INTERNATIONAL
Conditions at a General Motors Plant in Mexico Spur a Labor Challenge
The New York Times
By Natalie Kitroeff
Feb. 2, 2022
Mexico has transformed into an industrial powerhouse over the last two decades, attracting a torrent of investment from some of the world’s largest companies. And yet, a stubborn problem persists: Though the country has become one of the richest in Latin America, its workers still earn among the lowest salaries of almost any nation in the region. One important reason, economists say, is that for decades, Mexican workers have had little say in choosing the unions that represent them. “If you’ve got a race to the bottom, you’ve got to raise the bottom, and then maybe the race will slow down a little bit,” said Jeff Hermanson, an official at the Solidarity Center, an arm of the A.F.L.-C.I.O.
JOINING TOGETHER
Center For American Progress Staffers Threaten To Strike Amid Contract Fight
HuffPost
By Dave Jamieson
Feb. 2, 2022
Workers at the Center for American Progress are considering going on strike amid a fight over salaries at the liberal think tank. The staff union held a vote Tuesday in which its members overwhelmingly rejected CAP management’s latest pay offer. Employees’ latest contract expired at the end of last year but was extended for a month to give both sides more time to bargain. CAP Union is affiliated with the Nonprofit Professional Employees Union, which represents other think tank employees in the capital. Katie Barrows, NPEU’s president, said the salary minimum at CAP is below other comparable left-leaning research institutions, such as the Economic Policy Institute ($51,700), the Center for Economic and Policy Research ($53,558) and the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities ($50,000).
Union to weigh steps in U.S. refinery worker contract -message
Reuters
By Erwin Seba
Feb. 2, 2022
The United Steelworkers union (USW) will conduct meetings on Thursday to consider the next steps in talks for a new contract covering workers at U.S. refineries, chemical plants and oil pipelines, according to a text message to members on Wednesday seen by Reuters. The USW and Marathon Petroleum Corp (MPC.N), the lead oil industry negotiator, agreed on Monday night to extend talks for a new contract on a rolling-24-hour basis. On Tuesday, Marathon urged the USW to accept the "comprehensive, final settlement" offered on Monday night, while USW International President Tom Conway said oil companies must recognize the sacrifices made by workers to keep refineries and chemical plants operating during the pandemic.
Next up for UFCW: Safeway and Albertsons contract talks
Northwest Labor Press
By Colin Staub
Feb. 2, 2022
On the heels of a contract settlement at Fred Meyer and QFC, United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 555 is heading back to the bargaining table with Albertsons and Safeway. The union has been in contract negotiations with Albertsons and Safeway management since July 2021, and has held a half-dozen bargaining sessions since then. Contracts at Albertsons and Safeway locations have expired or will be expiring in the coming months. As of mid-November, the two sides were “very far apart on what is deemed an acceptable wage increase,” according to an update UFCW issued to members. But the union reported management was “open to standardizing health and welfare qualifying language, and eliminating other language made irrelevant by new agreements.”
FAMU workers protest $10 wages
WCTV
By Jaclyn Harold
Feb. 2, 2022
A protest Tuesday morning outside Florida A&M, demanding livable wages for union workers. The American Federation of state, county and municipal employees (AFSCME) represents about 400 employees support staff members at FAMU. Including groundskeepers, custodians, and secretaries.
Campus union President Andre Crumity protested with over a dozen other workers and community advocates for nearly 4 hours calling on University administration to agree to better pay. Crumity said many workers are only making $10. While others have not received a pay raise in a decade. “We’ve been negotiating for the last six months,” said Crumity. “We had two article reopeners, and we were able to settle those articles not a problem. But it’s always a problem when it comes to wages,” he said.
UMass unions rally for wages, health and safety
Daily Hampshire Gazette
By Scott Merzbach
Feb. 2, 2022
The unions, including the Professional Staff Union, the University Staff Association, the Massachusetts Society of Professors, AFSCME 1776 and the Graduate Employees Organization, are seeking to settle contracts that expired July 1, 2020, and, in addition to fair wages, achieve a series of other reforms. Their demands include better working and learning conditions during the COVID-19 pandemic, promoting long-term sustainable and green building practices in campus design, and having more dignity and respect in buildings for those who are immunocompromised and disabled.
LABOR AND ECONOMY
Better Wages for Workers Are Better for Big Business, Too (Opinion)
Newsweek
By Anna Freed and Eric Tscherne
Feb. 2, 2022
Even as working people push for changes that will allow them to simply take care of their families, small government ideologues continually push the old, tired trope that paying working people family-sustaining wages—known as prevailing wages—will harm the economy and squeeze small businesses out of big opportunities. This is simply not true. As a small contractor and an IBEW electrician, we know from experience that paying prevailing wages is a net positive—for contractors, working families, the economy, and local communities.
IN THE STATES
Burnham sworn in as first person of color to lead MN AFL-CIO
Workday Minnesota
By Michael Moore
Feb. 2, 2022
In a ceremony broadcast live on the federation’s social media platforms, outgoing Minnesota AFL-CIO President Bill McCarthy swore his successor, Bernie Burhnam, into the state’s highest-ranking union office today. “Every Minnesotan deserves the best opportunity in life, no matter where they live, what they look like, who they love, where and how they worship and even how they vote,” Burnham said in remarks after taking the oath of office. “I promise to do my very best work with you and for you in achieving the goals of our Minnesota AFL-CIO strategic plan, ensuring well-paying jobs which will strengthen our communities and, finally, raising the voices of all working people and their families.” McCarthy, a longtime member of UNITE HERE Local 17, has retired after more than six years as president of the state federation of labor unions, representing more than 300,000 working people. The federation’s General Board voted unanimously in December to elect Burnham, a former Duluth elementary teacher and member of Education Minnesota. She is the federation’s 10th president and, as a Pacific-Islander, the first person of color elected to the office. Burnham pledged to carry forward the Minnesota AFL-CIO’s racial-equity and diversity work, both internally and in the community at large. She has co-chaired the federation’s Committee on Racial and Economic Justice for the last two years.
AFL-CIO reelects Sword, leaders
WV Metro News
By MetroNews Staff
Feb. 2, 2022
The state AFL-CIO chapter has reelected Josh Sword as president of the organization. The organization met Wednesday for its constitutional convention, in which labor leaders unanimously approved Sword to a four-year term as well as reelected Andy Walters as secretary-treasurer and the fourteen vice presidents that make up the West Virginia AFL-CIO Executive Board. “We are honored to have been given the trust of more than 600 affiliated unions, 70,000 working families, and 70,000 retirees here in the Mountain State,” Sword said. “We face many challenges, not the least of which being the incredibly divisive political climate that has developed in our country and state, but with the help and support of our board and all our members, Secretary-Treasurer Walters and I are eager to move this labor movement forward and make West Virginia a better place for all West Virginians to live and work.” AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler also attended the meeting, noting West Virginia is at the “center of gravity” in the push to improve labor rights.