MUST READ
White House Hosts Women's History Month Labor Roundtable
Mirage News
By The White House
March 22, 2024
This week, Trade Representative Katherine Tai, Director of the White House Gender Policy Council Jennifer Klein, Deputy Undersecretary of International Labor Affairs Thea Lee, Deputy Assistant to the President Samantha Silverberg and the White House Office of Public Engagement hosted a group of women labor leaders and organizers at the White House. The event, held in partnership with the AFL-CIO and moderated by White House Senior Labor Advisor Erika Dinkel-Smith, was a celebration of women in labor in honor of Women's History Month and highlighted how the Biden-Harris Administration is putting women and girls at the heart of the Administration's economic agenda, and promoting and defending women workers' rights both domestically and abroad. Participants included AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler, AFL-CIO State Federation and Central Labor Council leaders, as well as young women organizers on the front lines of organizing new workplaces and expanding the benefits of unionization to women in their states. Collectively, attendees represented union members in the 14 states they represent.
Hoodline
By Priya Choudhury
March 23, 2024
The White House commemorated Women's History Month by hosting a roundtable with prominent female labor leaders, placing a spotlight on the administration's push for gender equality in the workforce. During the session, in partnership with the American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), participants discussed strategies to uplift women in labor and acknowledged the steps taken by the Biden-Harris administration towards this cause. The event, facilitated by White House Senior Labor Advisor Erika Dinkel-Smith, offered a platform to elevate the narrative surrounding women's significant roles within the labor movement. AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler, state federation leaders, and young female organizers at the helm of expanding unionization efforts also took part in the dialogue—representing members across 14 states.
POLITICS
Second gentleman Doug Emhoff joins labor leaders in Denver for roundtable discussion
Colorado Newsline
By Lindsey Toomer
March 22, 2024
Second gentleman Doug Emhoff sat down with local union leaders in Denver on Thursday to talk about the Biden-Harris campaign’s continued support of union work. Union leaders from the Service Employees International Union Local 105, the Colorado Education Association, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, and others sat down with Emhoff to ask questions about labor at a roundtable hosted by the Colorado Democratic Party. The national organizations for both SEIU and AFSCME endorsed Biden last year. “We are making the case to everyone that the Biden-Harris administration has delivered for the American people, including folks in labor,” Emhoff said.
APPRENTICESHIPS
National labor leader pushes apprenticeship programs, unionism in Pittsburgh visit
Pittsburgh Union Progress
By Ed Blazina
March 22, 2024
When it came time to choose a career, it didn’t take Rick Pireaux long to decide. With three previous generations of his family serving as iron workers, it was only natural that he would follow that tradition. Now, as an apprentice instructor for Iron Workers Local 3 in Pittsburgh’s Strip District, his role is to persuade others to follow that same path. Pireaux and others led tours of the union training facility Thursday as part of a national effort by Sean McGarvey, president of North America’s Building Trades Unions, to spread the word about the value of union labor. McGarvey joined a group of elected officials and labor leaders who spoke at a program after the tour to encourage more workers to apply for apprenticeships in the building trades.
North America's Building Trades Unions stop in Pittsburgh to applaud apprenticeship programs
WESA
By Erin Yudt
March 22, 2024
As part of their national “Opportunity Pipeline Tour”, North America's Building Trades Unions made a stop in Pittsburgh on Thursday to recognize the region’s workforce development. Business and labor leaders, government officials, community partners and building trades workers met at the Ironworkers Local Union 3 in the Strip District to discuss major projects coming to the greater Pittsburgh region. Pittsburgh is one of five cities the Biden-Harris Administration is attempting to funnel investments and incentives toward via the federal actions including the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, CHIPS and Science Act, and Inflation Reduction Act. It’s part of the administration’s economic growth strategy to create workforce hubs by encouraging private and public partnerships.
ORGANIZING
Unionization feels closer than ever as new long-term goals emerge
Game Developer
By Imran Khan
March 22, 2024
More and more game studios appear to be considering unionization, according to a panel at GDC 2024, indicating that formerly hushed whispers about labor unions are becoming full-blown roars. At GDC this year, the roar for unionization in the game industry is ever-increasing, dating back to the first serious talk about this type of organizing in 2018. Since that time, there has been both forward progress and frustrating stutters for large-scale unionization in the gaming industry, but a 2024 panel did not mince words from its title onwards: “Now is the Time! Workers are Ready to Form Unions.” The panel, made up of Dan Beglov (narrative designer, Sensorium, Team Gramps), Andrew Buczacki (game designer, Drifter Entertainment), Lauren Lehmann (animation director, Terrible Posture Games), Matthew Vimislik (project manager, Workinman Interactive), and Chrissy Fellmeth (international representative, International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) as the moderator, was partly a call to action to unionize and partly inoculation against union-busting tactics and misconceptions that studios might engage in.
Unionizing Harvard Academic Workers
Harvard Magazine
By Lydialyle Gibson
March 22, 2024
After a yearlong public campaign—and the three years of quiet organizing that preceded it—non-tenure-track faculty and other academic employees will vote on April 3 and 4 whether to form a union. Calling for higher wages, better job security, and stronger workplace protections against harassment, Harvard Academic Workers-United Auto Workers (HAW-UAW) filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) early this month for a union election. Days later, the University agreed not to oppose the bid. “Now we’re just gearing up to get folks out to vote,” says J. Gregory Given, Ph.D. ’19, one of HAW-UAW’s organizers. Given, who holds teaching appointments in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) and Harvard Divinity School (HDS), said, “Just talking to workers who are excited about this campaign, I think we are in a strong position.”
Chicago Sun-Times
By David Struett
March 22, 2024
The Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago says it will recognize a union representing about 100 employees who organized last month. The new union, MCA Workers United, is part of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 31, which has led a recent wave of successful unionizing efforts at city museums. In a joint announcement Friday, the museum and new union said they had begun a process for employees to submit signed union cards to a third party for verification. Once verified, the museum will recognize the union, and they will prepare to begin negotiating a contract.
Resident Assistants announce unionization effort, request university recognition
The Georgetown Voice
By Franzi Wild
March 22, 2024
The Georgetown Resident Assistant Coalition (GRAC) announced their intention to unionize under OPEIU Local 153 via a press release on March 22. Their reasons for unionizing include demands for equitable and just compensation, as well as a formal grievance process in response to the mistreatment of some RAs by management. Organizers began working toward unionization efforts in February, and the majority of RAs have signed a petition in favor of forming a union. Under Georgetown’s Just Employment Policy, “all working members” of the Georgetown community have the right to organize.
OPB voluntarily recognizes SAG-AFTRA union as representing some OPB employees
Oregon Public Broadcasting
By Staff
March 22, 2024
Earlier this month, OPB received a request from a group of OPB staff to voluntarily recognize Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) as their representative. Today, OPB has officially voluntarily recognized the union and will begin work with SAG-AFTRA on next steps in the process. OPB serves communities across Oregon and the Pacific Northwest with trusted journalism and engaging programs that are freely accessible to all. We are guided by public service and a commitment to equity, and we work to enrich lives and strengthen communities.
St. Louis-area cannabis workers win the right to review ballots in union election
Missouri Independent
By Rebecca Rivas
March 22, 2024
Employees at BeLeaf Medical’s Sinse Cannabis site in St. Louis moved a step closer to unionizing last week, when their employer’s efforts to block union election votes from being counted were rebuffed by a federal labor official. Since September, BeLeaf leaders have argued before the National Labor Relations Board that the employees weren’t eligible to unionize because they were agricultural workers – who are not protected under federal labor law.
Berea College students file to organize labor union for undergraduate workers
WEKU
March 23, 2024
Berea College students are organizing to form a labor union as the United Student Workers of Berea-CWA, according to a filing submitted to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). The school requires students to work on campus as part of its curriculum as a work college. More than 1,300 student employees would be represented.
JOINING TOGETHER
SAG-AFTRA Performers Ratify TV Animation Contracts
The Hollywood Reporter
By Katie Kilkenny
March 22, 2024
SAG-AFTRA members have ratified new three-year television animation contracts covering voice actors, the first to tackle the threat of artificial intelligence. In a ratification vote that ended on Friday, 95.52 percent of members voted to support the Television Animation Agreement and the Basic Cable Animation Agreement deal reached by union negotiators and 4.48 percent voted against the deal. The performers’ union first announced that a tentative agreement with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers on the contracts had been reached on Feb. 21.
SAG-AFTRA Members Give Near-Unanimous Approval to New TV Animation Contract
Gizmodo
By Justin Carter
March 23, 2024
Late Friday night, it was revealed SAG-AFTRA members have fully ratified a new three-year contract for TV animation. It appears to have been a pretty high voter turnout, with 95.52% of those who voted in favor of the conditions. According to SAG, parts of this contract were boosted by the TV/Theatrical contract struck last year, such as AI protections. It’ll go into effect starting July 1 and run through June 30, 2026.
Students show solidarity with workers as they negotiate new contract with Aramark
The Georgetown Voice
By Imani Liburd
March 24, 2024
Students have rallied behind dining hall workers as they negotiate with Aramark, the company Georgetown contracts for dining services, for a new contract. Dining hall workers are demanding higher pay and improved benefits, and the first negotiation session was held on March 6. Aramark has a history of allegations regarding poor labor practices. In 2015, the Voice found that Georgetown dining workers had a lower wage than dining workers employed by Aramark at nearby universities in the area, including American University and George Washington University.
‘Solidarity is a verb’: Pittsburgh IBEW local rallies to side of striking newspaper workers
Pittsburgh Union Press
By IBEW Media Center
March 24, 2024
Until he attended his first labor council meeting in February, Pittsburgh Local 29 lineman Jordan Layhew didn’t know about the long strike against his city’s newspaper or how badly its workers were hurting. Shaken to hear a veteran Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reporter’s grim update on their shrinking strike fund, Layhew sprang into action. “They have been through so much,” Layhew said of the NewsGuild-Communications Workers of America members who walked out in October 2022 over health care, wages and audacious attacks on their contract. “I really felt for them.” A chief steward, Layhew rallied his co-workers at Duquesne Light Co., passing the bucket for donations and leading nearly 20 members to join the picket line after their shift in early March.
IN THE STATES
Labor union leaders to discuss state and local concerns
WWLP
By Ashley Shook
March 22, 2024
State leaders head to Chicopee on Friday for a legislative breakfast at the Castle of Knights. The event is hosted by the Western Mass Area Labor Federation, discussions include funding for higher education, prevailing wage requirements, fighting budget cuts, the personal care assistant program in MassHealth, the current MASS MoCA union strike, and Medicare for All. The breakfast serves as an opportunity for union leaders to voice their concerns to lawmakers. Senators Jo Comerford and Jake Oliveira are expected to be among those in attendance along with Representatives Lindsey Sabadosa and Shirley Arriaga. Jeff Jones, President of the WMALF and Vice President of the Mass AFL-CIO and President of UFCW 1459, explained, “We are in a moment where labor is on the rise in our region, across the Commonwealth, and throughout the country. This breakfast lets our elected officials hear directly from union leaders and rank and file members what organized labor’s legislative priorities are. We need our elected officials to represent the concerns of working people – municipally, statewide, and at the federal level.”
VOTING RIGHTS
The Supreme Court and Young Voter Turnout
The New York Times
By Nick Corasaniti
March 22, 2024
Georgia, with its long history of the suppression of Black voters, has been ground zero for fights about voting rights laws for decades. The state has often seen stark differences in turnout between white and nonwhite communities, with the latter typically voting at a much lower rate. But not always: In the 2012 election, when Barack Obama won a second term in the White House, the turnout rate for Black voters under 38 in Lowndes County — a Republican-leaning county in southern Georgia — was actually four percentage points higher than the rate for white voters of a similar age. It proved to be temporary. According to new research by Michael Podhorzer, the former political director of the A.F.L.-C.I.O., by 2020, turnout for younger white voters in Lowndes was 14 percentage points higher than for Black voters of the same age.