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
08/11/2025 - 1:00pm
AFL-CIO Bus Stops for Historic Rally with Chicago History Museum Workers
AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Fred Redmond joined Chicago Federation of Labor President Bob Reiter and Illinois AFL-CIO President Tim Drea on Thursday at a rally supporting AFSCME-represented workers at the Chicago History Museum as they continue their fight against union-busting.
After cultural workers won their election to form a union with AFSCME Council 31 in April 2025, management retaliated by terminating and disciplining multiple worker-activists. More recently, the institution also unilaterally imposed layoffs with no notice to staff.
“Courage is what every one of you is showing right now. It is the same courage that has fortified Chicago’s workers throughout the history of this great union city,” Redmond told the museum workers. “It is the same courage that this museum proudly displays on its exhibition walls. It’s about steelworkers standing up to Republic Steel for the right to a better workplace and a better life. It’s about A. Philip Randolph and the Pullman Porters organizing for dignity and respect.”
Marissa Croft, an AFSCME Council 31 steward who was laid off during contract negotiations, spoke at the rally about the cruel and disrespectful treatment she and her co-workers received from management and how they have found their voice through collective action.
“The most important thing I’ve learned from both Chicago’s history and my own experience is the power of getting together with your fellow workers and talking about your working conditions,” Croft said. “The Chicago History Museum Workers United will keep fighting and winning because we know the power of a union puts us on the right side of history!”
Kenneth Quinnell
Mon, 08/11/2025 - 09:40
Tags:
Better in a Union Bus Tour
08/11/2025 - 1:00pm
Service & Solidarity Spotlight: Pathfinders Milwaukee Workers Announce Organizing Effort with OPEIU
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 Pathfinders Milwaukee petitioned the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) last week for a union election to join Office and Professional Employees (OPEIU) Local 39.
Organizing under the name Pathfinders Employee Collective, more than 70% of staff have signed union authorization cards. Workers at the nonprofit perform a number of essential roles supporting homeless and runaway youth in the area. On Monday, workers rallied in front of Pathfinders’ offices to demand voluntary recognition so they can begin bargaining a contract with better safety standards and protections, higher wages, organizational transparency and greater decision-making power.
“Staff working conditions and impactful, trauma-informed client services are intrinsically tied together,” Rachel Janiak, a street outreach coordinator, said in an Local 39 press release. “If staff come to work feeling unsupported, or unsafe, it can lead to burnout…that takes away from the consistency and support our youth are searching for.”
Pathfinders Development Specialist Michael Clouthier added, “Pathfinders has always prided themselves on their ‘Nothing for us without us’ philosophy toward programming. Now that the workers are unionizing, we can show the community that we advocate for our youth while holistically practicing the tenets of a trauma-informed, empowerment-focused organization!”
Kenneth Quinnell
Mon, 08/11/2025 - 09:36
