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Today's AFL-CIO Press Clips

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POLITICS

President Biden will promote unions through a White House task force.

The New York Times

By Noam Scheiber

April 26, 2021

President Biden will sign an executive order on Monday creating a task force to promote labor organizing, according to a White House fact sheet. The task force, to be led by Vice President Kamala Harris and populated by cabinet officials and top White House advisers, will issue recommendations on how the federal government can use existing authority to help workers join labor unions and bargain collectively. It will also recommend new policies aimed at achieving these goals.

IN THE STATES

The Lehigh Valley honors those who died on the job

WFMZ

By Brian Sheehan 

April 26, 2021

Each year, a bell rings and the name of someone who died while on the job in the Lehigh Valley is read aloud to those who gather to hear it. "That list is now over 3,300 names of people that we have identified that have passed away,” said John Werkheiser, president of the Lehigh Valley Labor Council. And they come from all walks of life.

Brackett: Out-of-state corporate interests don’t know what’s best for NH workers (Opinion)

SeaCoast Online

By Glenn Brackett

April 26, 2021

For those who are unfamiliar, SB-61 is a bill currently awaiting vote by the New Hampshire House of Representatives that aims to make us the first “right-to-work” state in the northeast. Anything good about “right-to-work” ends in its misnomer of a name. Despite what supporters of this legislation would like us to think, this bill would provide no rights, and no work. Instead, all it does is weakens the ability of New Hampshire workers to join together to have a voice on the job.

The Lehigh Valley Workers’ Memorial ceremony | PHOTOS

The Morning Call

April 25, 2021

PHOTO GALLERY: The Lehigh Valley Workers’ Memorial ceremony

Labor experts: The power of unions could be rising again

Worcester Business Journal

By Grant Welker

April 26, 2021

Steven Tolman, the president of the AFL-CIO of Massachusetts, an umbrella union group, has seen unions’ longtime challenges firsthand. The former state senator was a railroad worker in the early 1970s, and he said he watched as businesses’ increasingly hardline stances toward unions became more common. Today, he said, unions remain critical for their ability to improve the lives of their working members. “We are the only ones able to fight inequality,” Tolman said. “If you have a union, you have the right to stand up against injustice, the right to advocate for safer working conditions, and most importantly, the right to good wages.” A bill, the Protecting the Right to Organize, or PRO, Act, would limit employers’ ability to stand in the way of union organizing and strengthen the government’s powers to punish companies violating workers’ rights. It faces a daunting challenge in the Senate, but experts nonetheless see a shift in place.

It's time to pass the PRO Act (Opinion)

Albany Herald

By Yvonne Brooks

April 25, 2021

This isn’t just any bill — it’s civil rights legislation, protecting women, immigrants, people of color and the LGBTQ community, and economic stimulus, putting more money in the pockets of workers, which helps our economy build back better. It’s a generational opportunity for the more than 60 million workers who want to join a union but haven’t found the path to get there under current law. There’s no going back: It’s time for accountability and action. It’s time to pass the PRO Act.

Union supporters rally for the PRO Act

WKOW

By Caroline Bach

April 26, 2021

Members of the Wisconsin AFL-CIO and Citizen Action of Wisconsin gathered outside the Wisconsin State Capitol Monday, urging federal lawmakers to pass the Protect the Right to Organize (PRO) Act. The bill is pending in the U.S. Senate right now. It would repeal right-to-work laws in all states, meant to prevent unions and employers from mandating union membership as a condition of employment.

Supporting the PRO Act for Fairbanks and our future (Opinion)

Fairbanks Daily News-Miner

By Doug Tansy

April 25, 2021

Jobs. Well-paying, middle-class jobs. We hear about them every election cycle. Seldom do we get a “how” from the people claiming to have the answers.

Let’s be clear: Right to work is wrong. The PRO Act will wipe it off the map.

Sierra Nevada Ally

By Ron Kaminkow

April 26, 2021

Right-to-work doesn’t just increase worker misclassification – it also decreases overall wages and job quality. In 2019, 24 percent of jobs in right-to-work states were in low-wage occupations, compared to just 14.5 percent of jobs in other states. Here in Nevada, 30.3% of all workers earn less than $12 per hour. And when workers don’t have a voice on the job, their workplaces are more dangerous: the rate of workplace deaths is 37 percent higher in states with right-to-work laws. 

Alaska Working Families Honor Workers’ Memorial Day; Call for Passage of PRO Act to Make Workplaces Safer

Anchorage Press

By AFL-CIO Alaska

April 26, 2021

At 12:00 pm on Wednesday, April 28th, working families, union officials, elected representatives, and community leaders will gather at FireFighters' Memorial Park in Anchorage for a Workers Memorial Day ceremony honoring those who have died or suffered illnesses or injuries while on the job. Speakers will include: Austin Quinn-Davidson, Mayor of Anchorage; Joelle Hall, President of the Alaska AFL-CIO; Frank Mutchie, President of United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 1496; Matt Schultz, Pastor of First Presbyterian of Anchorage; Angel Wallace, Registered Nurse at Providence Alaska Medical Center. On April 28th, the AFL-CIO will release its 2021 Death on the Job Report, a national and state-by-state profile of worker safety and health in the United States. The 2020 report found that Alaska is one of the most dangerous states in the country for working people, with a fatality rate of 9.9 per 100,00 workers (49th out of 50 states) and an injury and illness rate of 3.6 per 100,00 workers (the national rate is 2.8). 

Erie-Crawford Central Labor Council Plans Memorial Event Wednesday

Erie News Now

April 26, 2021

The 35th annual Workers' Memorial Day program is set for Wednesday, April 28, the Erie-Crawford Central Labor Council AFL-CIO announced Monday. The event is scheduled for 6 p.m. at Perry Square. Organized labor, workers, community leaders and families will gather to honor workers from the region that have died because of injury or illness suffered at work during the last year. The theme for this year's program is "Renew the promise. Safe jobs for all." 

 

LABOR AND COMMUNITY 

Free food distribution set for Saturday

The Globe

By The Globe

April 26, 2021

The West Area Labor Council, Red River Valley AFL-CIO, Education Minnesota Worthington, Unidos MN-Worthington and United Food and Commercial Workers Local 663, in partnership with the Saint Paul Labor Studies and Resource Center, will host a free food distribution event at noon Saturday in the Worthington High School student parking lot. Thirty-pound boxes of fresh food will be available to anyone, free of charge (while supplies last), on a first-come-first-served basis