MUST READ
Organizing and adding members are top goals for the newly elected AFL-CIO president
NPR
By Don Gonyea
June 17, 2022
The nation's largest labor federation made history on Sunday when Elizabeth Shuler became the first woman ever elected president of the AFL-CIO. A second barrier was also broken at the organization's convention in Philadelphia when Fred Redmond became the federation's highest-ranking Black official. He was elected secretary-treasurer, the AFL-CIO's No. 2 leadership post. In her speech at the convention, Shuler pledged to expand on recent organizing drives — from high tech to retail to the service industry. "Nineteen thousand baristas at Starbucks across the country are reclaiming what it means to be a partner. And corporate and retail workers are coming together to organize at Apple," she said.
Labor Press
By Bob Hennelly
June 20, 2022
“We all know that we should not have to be here,” said Fred Redmond, secretary-treasurer of the AFL-CIO, which represents 12.5 million workers in 57 unions. “We should not have to join in the streets and march and lift our voices to put an end to poverty because poverty is a failure — it’s a failure of the system not of the people…being poor is not a crime. The crime is accepting a system that allows for poverty. Poverty exists because we allow it to exist.”
ORGANIZING
Union wins right to represent workers at an Apple store for the first time
CNN Business
By Catherine Thorbecke and Chris Isidore
June 19, 2022
Apple workers in Towson, Maryland, have voted to form the first-ever labor union at one of the tech giant's US stores. The landmark union election concluded on Saturday evening with 65 workers voting for unionization and 33 against it, a nearly two-to-one margin in favor of the union, according to a preliminary tally from the National Labor Relations Board. The victory for union organizers at the Apple (AAPL) store in the Towson Town Center, a mall near Baltimore, comes amid a broader wave of workplace activism that has emerged in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Apple Workers at Maryland Store Vote to Unionize, a First in the U.S.
The New York Times
By Tripp Mickle and Noam Scheiber
June 18, 2022
Apple employees at a Baltimore-area store have voted to unionize, making it the first of the company’s 270-plus stores in the United States to join a trend in labor organizing sweeping through retailers, restaurants and tech companies. The result, announced on Saturday by the National Labor Relations Board, provides a foothold for a budding movement among Apple retail employees who want a greater voice over wages and Covid-19 policies. Employees of more than two dozen Apple stores have expressed interest in unionizing in recent months, union leaders say.
Unionization surge reaches Apple
Axios
By Ina Fried
June 18, 2022
Apple workers at a store in Maryland voted roughly by a 2-to-1 ratio to join a union, becoming the first of the company's employees to choose to do so. Why it matters: The vote comes as tech workers, who have long eschewed unionization, have been increasingly open to the idea. Driving the news: In the vote, results of which were announced Saturday, 65 employees at a store in Towson, Maryland, voted to unionize, with 33 voting against, per the New York Times.
Apple workers in Maryland vote to join union, a first for the tech giant in US
The Guardian
By Edward Helmore
June 19, 2022
Apple Store workers in Maryland have voted to join a union, becoming the tech giant’s first retail employees to join a labour-force movement as part of a wider trend across US retail, service and tech industries. Workers voted to unionise on a nearly two-to-one margin and the result, announced on Saturday by the National Labor Relations Board, provides a foothold for a budding movement among Apple retail employees who want a greater voice over wages and policies pertaining to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.
LABOR AND ECONOMY
Poor People’s Campaign marches, rallies in District
The Washington Post
By Kyle Swenson, Gaya Gupta, Omari Daniels and Ellie Silverman
June 18, 2022
Thousands gathered Saturday in downtown Washington for a rally to call attention to a wide range of issues disproportionately affecting poor and low-income Americans, including health care, housing, gun violence, abortion rights and labor conditions. Participants began at Freedom Plaza and marched along Pennsylvania Avenue for the Poor People’s & Low-Wage Workers’ Assembly and Moral March on Washington. Many hoisted signs with messages such as “homes not drones,” “let’s smash capitalism together,” and “reparations not occupation” — words reflecting the myriad causes and concerns that drew attendees from across the country.
JOINING TOGETHER
UMWA pledges full support for 15-month Alabama miners’ strike
AL.com
By William Thornton
June 17, 2022
The United Mine Workers of America is committing “all necessary resources” to continue a strike that has dragged on for almost 15 months against Warrior Met Coal in Alabama. Delegates to the UMWA’s Constitutional Convention last week unanimously passed a resolution pledging support “for the Union to be victorious in its struggle against Warrior Met.” According to the union, this “unleashes every available avenue the union has at its disposal to continue the struggle for justice and win a fair contract.” “This is a tremendous show of support and solidarity for the strikers at Warrior Met by every UMWA local union,” UMWA International President Cecil E. Roberts said in a statment. “And it was followed by an equally unanimous statement of support for the strikers by the national AFL-CIO at its convention this week. The entire labor movement is engaged and taking financial and logistical action to win this strike.”
Nurses plan 2-day strike at AHMC Seton in Daly City
CBS Bay City
June 20, 2022
Registered nurses AHMC Seton Medical Center in Daly City said Monday they planned to go on strike this week over what they call a chronic lack of supplies, understaffing and patient care issues. Members of the California Nurses Association and National Nurses United said in a release that the medical center allegedly frequently violates state mandated safe-staffing ratios by understaffing units, including the COVID unit, which they say has led to an increase in patient falls.
Unionised Philadelphia Museum of Art workers rally to push contract negotiations forward
The Art Newspaper
By Anni Irish
June 17, 2022
On 14 June, workers in the Philadelphia Museum of Art Union and representatives of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) held a rally at the museum to call attention to ongoing issues in contract negotiations with institutional management. Five hundred people gathered on the Philadelphia Museum of Art’s (PMA) famous steps, where several speakers addressed the crowd.
UNION BUSTING
Anti-union Philadelphia Museum of Art bosses fire workers, eliminate pay—for years
People’s World
By PAI
June 17, 2022y
Joined June 14 by union leaders and members from the nearby AFL-CIO Convention, the workers made the point that the museum, a non-profit institution, acts like typical corporate bosses in terms of respect, dignity, and decent pay on the job. That includes firing 100 of the staffers a few months before the union won 89% of the ballots in the pre-pandemic recognition vote, Rizzo said in an interview during the protest. NLRB records the August 2020 vote as 181-22. There’s been futile bargaining and no contract since. “Workers across the country are fed up—and you have the might of 13.5 million workers beside you in this fight for a fair contract,” declared AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler, one of several union presidents who spoke at the rally.