08/15/2025 - 11:30am
Worker Wins: A Tremendous Step Forward
Our latest roundup of worker wins includes numerous examples of working people organizing, bargaining and mobilizing for a better life.
Child Care Providers United Secure New Tentative Agreement with California: Members of Child Care Providers United (CCPU)—which represents approximately 60,000 home-based child care providers in California—have reached a tentative agreement with the state. The union is a partnership between Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 99, SEIU Local 521 and United Domestic Workers of America, UDW/AFSCME Local 3930. Child care workers are among the lowest-paid workers in the country—and because home-based providers in California are classified as small business owners, they also don’t have access to employer-provided benefits. After CCPU won the right to collectively bargain in 2019, it secured the establishment of a retirement fund and other major wins. The new agreement covering CCPU members ensures the retention of those retirement, health care and training benefits, a cost-of-living adjustment, and stabilization payments that will help prevent child care provider closures. “In these times in which healthcare is under attack by the federal government in the form of Medicaid cuts, which of course is Medi-Cal for us, it’s significant to have a benefit like that so they can take care of themselves and their families as they continue to do this work,” said Max Arias, CCPU chairperson and chief negotiator.
NABTU, TVA and Tennessee Department of Labor Launch Apprenticeship Partnership to Empower Former Foster Youth: North America’s Building Trades Unions (NABTU), the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) and the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development announced the creation of the Forever Family Apprentice Partnership last week. This initiative will provide former foster youth with career pathways to the union construction and energy industries. The groundbreaking deal was signed at the 2025 Tennessee Valley Trades and Labor Council (TVTLC)/TVA Labor Management Conference. It outlines a shared commitment to provide former foster youth access to NABTU’s apprenticeship programs with gold standard training that will lead to long-term career stability, quality wages and benefits, mentorship, and professional development. “This is what it looks like to build futures and community at the same time,” said NABTU President Sean McGarvey. “Building Trades Registered Apprenticeship is a pathway to the middle class. With this initiative, we’re giving young people from the foster system not just an opportunity to work, but an opportunity to belong—to be part of a Forever Family that supports them with the best trade skills and a family-sustaining career.”
Enoch Pratt Free Library Staff Members Ratify First Contract: AFSCME Council 3-represented workers at the Enoch Pratt Free Library (EPFL) system in Baltimore have successfully ratified their first union contract after almost two years of negotiations. The agreement between Pratt Workers United—formed under Council 3—and the historic public library system marks their first union contract, which covers more than 300 staff across all 22 locations in the city. The bargaining unit is inclusive of a wide range of essential roles such as librarians, office technicians, custodial staff, security personnel and others. Highlights of the agreement include a $1,000 ratification bonus, improved health and safety protections, anti-discrimination provisions and other critical wins. “It’s about time my co-workers and I have a formal agreement that guarantees we have a voice on the job,” said office technician Dominic Serino in an AFSCME blog post. “We’re the ones doing the work every day, and this agreement recognizes the vast amount of experience and knowledge we bring to our work and the communities we serve.”
Workers at Chicago’s City Bureau Win Union Recognition: After going public in July with their campaign to join The Chicago News Guild, The NewsGuild-CWA (TNG-CWA) Local 34071, staff at City Bureau are now celebrating securing voluntary recognition from their employer. All eligible workers at the Chicago-based nonprofit newsroom—across every department that plays a role in editorial work, programming and operations—unanimously signed union authorization cards when they sought recognition. Members of City Bureau Workers Guild now are shifting their attention toward negotiating a collective bargaining agreement with provisions that will help strengthen the newsroom and build a sustainable, fair and equitable workplace. “We look forward to beginning the bargaining process and co-creating an equitable contract that serves workers and the organization we all love,” the City Bureau Workers Guild organizing committee said in a social media statement. “Building a strong, unionized workplace is a journey, and we’ve just taken a major step to bolster our collective power.”
UFCW, RWDSU and REI Co-Op Reach Agreement Outlining a Path Forward for Contract Bargaining: The United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW), the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union-UFCW (RWDSU-UFCW), and outdoor recreation retailer REI announced last week that they have reached an agreement to establish a bargaining structure for union storefronts across the country. Members of REI Union have been fighting for a first contract for three years that addresses low wages, understaffing and unpredictable shift hours. However, workers say management has been slow-walking negotiations and bargaining in bad faith. The agreement came out of joint meetings in late July in Chicago where workers also secured progress on several key issues. As a result, REI will now retroactively provide wage increases and bonuses to workers at union-represented stores—benefits they had previously been denied—while the union will drop active ULP charges filed with the National Labor Relations Board. “We want what’s best for all REI workers, our customers, and the co-op,” said the REI Union bargaining committee. “This agreement is a tremendous step forward in negotiating a first contract, and we look forward to continuing to bargain with REI.”
Kenneth Quinnell
Thu, 08/14/2025 - 10:14
Tags:
Organizing
08/14/2025 - 4:30pm
Service & Solidarity Spotlight: Child Care Providers United Secure New Tentative Agreement with California
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 Child Care Providers United (CCPU)—which represents approximately 60,000 home-based child care providers in California—have reached a tentative agreement with the state.
The union is a partnership between Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 99, SEIU Local 521 and United Domestic Workers of America, UDW/AFSCME Local 3930. Child care workers are among the lowest-paid workers in the country—and because home-based providers in California are classified as small business owners, they also don’t have access to employer-provided benefits. After CCPU won the right to collectively bargain in 2019, it secured the establishment of a retirement fund and other major wins. The new agreement covering CCPU members ensures the retention of those retirement, health care and training benefits, a cost-of-living adjustment, and stabilization payments that will help prevent child care provider closures.
“In these times in which healthcare is under attack by the federal government in the form of Medicaid cuts, which of course is Medi-Cal for us, it’s significant to have a benefit like that so they can take care of themselves and their families as they continue to do this work,” said Max Arias, CCPU chairperson and chief negotiator.
Kenneth Quinnell
Thu, 08/14/2025 - 09:56
08/13/2025 - 9:30pm
AFL-CIO Bus Tour: Harrisburg Workers Demand Accountability from Rep. Scott Perry for Selling Out Working Class
The AFL-CIO’s “It’s Better In a Union” tour bus joined AFSCME members and state Sen. Patty Kim for a press conference in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, on Tuesday to hold Rep. Scott Perry accountable for his vote on President Trump’s disastrous budget bill.
Federal funding cuts in the budget threaten the health and safety of all working people in the state, all so the administration can give the ultrawealthy even more tax breaks. Attendees decried Perry’s affirmative vote on the legislation as a betrayal of his constituents.
“While we watch the President of the United States celebrate his megabill, which will have a massive and unprecedented transfer of wealth from everyday people to billionaires, we see the writing on the wall and the call to action is louder than ever,” Pennsylvania AFL-CIO President Angela Ferritto said. “I think about what we are fighting for here in Pennsylvania. A state budget which is 43 days past due; OSHA protections for public sector workers; the legislative promise of the Inflation Reduction Act; a minimum wage increase that’s long overdue; safe patient to nurse ratios; public education funding to support the success of all children; public transit funding to keep Pennsylvania moving...our fight is the same as the entire working class.”
“I worked for the Department of Aging, and I have a good understanding of long-term care services,” added AFSCME Council 13 retiree Glen Dunbar. “Do you know that almost two-thirds of the elderly who receive long-term care depend on Medicaid to help pay their bills? What are they supposed to do? What are their families supposed to do? Scott Perry must be held accountable for selling out middle-class people for the interests of billionaires.”
Kenneth Quinnell
Wed, 08/13/2025 - 14:45
Tags:
Better in a Union Bus Tour
08/13/2025 - 3:00pm
Fund Our Future: 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.
Alaska AFL-CIO:
Arizona AFL-CIO:
08/13/2025 - 3:00pm
Safe Staffing Saves Lives: 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.
AFGE:
AFSCME:
Alliance for Retired Americans:
Amalgamated Transit Union:
American Federation of Musicians:
American Federation of Teachers:
American Postal Workers Union:
Association of Flight Attendants-CWA:
Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers:
Boilermakers:
Bricklayers:
Communications Workers of America:
Department for Professional Employees:
Electrical Workers:
Fire Fighters:
Heat and Frost Insulators:
08/13/2025 - 3:00pm
Service & Solidarity Spotlight: Workers at Chicago’s City Bureau Win Union Recognition
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.
After going public in July with their campaign to join The Chicago News Guild, The NewsGuild-CWA (TNG-CWA) Local 34071, staff at City Bureau are now celebrating securing voluntary recognition from their employer.
All eligible workers at the Chicago-based nonprofit newsroom—across every department that plays a role in editorial work, programming and operations—unanimously signed union authorization cards when they sought recognition. Members of City Bureau Workers Guild now are shifting their attention toward negotiating a collective bargaining agreement with provisions that will help strengthen the newsroom and build a sustainable, fair and equitable workplace.
“We look forward to beginning the bargaining process and co-creating an equitable contract that serves workers and the organization we all love,” the City Bureau Workers Guild organizing committee said in a social media statement. “Building a strong, unionized workplace is a journey, and we’ve just taken a major step to bolster our collective power.”
Kenneth Quinnell
Wed, 08/13/2025 - 09:40
08/12/2025 - 2:00pm
Dropkick Murphys Headline Bus Tour Rally for Union Rights in Cleveland
The Dropkick Murphys joined the AFL-CIO “It’s Better In a Union” bus tour stop in Cleveland on Sunday to play for the crowd gathered to rally for union rights.
UAW President Shawn Fain, Bricklayers (BAC) President Tim Driscoll and Utility Workers (UWUA) National President James Slevin fired up the crowd of attendees and Brute Squad—a quintet punk rock band composed of American Federation of Musicians (AFM) Local 4 members—opened the show. In addition to speeches from the union leaders, a pair of doctors who were recently fired from their jobs for trying to organize a union in their workplace also addressed the crowd.
“We have been organizing our fellow physicians into a union in order to strengthen the voice of frontline health care workers, including doctors, so that we can stand up for our patients rights to the best quality care—and we were just fired for doing so,” said Dr. Lauren Beene. “We are honored to be here, shoulder to shoulder with all of our union brothers and sisters because we are all fighting the same fight—for safety, for our patients, safety for our co-workers working in the hospitals and for their dignity and justice—we will not be silenced.”
Kenneth Quinnell
Tue, 08/12/2025 - 13:02
Tags:
Better in a Union Bus Tour
08/12/2025 - 2:00pm
Service & Solidarity Spotlight: ‘No One Left Behind’: AFL-CIO’s Redmond Calls for Worker Freedom, Fairness and Security at APRI in Chicago
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.
AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Fred Redmond delivered remarks Friday morning at the A. Philip Randolph Institute (APRI) National Educational Conference in Chicago.
APRI was founded by trade unionists and civil rights activists A. Philip Randolph and Bayard Rustin in 1965. As an active constituency group of the AFL-CIO, the organization advocates for social, political and economic justice for all working Americans, grounded in the belief that the fight for workers’ rights and civil rights are inseparable. Following a week of AFL-CIO nationwide tour bus stops at active picket lines in the Windy City, Secretary-Treasurer Redmond remarked about the road ahead.
“There’s a place for every working person on this bus,” said Redmond. “Everyone included. No one left behind. That is what this diverse, inclusive labor movement is all about: building worker power, by workers for workers. And together we can and will fight back against these attacks and chart a future for this country where our freedom, fairness and security is restored.”
Kenneth Quinnell
Tue, 08/12/2025 - 09:55
08/11/2025 - 7:30pm
AFL-CIO Tour Bus Stops in Tucson for Rally to Hold Electeds Accountable
As part of the AFL-CIO’s “It’s Better In a Union” nationwide bus tour, Tucson, Arizona-area workers and members of the Pima Area Labor Federation joined together for a postcard drop and public action on Friday to hold Rep. Juan Ciscomani accountable for his support of President Trump’s disastrous budget bill.
Workers spoke out against the budget’s cuts to essential support services that many in Arizona rely on, like Medicaid and SNAP, which also disproportionately affect immigrant communities and veterans. Ciscomani’s refusal to show up and hear from his constituents was also a major rallying point for attendees.
“Stop being present at other places and be present where we need you [to] start listening to us, where everyone speaks,” said Omar Algeciras, an Army veteran and the vice president of AFGE Local 2391. “Answer our phone calls, show up whenever we ask you to.”
Kenneth Quinnell
Mon, 08/11/2025 - 13:45
Tags:
Better in a Union Bus Tour
08/11/2025 - 1:00pm
Action Alert: Call to Restore Veterans Affairs Workers’ Union Rights
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is the backbone of support for our nation’s brave heroes, providing essential health care, benefits and services that veterans have earned through their service.
But the VA is under attack.
This week, the Trump administration announced that it is ripping up the union contracts of more than 400,000 VA workers—a brazen act of retaliation against the workers and unions who have been standing up to the administration’s illegal actions in court and in the streets.
This union-busting decision is an ambush on the very people who care for our country’s veterans and their right to stand together in a union. It will undoubtedly harm the lifesaving services veterans desperately need.
But we have a way to reverse this decision.
There’s a bipartisan bill in Congress that would overturn President Trump’s executive order and restore collective bargaining rights to federal workers—including those at the VA. The bill already has a majority of members of Congress—Democrats AND Republicans—signed on as co-sponsors.
We just need a few more members of Congress to sign a piece of paper called a “discharge petition” to bring that bill to the floor for a vote.
Will you call your representative and urge them to sign the discharge petition and speak out in support of the Protect America’s Workforce Act (H.R. 2550) right now? Enter your information on this form to receive a call back or dial 844-994-4554 to get started.
More than 1 million union members and thousands more union retirees are veterans. For our federal workers at the VA who depend on our unions to fight for them, and for all the working people who depend on a strong VA for their care, we must stop the job cuts and union-busting.
But this is also bigger than the VA. If Trump thinks he can rip up federal workers’ union contracts with the stroke of a pen, he can do it to every worker in America.
Make no mistake: This is an attack on every union member, every union contract, and the freedom for every single person to have a union on the job and the freedom to speak out.
We have the bipartisan votes we need in Congress to undo this union-busting. We just need to get the bill to the floor for a vote.
Call your member of Congress, and urge them to sign the discharge petition and speak out for the Protect America’s Workforce Act.
Thank you for making a call to help us restore fundamental union rights to workers providing critical veterans’ services.
Kenneth Quinnell
Mon, 08/11/2025 - 11:03
