JOINING TOGETHER
Washington Post refusal to bargain pushes workers into one-day strike
People’s World
By Mark Gruenberg
Dec. 7, 2023
Absolute refusal by the Washington Post to bargain, for 18 months pushed 700 of them, represented by The Washington-Baltimore News Guild into an 8 a.m.-midnight strike on December 7. “They haven’t budged,” Guild Executive Director Cet Parks said in a telephone talk with Peoples World. WBNG took to social media and the Action Network to make its case, urging subscribers not to engage with Post any way on strike day. The Action Network letter was addressed to three top Post executives, not including its owner, Jeff Bezos, one of the world’s richest people.
Madison-based TruStage, union reach tentative labor contract agreement
Wisconsin State Journal
By Emilie Heidemann
Dec. 7, 2023
Madison-based insurance company TruStage and its union have reached a tentative labor contract agreement after nearly two years of contentious negotiations that led to a weekslong strike by the union last spring. The old contract with the Office and Professional Employees International Union Local 39, which represents 450 TruStage employees, expired in February 2022. TruStage, formerly known as CUNA Mutual Group, provides financial services to thousands of cooperatives, credit unions and other customers around the world. The business has roughly 4,200 employees, with approximately 1,700 in the Madison area.
Washington Post Journalists Go on One-Day Strike
The New York Times
By Katie Robertson
Dec. 7, 2023
About 700 Washington Post employees walked off the job for 24 hours on Thursday, protesting stalled union contract negotiations and expected layoffs. The strike is the first walkout at The Post since the 1970s, union leaders said, and comes as the publication grapples with stagnant subscription numbers and low morale. The union, the Post Guild, said that it had been negotiating a contract for 18 months but that The Post’s management had “refused to bargain in good faith” and had shut down negotiations over key issues. The union represents more than 1,000 employees, including journalists and some people on the company’s business side.
AFSCME Local 963 workers urge NIU to settle contract
Northern Public Radio
By Northern Public Radio
Dec. 7, 2023
Building services, dining and maintenance workers at NIU are urging the university's administration to settle a union contract. The employees are represented by AFSCME Local 963. Their negotiations for a new contract began in March and the previous agreement expired at the end of June. Several workers spoke at Thursday's Board of Trustees meeting. Tina Montavon works in dining services. She says staffers are essential employees and should be fairly compensated. “It’s high time you realize the employees at the bottom are just as important as the employees at the top. We are Huskie strong when we work together. Isn’t that the best for everyone?”
Netflix Production Accountants Unionize With IATSE
The Hollywood Reporter
By Katie Kilkenny
Dec. 7, 2023
A group of production accountants employed by Netflix in New York and New Jersey has unionized with IATSE. A third party certified that a majority of the group of assistant production accountants, payroll accountants and clerks supported joining IATSE Local 161 in a card count Wednesday. The move came after the group initially approached the streamer with a request for voluntary recognition on Nov. 13 and Netflix agreed to voluntarily recognize the group if a majority voted to join the union. IATSE Local 161 represents script and continuity supervisors, production coordinators and production accountants across 23 states and the District of Columbia. Prior to the Netflix unionization, clerks had never before been members of Local 161.
IN THE STATES
Will unions hold sway in Missouri’s race for governor in 2024? Democrats are betting on it
The Kansas City Star
By Kacen Bayless and Jonathan Shorman
Dec. 7, 2023
Eleven months before the 2024 election, Missouri labor unions are coalescing around Democrat Crystal Quade in the race for governor, but the real test of their influence will come when their members head to the polls. Heading into 2024, the Missouri-Kansas-Nebraska Conference of Teamsters, Missouri AFL-CIO, as well as electrical workers and service employees, have backed Quade, who serves as the minority leader in the Missouri House, in the Democratic primary as she mounts a campaign after eight years of Republican dominance.
LABOR AND COMMUNITY
AFL-CIO's Adopt-a-Family program in need of adopters
KQ2
By Noel Hardin
Dec. 7, 2023
The AFL-CIO of St. Joseph is hosting their annual 'Adopt-a-Family' program, but this year things are looking a little more stressful than before. Around 880 families have applied to be adoptees of the program this year, but with only around 200 adopters having applied, the program is scrambling to have enough gifts to give out on Christmas. "With the extra number of families that have applied this year, the quicker we can get people taken care of and out of the books and know that they're going to be provided for, the better it is going to be for everybody." Says Nichi Seckinger, the program's executive director.