MUST READ
'Passing the PRO Act Is Not a Spectator Sport': AFL-CIO Leads National Day of Action
Common Dreams
By Kenny Stancil
April 8, 2021
The AFL-CIO is encouraging people to call U.S. senators on Thursday to urge them to support the passage of the Protecting the Right to Organize Act, a historic piece of legislation that would significantly strengthen workers' right to form unions and help reverse a decades-long assault on labor waged by corporations and their political allies. "Passing the PRO Act is not a spectator sport. All of us must act—and act today by driving calls into the Senate," AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka said Thursday. "From Alabama to Alaska, we are going to make our case for an economic and political system that works for working people."
Labor Wants Biden to Put Cook or Spriggs on Fed, Trumka Says
Bloomberg
By Saleha Mohsin and Jennifer Jacobs
April 8, 2021
AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka called on President Joe Biden to use a current vacancy on the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors to bring greater diversity to the central bank. Trumka said in an interview Thursday that union officials have recommended the White House nominate William Spriggs or Lisa Cook for the Fed board seat. Either of them would bring the voice of “working Americans” to the world’s most powerful central bank, he said. “The sooner that a worker’s voice is heard in the inner workings of the Federal Reserve, the better for the economy itself and the better for average working Americans,” Trumka said.
POLITICS
AFL-CIO leads National Day of Action to win the PRO Act
People’s World
By Mark Gruenberg
April 8, 2021
The AFL-CIO is spearheading a “National Day of Action” today, April 8, to organize workers to lobby senators to pass the Protect the Right to Organize (PRO) Act. If four Democratic holdouts and one independent can be turned around, the act will become law. After a boost from Democratic President Joe Biden in early March, the Democratic-run House passed the PRO Act, the most wide-ranging, pro-worker rewrite of labor law since the original National Labor Relations Act of 1935. The measure would make organizing unions easier, ban such common corporate tactics as mandatory anti-union meetings, and make union recognition elections faster. “We’re not going to let a minority in the Senate stop” the PRO Act, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka vowed at a press conference with lawmakers and the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights during House debate on the law.
AMAZON
Emails show Amazon pressed Postal Service for mailbox outside warehouse before union vote
The Washington Post
By Jay Greene
April 8, 2021
Emails among U.S. Postal Service employees in January and February show that Amazon pressed the agency to install a mailbox outside its Bessemer, Ala., warehouse, a move the union battling to organize workers there contends is a violation of labor laws. The Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union is fighting to represent 5,805 workers at the facility in one of the most high-profile labor battles in years, and the National Labor Relations Board is expected to begin counting votes today.
Amazon union drive in Alabama gathers 3,215 votes.
The New York Times
By Karen Weise and Michael Corkery
April 8, 2021
The union seeking to represent workers at an Amazon warehouse in Alabama said late Wednesday that there were 3,215 ballots cast — or about 55 percent of the roughly 5,800 workers who were eligible to vote. The ballots are expected to be counted by hand starting either Thursday afternoon or Friday morning in the National Labor Relations Board’s office in Birmingham, according to the Retail Wholesale and Department Store Union. Hundreds of ballots are being contested, mostly by Amazon, the union said.
INFRASTRUCTURE
Biden points to Flint water crisis to show need for infrastructure plan
MLive Michigan
By Ron Fonger
April 8, 2021
President Joe Biden is pointing to the Flint water crisis as evidence of the nation’s deteriorating infrastructure as he pitches his $2.3-trillion American Jobs Plan. Speaking in Washington, D.C., Wednesday, April 7, Biden said his massive, “once in a generation investment in America” would put plumbers and pipefitters to work replacing thousands of miles of dangerous lead water pipes.
LABOR AND ECONOMY
U.S. Jobless Claims Rose to 744,000 Last Week
The Wall Street Journal
By Gwynn Guilford
April 8, 2021
Worker filings for jobless claims rose to 744,000 last week, pausing a downward trend amid other signs of recent labor-market improvement. Initial claims unemployment benefits, a proxy for layoffs, increased by a seasonally adjusted 16,000 last week from an upwardly revised 728,000 the prior week, the Labor Department said Thursday. The four-week average, which smooths out volatility in the figures, rose slightly to 723,750 from 721,250.
IN THE STATES
Pennsylvania AFL-CIO Applauds Attorney General's Charges Against Employer's Fraud
The Reporter
By PA AFL-CIO
April 8, 2021
Today, Attorney General Josh Shapiro announced criminal charges against the major anti-union company, Glenn O. Hawbaker Incorporated, which has fleeced workers, honest companies, and the Commonwealth of more than $20 Million. The charges announced today are the largest Davis-Bacon prevailing wage case in U.S. History. The Pennsylvania AFL-CIO officers want to thank Attorney General Josh Shapiro and his incredible team for the extraordinary work done today to stand up and fight for PA's workers and their families. The State Federation officers issued the following statements: "Glenn O. Hawbaker Incorporated has stolen from its workers and the Commonwealth. This fraud has cheated honest, hard-working people out of the wages, healthcare, and retirement security they are due. Companies should not get a pass for violating the law and depriving workers of the rightful compensation for their labor. The working people of Pennsylvania have an Attorney General who will fight for their rights on the job, and Josh Shapiro is holding this unscrupulous employer accountable for this egregious theft," stated President Rick Bloomingdale.