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.

Workers at McGee Media, the nonfiction production company behind PBS’ "Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr.," agreed to their first union contract. The contract covers 25 staffers who work as producers, researchers and archivists, and are now represented by the Writers Guild of America East (WGAE). They unanimously voted to ratify the contract last week.

The contract establishes 3% annual wage increases for union members and health care contributions through the Entertainment Industry Flex Plan. The three-year deal also requires 10 vacation days and a minimum of three sick days after two weeks of employment. The deal also includes language covering the use of AI in the workplace: It necessitates advanced notice and “discussion” if AI tools are used by the company.

Members of the bargaining committee stated that the contract “sets a new standard for the documentary television industry and reflects the progressive values of McGee Media.”

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.

Employees at the Shedd Aquarium overwhelmingly voted to join AFSCME Council 31, making them the latest workers at the cultural institution in Chicago who have decided to organize for an improved workplace.

More than 75% of workers voted for the formation of Shedd Workers United. The 180-person union includes staff who work in guest relations, learning and community, development, and other departments. Workers initially announced their intent to join AFSCME in April, citing concerns with work-life imbalance, low wages and a lack of communication from management and more. Despite union-busting activities from management, workers remained steadfast in their fight for representation.

“We formed our union because we care about our co-workers, we love the aquarium and we want to make it better for all. We won by overcoming management’s divisive anti-union campaign,” the Shedd Workers United organizing committee said. “With our victory, we urge management to take a new approach and respect us as equals as we take our seat at the table to negotiate our first 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.

Workers in the newsroom at the Anchorage Daily News, the state’s largest newspaper, voted 13–4 for a new union. With the vote, the Anchorage Daily News becomes the only union newsroom in Alaska. The workers intend to advocate for fair wages, financial transparency and a sustainable workplace environment.

“My generation of reporters, I feel like we just kind of expected to be doormats, and my professors told me—they’re like, look, you’re taking a vow of poverty when you start this career,” said Kyle Hopkins, a longtime reporter. “Nobody expects to get rich or even be anything beyond kind of middle class or even lower middle class, but I just want the people I work with—and myself, if I lose the ProPublica connection—to be able to pay for child care and health care. Just the bare minimum.”

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.

Custodians, housekeepers and receiving clerks at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York City successfully organized with Transport Workers Union (TWU) Local 241. 

Workers at the medical facility will begin negotiating a first contract, seeking improved economic benefits and more security. Local 241 represents workers at Columbia University and other affiliated institutions in New York City.  

“This is a great victory for working families in New York City. We are ready and excited to work with Weill Cornell custodians, housekeepers, and receiving clerks to negotiate a first contract that improves the lives of workers and their families,” said TWU International President John Samuelsen.  

“We are proud to represent Weill Cornell workers as they negotiate their first contract. This organizing victory is a testament to what TWU locals and the International can achieve when we coordinate effectively,” Local 241 President Alex Molina said.

Democracy is at the heart of America’s labor movement—and now it’s time to cast our votes.

We’ve still got a ton of work to do for Kamala Harris, Tim Walz and our pro-union candidates up and down the ballot before the polls close tonight. We all know this election will be close. Your voice truly can make the difference.

• Make a plan to vote! Start by looking up your polling location.
• Learn more about which pro-worker candidates have been endorsed by the AFL-CIO.
• Learn about your state’s voting rules.

If you have any problems voting or see something strange at your polling location, contact our Election–Voter Protection Hotline:

• English: 866-687-8683
• Spanish/English: 888-839-8682
• Asian Languages/English: 888-274-8683
• Arabic: 844-925-5287

Once you’ve voted, please tell all your friends and remind them to vote, too. Send a text or email. Post on your favorite social media account. Make a call to check in. If you find someone who needs a ride or a babysitter, please pitch in and help.

And if you have some spare time today, grab your phone and make calls to our key union contacts in battleground states, reminding them to vote. You don’t even need to leave your desk or couch.

Unions know how to get things done. Let’s go win big.

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 months of negotiations, members of United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 555 who work at Fred Meyer and QFC stores in Oregon and southwest Washington  overwhelmingly ratified a new three-year contract.

Fred Meyers workers in Portland went on strike in August in response to multiple unfair labor practices. The agreement covers more than 11,000 members and ensures higher wages, stronger health care and a stable retirement. Additionally, the new contract improves the process to address contract violations.

“Our new contract gives me peace of mind knowing that my healthcare is protected and my wages will keep up with the rising cost of living,” said Dale Russell Cronin, a Fred Meyer worker and Local 555 board member. “I’m especially thankful for the improvements in dental benefits and retirement. It feels good to know we are a fighting union and when we work together, we win.”

Gwen Mills is the international president of UNITE HERE, the hospitality workers union. Before becoming the union’s first-ever female president earlier this year, she served as secretary-treasurer and political director, overseeing UNITE HERE’s swing state field canvass programs.

I’m not anxious about the results of the election.

Don’t get me wrong, as the leader of a union of 275,000 hospitality workers in this
country, the outcome in November will have massive implications for us. Will we spend
the next four years on defense, fending off attack after attack as Trump and his allies
attempt to crush unions, deport our immigrant members, and take away women’s
rights? Or will we be able to stay on offense, with a Harris administration that enables
us to focus on improving wages and working conditions in the hospitality industry?

We could spend a lot of time trying to read the tea leaves on races that are within the
margin of error. Or instead of being anxious, we can instead focus our energy on the
margin of effort. My union, UNITE HERE, is choosing the latter.

UNITE HERE is running the largest independent labor-led canvass operation in the
country. Over 1,650 housekeepers, cooks, dishwashers, concessions workers, and
more have already knocked on over 3 million doors. By election day, we’ll be more than
2,000 strong, aiming to hit at least 3.5 million doors in ten key battlegrounds.

Close elections are won or lost on the ground. Billions of dollars will be poured into the
airwaves, generating a cacophony of noise that many voters are desperate to tune out.
The answer to cutting through the noise? A real person, from your community, knocking
on your door to have a face-to-face conversation. It’s old-fashioned, lowercase “d”
democracy. Neighbors talking to neighbors about the issues in their daily lives.

We’re not your typical paid canvass. Our own union members—workers who are
leaders among their co-workers, who know how to organize—take a leave of absence
from their jobs to work full-time as canvassers. Every day, they’re out in their
communities talking to other working-class voters with similar demographics about real
kitchen table issues.

When our members, predominantly women of color and immigrants, knock on their
neighbors’ doors, they bring a unique credibility. Through cycles of investment in real
door-to-door organizers, we win elections, and we build the movement needed to push
the winners to deliver for working people.

For that reason, our canvassing program is about more than the immediate election.
When we knock on doors in Philadelphia, our first question in hard-hit neighborhoods is:
“Do you have a job?” We open the conversation with what’s really on their mind, and
connect people to hospitality training opportunities, pathways to a good union job. And
we discuss politics and get out the vote.

Gregory Moody was born and raised in North Philadelphia. He joined our hospitality
training program in 2022 and was trained as a cook. He was then hired at the stadiums
and became a member of UNITE HERE Local 274. Earlier this year he went on strike
with his coworkers to fight for fair wages, health benefits, and respect. Now he’s
applying the organizing skills he learned with the union to canvassing full-time for
Harris, talking to his neighbors about their future.

Nancy Chávez is a dishwasher at the Bellagio in Las Vegas and a member of Culinary
Workers Union UNITE HERE Local 226. She’s a leader among her coworkers, and
she’s knocking on doors, talking to her neighbors about the economy and the fact that
Latinos can make the difference in this election.

Kearra Rosales, a member of UNITE HERE Local 11, works alongside her aunt and
grandmother at the Downtown Doubletree in Los Angeles as a front desk agent. Last
year she went on strike to protect healthcare and secure her grandmother's access to
insulin. Now she’s knocking doors in Tucson for Kamala Harris to improve healthcare
access in working class communities.

The ground game is often dismissed, seen as a last-ditch effort. It shows in the $165
million fundraising shortfall that grassroots groups are facing. But when elections are
this close, canvassers like Gregory, Nancy, and Kearra can make the critical difference
with voters who share their experiences and are on the fence about who to vote for, or
whether to vote at all.

In 2020, Democrats won the decisive states of Nevada, Arizona, and Pennsylvania by
just 124,608 votes combined. UNITE HERE mobilized over 440,000 infrequent voters to
vote for Biden, including 125,000 who had not voted in the previous presidential
election. In Nevada and Arizona, the number of these voters exceeded the margin of
victory. That is the margin of effort.

So in these final six days, don’t sit around fretting about the polls. Go knock on some
doors, or support groups that are.

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.

Thousands of Portland-area Fred Meyer employees went on strike recently. Members of United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 555, the largest private sector union in Oregon, voted "overwhelmingly" to ratify a new three-year contract. The contract covers 11,000 workers for Fred Meyer and QFC stores in Oregon and southwest Washington. The contract provides higher wages, stronger health care, stable retirement and allows the union to better address contract violations.

"This agreement ensures significant wage increases, maintains industry-leading healthcare coverage, enhances dental benefits, and strengthens retirement security for more than 11,000 workers," Local 555 said.

"This contract is a victory for members of Local 555, who showed strength and solidarity throughout the entire fight," said Dan Clay, president of the local. "It was won by union workers coming together and by a community standing with them."

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 15 months of negotiations, musicians at the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra (BCO) ratified of a new two-year collective bargaining agreement. The musicians are represented by the Musicians’ Association of Metropolitan Baltimore, American Federation of Musicians (AFM) Local 40-543. The new agreement has updated how the orchestra runs operations, including the creation of assistant principal positions within the orchestra’s string sections, more equitable practices to the orchestra’s audition policies, and standardizing the minimum number of players in each section of the orchestra.

“The BCO’s musicians are grateful for the collaborative spirit in which this contract was negotiated,” said BCO’s principal viola and member of the BCO Players’ Committee, Chiara Kingsley-Dieguez. “While there is still more work to be done, this agreement is an excellent first step toward our goal of ensuring fair and equitable treatment of our musicians. We believe our orchestra has a very bright future and we look forward to working together with BCO’s management and board in the years ahead to accomplish our shared goal of presenting concerts of the highest musical quality in an environment that is warm and welcoming to everyone in our community.”

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).

Alaska AFL-CIO:

Life gets busy. Plan to vote at a time that best suits you!