Today's AFL-CIO Press Clips
IN THE STATES
Ohio companies pay CEOs over workers by factors of hundreds
Ohio Capital Journal
By Jake Zuckerman
July 25, 2022
At least eighteen Ohio companies pay their CEO more than 100 times what they pay their median worker, a new report shows. Those companies pay their CEOs an average of more than $14.5 million per year, according to a report compiling financial data produced by the AFL-CIO, a trade union that advocates for higher worker wages. Those same businesses pay workers a median of about $66,000. In a speech last week, AFL-CIO Secretary Treasurer Fred Redmond characterized the trend as “greedflation,” arguing corporate profit secret behavior is to blame for the inflationary economy. “The 'heroes' of the pandemic – and by heroes I mean the working people who showed up and risked their lives and health and safety to keep our country running – are still showing up and working around the clock, but working for less,” he said.
Will California Legislature allow its workers to unionize?
Cal Matters
By Dan Walters
July 25, 2022
California’s dominant Democratic Party is joined at the hip with the state’s unions so it’s not surprising that legislators frequently enact measures aimed at helping their allies recruit and maintain dues-paying members. Just last month, for instance, language was slipped into a very lengthy budget trailer bill declaring the state’s intention to provide union members who do not itemize their income tax deductions with a refundable tax credit offsetting their dues. In effect, under the “Workers Tax Fairness Credit,” as it’s dubbed, taxpayers would underwrite some or all of the dues members pay to their unions.
N.C.'s good for business, but low-income workers struggle
Axios Raleigh
By Zachery Eanes
July 25, 2022
"And our legislature won't allow local governments to raise [minimum] wages in their municipalities," said MaryBe McMillan, president of the NC State AFL-CIO, a labor organizing group.
JOINING TOGETHER
Hotel Workers OK Contract With Hilton San Diego Bayfront After Strike
Patch
By Kristina Houck
July 25, 2022
A union representing hotel workers voted over the weekend to ratify a new contract with Hilton San Diego Bayfront. The vote makes official a tentative agreement the union and hotel management struck Wednesday night after hundreds of hotel workers began striking outside the hotel, which is located adjacent to the San Diego Convention Center where San Diego Comic-Con took place through Sunday. "We absolutely had to fight for this fair contract, but so many people throughout the region saw us, stood with us, and helped us show that San Diego workers are just as powerful as San Diego hotels," said Brigette Browning, president of Unite Here Local 30, a hotel and hospitality workers' union that represents about 6,000 members working in the hotel, food service and hospitality industries in San Diego and Imperial counties.
Boeing workers at 3 St. Louis-area factories vote to strike
The Washington Post
By Aaron Gregg
July 25, 2022
Nearly 2,500 Boeing workers at three St. Louis-area factories are prepared to go on strike next month, union officials say, after members voted down the jetmaker’s latest contract offer. The strike is set to begin Aug. 1 at Boeing factories in St. Louis, St. Charles, and nearby Mascoutah, Ill., according to an announcement Sunday by the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers District 837.
TV commercials’ creators plan to join Theatrical and Stage Employees
People’s World
By Mark Gruenberg
July 25, 2022
Some 4,500-6,000 creators of TV commercials, now in an independent association, plan to join the Theatrical and Stage Employees, IATSE announced. The exact number is vague because they’re part of the “gig economy,” IATSE said. But they want to join the larger union in order to improve working conditions. The creators are members of the Stand With Production movement, which includes production assistants, line producers, production supervisors, and assistant production supervisors. They toil for the Association of Independent Commercial Producers, which estimates it employs 85% of commercials’ creators. These commercials creators toil “unsustainable hours with lack of reasonable rest, no employer-funded healthcare and retirement benefits, ineligibility for overtime pay, and limited access to safety and training,” IATSE added.
Az marijuana dispensary workers unionizing, Big Cannabis throws up roadblocks
Tucson Sentinel
By David Abbott
July 25, 2022
Unionization for workers in the cannabis industry is gathering steam in Arizona, as budtenders at the Curaleaf Dispensary in midtown Phoenix recently voted to unionize, while workers at several other dispensaries are poised to vote on the issue within the next few weeks. “[This] election marks an important milestone for cannabis workers in Arizona and across the country,” United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 99 President Jim McLaughlin said in a July 2 press release. “As cannabis companies like Curaleaf continue to see record profits, the time to share their prosperity with workers is long overdue.” UFCW 99 is Arizona’s largest private-sector union, representing 24,000 workers at Fry’s, Safeway and other retailers throughout the southwest. There are more than 1.3 million UFCW members nationwide.