JOINING TOGETHER
'People have had enough': Labor Day highlights unions' push for more
CBS News Pittsburgh
By Andy Sheehan
Sept. 4, 2023
There was a new energy in Pittsburgh's Labor Day Parade this year as workers around the country are flexing their muscles, getting favorable contracts and showing their willingness to strike. After years of declining union membership and diminishing power, workers in Pittsburgh and across the nation are once again demanding more and are willing to walk if their demands aren't met. "People have had enough," said Darrin Kelly, president of the Allegheny/Fayette Central Labor Council.
CT labor, management combat public sector staff shortages
Hartford Business Journal
By Mark Pazniokas
Sept. 7, 2023
The national leaders of AFSCME, the largest public-sector union in the U.S., and the AFL-CIO worked with the Lamont administration and municipal officials to tout careers in government. Lee Saunders, national president of AFSCME, has been on a bus tour promoting the union’s campaign to help state and municipal governments bolster their workforces. On the bus is the message: “Staff The Front Lines.” “Public service jobs are available at the state, municipal, schools,” Saunders said. “In the city of Hartford, across Connecticut, from coast to coast, the help wanted sign is out.” Liz Shuler, national president of the AFL-CIO, said the AFSCME campaign is unusual. “It is a model of labor and management coming together to solve problems, and it can be replicated across all kind of industries, ‘cause we’re seeing workforce shortage in not just the public sector, but across the board,” Shuler said.
Workers turning Los Angeles into the epicenter of national strike wave
People’s World
By Mark Gruenberg
Sept. 7, 2023
The way events are rushing onwards in Los Angeles, what’s been the national capital of labor activism for much of 2023 may be the national epicenter of an historic strike wave by the fall of 2023. Or, as SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher told one interviewer, “Here we go again.” That’s because if bosses keep pushing workers and refusing to bargain realistically, there would be four —or five—concurrent strikes in this city by midnight on September 30. And that’s not counting any local factories of the Detroit 3 auto companies. Two strikes have been going for months: The Association of Motion Picture and Television Producers forced their 11,500 screenwriters of the Writers Guild of America out in May, followed by the same drill against the 168,000 members of SAG-AFTRA nationwide in July. Then the city’s hotels refused to talk with Unite HERE Local 11 about paying their staffers enough to live on in high-cost L.A. That forced 32,000 hotel workers to walk. They usually clean guest rooms, serve in eateries and bars and handle janitorial tasks, among other duties. They’re still out. The fourth forced strike was forecast on Labor Day, with a strike authorization vote pending among the 85,000 union workers nationwide at Kaiser hospitals and clinics.
Workers at one Colorado opera company push to unionize as another is accused of union busting
Colorado Sun
By Stephanie Wolf
Sept. 7, 2023
On May 22, a little more than a week after Opera Colorado wrapped its 2022-23 season with Puccini’s “Turandot,” AGMA announced that Opera Colorado artists had signed their cards to unionize, again. “By coming together in union, we look forward to securing the best possible opportunities for our artists and for the organization for many years to come,” organizing artists said in the announcement. The union seeks to create a collective bargaining unit of solo singers, chorus members, stage directors and assistant stage directors, stage managers and assistant stage managers, performers who have speaking parts or are narrators, choreographers, solo and ensemble dancers, and those in Opera Colorado’s Artists in Residence program.
More than 53,000 Las Vegas hotel workers will vote this month on a potential strike
Morning Star
By Levi Sumagaysay
Sept. 7, 2023
If Vegas hospitality workers went on strike, they would outnumber the L.A. hotel workers who have been on rolling strikes since July. More than 53,000 Las Vegas hospitality workers will vote Sept. 26 on whether to go on strike if no contract agreements are reached, two of their unions announced Thursday.
The Culinary Workers Union Local 226 and Bartenders Union Local 165, which are Nevada affiliates of the labor union Unite Here, represent hospitality workers in Las Vegas, including at most of the casino resorts in downtown Las Vegas and on the famous Las Vegas strip. The workers include hotel and casino housekeepers, cocktail and food servers, porters, bellhops, cooks and more. The unions said they have had multiple rounds of negotiations with the top three Las Vegas hotel owners -- MGM Resorts, Caesars Entertainment and Wynn Resorts -- since contracts expired June 1, though some affected workers are employed by other hotels as well. Workers, unions and the hotels are now operating under a contract extension, which requires either side to give seven days' notice if they feel negotiations are unsuccessful and, in the unions' case, if a strike may be necessary, according to a spokesperson for the Culinary Workers Union.
Drivers of MTA’s MobilityLink vans ratify temporary contract with private operator, union rep says
The Baltimore Banner
By Daniel Zawodny
Sept. 7, 2023
After a year of negotiations, employees for the largest company operating the Maryland Transit Administration’s MobilityLink paratransit vans for people with disabilities have a new — albeit temporary — contract. Members of the Amalgamated Transit Union “overwhelmingly” ratified the new deal last week, according to John Ertl, trustee with ATU Local 1764. The contract with MV Transportation includes an increase in the employer retirement fund match, improvements to workers’ health care plans and more.
WGA and SAG-AFTRA Push for Unemployment Benefits for Striking Workers
Variety
By Gene Maddaus
Sept. 7, 2023
The Writers Guild of America and SAG-AFTRA are pushing California lawmakers to grant unemployment benefits to striking workers. In California, workers currently do not receive unemployment pay when they are on strike. But state lawmakers are working on a bill, SB 799, that would extend benefits to workers who have been on strike for at least two weeks. If signed into law, the bill would go into effect on Jan. 1. If the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes are resolved by then, the bill would not have any effect on those union members. But it could play a role in future strikes, both in Hollywood and in other industries.
USW Members Ratify Three-Year First Contract at Cliffs Northshore Mining
WDIO
By Darren Danielson
Sept. 7, 2023
The United Steelworkers (USW) are reporting that members have voted to ratify a three-year first contract at Cleveland Cliffs Northshore Mining. Northshore operations employ approximately 400 workers who mine taconite in Babbitt, produce iron ore pellets in Silver Bay and transport products and tailings. “Thanks to the hard work of our bargaining committee and the solidarity of our newly organized members, we negotiated a fair first contract with Cliffs,” said USW District 11 Director Emil Ramirez, who represents workers in Minnesota and eight other states. “The ratified contract will improve wages, benefits and working conditions while enhancing the security of our jobs.”
RETIREMENT SECURITY
Casey bill would expand Social Security benefits
Times Leader
By Bill O’Boyle
Sept. 7, 2023
U.S. Sen. Bob Casey on Thursday said Social Security is a lifeline for many older adults and people with disabilities. “Yet because of outdated rules that disproportionately affect women, many of those who rely on Social Security the most are not receiving all the benefits they need and deserve,” Casey said. “The SWIFT Act will modernize Social Security and help the program keep its promise of a financially secure retirement for all Americans.” Casey, D-Scranton, Chairman of the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging, has introduced the Surviving Widow(er) Income Fair Treatment (SWIFT) Act, which would fix outdated and arbitrary restrictions on Social Security benefits for widows, widowers, and surviving divorced spouses.