POLITICS
Members Of Arizona Faith Network Leaders Support PRO Act (Opinion)
The Arizona Daily Independent News Network
By Reverend Katie Sexton-Wood
December 6, 2021
Nearly one year after his historic election, the credibility of President Joe Biden’s central campaign promise to “Build Back Better” rests in the passage of his landmark legislative packages. Among these bills is the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act, which will strengthen and expand the right of workers to form unions, bargain collectively, and would stand as the most significant workers’ rights law implemented in nearly 90 years. At a time when working people nationwide are facing unprecedented workplace safety hazards, wage stagnation, and growing inequality, we must put aside partisanship to support one another in life, in health, and at work.
JOINING TOGETHER
Starbucks Workers Hope To Form The Chain’s First U.S. Union In Buffalo
HuffPost
By Dave Jamieson
December 7, 2021
Organized labor could gain a long-sought toehold inside one of the world’s largest restaurant chains this week when federal officials are expected to count the votes in a series of union elections at three Starbucks locations in upstate New York. A victory for the union, named Starbucks Workers United, would create the very first unionized corporate-run Starbucks in the U.S. A union needs at least 30% of workers in an expected bargaining unit to sign cards authorizing an election, and more than 50% of workers must vote in favor of the union for it to win. Richard Bensinger, a longtime labor organizer and former organizing director at the AFL-CIO helping the Starbucks workers’ campaign, said the union gathered union cards from at least 80% of employees at any store where it has filed for an election.
Carnegie Library workers reach tentative agreement on first union contract
WESA
By Bill O'Driscoll
December 7, 2021
Some 300 workers at the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh have reached a tentative agreement on their first contract as members of the United Steelworkers union, the union announced Tuesday. The four-year contract would cover eligible works at 19 Carnegie Library branches. In a statement, the union said that, if ratified, the agreement would provide “significant gains” in giving workers a seat at the table in library decision-making, as well as in workplace health and safety, pay equity for the lowest-paid workers, and affordable health care. A USW spokesperson declined to provide further details, saying the USW would wait until the agreement was ratified, likely sometime early in the new year.
Nurses and hospital workers send strike notice to St. Vincent’s in Westport
News12 Connecticut
By News 12 Staff
December 7, 2021
The health care industry is not immune to pandemic staffing shortages - workers at a Hartford Healthcare facility in Westport are preparing a labor strike to protest mandatory overtime. Nurses at St. Vincent's Behavioral Health in Westport say they've been forced to work extended and double shifts and that those who didn't comply were punished and faced with termination. "No employee should ever be put in the position of having to choose between leaving their child unattended at home and being terminated from their job, and yet that's what they're being threatened with," said Dave Hannon, president of CHCA 1199.
LABOR AND COMMUNITY
PACS high school students tour IBEW Local 43 as part of new curricular trades course
NNY 360
December 5, 2021
Fourteen Pulaski Academy and Central School District (PACS) high school students visited the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 43 recently as part of the district’s new curricular trades course. IBEW Local 43 organizer Brian Sturges took students through a hands-on look at a day in the life of an IBEW apprentice at the Local 43’s Clay training facility while learning about electrical safety and the benefits of joining a union. “They saw the positive aspects of what the union can do in terms of a providing debt-free education experience that leads to decent paying jobs with great benefits and pensions,” PACS Science Department Chair Kevin Finerghty said. “They learned that if you do this and decide you want to move, you can be set up with the IBEW in other parts of the United States as well.”
Yahoo! Finance
December 7, 2021
Amidst a global pandemic and ever-increasing worker inequality, the need to effectively organize and uplift worker voices towards better and safer working conditions has become imperative. Worker centers and labor unions have an opportunity to step up to create unique partnerships that support new forms of worker organizing that ultimately lead to greater and sustained prosperity for workers. The funders tapped Jennifer Epps as LIFT's next leader in its fight to build a stronger labor movement across America.