POLITICS
Unions launch crash drive against GOP commission to cut Social Security
People’s World
By Mark Gruenberg
Feb. 16, 2024
The AFL-CIO will play a big role in the fight, as it did, one speaker said, when it led the successful assault on GOP President George W. Bush’s 2005 plan to privatize Social Security, thus turning over its billions of dollars in annual revenue—taken from workers’ payroll taxes—to wolves of Wall Street. Federation President Liz Shuler called Johnson’s commission scheme “a terrible idea.” Though she could not attend the press conference, Shuler added the Republican commission’s cuts “would push older Americans into poverty, take away people’s health care and end up costing the government more.”
LABOR AND ECONOMY
US unions target the housing affordability crisis as their ‘biggest issue’
The Guardian
By Steven Greenhouse
Feb. 16, 2024
As housing has become a top issue in strikes and protests in recent months, US unions are pushing for change and backing innovative solutions for the housing affordability crisis. With US house prices and rents rising in recent years, and high interest rates and inflation taking their toll, housing affordability has become a major issue at the bargaining table for US labor unions. Many workers are facing 60-, 90-, even 120-minute commutes to work because they cannot afford to live near their jobs.
ORGANIZING
Nonunion restaurants along the Vegas strip are fueling a campaign to organize them.
Capital & Main
By Gabriel Thompson
Feb. 16, 2024
For all the glitz of the Las Vegas Strip — home of the Bellagio’s fountain and several faux Wonders of the World — one of Vegas’ true wonders often goes unremarked: It is a union town, with 60,000 hospitality and restaurant workers represented by the Culinary Workers Union. But as the city has come back after the pandemic, hosting this year’s Super Bowl and swing-state campaign workers, that wonder is showing signs of stress. Nonunion restaurants have crept onto the Strip over the last decade, and the union estimates that today there are 10,000 nonunion jobs. “It’s a huge problem for us,” said Ted Pappageorge, secretary-treasurer of the Culinary Workers Union, also known as UNITE HERE Local 26. Local 26 last summer took on one of organized labor’s monumental tasks: protecting and expanding union strongholds. The task is simple and immense. Immense, because it requires organizing those 10,000 workers across dozens of workplaces in an industry notoriously difficult to unionize. Simple, because so many nonunion workers now labor inside the same complexes where unions are already present.
ABC6 workers announce union campaign
The Public’s Radio
By Olivia Ebertz
Feb. 16, 2024
Rhode Island and Southeast Massachusetts workers at local news station ABC6 are launching union organizing efforts, according to two employees with the unit’s organizing committee. The workers, who want to join the Communications Workers of America’s broadcast arm, The National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians (NABET), say they are calling for a union because of their concerns about understaffing, low and unequal wages, and outdated equipment. They also say their leadership may be empowering amateur community members to replace the jobs of their photographers in exchange for gift cards. On Friday would-be union members presented their leadership with a petition explaining their reasons for desiring to form a union, and, simultaneously, filed for an election with the National Labor Relations Board.
The Salt Lake Tribune
By Julie Jag
Feb. 17, 2024
On Wednesday, Solitude’s ski patrollers notified managers of the Alterra Mountain Resorts-owned ski area that they had submitted a unionization petition to the National Labor Relations Board. They also asked the resort to voluntarily recognize their burgeoning union. Though it had a week to respond to that request, a spokesperson for Solitude confirmed the resort rejected it Thursday.
Reporters go union at Portland Mercury
Northwest Labor Press
By Mallory Gruben
Feb. 19, 2024
“Yep, we somehow aren’t already unionized.” That cheeky quip comes from newsroom workers at the Portland Mercury, the (Seattle) Stranger, and other Index Media publications who announced on Feb. 12 that they want to unionize. Some readers may be surprised that workers at the “alternative” publications weren’t already in a union, considering the progressively pro-labor stance of their reporting, said Portland Mercury reporter Taylor Griggs.
JOINING TOGETHER
Boeing to start contract negotiations with Seattle-area union on March 8
Reuters
By Reuters
Feb. 16, 2024
Boeing and its Seattle-area machinists union will open negotiations on a new contract on March 8, a union spokesperson said on Friday. Formal negotiations between the U.S. planemaker and its largest union — District 751 of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers — were set to begin in early February, but the start date was pushed back at Boeing's request after a Jan. 5 in-flight cabin blowout on a 737 MAX 9.
St. Paul Public Schools teachers authorize strike
Star Tribune
By Anthony Lonetree
Feb. 16, 2024
St. Paul educators agreed again Thursday to authorize a strike against the state's second-largest district, the fourth time they've done so in as many bargaining cycles. A walkout now can be called with 10 days' notice, but the two sides are in mediation. Under those rules, the earliest that St. Paul Federation of Educators (SPFE) leaders could launch a strike countdown would be Feb. 26.
Broad gains in new PCC faculty contract
Northwest Labor Press
By Mallory Gruben
Feb. 19, 2024
The union that represents more than 1,500 Portland Community College (PCC) faculty and academic professionals reached tentative agreement on a new union contract Jan. 29, the Monday after a rally where members hinted they were ready to strike. If ratified as expected, the four-year agreement would provide a 14% cost of living raise over the next two years for all members of the Portland Community College Faculty Federation and Academic Professionals (PCCFFAP), also known as American Federation of Teachers Local 2277.
RTC bus drivers union back to drawing board in negotiations
8 News Now
By Caroline Bleakley
Feb. 19, 2024
After months of negotiations, threats of a strike, and a tentative contract agreement, the union that represents RTC bus drivers is back to the drawing board. Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1637 members voted against the tentative contract agreement on Friday. Negotiations between the RTC and ATU are expected to start over. The union posted on social media, “We stand with our Local 1637-Las Vegas, Nv. members in their fight for a fair and just contract.”
NLRB
Amazon Joins Elon Musk's SpaceX In Mission to Destroy Federal Agency Protecting Workers
Vice
By Jules Roscoe
Feb. 16, 2024
Amazon argued in a court filing on Thursday that the National Labor Relations Board is unconstitutional as part of an ongoing case against the company for retaliation against unionized workers. It is the third company to do so in recent months, joining Trader Joe’s and Elon Musk’s SpaceX. The NLRB is investigating numerous unfair labor practice charges against Amazon for its anti-union activity at JFK8, the famed Staten Island warehouse that became the first in the U.S. to unionize in 2022. Despite being certified by labor officials, the union has still not managed to bring Amazon to the bargaining table. The current case involves the allegedly illegal firing of union workers, retaliation against organizing activities, and unilateral changes made by management without negotiation.
STATE LEGISLATION
Michigan Just Became the First State in 6 Decades to Scrap an Infamous Anti-Union Law
The Nation
By John Nichols
Feb. 16, 2024
This week, Michigan finalized the process of eliminating a decade-old “right-to-work” law, which began with the shift in control of the state legislature from anti-union Republicans to pro-union Democrats following the 2022 election. “This moment has been decades in the making,” declared Michigan AFL-CIO President Ron Bieber. “By standing up and taking their power back, at the ballot box and in the workplace, workers have made it clear Michigan is and always will be the beating heart of the modern American labor movement.”
IN THE STATES
Oregon labor is still strike ready
Northwest Labor Press
By Graham Trainor
Feb. 19, 2024
On January 27, over 100 trade unionists gathered for the first-ever Oregon Strike School, a day-long training focused on building stronger and more effective contract campaigns and powerful strike threats throughout Oregon labor. With attendees from over 30 different unions from across Oregon’s economy, it was clear that our movement isn’t satisfied with the history-making action of 2023. In fact, based on the energy and the focus at Strike School, and what we continue to see in the first few months of 2024, last year’s labor action was just the beginning.
LABOR AND COMMUNITY
Labor unions & United Way of the Ozarks team up to deliver shoes to Springfield elementary school
KY3
By KY3 Staff
Feb. 16, 2024
A Springfield elementary school received a delivery of new kicks. The Springfield Central Labor Council partnered with United Way of the Ozarks to donate 240 pairs of new shoes to students at Bowerman Elementary School. A collaboration of 22 local labor unions dropped the shoes off to the excited students on Friday. Bowerman’s principal says It takes some pressure off parents. “It’s such a hardship on families, especially with the price of groceries and housing; everything has gone up,” said Principal Angie Valchev. “So, if you have a kid that will grow two sizes in about a month or two, it’s really hard. So we’re so grateful for this partnership and to see our kids smiling and excited about a brand new pair of shoes and socks.”
How union solidarity showed this homeless veteran a path forward
Labor Tribune
By David Mccall
Feb. 19, 2024
Christopher Betterley arrived at the Altamont Veterans Facility in Buffalo, N.Y., a few years ago needing a home, a haircut, and a fresh start after treatment for alcohol use. He saw a sign tacked to the shelter’s dining room wall advertising jobs at the nearby Sumitomo tire plant, so he cleaned himself up, went for an interview, and quickly impressed both management and leaders of United Steelworkers (USW) Local 135L. But while the new job opened doors for Betterley, it was really union solidarity that saved him. He learned the trade from longtime union tire builders, leaned on the USW family that rallied around him, and pieced his life back together. As Betterley discovered, unions lift up all workers. They fight for fair treatment and look out for the most vulnerable. They provide a path forward.
UNION BUSTING
Bill holding unions responsible for scofflaw bosses moves forward in Iowa Senate
Des Moines Register
By Kevin Baskins
Feb. 16, 2024
After two hours of vigorous debate and wading through 11 failed amendment attempts by minority Democrats, the Iowa Senate Workforce Committee recommended approval of a bill changing rules on union recertification requirements late Wednesday. Senate Study Bill 3158 now goes to the full Senate for consideration. Passage of the measure came on a 7-5 vote after vigorous objections by Democratic lawmakers and unions representing public employees, who contend the proposal is an effort at union busting. Sen. Charlie McClintock, R-Alburnett, joined the four Democrats in opposing the measure, which otherwise passed along party lines.