AFL-CIO Press Clips: July 29, 2022
JOINING TOGETHER
'We’re proud to be walking the talk' O'Rourke campaign says as staff forms union
KVUE
By Christian Aleman
July 28, 2022
More than 100 staffers working for Beto O'Rourke's campaign for Texas governor officially formed a union, becoming the first statewide campaign in the state to do so. The 129 staffers in organizing, canvassing, press, finance and other positions, ratified a union contract through Office & Professional Employees International Union (OPEIU). "We are proud to join the labor movement and to be the first Texas statewide campaign to unionize," Rocio Dumey, an organizer on the campaign, said in a media release. "Like Beto, we practice what we preach. We want to send a message that every worker in this state should have the right to demand better wages, benefits and working conditions. We want to join them in that fight.” The Texas AFL-CIO congratulated the newly-formed union on approving a union contract, saying that "staffers laboring long hours in a high-pressure political environment should have a voice in the workplace."
Off-Air Content Staff At ‘PBS NewsHour’ Unionizes With SAG-AFTRA
Deadline
By David Robb
July 28, 2022
The off-air content staff members of PBS NewsHour have unionized with SAG-AFTRA. The on-air staffers long have been represented by the union, but they now are joined by 69 reporters, producers, editors, production assistants and others who not only report and produce the show but also create NewsHour’s expanding digital footprint and one-hour primetime documentaries. NewsHour Productions, which produces the show, has officially recognized the bargaining unit, of which more than 70% of the program’s workers signed on to a petition to unionize.
Tucson Weekly
By David Abbott
July 28, 2022
Unionization for workers in the cannabis industry is gathering steam in Arizona, as budtenders at the Curaleaf Dispensary in midtown Phoenix recently voted to unionize, while workers at several other dispensaries are poised to vote on the issue within the next few weeks. “(This) election marks an important milestone for cannabis workers in Arizona and across the country,” United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 99 President Jim McLaughlin said in a July 2 press release. “As cannabis companies like Curaleaf continue to see record profits, the time to share their prosperity with workers is long overdue.” UFCW 99 is Arizona’s largest private-sector union, representing 24,000 workers at Fry’s, Safeway and other retailers throughout the southwest. There are more than 1.3 million UFCW members nationwide.
Fayetteville Goodyear workers could strike Friday if union negotiations fail
The Fayetteville Observer
By Myron B. Pitts
July 28, 2022
Workers at the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Plant in Fayetteville are preparing for a possible strike Friday due to stalled negotiations between the national corporation and the United Steelworkers of America, based on online communications from the union's national and local chapters. The contract between Goodyear and the steelworkers expires at 6 p.m. Friday. As of Thursday afternoon, a new contract had not been agreed to. Officials with United Steelworkers Local 959, which represents about 2,000 workers at the Fayetteville plant, are so far not commenting on the status of national contract negotiations or the potential for a strike here.
Union representing pharmacists rejects contract offer from grocery stores
Spectrum News 1
By City News Service
July 28, 2022
The United Food and Commercial Workers union, representing more than 700 pharmacists and pharmacy workers at Ralphs, Vons, Albertsons and Pavilions stores in Southern California, has rejected the latest contract offer from employers. The UFCW, representing seven locals, said in a statement released Wednesday the contract did not meet the needs of the majority of their members. “While we are working with a federal mediator to return to the bargaining table with these employers and secure the contract our members deserve, we are ready to take all necessary action to make sure our members’ voices are heard,” the UFCW said in a statement. The union members, following an “overwhelming” vote on Saturday, authorized union leadership to call for a strike. No dates have been set for a strike and negotiations with the stores have continued.
All 9 Atlantic City, New Jersey casinos reach contract with main employee union
ABC6
By Wayne Parry
July 28, 2022
Atlantic City casino workers are getting substantial raises and the gambling halls will enjoy four years of labor peace now that all nine casinos have reached new contracts with the industry's main employee union. On Thursday afternoon, the Golden Nugget reached an agreement with Local 54 of the Unite Here union on a new contract, the last of the city's casinos to ink a deal.
Graduate Hotel Union Ratifies 1st Contract
New Haven Independent
By Thomas Breen
July 28, 2022
Graduate New Haven hotel employees, union organizers, and labor-friendly politicians celebrated the city’s first new hotel worker union in a quarter century by praising an unexpected ally — an employer that voluntarily chose to recognize and negotiate, rather than fight. That celebration took place Thursday afternoon on the Upper Green in the shadow of Yale’s Phelps Gate on College Street. Several dozen UNITE HERE union leaders, members, and supporters rallied to recognize a ratified three-year contract signed by the members of the new employee union at the Graduate New Haven hotel, formerly the Hotel Duncan, at 1155 Chapel St.
IN THE STATES
Maine union group opposes consumer-owned utility referendum
Bangor Daily News
By Carol Bousquet
July 28, 2022
The Maine AFL-CIO is opposing the consumer-owned utility referendum, saying a publicly owned utility would threaten the rights of workers and create uncertainty for consumers. Union President Cynthia Phinney said the majority of workers at Central Maine Power and Versant Power do not support the proposal, which could prompt a buyout of the two investor-owned utilities and reclassify union workers as public employees. “If they’re public employees, they could lose their right to withhold their labor which is a fundamental right that we think all employees should have,” Phinney said.
STUDENT DEBT
The Aging Student Debtors of America
The New Yorker
By Eleni Schirmer
July 27, 2022
“Years and years of erosion of labor rights has meant that wage power has not kept up with student debt,” Randi Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of Teachers, told me. As such, student loans don’t take people out of the working class; they merely change the accounting of people living within it. Fifty-year-old David Ormsby, for example, had been working at a Home Depot in Detroit for eight years when he decided to go back to school. “I wouldn’t call it a dead-end job,” he said, but he felt he wouldn’t be able to advance without a higher degree. In 2005, he began studying part time at a local university for a bachelor’s degree in supply-chain management, while also raising his two sons and working more than fifty hours a week. Today, he holds close to ninety thousand dollars in student debt.
PAYWATCH/CEO PAY
Business Insider
By Paul Constant
July 28, 2022
Last Sunday marked the 13th anniversary of the day that the federal minimum wage increased to $7.25, where it's remained today. This is by far the longest period without a federal minimum-wage increase since the wage was established in 1938. At the same time that workers on the bottom of the wage scale are earning record lows, the highest wage-earners are taking home record pay. Last week, the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), the largest group of unions in the US, issued its annual "Paywatch" report, which found that the average American CEO of an S&P 500 company earns 324 times more than their median worker, making on average $18.3 million in 2021 — a $2.8 million increase from 2020