MUST READ
Labor Unions Lodge First USMCA Complaint Against Mexican Factory
Bloomberg
By Ana Monteiro
May 10, 2021
The U.S.’s largest labor union is leading a complaint over working conditions at an auto-parts factory in Mexico, the first case to test whether enforcement provisions in a new trade agreement can help to improve working conditions. “USMCA requires Mexico to end the reign of protection unions and their corrupt deals with employers,” said AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka. “The ongoing harassment of Susana Prieto and SNITIS members is a textbook violation of the labor laws Mexico has pledged to uphold.”
TRADE
First USMCA labor complaint filed against auto supplier in Mexico
The Detroit News
By Riley Beggin
May 10, 2021
Labor groups submitted the first complaint of a labor violation under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) on Monday, against an auto parts supplier in Mexico, posing an early test of the new trade deal's labor provisions. The complaint was filed by the AFL-CIO, the Service Employees International Union, Mexican autoworkers union SNITIS and left-leaning consumer advocacy organization Public Citizen against Tridonex, an auto parts factory based in Matamoros, Mexico, near the southern tip of Texas. “USMCA requires Mexico to end the reign of protection unions and their corrupt deals with employers,” said AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka in the joint statement, which also included Susana Prieto, a Mexican labor lawyer who was arrested during union organizing last year. “The ongoing harassment of Susana Prieto and SNITIS members is a textbook violation of the labor laws Mexico has pledged to uphold."
LABOR AND ECONOMY
Don't pin so-called labor shortage on workers: Economy was broken before COVID-19 (Opinion)
Florida Today
By Jerame Davis
May 10, 2021
For over a year, COVID-19 has wreaked havoc on working people and the communities where we live and work. Millions of front-line workers are going to work today, as they have every day during the pandemic, with few — if any — protections from a virus that has killed 580,000 Americans. But there are also millions of working people who are out of a job through no fault of our own. Today, there are 8.4 million fewer jobs in the U.S. economy than there were in February 2020.
After being hired in huge numbers, US delivery workers are losing their jobs
Quartz
By Michelle Cheng
May 7, 2021
As the US economy continues to open up, the April jobs report from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics shows the boom in delivery jobs has taken a tumble. The number of people employed as “couriers and messengers” fell 7%, to 1,009,000, from the month before. The industry covers workers who deliver and pick up packaged good, employed by companies like Amazon, Fedex, and DHL.
IN THE STATES
Union analysis concludes North Dakota still a dangerous place for workers
The Bismarck Tribune
By Bismarck Tribune staff
May 10, 2021
North Dakota's rate of workplace deaths remains among the highest in the country, according to an annual report released by the AFL-CIO. The analysis based off Bureau of Labor Statistics data shows that 37 North Dakota workers died in 2019 due to on-the-job injuries. The rate of 9.7 deaths per 100,000 workers was third-highest in the nation, behind Alaska and Wyoming, according to the labor union federation.
PRO Act will protect workers, their bargaining rights, and their bank accounts
Las Vegas Sun
By Rusty McAllister
May 8, 2021
The COVID-19 pandemic has hit no state in the country harder than Nevada, where we saw 33% of our workers without jobs in Las Vegas. But during the first seven months of the pandemic, America’s wealthiest grew their wealth, with the nation’s 614 billionaires earning more than $931 billion.
We must rebuild our economy and our middle class, and close this chasm of wealth inequality, if we want to fully recover from this pandemic. Unions offer an avenue to do so. Historically, unions mean higher wages, job security, equal opportunities and equal pay. The PRO Act, if passed, would protect the basic rights to join a union by empowering workers to exercise their right to organize, hold employers accountable for violating workers’ rights, and securing free, fair, and safe union elections.
Unions call on state lawmakers to raise SC’s minimum wage
WTOC11
By Live 5 Web Staff
May 10, 2021
The South Carolina American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations says the state must take action on raising the minimum wage.
South Carolina AFL-CIO President Charles Brave called on the South Carolina General Assembly to establish a living wage benchmark in the state, Monday. Brave says his remarks come in the wake of South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster’s decision to eliminate the federal unemployment subsidy in South Carolina in June. “McMaster’s decision to terminate the federal unemployment subsidy once again proves he values the business community in South Carolina more than he does communities of people. If an extra $300 a week in unemployment is more fruitful to you than returning to work, what does that say about the wages we pay working people in general across this state?” Brave said.
POLITICS
Longtime AFL-CIO Official Takes Up Key Labor Post In Biden Administration
NPR
By Andrea Hsu
May 10, 2021
Today, Lee became one of those people in charge when President Biden named her head of the Labor Department's Bureau of International Labor Affairs. In that key post, she will will oversee enforcement of labor provisions in U.S. trade policy, including those in President Trump's major trade deal, the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA. Among other things, the deal requires Mexico to offer workers greater protections, including against forced labor and violence.