MUST READ
Union to Detroit casinos: Quit ‘gambling’ with livelihoods
The Gander/Michigan Advance
By Ken Coleman
Nov. 16, 2023
AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler joined hundreds of Detroit casino workers chanting, “The people united will never be defeated” at Motor City Casino during a Wednesday evening rally as their strike nears the one-month mark. “It’s time for Detroit casinos to quit gambling with their workers’ livelihoods,” Shuler said. “Union casino workers kept this industry alive during the pandemic,” added Shuler, whose organization represents more than 12.5 million workers. “But despite Detroit casino owners making record profits, they are refusing to take care of their workers. This is unjust, unfair and unethical. It is time to pay the workers who keep you in business a living wage, to provide health care that allows workers to care for themselves and their families and to guarantee the job security their employees have earned. We stand in solidarity with our union brothers and sisters on the strike line as they fight for the contract they deserve.”
JOINING TOGETHER
Oregon Legislative workers get first union contract
Northwest Labor Press
By Colin Staub
Nov. 16, 2023
Two years after they became the first-ever group of state legislative assistants to form a union, Oregon legislative staffers have ratified a first contract. The workers are public employees who are hired by individual lawmakers in the Oregon House and Senate. They voted 75-31 to unionize with IBEW Local 89 in May 2021. Lawyers for the Oregon State Legislature fought the union campaign by trying to exclude certain workers from union eligibility, but Oregon’s Employment Relations Board (ERB) dismissed those complaints and allowed the election. The bargaining unit covers all legislative assistants supporting elected officials in the Oregon Legislature, a group that fluctuates between 90 and 180 workers depending on whether the legislature is in session.
‘A significant victory’: Yamhill County workers vote to ratify new agreement after five-day strike
KOIN
By Jashayla Pettigrew
Nov. 16, 2023
Almost two weeks after Yamhill County staff members launched a five-day strike over pay, the union has officially voted to ratify a new agreement with the county. The Yamhill County Employees Association first hit the picket lines in McMinnville on Nov. 3. The association covers 400 workers from several departments, such as developmental disability services, public works, and behavioral health and public health clinics. The strike came to an end on Nov. 7, when employees reached a tentative agreement with the county. The terms of the new agreement were laid out by Oregon’s American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees on Thursday morning. According to AFSCME, the contract highlights include cost-of-living adjustments, holiday pay, percentage-based longevity pay for staff who’ve been employed for 5 years instead of 10 years, and an increase in differential pay for bilingual staff.
Ascension Via Christi nurses protest new policy
KFDI
By Staff
Nov. 16, 2023
Nurses union members have delivered petitions with hundreds of signatures to management at Ascension Via Christi hospitals in Wichita in protest of a new policy. National Nurses United members said the new policy cuts the availability of patient care technicians (PCTs) and it will make the existing staffing crisis worse, creating a negative impact on patient care. The union said PCTs are involved in critical responsibilities like taking vitals and bathing or washing patients, and without that support, nurses will be taking over those duties. Nurses said that will give them less time with each patient and lower the quality of care.
Daniel Boone Regional Library officials hopeful about contract agreement
93.9 The Eagle
By Brian Hauswirth
Nov. 16, 2023
You can expect a packed house at tonight’s Daniel Boone Regional Library board of trustees meeting in Columbia. The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Local 3311 and union supporters say they plan “to flood” the meeting with supporters. The union is calling on library officials to come to a tentative agreement as soon as possible and say that library staff have faced anti-union comments from management during negotiations.
IN THE STATES
Iowa Democrats tout Biden's infrastructure investments at Dubuque event
Telegraph Herald
By Benjamin Fisher
Nov. 16, 2023
Tom Townsend, president of Dubuque Federation of Labor and Dubuque Building and Construction Trades Council, promoted the law’s benefits to communities and to workers who will build its projects. He also pushed back on opponents’ dismissals of federal project job creation as being temporary. “I’ve been working over 30 years in the construction industry and haven’t worked on a ‘permanent’ (job) yet,” he said. “But I still pay my taxes, buy cars, eat. We do our part to work in the community. All of our members are doing the same thing. … There are really good provisions in there to make sure the taxpayers’ money is being well-spent on quality projects that are going to last.”
LABOR AND COMMUNITY
IBEW Local 98 answers calls for help every holiday season
Philly Voice
By Mark Lynch, Jr
Nov. 16, 2023
The holiday season is upon us. For the 5,000 members of IBEW Local 98, many of whom have families, this is a special time of year. All of us at Local 98 are grateful for the family-sustaining wages and terrific benefits we enjoy as union members, but we’re also cognizant of the fact that many others in the Greater Philadelphia region need a helping hand, especially during the holidays. It’s for that reason that IBEW Local 98 (pardon the pun) gobbles up the opportunity to provide turkeys as well as full turkey dinners to the less fortunate in our community and to the kind-hearted non-profit organizations that serve them throughout the year.