinnell
Thu, 10/10/2024 - 10:02