POLITICS
Senate Approves U.S. Postal Reform, Paving Way for Continued 6-Day Service
Newsweek
By Daniel Villarreal
March 8, 2022
Heralding the bill's passage, Liz Shuler—president of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), the largest federation of unions in the U.S.—wrote via Twitter, "This legislation ensures the USPS is financially stable, ends the destructive pre-funding retiree health care benefits mandate and guarantees six-day delivery reforms that are desperately needed to keep this beloved institution running with the same efficiency we have all come to depend on."
IN THE STATES
Phinney, Crowley and Toner: Workers have a climate plan for region (Opinion)
The Providence Journal
By Cynthia Phinney, Pat Crowley and Joe Toner
March 9, 2022
Amidst omicron, political discord and extreme weather disasters, 2022 hasn’t brought much good news. But flying under the radar is a game-changing story about state budget surpluses that could set New England on a path to tackling some of the biggest issues of our time: climate collapse and deep inequality. Studies show that 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.
North Carolina seeing more workers unionize
CBS17
By Russ Bowen
March 9, 2022
“Whether it’s health care workers or other essential workers during this pandemic folks have really gotten fed up with being called essential but treated as expendable so you are seeing all kinds of organizing efforts right now,” said MaryBe McMillan, president of North Carolina State AFL-CIO. Last week, newsroom employees at The Charlotte Observer unionized. Just this week, Piedmont Health Services nurse practitioners, physicians, midwives, and physician assistants succeeded in creating the first federally qualified health clinic union in the South. “Really workers want more say on the job. A lot of the reasons that the providers at Piedmont Health were organizing was really to provide better patient care, to make sure that they had a say and could negotiate for better support, supplies and resources that would help them provide better care to their patients,” McMillan said. North Carolina is not known to be union-friendly. But Mcmillan said she expects more efforts to follow and that companies should see the benefit.
JOINING TOGETHER
New York Times Tech Workers Win a Union
Jacobin
By Alex N. Press
March 9, 2022
Nearly 600 tech workers at the New York Times have officially unionized, forming the largest tech-worker union in the United States. The results of a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) election were tallied last week, with the spread 404 in favor, 88 against. The workers join the NewsGuild of New York — which, as the country’s largest journalism union, also represents Jacobin — and can begin negotiating a first contract.
Workers At Wexner Center For The Arts Move To Unionize
Art Forum
March 9, 2022
Employees of the Wexner Center for the Arts at Ohio State University in Columbus have revealed plans to unionize, the Columbus Dispatch reports. The move comes on the heels of similar efforts by staff at arts institutions across the country and contrasts with plummeting union membership nationwide, which last year stood at just 10.3 percent, according to the US Department of Labor. Organizing under the banner of Wex Workers United, staff at the museum including curators, educators, art handlers, and those working in front-facing positions, such as bookstore, ticketing, and visitor-experience staff, on March 4 delivered a letter to Wexner and OSU leadership asking to be recognized in affiliation with AFSCME Ohio Council 8. “We believe our endeavor is inextricably linked to the center’s stated mission and ongoing commitment to social justice and institutional transformation,” read the missive in part. “These goals can only be realized through deep structural change.”.
‘A Voice That Needs to Be Heard’
Inside Higher Ed
By Colleen Flaherty
March 8, 2022
Asked about specific legislative goals for this new enhanced partnership, Randi Weingarten, AFT president, cited the AFT’s and AAUP’s previously announced New Deal for Higher Education. The proposed legislative agenda seeks reinvestment in higher education at the state and federal levels, the end of mass employment of low-paid adjunct instructors, academic freedom surrounding the teaching of inequality and U.S. history, student debt relief, and increased college access. Weingarten said the expanded relationship between the AFT and AAUP is a “game changer for higher education, and I think it’s a game changer for democracy. Democracy is under assault, and a strong higher education movement is needed to bolster and protect it. And I think this partnership is more than the sum of its parts.”
TRANSPORTATION
Transit worker unions call on safety agency to implement infrastructure law
NBC News
By Teaganne Finn
March 9, 2022
The main transportation safety agency still has not enforced provisions in President Joe Biden's infrastructure law that would protect workers as assaults on transit continue to trend up, said a group of transit unions in a letter on Wednesday. "Our members include bus and rail transit operators, station agents, car cleaners, mechanics, and other frontline workers, all of whom are at risk of assault and worse each day they arrive at work," said the labor unions, in a letter to the Federal Transit Administration, a department within the Department of Transportation. The co-signers include the Amalgamated Transit Union, which is the nation's largest transit union, the AFL-CIO’s Transportation Trades Department and the Transport Workers Union.