MUST READ
Congress passes $50 bln U.S. Postal Service relief bill
Reuters
By David Shepardson
March 8, 2022
In a rare display of bipartisanship for a narrowly divided Congress, the 79-19 vote follows approval by the U.S. House of Representatives in early February and sends the bill to President Joe Biden for his signature. AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler, whose union represents postal workers, said the bill was the culmination of "15 years of efforts to fund and strengthen USPS."
MUST LISTEN
Solar panels; Liz Shuler; local sports; The PLAYERS ( approx 29 minutes in)
WJCT News
March 8, 2022
Liz Shuler, the first female president of the AFL-CIO, spoke in Jacksonville on Friday about her vision for growing the power of labor in America, especially after two years of the pandemic.
ENVIRONMENT, ENERGY AND CLIMATE
A climate plan for New England’s surpluses
Stamford Advocate
By Cynthia Phinney, Pat Crowley and Joe Toner
March 6, 2022
Studies show New England is warming faster than the global average. We got a glimpse of the impacts of climate breakdown during storm-fueled power outages from Hurricane Ida and this winter’s Nor’easter— but intensifying weather is just the beginning. Rising seas could wipe out entire communities along our region’s coastline. As the latest IPCC report makes clear, failing to act means resigning to a future of deadly floods and worsening droughts, unhealthy air and water quality, and expanding tick-borne diseases. And as with the pandemic, workers — particularly workers of color — will continue to get hit first and worst. That’s why unions and their allies across New England are uniting behind bold, science-backed climate plans that will help us build the climate infrastructure of tomorrow while remedying the racial and economic inequalities of today. In Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Maine, the labor-focused jobs coalitions we help lead are advancing action plans to transition New England to renewable energy at the scale and pace that the climate crisis demands while creating tons of good union jobs in communities that need them most. And no one can claim we don’t have the money to get it done.
JOINING TOGETHER
N.Y. Postproduction Workers File to Unionize Over AMPTP’s Voluntary Recognition Objection
The Hollywood Reporter
By Katie Kilkenny
March 8, 2022
A group of over 150 freelance postproduction workers based in New York have filed a petition for an election with the National Labor Relations Board as they seek to unionize with the Communications Workers of America (CWA). The Post Production Guild, as the group is calling themselves, filed the petition on Tuesday and did so after the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) “repeatedly refused” to voluntarily recognize the group, the CWA says in a press release. According to the CWA, “virtually all” of eligible workers signed union cards.
Minneapolis teachers strike, halting classes
PBS
By Steve Karnowski and Amy Forliti
March 8, 2022
Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, said students and parents across the county have relied on school nurses, support staff and educators to create “as normal a situation as possible” during the COVID-19 pandemic. “How do you attract Black and brown teachers if you don’t pay a living wage?” Weingarten said.
USW Local 8888 ratifies 5-year contract with Newport News Shipbuilding
WAVY
By Julius Ayo
March 8, 2022
A workers union has ratified a 60-month (5 years) contract with Newport News Shipbuilding Tuesday. Members of United Steelworkers Local 8888 ratified a new collective bargaining agreement with Huntington Ingalls Industries Tuesday. The agreement covers nearly 10,000 shipbuilders at Newport News Shipbuilding. USW Local 8888 represents more than 10,000 workers at the Newport News shipyard.
IN THE STATES
Reynolds oblivious to how Iowa’s real economy works (Opinion)
Carroll Times Herald
By Jeff Shudak
March 7, 2022
Governor Kim Reynolds’ response to the State of the Union shows either a lack of understanding of how the real economy works or a desire to mislead Iowans. It continues to amaze me how our governor, the top official in our state, someone who has access to business leaders and educators and reams of information, can so completely misunderstand, and continuously misrepresent, how the real economy in Iowa works. Does she not know what plumbers and carpenters and factory workers and road-workers and so many other working people do? Or does she simply not care?
Unions to commemorate Selma to Montgomery March on Thursday
Selma Sun
By Nathan Prewett
March 8, 2022
AFL-CIO and UDW-AFSCME Local 3930 along with others will lead the fifth day of the 57th commemoration of the Selma to Montgomery March on Thursday, March 10. "In the wake of widespread attacks on voting rights and organizing rights, particularly in communities of color, hundreds of trade unionists from across the country will come together to demonstrate the labor movement’s commitment in the fight for democracy at the ballot box and to reinforce its longstanding bond with the struggle for civil rights," said a press release from AFL-CIO. Speakers at the event will be: UMWA President Cecil Roberts, Alabama AFL-CIO President Bren Riley, Southern Director for Jobs to Move America Erica Iheme, AFSCME International Vice President Doug Moore.
WORKPLACE SAFETY AND HEALTH
Heat injury and illness prevention: OSHA’s Parker gives update during work group meeting
Safety + Health Magazine
March 8, 2022
OSHA is reviewing comments on an advance notice of proposed rulemaking aimed at protecting workers from extreme heat exposure in indoor and outdoor settings, at the same time planning a spring release of a National Emphasis Program on heat inspections, administrator Doug Parker said during a Feb. 25 meeting of the National Advisory Committee on Occupational Safety and Health’s work group on heat injury and illness prevention. Rebecca Reindel, co-chair of the work group and director of occupational safety and health for AFL-CIO, believes the discussion exploring recommendations on OSHA resources will inform future recommendations on potential elements of agency rulemaking. “We think that this work really does overlap between the two charges a lot, because as an agency, we want OSHA to think holistically and comprehensively,” Reindel said. “And so whatever messaging is going out into these campaign materials also would be important in a standard that the agency could ultimately issue and enforce.”