AFL-CIO Press Clips: May 31, 2022
TRANSPORTATION
Labor leaders hail bus maker pact to hire more women, minority workers
The Washington Post
By Ian Duncan and Spencer S. Hsu
May 26, 2022
One of the nation’s largest bus manufacturers has agreed to hire and promote more women and racial minorities, a deal that worker advocates say is a model for ensuring that federal funds to replace diesel buses with battery-powered buses boosts workers in struggling communities. The deal, announced Thursday at events in California and Alabama, is in response to a lawsuit over a $500 million contract New Flyer won in 2013 to supply buses to the LA Metro transit agency. But its effects will ripple through the country to communities where the company has plants and potentially to other cities and states, where it could serve as a template for public-sector infrastructure contracting, labor officials say.
Macy’s contract negotiations continue as contract expires
Boston Globe
By Katie Johnston
May 27, 2022
For the past month, Macy’s has been locked in negotiations with the union representing 900 area workers. On Friday, as the contract expired, a federal mediator stepped in, and talks went down to the wire as they tried to hammer out a deal. Employees at five area stores — the Boston location in Downtown Crossing, Braintree, Natick, Peabody, and Warwick, R.I. — voted last weekend to authorize a strike. Late Friday evening, negotiations were still underway. At issue are the department store chain’s proposals to eliminate Sunday time-and-a-half pay for new and recent hires in Massachusetts, maintain a cap on overtime pay, and limit annual wage increases to 38 to 46 cents an hour — less than in the last contract, according to United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1445, which represents the Macy’s workers.
Organized labor is making a comeback nationwide. Will it spread to North Dakota and Minnesota?
Inforum
By Thomas Evanella
May 27, 2022
After decades of attrition, the labor movement appears to be making a comeback throughout the United States. Motivated by the COVID-19 pandemic, droves of workers have sought to unionize their workplaces. Huge national corporations, including a trio with operations in the Fargo-Moorhead area, have also felt the reverberations of this trend. Bernie Burnham, the president of the Minnesota AFL-CIO, has been closely monitoring the recent string of positive union news. Ask her about the success of unions, be it at Starbucks, Amazon or Target, and the word “exciting” comes up frequently. “People have just realized there’s a better way to work and that they all deserve much better pay, respect, benefits and all those things that unions can bring to them,” Burnham said. Landis Larson, Burnham’s North Dakota counterpart, agreed that the pandemic led employees to realize that their employers weren’t looking after them as well as they ought to be. “I think people are realizing the usefulness that a union has in their workplace,” Larson said.
Chevron Richmond Refinery Workers OK Deal to End First Strike in Over 40 Years
KQED
By Ted Goldberg
May 28, 2022
Hundreds of unionized workers who've been striking against Chevron's Richmond refinery for more than two months have voted to ratify a contract with the energy giant, ending a bitter labor dispute at one of the West Coast's major oil refining facilities. Results out Saturday afternoon show the contract was approved by a slim majority of the United Steelworkers Local 5 members who work at the plant, according to B.K. White, vice president of the union chapter.
Season finale or final season? Fate of the San Antonio Symphony in limbo as negotiations collapse
San Antonio Report
By Nicholas Frank
May 29, 2022
Reality returned with the onset of the 2021-2022 season in September. The positive energy of a free public concert on Main Plaza quickly dissipated by a restrictive contract imposed on musicians, who would be split into two tiers and have their compensation substantially reduced. The musicians responded by calling a strike, which continues indefinitely after their union, the American Federation of Musicians (AFM) Local 23, withdrew from negotiations citing bad faith on the part of orchestra management, the Symphony Society of San Antonio. AFM Local 23 subgroup the Musicians of the San Antonio Symphony (MOSAS) found support among community members who independently mounted concerts March 3-4 at First Baptist Church, partially to lend financial support to the struggling musicians, and also to get the orchestra back onstage.
IN THE STATES
Housekeepers struggle as US hotels ditch daily room cleaning
Madison.com
By Jennifer Sinco Kelleher and Anita Snow
May 28, 2022
Industry insiders say the move away from daily cleaning, which gained traction during the pandemic, is driven by customer preferences. But others say it has more to do with profit and has allowed hotels to cut the number of housekeepers at a time when many of the mostly immigrant women who take those jobs are still reeling from lost work during coronavirus shutdowns. Many housekeepers still employed say their hours have been cut and they are being asked to do far more work in that time. "It's a big change for us," said Espejo, a 60-year-old originally from the Philippines who has cleaned rooms at the world's largest Hilton for 18 years, minus about a year she was laid off during the pandemic. "We are so busy at work now. We cannot finish cleaning our rooms."