POLITICS
White House labor task force meets Thursday to discuss key report that boosts unions
Yahoo! Finance
By Nandita Bose
October 6, 2021
Vice President Kamala Harris and Labor Secretary Marty Walsh will convene a second meeting on Thursday of the White House labor task force, a group of cabinet secretaries and top aides that aims to boost union membership in the country, two officials with knowledge of the matter said. The group will discuss recommendations for a report commissioned by President Joe Biden in April on ways existing policies can promote labor organizing in the federal government, new policies that are needed and associated regulatory challenges. The report is due in late October, a White House official and a senior administration official, who did not wish to be named said.
JOINING TOGETHER
Fed up by pandemic, US food workers launch rare strikes
ABC News
By Dee-Ann Durbin and Grant Schulte
October 6, 2021
A summer of labor unrest at U.S. food manufacturers has stretched into fall, as pandemic-weary workers continue to strike for better pay. Around 1,400 workers at Kellogg Co.’s U.S. cereal plants walked off the job this week, saying negotiations with the company over pay and benefits are at an impasse. Meanwhile, in Kentucky, a strike by 420 workers against Heaven Hill Distillery is in its fourth week.
Axios
By Courtenay Brown
October 6, 2021
The pace of strikes slowed when the pandemic hit. Now there are signs picket lines are bouncing back amid fresh worker angst. What's new: Production has been halted at Kellogg cereal plants across America after 1,400 workers walked off the job in a bid for better benefits (and worries about job outsourcing).
The last time a cereal workers strike hit the company was nearly 50 years ago.
Mercy Hospital strike: Union committed to work ‘as long as it takes’ to reach agreement
WIVB
By Kaley Lynch
October 5, 2021
Leaders from the CWA and Catholic Health met at the bargaining table Tuesday morning and had a “lengthy, productive discussion” regarding staffing – but the upstate New York director of the union says the strike will not end until they have a complete contract for members to vote on. “We will not end the strike until we have a complete and comprehensive contract we can take back to our members for a vote,” Debbie Hayes, upstate New York director for CWA said during a press conference Tuesday afternoon.
IATSE & AMPTP Return To Bargaining For Day 2 Of Last-Ditch Efforts To Avert A Strike
Deadline
By David Robb
October 6, 2021
IATSE and the AMPTP have resumed bargaining today after working all day Tuesday to avert a threatened nationwide strike against film and TV productions. These last-ditch negotiations come after 53,000 IATSE members voted almost unanimously to give their president, Matthew Loeb, the authority to call a strike if he and AMPTP president Carol Lombardini cannot come to terms on a new deal. The two sides have been bargaining, on and off, since May 18, but this week’s latest round of talks will be the last before a deal is reached or a strike is called. A strike, if it comes to that, would be the first nationwide strike in the union’s history. After this weekend’s strike authorization vote, Loeb said: “I hope that the studios will see and understand the resolve of our members. The ball is in their court. If they want to avoid a strike, they will return to the bargaining table and make us a reasonable offer.”
STUDENT DEBT
Troubled student loan forgiveness program gets an overhaul
WSLS
By Collin Binkley
October 6, 2021
The Biden administration is temporarily relaxing the rules for a student loan forgiveness program that has been criticized for its notoriously complex requirements — a change that could offer debt relief to thousands of teachers, social workers, military members and other public servants. Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, said the change is welcome. “Today we breathe a collective sigh of relief as the Kafkaesque system that dashed the dreams of far too many finally starts to be dismantled,” she said.