Today's AFL-CIO press clips
TRADE
U.S. Effort to Combat Forced Labor Targets Corporate China Ties
The New York Times
By Ana Swanson, Catie Edmondson and Edward Wong
December 23, 2021
While it is against U.S. law to knowingly import goods made with slave labor, the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act shifts the burden of proof to companies from customs officials. Firms will have to proactively prove that their factories, and those of all their suppliers, do not use slavery or coercion. The law, which passed the House and Senate nearly unanimously, is Washington’s first comprehensive effort to police supply chains that the United States says exploit persecuted minorities, and its impact could be sweeping. A wide range of products and raw materials — such as petroleum, cotton, minerals and sugar — flow from the Xinjiang region of China, where accusations of forced labor proliferate. Those materials are often used in Chinese factories that manufacture products for global companies.
IN MEMORIAM
Richard Trumka: The Labor Leader Who Told Hard Truths
Politico
By Timothy Noah
December 27, 2021
There weren’t many strikes in recent decades in which working people scored big victories, but the 1989 Pittston strike was one. Two years earlier, the Pittston Coal Company, in Pennsylvania, dropped out of a trade group that had negotiated a union contract with the United Mine Workers, and the company demanded cuts to miners’ health benefits. A standoff ensued, and for more than a year Pittston’s miners worked without a contract and therefore without any health benefits at all. Finally, in April 1989, the United Mine Workers’ 39-year-old president, Richard Trumka, called a strike. Inspired by Martin Luther King Jr., Trumka directed union members to adopt nonviolent protest methods such as using their bodies to block company trucks hauling coal. Mineworkers have a violent history, and Trumka’s instructions weren’t heeded by every last miner. But for the most part, the rank and file obeyed. Ten months after the strike began, Pittston reinstated full health benefits. Trumka, who died in August at 72, went on to become president of the AFL-CIO, the biggest labor federation in America, where he continued to urge working people to heed the better angels of their nature. At a time when labor’s political and economic strength were in retreat as union membership dwindled, Trumka filled the gap with moral leadership.
LABOR AND ECONOMY
General Electric has tried everything, except investing in American workers
Fortune
By Chris Shelton
December 22, 2021
As a recent report from the University of Massachusetts, Boston, and Cornell University documents, GE has benefited mightily from taxpayer bailouts and government contracts, yet it has continued to move jobs, shutter plants, break promises to retirees, downsize domestic manufacturing, and implement other cuts that have irreparably harmed American workers. The company has slashed its U.S. workforce by 47% in just the past three years.
LABOR AND COMMUNITY
ND AFL-CIO gives $4,700 to Great Plains Food Bank
KVRR
By Adam Chalifoux
December 30, 2021
The North Dakota AFL-CIO gives $4,700 to the Great Plains Food Bank. The organization is a federation of peace garden state unions working to build power for all workers. The donation will put 13,100 meals on the table according to Great Plains. The non-profit’s CEO says this is a mission that everyone can lend a hand in. “Ending hunger is not just a food bank’s responsibility. It’s government, it’s public, its private, its faith communities, it’s individuals, corporations, all of us working together; teaming up that is the only way that we are going to end hunger together,” Melissa Sobolik said.
Santa joins Newport firefighters in bringing Christmas to families in need
WCPO
By Jake Ryle
December 25, 2021
Santa Claus was spotted in Newport a few hours ahead of schedule this Christmas Eve while participating in the Newport Fire Department's "Beyond the Call" program. St. Nick traveled via fire truck to six families' homes. Newport Professional Firefighters Local 45 IAFF collected donations throughout the year to help purchase gifts and food for 22 children.
JOINING TOGETHER
The video game industry is closer to unionization than ever before
The Seattle Times
By Shannon Liao
December 27, 2021
Vodeo’s unionization comes as one of the world’s biggest gaming companies, Activision Blizzard, faces multiple lawsuits and government investigations over its workplace culture and allegations of sexual misconduct and discrimination. In response, Activision Blizzard employees have called for the CEO to resign, launched strikes and are circulating union authorization cards in an effort to organize. Activision Blizzard did not respond to a request for comment. Vodeo has about 13 employee across the United States and Canada managed solely by independent game developer Asher Vollmer. The new union, Vodeo Workers United, is working with the Communications Workers of America, a major media labor union that is also working with Activision Blizzard workers.
Colonial Williamsburg workers unanimously vote to ratify new union contract
WTKR
By Web Staff
December 23, 2021
After months of negotiations, workers at Colonial Williamsburg voted unanimously Thursday to ratify their new contract. The workers are represented by a hospitality worker union, UNITE HERE Local 25. Workers called for better pay, more affordable healthcare, an end to mandatory overtime and to be able to spend more time with their families and loved ones.
Second airport union votes to authorize strike
Pioneer Press
By Deanna Weniger
December 23, 2021
A second airport union has voted to authorize a strike, citing salary deficiencies by the Metropolitan Airports Commission. The International Union of Operating Engineers Local 49, the largest construction union in Minnesota, voted this week to authorize a strike, possibly by Jan. 25. “Our members, in conjunction with their fellow workers from other unions, have kept the airport open through a global pandemic at great risk to themselves and their families,” the union said in a statement. “Management had no issue bailing out businesses at the airport, yet they refused to offer workers a respectable increase.”
Why 2021 Was the Biggest Year for the Labor Movement in Games
Wired
By Cecilia D'anastasio
December 28, 2021
Marked by walkouts, strikes, petitions, and open letters, 2021 has been the biggest year yet for workers in the US video game industry taking a stand against labor conditions. Over the last year, a vocal contingent of video game workers has warned employers that they won’t tolerate subpar labor conditions just to fulfill their childhood dream of making video games.
IN THE STATES
Maine Voices: Proper worker classification is a vital foundation of Maine’s economy
Press Herald
By Laura A. Fortman And John C. Rohde
December 23, 2021
We, along with Maine State Chamber of Commerce President Dana Connors and Maine AFL-CIO President Cynthia Phinney, are writing to explain why the proper classification of workers is so important. When an individual or business hires another person to perform work for them, that person will either be an employee or an independent contractor. Misclassification occurs when an employer hires an employee but treats them like an independent contractor.
It was a ‘watershed’ year for workers building power, Maine labor leaders say
Maine Beacon
By Dan Neumann
December 27, 2021
In a year that saw a wave of strikes erupt around the U.S. and hard-fought unionization campaigns within some of the biggest companies in the world, Maine workers also made headlines. Among the major national labor stories this year was when nearly 2,000 nurses at Maine Medical Center unionized the state’s largest private employer, MaineHealth, amid their second year on the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic. The successful union election followed several failed attempts by nurses to organize going back to the 1970s. “When you look at history, you see that when workers are pushed to the edge, that’s when they tend to organize. No question, this is one of those inflection points,” said Todd Ricker, the lead labor representative with the Maine State Nurses Association, the union Maine Med nurses voted to join. Matt Schlobohm, executive director of the Maine AFL-CIO, agreed that the nurses’ decision to unionize was a significant victory. “I think the Maine Medical Center win is a watershed moment in labor in Maine,” said Schlobohm. “Sometimes there are breakthroughs that inspire other workers. It definitely did that. It also touched a lot of community members who were able to participate in a variety of ways and to see it as their own fight in a certain way.”
WORKPLACE SAFETY AND HEALTH
First Health-Care Worker Virus Rule Officially Ended by OSHA
Bloomberg Law
By Bruce Rolfsen
December 28, 2021
OSHA has officially withdrawn its original Covid-19 health-care emergency temporary standard but is continuing to work on a permanent version of the rule. The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s announcement came on Monday evening, one week after its ETS had reached its six-month expiration date with no word from the agency on what lay ahead.