MUST READ
We need a modern labor movement that brings good jobs (Opinion)
Chicago Sun-Times
By Liz Shuler
September 16, 2021
Flying into Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport recently, I spotted the ramp workers on the tarmac, busily unloading bags and doing safety checks on the plane in 115 degree heat. Most passengers were anxious to deplane, ready to head to baggage claim, not giving a second thought to the work happening all around them to make their journey happen. Working people are re-evaluating pre-COVID employment and refusing to accept a substandard job. As a result, wages are rising, schedules are more human and benefits are increasing. Millions of new jobs for working people, mostly unionized, will result from the $3.5 trillion budget blueprint moving through Congress. The latest Gallup poll found that 68% of Americans — and 77% of people 18-34 — have a positive opinion of unions. And the devastating pandemic taught America that without nurses, first responders, teachers, grocery clerks, truck drivers, postal workers and essential heroes, we’d be utterly nowhere.
NWSL Players Association becomes AFL-CIO affiliate
ESPN
By Jeff Carlisle
September 16, 2021
The National Women's Soccer League Players Association (NWSLPA) announced on Thursday that it has become an affiliate of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO). In becoming the AFL-CIO's 57th affiliate, the NWSLPA is aiming to leverage the parent union's organizing and training programs for all of its members, including the Women's Global Leadership Program. "We are thrilled to welcome these dedicated players to the federation," said AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler in a statement. "We look forward to working alongside the athletes in their fight for fair pay and dignity on the job. They've shown that their fights as workers on the soccer field are the same fights as workers from all walks of life have in jobs across this country: the need for safe workplaces, fair pay and to be treated with respect. We know the power of collective voice, and that we win when we stand together."
JOINING TOGETHER
HelloFresh Workers Unionize to Improve Brutal Working Conditions
Vice
By Lauren Kaori Gurley
September 16, 2021
Now 1,300 HelloFresh workers—intent on improving dire circumstances—are unionizing two HelloFresh factory kitchens in Colorado and California. On Tuesday, UNITE HERE, the national hospitality and service industry union, filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board asking to authorize a vote by workers at the kitchen factory in Aurora, Colorado. HelloFresh workers at the Richmond, California, facility in the Bay Area are signing up for the union in droves, according to UNITE HERE.
Flight attendants at American Airlines regional carrier Piedmont threaten strike as talks stall
The Dallas Morning News
By Kyle Arnold
The flight attendants union at American Airlines Regional carrier Piedmont is asking members to authorize a strike after three years of attempts to negotiate a new contract for higher wages. The Association of Flight Attendants-CWA representing Piedmont employees sent out strike authorization ballots this week to its 300 members, the first step in a lengthy process that could lead to them walking off the job. The union says Piedmont flight attendants are paid far less than those at other American Airlines regional carriers. “Life right now is unsustainable,” said Keturah Johnson, AFA Piedmont
President. “We have flight attendants who are utilizing a food pantry to grab food that they need and we have people sleeping in their cars.”
Union, Mondelez reach tentative agreement amid strike
CBS19
September 16, 2021
A tentative contract agreement reached between snack company Mondelez and striking union workers could end a walkout that began last month. The Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union and Mondelez issued separate statements Wednesday announcing a tentative deal, but neither would discuss the terms, The Richmond Times-Dispatch reported. Local officers on the committee will present the tentative agreement to workers in coming days and they will then vote on the agreement, Anthony Shelton, the union’s international president, said in a statement. It was uncertain when a vote will take place. Liz Shuler, the new president of the AFL-CIO union federation, met last week with about two dozen workers from the plant in Henrico, Virginia. “They’re taking tremendous courage to walk out and walk these picket lines because they know if they don’t take a stand, then wages and conditions continue to erode and that has an effect on everyone in this country,” Shuler said. “We are fed up with the way you have been treated.”
MLive
By Skyla Jewell-Hammie
September 16,2021
Students are well into their third week of school at Western Michigan University, but employment contracts for some staff at the school remain unresolved. Some employees and union members from the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Local 1668 protested on WMU’s campus Wednesday, Sept. 15. AFSCME Local 1668 President Bryan Sutton led the protest for higher wages, with a sign titled, “Western works because AFSCME does,” while his colleagues and other employee groups followed.
IN THE STATES
Landmark Climate, Jobs Law Hailed in Illinois
Public News Service
By Lily Bohlke
September 16, 2021
Pat Devaney, secretary treasurer of the Illinois AFL-CIO, a member of Climate Jobs Illinois, said the bill sets some of the nation's strongest labor standards, such as requiring collective-bargaining agreements for all utility-scale wind and solar. He added it also helps communities currently reliant on coal and natural gas transition to the clean economy. "With these provisions, we can ensure the clean-energy grid of the future will be built and maintained right here in Illinois by highly trained union workers to the benefit of their families and their communities," Devaney asserted.
AMAZON
Amazon reaches agreement with trade unions in Italy
Reuters
By Reuters
September 15, 2021
Amazon.com Inc has struck a deal with Italian trade unions promising to engage with them more in the running of operations in the country. The framework agreement, seen by Reuters, comes shortly after news that a group of Canadian workers are seeking to unionize as Amazon continues to manage discontent among some workers at its warehouses. The world's largest online retailer has long discouraged staff from organising and staved off a high-profile attempt to form a union in the United States this year. But globally, it continues to face challenges such as warehouse closures that unions in France pushed for during the COVID-19 pandemic.