CORONAVIRUS
AFL-CIO urges union members to get vaccinated – then brag about it
Labor Tribune
By Lynn Alpert
June 28, 2021
The AFL-CIO is urging union members to get vaccinated for COVID-19 and show their health-conscious union pride with a sticker announcing their vaccination status. “COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective,” the AFL-CIO said in a statement. “Clinical trials show that the vaccines are safe and help protect people from COVID-19. If we all get vaccinated and continue wearing masks and social distancing, we can slow the spread. Together, we can end this pandemic. “Working people also need strong health and safety protections in the workplace to prevent exposure to COVID-19. The workplace is a high-risk setting because we’re breathing the same air for long periods of time. That’s why vaccines for workers are even more important.
POLITICS
Warner should back PRO Act protections for workers (Opinion)
The Virginian-Pilot
By Jernay Wallace
June 28, 2021
The PRO Act would prevent employers from interfering in workers’ efforts to form unions and levy a substantial fine on them if they did. Voters want this: As of 2018, nearly 50% of non-union workers say they would join a union, but less than 11% belong to one. Meanwhile, public sentiment towards labor unions is the most positive it has been in more than 50 years. Despite our status as contractors, rideshare drivers were deemed essential during the COVID-19 pandemic; left to purchase our own masks and rig our own vehicles up with safety screens, this contractor status left us lacking protections for ourselves and our families.
Op-ed: The PRO Act Is How We Build a Better Future for Virginia’s Working Families (Opinion)
Loudoun Now
By Doris Crouse-Mays
June 29, 2021
Unfortunately, our broken labor laws allow employers to get away with violating the National Labor Relations Act with little to no consequence. As we navigate our new normal and continue to mitigate the risks all around us, there has never been a more important time to ensure workers can speak up for themselves with a voice on the job. Enter the PRO Act. This monumental legislation will empower Virginia’s workers, including those right here in Loudoun County, to exercise our freedom to organize and bargain. Business interests claim this bill will mean economic disaster, but this could not be further from the truth. Union members are more likely to have higher wages (11.2% more than what nonunion workers make), better access to employer-paid healthcare (94% compared to 68%), retirement benefits through private employers (82% to 48%) and so much more.
AFL-CIO leader: Pass PRO Act to help working families (Opinion)
Orlando Sentinel
By Mike Williams
June 29, 2021
Despite the indispensable services America’s workers provide, for far too long the economy has been rigged against them in favor of employers and big business. The PRO Act, legislation currently in the U.S. Senate, would be a significant step forward for workers’ rights across the nation. If passed, the Protecting the Right to Organize Act would fight back against decades of attacks on Americans’ right to unionize and advocate for themselves in the workplace. This bill could not come at a more pressing time, support for unions is at an all-time high across the nation. Unfortunately, years of anti-worker legislation has made it unnecessarily difficult for workers to join and form a union, instead favoring corporate interests.
JOINING TOGETHER
Union workers at Frito-Lay say they’ll go on strike next week
KSNT
By Alec Gartner
June 29, 2021
Workers and the bosses at Topeka’s Frito-Lay facility have been at odds for months. Now hundreds of workers are planning to stop showing up for work. About 500 Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco, and Grain Millers Local 218 Union members are expected to go on strike starting Monday. Members of the union and Frito-Lay have been trying to come up with a new contract since September.
UPHS-Marquette techs vote to unionize
Upper Michigans Source
By Alex Clark
June 28, 2021
A group of medical professionals in Upper Michigan voted on Monday to form a union with the Michigan Nurses Association (MNA). The techs at UP Health System-Marquette voted to join the union, with 92% voting yes. It was a 159-13 count vote, according to a press release from the MNA. The MNA officially announced that some U.P. techs filed nationally to form a union back in May. According to the release, the techs are the third facility of healthcare workers to unionize in the U.P. since the start of the pandemic. They were preceded by nurses at Aspirus Keweenaw Hospital and healthcare professionals at the Chippewa County Health Department. Both groups voted to become a part of the union within the past year.
Who Was Mother Jones? The Labor Icon Remains an Inspiration to Activists
Teen Vogue
By Kim Kelly
June 29, 2021
Mother Jones will never truly die; the impact she made is far too great. Now her legacy has found vital new life in a group of women in Alabama coal country. A grueling strike has consumed a rural mining community as over a thousand workers and their families have taken to the picket lines to square off against corporate greed. One almost expects to hear Mother Jones's exhortations to “keep up the fight” ringing out over the coalfields. So it’s finally time for me to introduce y’all to a woman once called “the grandmother of all agitators,” and to some of the modern-day daughters of Mother Jones.
Biden admin won't oppose bid to revive immigration judges union
Reuters
By Daniel Wiessner
June 28, 2021
The U.S. Department of Justice has dropped its opposition to an immigration judges union's bid to overturn a labor panel's Trump-era ruling that decertified the union. DOJ's Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) on Friday withdrew its opposition to the National Association of Immigration Judges' motion for reconsideration of the November ruling, which said the judges were management employees who cannot unionize under federal law.
Could unions be next for Gophers and other college sports teams? (Opinion)
MinnPost
By Marshall H. Tanick
June 28, 2021
The high-profile decision the other day by the U.S. Supreme Court allowing student athletes at colleges and universities to receive upgraded educational-related benefits beyond those currently limited by their governing body, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), could lead to a number of changes in college athletics.
IN THE STATES
Commission formed by Legislature will examine the future of work in Mass.
Boston Globe
By Jasper Goodman
June 29, 2021
Steven A. Tolman, president of the Massachusetts AFL-CIO and a member of the commission, said the tech giants are violating the law by not providing benefits such as sick time. “These are protections that have been worked on, advocated for, and fought for — and won,” he said. “And now these out-of-state high-tech millionaires come in here and, because it’s app-based, they want to skirt the laws.”