MUST READ
Demonstrators rally outside Kellogg Co. headquarters in support of striking workers
Battle Creek Enquirer
By Nick Buckley and Alyssa Keown
October 27, 2021
Three weeks into a strike at Kellogg Co., the Michigan American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) hosted a rally Wednesday in downtown Battle Creek in support of picketing workers. “Euphoric is actually the word that I've used because it's really amazing...the amount of people that we have coming out supporting us,” said Trevor Bidelman, president of BCTGM Local 3G. “Kellogg's unfortunately has done enough bad stuff to people in the city to where their big name doesn't really mean as much as they think it does. You really can't throw a rock in the city without hitting the house with somebody that's been negatively impacted.”
FUTURE OF WORK
With AFL-CIO, Kochan to Launch Course on Technology’s Impact
IWER
October 22, 2021
MIT Sloan Professor Thomas A. Kochan will be launching an innovative new online class to help train labor representatives to negotiate about technology and its impact on the future of work. This class, “Bringing Workers’ Voice into Technology and Employment Strategies,” will be offered in partnership with the AFL-CIO Technology Institute and is slated to begin later this fall. “We are thrilled to partner with Professor Kochan and his team to develop this course for labor unions across the country,” said Amanda Ballantyne, Director of the AFL-CIO’s Technology Institute. “This course will help local union leaders and their members lead in the development of strategies to ensure that tech implementation benefits workers and improves the quality of work.”
Few working poor get to vote on unions. Can California change that?
Cal Matters
By Grace Gedye and Jesse Bedayn
October 27, 2021
The Future of Work Commission, convened by Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom to think of moonshot goals for lifting millions of working Californians out of poverty, proposed getting more workers represented as part of the solution for stemming the state’s staggering wage gap. The commission, which included labor and business leaders, asserted in their final report released earlier this year that while a college degree reduces the chance of a low-wage job by 33%, union membership improves those odds by 39%. That could go a long way in a state where one in three households with working adults struggle to afford basic necessities, while the top 2% control 20% of the wealth.
JOINING TOGETHER
‘Appalled and outraged’: Harvard graduate students plan to strike during parents weekend
Boston Globe
By Julia Carlin
October 27, 2021
A heated union strike looms over Harvard’s upcoming freshman parents’ weekend as the Harvard Graduate Students Union-United Automobile Workers plan to picket for three days in an attempt to press the university to meet their contract demands. The union announced its plans on Sept. 30, after more than 90 percent of members voted in favor of a strike.
‘Tony the tightwad’: Kellogg strikers rally outside Battle Creek headquarters
MLive
By Lindsay Moore
October 27, 2021
Standing in front of a crowd of roughly 100 union workers, speakers hurled their best insults and gave impassioned speeches about ending corporate greed. Ron Bieber, President of Michigan AFL-CIO, cut right to the chase with his remarks. “It’s not lost on me that a company that gears its products towards kids doesn’t give a sh** about your kids or your families,” he said.
Kellogg Company's union workers host strike outside headquarters in Battle Creek
Fox 17
By Lauren Kummer
October 27, 2021
A rally was held outside of Kellogg Company's world corporate headquarters in Battle Creek on Wednesday. It comes as workers with the Bakery, Confectionary, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers (BCTGM) union have now been striking for three weeks.
Labor leaders and union members rally at Kellogg Headquarters
WWMT
By Allie Jennerjahn
October 27, 2021
National labor leaders and union members from across Michigan rallied at Kellogg Headquarters in Battle Creek Wednesday to show support to those on strike, and thank those that are joining the fight. Trevor Bidelman, President of Local 3-G Union and fourth generation Kellogg's worker, said the company seems willing to get rid of its two tier pay system, which is a system he said takes away from future employees considered bottom-tier, and gives top-tier employees a different pay level.
LABOR AND COMMUNITY
Waverly residents still struggle to recover from flooding as local unions help out
Tennessee Lookout
By Abby Lee Hood
October 27, 2021
The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) organizes workers from around the country and has been coming to Waverly for weeks to help out. Volunteers and union members are providing the skilled labor needed to tear down houses, repair what electrical and plumbing sycan be repaired and help residents clean up. Because the AFL-CIO is a federation of 57 national and international labor unions that represent 12.5 million working people, volunteers from groups like the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and Ironworkers responded to calls for help. Billy Dycus is the president of the Tennessee AFL-CIO Labor Council and says he’s been visiting Waverly on Wednesday and Thursday afternoons for weeks to organize volunteers. Dycus says many of the volunteers are retirees and have been stripping out drywall, removing insulation from underneath houses, taking out decking and preparing electric and plumbing inside houses for repair. Dycus says two months on from the flooding, there are houses that haven’t even been entered and assessed for damage yet.