MUST WATCH
AFL-CIO President Shuler on Good Morning America: Workers Exercising Collective Power
Good Morning America
October 15, 2021
AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler joined Good Morning America to talk about how workers are standing up for a better deal and a better life through strikes across the country.
MUST READ
Strikes are sweeping the labor market as workers wield new leverage
The Washington Post
By Jacob Bogage
October 17, 2021
“The strikes are sending a signal, no doubt about it, that employers ignore workers at their peril,” AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler said in an interview with The Washington Post. “I think this wave of strikes is actually going to inspire more workers to stand up and speak out and put that line in the sand and say, ‘We deserve better.’ ”
Labor flexes its muscle as leverage tips from employers to workers
CNN
By Chris Isidore
October 16, 2021
Workers are saying enough is enough. And many of them are either hitting the picket lines or quitting their jobs as a result. The changing dynamics of the U.S. labor market, which has put employees rather than employers in the driver's seat in a way not seen for decades, is allowing unions to flex their muscles. "No one likes to go on strike. Let's be clear," Liz Shuler, the new president of the AFL-CIO, the federation of most of the nation's major unions, told CNN on Thursday. Strikes occur only when "we are pushed to a limit where basic fairness and equity are violated. You can't just continue to see wages go down, health care benefits taken away, retirement security disappear without saying enough is enough. And that's where we are, we're at a breaking point."
POLITICS
Shuler, Abrams link worker rights to voting rights as showdown nears
People’s World
By Mark Gruenberg
October 15, 2021
AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler and nationally notable voting rights advocate Stacey Abrams are linking worker rights on the job to voters’ rights to cast their ballots and have them accepted and counted, as a Senate showdown on that issue looms. The two traded comments back and forth on the two issues on an Oct. 14 evening telecast, posted on aflcio.tv. It came just after Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., announced solons would take a cloture vote on Oct. 20 to try to halt a threatened GOP filibuster against the Freedom To Vote Act. Cloture needs 60 votes to pass. “Your state was a laboratory where our enemies”—meaning labor’s foes—”want to see disenfranchisement happen,” Shuler told Abrams.
TRANSPORTATION
U.S. airlines are grounded by understaffing, fatigue and rising violence despite billions in aid (Opinion)
USA Today
By Richard Johnsen
October 15, 2021
There has been a lot of news lately about air rage. You’ve probably seen the viral videos: violent passengers, many angry about mask policies, throwing punches at flight crews and putting other passengers at risk. It’s happening on the ground, too. Airport workers like customer service agents are usually the first contact for travelers at the airport, and often the first in line for abuse. The Federal Aviation Authority has imposed stiffer penalties for violent offenders and stepped up public awareness campaigns to try to deter the violence in the first place. But those measures alone aren’t working.
JOINING TOGETHER
Allina WestHealth union nurses set strike date
KARE 11
By Dana Thiede
October 14, 2021
Union nurses at Allina's WestHealth campus in Plymouth are planning to launch a three-day strike as they seek a new contract that would provide "fair pay and benefits" for those on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Minnesota Nurses Association (MNA) announced Thursday that the strike will run from Sunday, Oct. 17 at 7 a.m. to Wednesday, Oct. 20 at 7 a.m. The union says negotiations have been ongoing since May, and that a final 90-minute negotiating session Wednesday failed to reach agreement on a number of issues, including holiday pay and benefits.
Ben Whitehair Elected SAG-AFTRA EVP, Now Second-Ranking Union Officer
Deadline
By David Robb
October 16, 2021
Ben Whitehair, a staunch supporter of SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher, has been elected executive vice president of the union at its fifth biennial convention. He succeeds Rebecca Damon in the post, which is the union’s second-highest elected position.