Skip to main content

Today's AFL-CIO Press Clips

Berry Craig
Social share icons

MUST LISTEN

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka on the Pro Act

Bloomberg Radio

March 26, 2021

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka joined Bloomberg Radio to discuss the benefits of the #PROAct and how to create an infrastructure package that creates good paying union jobs.

CORONAVIRUS

What the ‘Invisible’ People Cleaning the Subway Want Riders to Know

The New York Times

By Annie Correal

March 26, 2021

Cleaning the New York City subway has always been a dirty job. But when the pandemic hit last spring, it became even more challenging. When Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo ordered that trains be shut down overnight for cleaning, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority turned to contractors to help undertake the monumental task of scouring the trains in the nation’s largest transit system. The thousands of workers the contractors hired — largely low-income immigrants from Latin America — were envisioned as a stopgap measure, as M.T.A. workers were falling ill and dying of the virus. At the same time, ridership and revenue had plummeted and the agency found itself in an intense budget crunch.

LABOR AND ECONOMY

Facing backlash from Orlando workers, HMSHost is rehiring employees laid off during pandemic

Orlando Sentinel

By Caroline Glenn

March 26, 2021

After nine months waging an emotional campaign to get their jobs back, displaced restaurant workers from the Orlando International Airport celebrated a triumph: They’re being rehired. HMSHost, one of the country’s largest airport concessionaires, emailed former employees on Friday inviting them back, according to copies reviewed by the Orlando Sentinel. In the email, the company’s human resources department also announced a $2 per hour wage increase and free monthly Lynx bus passes for returning employees.

Pandemic Accelerates Retirements, Threatening Economic Growth

The Wall Street Journal  

By Amara Omeokwe

March 28, 2021

The proportion of older workers participating in the labor force is hovering at its worst level since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, raising the prospect that many of these Americans may have permanently left the workforce, potentially impairing future economic growth. The labor force participation rate—the proportion of the population working or seeking work—for Americans age 55 and older has fallen from 40.3% in February of 2020 to 38.3% this February—representing a loss of 1.45 million people from the labor force.

JOINING TOGETHER

Staffers at Three Condé Nast Outlets Threaten to Strike Over Labor Dispute

Daily Beast

By Maxwell Tani

March 26, 2021

More than a hundred employees across three Condé Nast publications are prepared to go on strike—if necessary—over disputes with the company over issues including pay, company culture, and overtime compensation. Employee members of staff unions at The New Yorker, music and arts site Pitchfork, and technology and culture outlet Ars Technica voted this week overwhelmingly in favor of moving ahead with a strike if Condé continues to rebuff demands about key issues, primarily around proposed wage increases. Staffers at the three publications also announced on Friday that they will hold a rally Saturday at the company’s offices at One World Trade Center to protest “low stagnant pay” and build public support for a potential strike.

AMAZON

Why Organizing Employee At Alabama Amazon Center Wants A Union

NPR

By Michel Martin

March 28, 2021

We're going to begin with an event that is being called the most important moment for the labor movement in this country in decades. Tomorrow is the final day of a month-long union drive at Amazon's fulfillment center in Bessemer, Ala. For weeks, thousands of employees at the warehouse have been casting ballots to decide if they want to join the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union. This week, their votes will begin to be counted. If the vote passes, Bessemer would become Amazon's first unionized warehouse in the United States.

Milestone Amazon union vote nears end, but the battle may just be beginning

WTHI-TV

By CNN

March 28, 2021

"We've always known that this campaign is just a beginning no matter what the result is. It is about a lot more than Bessemer," said Stuart Appelbaum, president of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, which is conducting the union drive for Amazon workers at the Bessemer facility. "What we have done -- which is crucial -- is we have opened the door to union organizing at Amazon, we've gone further than anyone else has come close to in the past ... and Amazon never anticipated it."