05/06/2024 - 9:30am
Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month Profile: Jan Tokumaru
For Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month this year, the AFL-CIO is spotlighting various Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders who have worked and continue to work at the intersection of civil and labor rights in the United States. Today's profile is Jan Tokumaru of the Communications Workers of America (CWA).
Jan Tokumaru is a retired, Japanese American member of CWA Local 39521. She worked as a project coordinator for the California Labor Federation, AFL-CIO, the UCLA Labor Center and the Los Angeles Federation of Labor. She has served on the advisory committee of Los Angeles Trade-Technical College and California State University Dominguez Hills' labor studies program. As a member of Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance's Los Angeles chapter and Nikkei Progressives, Tokumaru continues her activism by building solidarity with labor and community partners in Southern California.
Kenneth Quinnell
Sun, 05/05/2024 - 10:12
05/04/2024 - 9:00am
Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month Profile: Emily Reyes
For Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month this year, the AFL-CIO is spotlighting various Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders who have worked and continue to work at the intersection of civil and labor rights in the United States. Today's profile is Emily Reyes of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT).
Emily Reyes is an elementary school teacher and leader with the United Teachers of Los Angeles (UTLA), AFT Local 1021. She serves as UTLA's vice chair at her school. She is also an active member on the UTLA West Area steering committee and served on the Political Action Council for Educators (PACE). Reyes began serving a two-year term on the California Teachers Association (CTA) state council. In addition, she represents Local 1021 on the APALA National Executive Board and as her local chapter’s executive vice president.
Kenneth Quinnell
Sat, 05/04/2024 - 10:12
05/03/2024 - 9:00pm
Service & Solidarity Spotlight: More Than 2,000 Oregon Health and Science University Research Workers Join AFSCME
Working people across the United States have stepped 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.
Oregon AFSCME submitted union authorization cards signed by more than half of the over 2,000 research workers at Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU) on April 26. Under the state law, once Oregon Employment Relations Board verifies the cards, OHSU will be required to recognize Oregon AFSCME as the workers’ bargaining representative. The unit includes workers who conduct lab experiments, order equipment, file paperwork and care for animals used in studies. It will not cover faculty members who apply for grants and lead research.
Kenneth Quinnell
Fri, 05/03/2024 - 10:04
Tags:
Organizing
05/03/2024 - 2:30pm
Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month Profile: Mary Akimo-Lu’uwai
For Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month this year, the AFL-CIO is spotlighting various Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders who have worked and continue to work at the intersection of civil and labor rights in the United States. Today's profile is Mary Akimo-Lu’uwai of AFSCME.
For 17 years, Mary Akimo-Lu’uwai—a proud member of the Hawaii Government Employees Association (AFSCME Local 152)—has been a lifeline for patients at the Maui Community Mental Health Center. Even when wildfires were raging across her island last summer, Akimo-Lu’uwai was on the front lines, working extra hours to ensure the community’s most vulnerable continued to receive much-needed mental health care. To Akimo-Lu’uwai, her work is more than just a job, it’s part of a lifelong calling to help others.
Kenneth Quinnell
Fri, 05/03/2024 - 10:12
05/03/2024 - 2:30pm
Celebrating Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month: 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 Musicians:
American Federation of Teachers:
Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance:
Association of Flight Attendants-CWA:
Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers:
Boilermakers:
Bricklayers:
Communications Workers of America:
Department for Professional Employees:
Electrical Workers:
Heat and Frost Insulators:
05/03/2024 - 2:30pm
Economy Gains 175,000 Jobs in April; Unemployment Up Slightly to 3.9%
The U.S. economy gained 175,000 jobs in April, and the unemployment rate was up slightly to 3.9%, according to figures released Friday morning by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
April's biggest job gains were in health care (+56,000), social assistance (+31,000), transportation and warehousing (+22,000), retail trade (+20,000), construction (+9,000), and government (+8,000). Employment was little changed over the month in other major industries, including mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction; manufacturing; wholesale trade; information; financial activities; professional and business services; leisure and hospitality; and other services.
Among the major worker groups, the unemployment rate for adult men (3.6%) increased in April. The rate for Black Americans (5.6%) decreased. The jobless rates for teenagers (11.7%), Hispanics (4.8%), adult women (3.5%), white Americans (3.5%) and Asian Americans (2.8%) showed little change over the month.
The number of long-term unemployed workers (those jobless for 27 weeks or longer) was little changed in April and accounted for 19.6% of the total number of people unemployed.
Kenneth Quinnell
Fri, 05/03/2024 - 10:36
05/02/2024 - 2:30pm
Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month Profile: Abe Lagrimas Jr.
For Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month this year, the AFL-CIO is spotlighting various Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders who have worked and continue to work at the intersection of civil and labor rights in the United States. Today's profile is Abe Lagrimas Jr. of the American Federation of Musicians (AFM).
“When I played at the local as a kid, it was just a gig,” Abe Lagrimas Jr. said. “Much later in my career, I see the importance of being affiliated with the AFM union, and the community that it creates and brings together. Regulars at these performances tell their friends, and word of mouth brings more people in. It’s unlike anything I’ve felt anywhere else I’ve lived. Hawaii has a tight-knit community in general, and we need to keep this special relationship between patrons and musicians going because we need each other.”
Kenneth Quinnell
Thu, 05/02/2024 - 10:36
05/02/2024 - 2:30pm
Service & Solidarity Spotlight: Poor People’s Campaign Seeks to Alleviate Poverty Through Voter Empowerment
Working people across the United States have stepped 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.
The Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II and the Poor People’s Campaign are uniting with the AFL-CIO and other economic justice organizations to fight poverty by launching efforts to empower voters, including the June 29th Mass Poor People’s and Low-Wage Workers’ Assembly and Moral March on Washington, D.C. and to the Polls.
Poverty currently ranks among the top five leading causes of death in the United States, with child poverty specifically more than doubling over the last year. Barber and coalition leaders are working to further pro-worker agenda items like higher minimum wages, expanded child tax credits and better funding for anti-poverty programs by mobilizing low-income Americans to the polls.
“This [march] is an offensive move, we are calling people to come by the thousands. This is a mass mobilization of consciousness not based on poverty but on principle,” Barber said.
“The American labor movement is committed to registering and mobilizing union members and union families to elect lawmakers who will advocate for workers and poor people,” said AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Fred Redmond, who participated in the Poor People’s Campaign launch event. “Together, we can put an end to poverty, and create a more compassionate nation.”
Kenneth Quinnell
Thu, 05/02/2024 - 10:20
05/01/2024 - 8:00pm
Service & Solidarity Spotlight: House Cafeteria Workers Get Better Pay, Protections Under New Contract
Working people across the United States have stepped 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.
House cafeteria workers with UNITE HERE Local 23 are celebrating a new contract that raises wages and improves working conditions. The new contract includes a $3 hourly pay bump in the first year, a raise of $7.50 over five years, access to health insurance at no cost under the agreement beginning in 2026, increased pension contributions, protections for trans and nonbinary workers, and protections for employees who are victims of family or intimate partner violence, sexual assault or stalking.
“It started out, we were all thinking it was going to be tough,” said Rickie Toon, a cook in the Ford House Office Building. “Just to see the support from other people coming in and helping us out. The company had no choice but to listen.”
Kenneth Quinnell
Wed, 05/01/2024 - 09:17
05/01/2024 - 1:30pm
Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month Profile: Gilbert Galam
For Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month this year, the AFL-CIO is spotlighting various Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders who have worked and continue to work at the intersection of civil and labor rights in the United States. Today's profile is Gilbert Galam of AFGE.
Gilbert Galam is a transportation security officer who serves as AFGE Local 1230 secretary and legislative political coordinator. He is also the AFGE District 12 Young Organizing Unionists for the Next Generation (Y.O.U.N.G.) coordinator and the vice chair of AFGE’s Asian Pacific Organized Workers Empowering Representation (A.P.O.W.E.R.). Galam became active in his local once he saw how unfairly workers were being treated and wanted to make a difference at his agency. He brings his contagious enthusiasm to the table for the labor movement.
Kenneth Quinnell
Wed, 05/01/2024 - 10:27
