MUST READ
How the Country’s Top Union Leader Gets It Done
The Cut
By Andrea González-Ramírez
Dec. 25, 2023
Organized labor is in Liz Shuler’s DNA. The AFL-CIO president grew up in a union household, with a father who was a power lineman at Portland General Electric and a mother who was an estimator in the company’s service-and-design department. The first time Shuler bargained, she was an 11-year-old babysitter trying to match what a friend earned. After college, she worked several gigs to make ends meet before following her parents to Portland General Electric, where she got a job in the payroll department. There, she tried and failed to form a union among clerical workers. Though the outcome was not what she hoped, Shuler learned that there was a place for her in the labor movement.
LABOR AND TECHNOLOGY
AFL-CIO President Talks New Tech-Labor Partnership with Microsoft (Audio)
The Leslie Marshall Show
By Leslie Marshall
Dec. 22, 2023
Leslie is joined by Liz Shuler, president of the 60 unions and 12.5 million members of the AFL-CIO, and the first woman leader of America’s labor movement. The two discuss the Union's new tech-labor agreement with Microsoft, including the rules regarding use of artificial intelligence (AI).
They also talk about the upcoming 2024 elections and what the AFL-CIO is planning to do this cycle to elect 'pro-worker' candidates, all of the high-profile strikes that happened in 2023, organizing efforts, and child labor laws. A visionary leader and longtime trade unionist, Shuler believes the labor movement is the single most powerful vehicle for progress and that unions are a central force in leading lasting societal transformations. She is committed to busting myths about labor, leveraging the labor movement’s diversity for innovative approaches to social justice and making the benefits of a union voice on the job available to working people everywhere.
JOINING TOGETHER
Washington Post Reaches a Contract Deal With Its Newsroom Union
The New York Times
By Benjamin Mullin
Dec. 22, 2023
The Washington Post reached a deal on Friday for a new contract with the union representing the majority of its newsroom employees, bringing an end to 18 months of bellicose negotiations that included a one-day work stoppage. The tentative agreement, if ratified, would give all employees represented by the union an immediate raise of $30 a week, with an additional 2.5 percent raise in April plus raises in the coming years, The Washington Post Guild said.
Hundreds of Brainerd lakes area grocery store workers stage Christmas strike
CBS News Minnesota
By Stephen Swanson and John Lauritsen
Dec. 22, 2023
Hundreds of grocery store employees in the Brainerd lakes area are now on strike ahead of Christmas weekend. United Food and Commercial Workers Local 663 announced strike dates last week, and say their rights have been violated repeatedly. They claim employees have been subject to "interrogation, surveillance, and intimidation." UFCW say they are fighting for better pay and benefits, and have been without a contract since Dec. 3. They say the decision to strike wasn't an easy one, and it is their last resort.
Amid union’s tentative deals with more hotels, workers plan Rose Parade day pickets
Los Angeles Times
By Suhauna Hussain
Dec. 22, 2023
Unite Here Local 11 has made more progress in contract talks with hotels ahead of the holidays. The union said Friday it had secured tentative agreements with three downtown L.A. properties as well as a hotel near Los Angeles International Airport. The agreements cover roughly 800 workers at the InterContinental, Hotel Indigo and E- Central in downtown L.A. — and the Sheraton Gateway LAX.
Nurses at SSM Health SLU Hospital to strike for 48 hours
Spectrum
By Elizabeth Barmeier
Dec. 26, 2023
Registered nurses at SSM Health St. Louis University Hospital will strike for 48 hours beginning tomorrow to protest management’s outsourcing of RN jobs and “persistent union-busting.” The strike starts at 7 a.m. on Dec. 27 until Dec. 29, at 6:59 a.m., according to the National Nurses Organizing Committee/National Nurses United (NNOC/NNU). “We condemn SSM for trying to break the union by encouraging nurses to leave the union instead of bargaining in good faith,” said Maddi O’Leary, RN in the blood and marrow transplant clinic at SLUH. “SSM seems to be dragging this process out and encouraging the decertification of our union. This is why we are striking.”
AP strikes Christmas Eve deal with union on contract
The Hill
By Sarah Fortinsky
Dec. 24, 2023
The Associated Press (AP) News Guild announced Sunday it has struck a deal with management on a three-year contract after 19 months of negotiations that culminated in a final end-of-year push. “This announcement follows rounds of intense discussions with the company over the last two weeks, culminating in even more intense discussions over the last two days. Our efforts were backed by strong member pressure through social media, petitions and emails to AP executives,” the union said in a statement.
Nurses at Cedars-Sinai Marina del Rey on 3-day strike over bargaining rights
ABC 7
By ABC7.com staff
Dec. 25, 2023
Registered nurses at Cedars-Sinai Marina del Rey Hospital are holding a three-day strike. The strike began Sunday morningand will end Wednesday morning. The nurses are protesting what they describe as Cedars-Sinai management's attempts to take away nurse's bargaining rights.
IN THE STATES
Union members make the holidays happen
Chicago Sun-Times
By Tim Drea and Pat Devaney
Dec. 23, 2023
With every holiday party we attend, every last-minute package we receive, every holiday moment made a little more special with our friends and family — chances are, we have union workers to thank for helping make it happen. In Chicago, Unite Here Local 1 bartenders go home in the early morning hours when our fun has long ended. SEIU janitors spend late-night hours cleaning up the office after we have celebrated heartily. SEIU doormen staff our residential and office buildings, and Operating Engineers 399 members maintain them to keep everyone safe. There are no days off or holidays for them. And safety is always a concern, as evidenced by a troubling uptick in assaults and robberies.
LABOR AND COMMUNITY
Arise and Shine and USW Local 12775 continue mobile food and toy distribution for fourth year
La Porte County Herald-Dispatch
By Donavan Barrier
Dec. 23, 2023
Although the holidays have begun, some La Porte County families are still going without food or toys. One Michigan City based organization geared up again this holiday season to provide not only toys, but food and love too, right in time for Christmas. On Saturday, volunteers with the Arise and Shine Food and Outreach Center and United Steelworkers Local 12775 came together for their fourth annual Shine for the Holidays food and toy drive. Located in the parking lot of St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, volunteers provided food for needy families who signed up in advance – as well as toys for the children.