Today's AFL-CIO press clips
MUST READ
'This is a national reckoning': National labor leader comes to Omaha to support Kellogg's workers
3 News Now
By Jon Kipper
October 28, 2021
Liz Shuler, President of the AFL-CIO, who represents over 12 million union workers across the US, came to Omaha in solidarity with Kellogg's workers. “This is a national reckoning,” said Shuler. The workers are protesting a two-tier employee system in which experienced staff receive good pay and benefits, while less experienced, new employees get significantly less compensation with no chance to move up. “They're standing there to protect the middle class in this country as the country has been hollowed out. As companies are off-shoring and moving jobs overseas and trying to institute two-tier systems, so the next generation is less better off,” said Shuler.
'You are standing up to preserve the middle class': Nation Labor leader joins Kellogg's picket line
KETV
October 28, 2021
The Kellogg's strike here in Omaha is one of many strikes for Liz Shuler, president of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations. Shuler said she believes the momentum is on the side of the strikers. Thursday the president of the national AFL-CIO union joined the picket line, to demonstrate that the unions. "You are standing up to preserve the middle class," Shuler said. Protestors have no plan on backing down anytime soon. "Our workers got this country through this pandemic, made sacrifices and now they should be rewarded for the work that they did, the sacrifice they made," Shuler said. Shuler said her next stop will actually be at a John Deere strike in Iowa.
ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENT
San Diego unions, green groups kickstart efforts to fund $160B transportation overhaul
The San Diego Union-Tribune
By Joshua Emerson Smith
October 28, 2021
Organized labor is now teaming up with environmental groups to secure the initial funding through a half-cent sales tax increase on the November 2022 ballot. Supporters said they are filing the necessary paperwork with the county Registrar of Voters and plan to start gathering signatures next month in order to put the proposed levy before voters.
JOINING TOGETHER
Union Members Welcome U.S. Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh to BCTGM Picket Line
WFMZ
By PA AFL-CIO
October 28, 2021
Today, U.S. Secretary of Labor and longtime union member Marty Walsh stood in solidarity with striking workers on the BCTGM Local 374G picket line in Lancaster, PA. The officers of the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO, President Rick Bloomingdale, and Secretary-Treasurer Frank Snyder issued the following statement: "We appreciate the U.S. Secretary of Labor showing his support for workers striking against corporate greed. It is encouraging to see a Labor Department that puts workers at the center of public policy."
School bus drivers strike: LCPS advises parents to make afternoon transportation arrangements
Las Cruces Sun News
By Algernon D'Ammassa
October 28, 2021
Las Cruces school bus drivers engaged in their first-ever strike Thursday morning, setting up picket lines in front of the headquarters of their employer, STS-New Mexico. After leaving children at Las Cruces Public Schools sites around the city, the drivers returned the buses to the STS parking lot on 17th Street. At 9:30 a.m., over 50 of the contractor’s employees and some trainees assumed picket lines in front of the office, holding signs calling on STS to resume contract negotiations with their labor union.
What SEPTA Strike Would Mean as Contract Talks Come Down to Wire
NBC10
By Rudy Chinchilla
October 28, 2021
As negotiations continue between SEPTA and its largest workers union, there is hope on both sides that a strike can be avoided next week. The contract for the Transport Workers Union Local 234 ends Sunday, raising the possibility of a strike as soon as the next day. But though negotiations for new terms are coming down to the wire, talks are progressing well, Local 234 President Willie Brown and SEPTA spokesman Andrew Busch said. “We’re a lot closer than we were when we started. There’s a possibility that we can get things done,” Brown said. “I have my finger crossed.”
“You Are Worth More”: Kaiser Permanente Workers Are on the Verge of a Historic Strike
Mother Jones
By Noah Lanard
October 28, 2021
For current employees, Kaiser is proposing a 1 percent annual raise for the next three years, which amounts to a pay cut after accounting for inflation. The Alliance of Healthcare Unions, the coalition of 21 locals now considering whether to strike, has been pushing for 4 percent raises, no two-tier wage system, and contract language that ensures safe staffing levels.
LABOR AND COMMUNITY
More than 500 backpacks full of supplies readied for incoming Afghan refugee students
KSL
By Ashley Fredde
October 26, 2021
Salt Lake Federation of Teachers purchased and filled 546 backpacks with school supplies for Afghan students that will soon be filling classrooms across the state in hopes that it will bring "a sense of belonging." A group of approximately 30 volunteers from chapters of the American Federation of Teachers across the Wasatch Front, the surrounding community and school districts gathered Tuesday to fill the backpacks.
IN THE STATES
How the last two years of a pro-worker government have transformed Virginia (Opinion)
Fairfax County Times
By Doris Crouse-Mays
October 28, 2021
As president of the Virginia AFL-CIO, we represent workers across the state in all sectors, from plumbing to retail. It’s our role as an AFL-CIO state federation to elect lawmakers who will ensure their voices and rights are being heard, protected, and empowered. Because right now, our workers are fed up. They’ve had enough with being called essential but being treated as expendable. And “Striketober,” this national moment of collective action, is happening on the cusp of a state election that will determine the future livelihoods of Virginia’s workers for years to come. That’s why we’ve voted to endorse Terry McAuliffe for governor, Hala Ayala for lieutenant governor, Mark Herring for attorney general, and a slate of pro-worker delegate candidates for the Nov. 2 General Election.
New team set to take over leadership of AFL-CIO in Connecticut
CT Mirror
By Mark Pazniokas
October 28, 2021
And on Friday, delegates are set to choose new leaders: Ed Hawthorne, president; and Shellye Davis, executive vice president. Hawthorne and Davis are going to the convention with an insurmountable list of endorsements from the federation’s member unions, and as of Wednesday night they had no announced competition. “I don’t think we’ve ever been as united,” said Sal Luciano, the longtime labor leader who is stepping down as AFL-CIO president, credited with helping to craft a legislative agenda that spans factions in the movement.
Connecticut unions say COVID-19 ‘hero pay’ must be funded
AP
By Susan Haigh
October 28, 2021
During the first day of the group’s two-day biennial convention, the Connecticut AFL-CIO, an umbrella federation of unions, voted overwhelmingly Thursday for a resolution. It calls on the Democratic governor and the Democratic controlled General Assembly “to provide hazard pay for all public sector and private sector essential workers by allocating remaining federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) dollars for that purpose.” Union leaders expressed frustration that many of their workers who remained on the job and risked their health and the health of their families during the pandemic have not yet been rewarded financially. “The bus drivers, you know, were out there and didn’t get hazard pay. We didn’t get any of that,” said Veronica Chavers, president and business agent for the union ATU, Local 443, in Stamford. “We weren’t even recognized and our bravery and our health and all that was in jeopardy.”