Today's AFL-CIO Press Clips
POLITICS
‘We have to move now’: Biden details his $2 trillion infrastructure plan
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
By Julian Routh
March 31, 2021
Mr. Biden was introduced by a union worker who deals with the electrical grid. Mike Fiore, a member of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 29 and an employee of Duquesne Light, said the plan would mean a lot to workers who are ready to retool plants and revitalize the middle class. “The [plan] is directed at communities like mine. It is about opening up opportunities, revitalizing local businesses and saving jobs,” Mr. Fiore said. “For decades, Pennsylvania was a global leader in manufacturing and good union jobs. It can be that way again.”
President Biden coming to Pittsburgh to unveil massive infrastructure plan
Action News 4
By Bob Mayo
March 31, 2021
President Joe Biden is coming to Pittsburgh on Wednesday to talk about his "Build Back Better" infrastructure plans and his economic vision for the future. Word of the visit is welcome news to Allegheny/Fayette Central Labor Council President Darrin Kelly. "We're very excited to have him here in Pittsburgh and it's no surprise he's coming back here. I think Pittsburgh has always been in the heart of President Joe Biden," Kelly told Pittsburgh's Action News 4.
Biden Rolls Out Plan To 'Win The Future,' But Disagreement Looms Ahead
WESA
By An-Li Herring & Chris Potter
March 31, 2021
Darrin Kelly, who heads southwestern Pennsylvania’s AFL-CIO umbrella group, said the plan was about “not just investing in infrastructure, but investing in the American people.” Among proposals to assure union organizing rights, Kelly cheered Biden’s pledge to invest in capping well sites. “These are our members working on these sites. They’re our members living there. … It will make a difference to clean up areas that the companies at that time may have taken advantage of.” “To have this rolled out [in] our hometown, it's just an amazing day,” he said.
JOINING TOGETHER
The First Museum In San Diego To Unionize Has A Contract
KPBS
By Julia Dixon Evans
March 30, 2021
In October of 2019, workers representing the organizing efforts of the New Children's Museum filed their intent to unionize. Negotiations with management began in January 2020 and continued nonstop until last month. The museum announced an agreement on the first contract on Monday.
Google union wins dispute over discussing pay
The Verge
By Zoe Schiffer
March 31, 2021
Google is telling workers they are allowed to discuss pay and working conditions as part of a settlement agreement with the Alphabet Workers Union (AWU), Bloomberg reports. The move settles a labor dispute brought by AWU in February. The initial complaint alleged that managers at Adecco, a Google subcontracting firm, banned workers from talking about wages and bonuses. It also said that Adecco retaliated against contractor Shannon Wait after she posted pro-union messages on Facebook. The complaint said Google was a joint employer and should therefore be held liable for the treatment of contractors. Google did not admit to this classification in the settlement.
NLRB
Google Promises Not to Muzzle Staff on Pay, Settling Labor Case
Bloomberg
By Josh Eidelson
March 31, 2021
Google promised not to silence workers who talk about their pay, part of a settlement resolving one of the first legal complaints filed by a new union representing hundreds of employees and contract workers at the internet giant. “WE WILL NOT tell you that you cannot discuss policies with other employees,” states the notice to staff, signed by an attorney for Google and parent Alphabet Inc. and being posted at a Google data center in South Carolina. “WE WILL NOT discipline you because you exercise your right to discuss wage rates, bonuses, hours and working conditions with other employees.” The settlement ends a National Labor Relations Board complaint filed by the Alphabet Workers Union in February alleging that management at the data center forbid workers from discussing their pay and also Alphabet Workers Union accused Google and vendor of wrongdoing Contract worker said pro-union Facebook post got her suspended suspended a data technician, Shannon Wait, because she wrote a pro-union post on Facebook. Wait was reinstated earlier this year, although she left soon after.
AMAZON
Amazon union vote in Alabama could spur broader organizing efforts, labor rep says
Puget Sound Business Journal
By Tony Lystra
March 30, 2021
A representative of Washington state’s largest union organization says a successful effort to unionize an Alabama Amazon warehouse could touch off a broader unionizing movement in the company's warehouses. ,
Why It’s Taking So Darn Long to Figure Out Who Won Amazon’s Union Vote
Slate
By Aaron Mak
March 31, 2021
Voting in the closely watched union election at Amazon’s facility in Bessemer, Alabama, ended on Monday, and the National Labor Relations Board began counting the ballots on Tuesday. The facility’s nearly 6,000 employees have been voting since February on whether to join the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union and become Amazon’s first unionized workplace. Yet it could take days or even weeks until we know the results. That’s because the NLRB’s counting process is slow and exacting. If you thought that presidential vote-counting can get complicated, this is something else.
IN THE STATES
New workforce liaison at Oregon AFL-CIO
NW Labor Press
March 31, 2021
Josh Hall, who was president of United Steelworkers Local 7150, started March 8 as the new workforce labor liaison at the Oregon AFL-CIO. Paid for by a federal grant, the liaison leads “rapid response” meetings to help dislocated union workers get unemployment and other benefits, and helps recruit union representatives to serve on the workforce boards that guide how federal training funds are spent.
Letter: All workers deserve safety, security
Salisbury Post
By Corey Hill
March 11, 2021
American workers are the backbone of this country, and our rights must be protected through the ability to form unions. Not only does being a part of a union mean safer working conditions and more benefits for workers, but it is also very empowering. Unions empower workers to create a working environment that is best for everyone, which in times like these during the COVID-19 pandemic is more important than ever. Empowering workers to have open communication with their employers about things like COVID safety, paid time off to care for ourselves and our loved ones, and minimizing the harmful effects of unemployment would be impossible if not for union contracts. In an area where so many are unemployed and in need of support in the workplace, unions are a powerful force for good. That force can only become stronger by passing the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act. All working people deserve the safety and security that comes from being empowered both in and out of the workplace, and the PRO Act will do just that.