Today's AFL-CIO press clips
POLITICS
Union leaders Shuler, Henry join V.P. Harris in big push for Build Back Better
People’s World
By Mark Gruenberg
December 1, 2021
AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler and Service Employees President Mary Kay Henry joined Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris and other progressive leaders in yet another big push to convince a balky Senate to approve Biden’s 10-year Build Back Better plan to repair many holes in the nation’s leaky social safety net. Shuler said the AFL-CIO’s members “will not rest” until the BBB bill passes. They’ll concentrate on the Senate, since the House already approved BBB, technically a “reconciliation bill,” affecting only taxes and spending, on party-line votes.
Largest Federal Employee Union Urges Congress to Avert Government Shutdown
Common Dreams
December 1, 2021
Today, American Federation of Government Employees, AFL-CIO (AFGE) National President Everett Kelley released the following statement as Congress approaches a Dec. 3 funding deadline and the potential of a fourth government shutdown since 2018: “A government shutdown just before the holidays would be a Christmas gift to America’s global adversaries, who are anxious to exploit every failure of our democratic system of government, and a lump of coal in the stocking of every hardworking American honorably serving their country and every citizen who counts on critical government services, including our most vulnerable citizens.
JOINING TOGETHER
Cereal Killers: How 80-Hour Weeks and a Caste System Pushed Kellogg's Workers to Strike
Rolling Stone
By Stephen Rodrick
November 30, 2021
The shelves at the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers’ International Union Local 50 are lined with boxes of Kellogg’s products that the union members and their mothers, brothers, and grandfathers have packed over the past century. A Froot Loops box commemorating the 2012 Olympics sits next to Special K Plus, a cereal that for some reason comes in a milk carton. A toy truck delivers Corn Flakes. Still, what catches your eye is a box featuring an impossibly cute boy slurping up his Rice Krispies. No one knows when exactly the box is from — probably the early 20th century — but it conjures a homier time for the company. That’s when company founder W.K. Kellogg was asked about profits and said, “I’ll invest my money in people.”
HMSHost employees announce return to work at Sky Harbor Airport after 10-day strike
AZ Central
By Athena Ankrah
December 1, 2021
Hospitality and concessions workers of HMSHost at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport announced they are returning to work and negotiations on Thursday after 10 days on strike, according to labor union UNITE HERE Local 11. The union said its workers have been in negotiations since 2017 with HMSHost, the largest concessionaire at Sky Harbor. The union said it has been fighting for "a new, comprehensive contract with fair raises, affordable health insurance, a company-paid retirement contribution, protections for workers’ tips, and strong contract language for equal opportunity and protection from discrimination."
Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport restaurant workers part of 10-day strike to return to work on Thursday
KTAR News
By KTAR.com
December 1, 2021
Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport restaurant workers who went on strike last week will return to work on Thursday, the union announced. The strike of some HMSHost workers at the airport began on Nov. 22 after members of Unite Here Local 11 authorized the strike by a 97% vote earlier in the month. Members are seeking raises, affordable health insurance, a company-paid retirement contribution and tips protection from HMSHost, the largest concessions operator at the state’s largest airport.
Animation Guild Contract Talks With AMPTP Enter Third Day
Deadline
By David Robb
December 1, 2021
The third day of the Animation Guild’s contract negotiations with the AMPTP are underway. The talks Wednesday come in the wake of IATSE’s deal for a new film and TV contract, which was narrowly ratified amid growing discontent among IATSE members over pay and working conditions. The Animation Guild, IATSE Local 839 – known as TAG – bargains separately from IATSE’s other Hollywood locals but is subject to the “pattern bargaining” established in the recent deal between IATSE and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which included better terms for streaming shows and 3% pay raises in each year of the contract. The start of TAG’s contract talks had been set to begin in June but were postponed until Monday to allow IATSE and the AMPTP to wrap their negotiations.
UFCW Local 555 to hold strike votes at Fred Meyer, QFC
NW Labor Press
By Don McIntosh
December 1, 2021
Workers at many Fred Meyer and QFC stores in Oregon will soon be voting on whether to authorize a strike. United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 555 is holding meetings in Portland, Tigard, Bend, and Klamath Falls starting Dec. 10 to discuss and vote on that question. Both grocery chains are owned by Kroger. Many of its contracts with the union expired in August, and workers under those expired contracts are the ones voting. The agreements were reached two years ago, six days into a union boycott of Fred Meyer. Kroger representatives last met with the Local 555 negotiating team Nov. 10-11, the fourth time the two sides had met. Local 555 is proposing to restore time-and-a-half holiday pay for all employees, eliminating an existing two-tier arrangement. It’s also proposing that Kroger guarantee that a minimum proportion of positions be full time, above the current ratio.
LABOR AND COMMUNITY
Hundreds seeking help through Adopt-A-Family program
News-Press Now
By Ryan Hennessy
December 1, 2021
About 400 families have been approved for assistance through AFL-CIO’s annual Christmas adoption program, and that number is expected to rise considerably before the final number of those in need is tallied. Applications for those seeking help through the Adopt-A-Family program are due by the end of the day Thursday, and at least 100 more families are currently pending approval. AFL-CIO Executive Director Nichi Seckinger said in the days between Thanksgiving and the deadline, the number of adoptees can double. For example, in 2014, 344 families applied right before the deadline.
Thousands collected during firefighter Christmas boot drive
WSAZ
By WSAZ News Staff
December 1, 2021
Firefighters had cold hands and feet but warm hearts Tuesday morning as crews were out collecting funds for kids. The Huntington Fire Department and IAFF Local 289 raised more than $10,000 during its Christmas boot drive. All donations will pay for Christmas presents for all children at the Huntington City Mission.