MUST READ
Over 300,000 U.S. federal workers eligible for unions, White House says
Reuters
By Nandita Bose
Feb. 7, 2022
Liz Shuler, president of the AFL-CIO, the country’s largest labor federation, comprising 57 affiliated unions and 12.5 million workers, told Reuters the U.S. labor movement will “be the eyes and ears on the ground,” making sure the report gets implemented. “I think this could be a game changer, to have the power of the federal government examining itself and how its practices can be utilized to advance worker organizing,” she said.
POLITICS
President Biden adopts steps for promoting union membership.
The New York Times
By Noam Scheiber
Feb. 7, 2022
The White House on Monday released a report outlining several dozen steps it intends to take to promote union membership and collective bargaining among both public and private sector employees. The report is the product of a task force that President Biden created through an executive order in April. A White House statement said the president had accepted the task force’s nearly 70 recommendations.
Biden task force releases proposals to strengthen labor unions
Los Angeles Times
By Josh Boak
Feb. 7, 2022
A Biden administration task force on organized labor on Monday issued a set of recommendations that could make it easier for federal workers and contractors to unionize. The report submitted to President Biden included 70 distinct policy proposals, according to a release by the White House. Biden created the task force chaired by Vice President Kamala Harris, with Labor Secretary Marty Walsh as vice chair, through an executive order last April.
‘Unions benefit all of us’: new Biden plan encourages federal workers to unionize
The Guardian
By Steven Greenhouse
Feb. 7, 2022
The Biden administration set out 70 recommendations to encourage union membership in the US on Monday, including making it easier for many federal employees to join unions and eliminating barriers for union organizers to talk with workers on federal property. The report, compiled by the White House Task Force on Worker Organizing and Empowerment, reiterates Biden’s robust backing of unions. “At its core,” the report says, “it is our administration’s belief that unions benefit all of us.” It adds: “Researchers have found that today’s union households earn up to 20% more than non-union households, with an even greater union advantage for workers with less formal education and workers of color.”
How the White House wants to expand unions — starting with federal workers
CBS News
By Sarah Ewall-Wice
Feb. 7, 2022
The country's largest employer — the federal government — is looking to make it easier for its employees and contract workers to join a union. A White House task force announced 70 recommendations Monday to promote federal worker organizing and collective bargaining, which the Biden administration hopes can be a model for employees working for private companies.
LABOR AND ECONOMY
The Boardroom Gap: Women's power in labor unions is rising, although Central Mass. lags behind
Worcester Business Journal
By Katherine Hamilton
Feb. 7, 2022
Working women still have a lower rate of unionization than men, but the gap between men’s and women’s union membership has been closing since the 1980s, tightening from a 10-percentage-point to a 0.5-percentage-point difference in 2019, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. “A lot of the issues that some people might predominantly say are women’s issues are our issues. They’re workers’ issues, whether it’s paycheck fairness or access to affordable childcare,” said Steven Tolman, president of Massachusetts’ AFL-CIO chapter.
AMAZON
Amazon workers try new tactics to unionize in Alabama
Alabama Daily News
By Anne D’innocenzio
Feb. 6, 2022
The Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, which like last time is spearheading the union drive, has solicited help from other unions, including those representing teachers and postal clerks. Stuart Appelbaum, president of the RWDSU, says the union is also courting community groups like Greater Birmingham Ministries to amplify the message that Amazon workers are not just warehouse workers but belong to communities and deserve respect.
JOINING TOGETHER
As workers seek to unionize, some clergy are filling a crucial role
Religious News Service
By Alejandra Molina
Feb. 4, 2022
The Rev. Richard Smith, an Episcopal priest, has been working to improve the lot of workers in California long enough to have protested for farm workers alongside Cesar Chavez in the 1970s during the lettuce strike, when Smith was a Jesuit seminarian. He’s still passionate enough about workers’ rights that last Holy Week he ritually washed the feet of janitors on strike at a picket line. Now retired from St. John the Evangelist, a congregation in San Francisco’s north Mission district, he is one of a small number of clergy serving as intermediaries between labor unions and employers whose workers, particularly those in food service, are considering unionizing.
Culinary Union pickets Station Casinos over allegations of unfair labor practices
3 News
By John Treanor
Feb. 5, 2022
A crowd of people picketed outside Palace Station in Las Vegas Friday night over what union leaders call unfair labor practices from the casino's parent company. The Culinary Union organized the picket line for hospitality workers.
Workers at Santa Fe Springs desserts factory continue 3-month-long strike, demanding higher wages
ABC7
By Anabel Munoz
Feb. 4, 2022
Several lawmakers including U.S. Senator Alex Padilla and Congresswoman Linda Sánchez are supporting the workers -- predominantly Latina women -- urging the company to reach a fair agreement as soon as possible. Sanchez's letter cited a study that suggested that in Los Angeles, a single adult must make $19.35 an hour to support oneself, and more if they have children.
WPXI news producers to unionize with SAG-AFTRA
Pittsburgh City Paper
By Jordana Rosenfeld
Feb. 7, 2022
Last week, producers at WPXI-TV in Pittsburgh announced their intention to unionize with SAG-AFTRA, a union representing approximately 160,000 actors, announcers, broadcast journalists, dancers, and other entertainment and media professionals.
IN THE STATES
New COVID-19 sick pay for California workers approved by lawmakers
Los Angeles Times
By Taryn Luna
Feb. 7, 2022
California lawmakers passed legislation on Monday to provide most workers with up to two weeks of COVID-19 supplemental paid sick leave, a move policymakers hope will slow the spread of the coronavirus across the state. “We all are quite aware of the surge of COVID-19 cases, and this act will help ensure that those employees that are sick can take the paid sick leave that they need so all of us are protected,” said Sen. Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley). For months, labor unions lobbied legislators and Gov. Gavin Newsom to renew the state’s sick leave mandate that expired in September.
CCTI students learn about apprenticeship
Times News Online
Feb. 7, 2022
Robert Franklin, IBEW, speaks with the students at Carbon Career & Technical Institute recently in the Technical Area of Electrical Distribution & Automation. CCTI students in the Electrical Distribution and Automation/Electrician Department had the opportunity to learn about the apprenticeship with the local union in Allentown. The apprenticeship coordinates with the school and work for the student. During the students’ time of their apprenticeship, they will learn how long it takes for the apprenticeship, starting wage, when they are eligible for pay raises, benefits and how they remain in training the electricians when a student becomes a Journeyman electrician.