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Today's AFL-CIO press clips

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EQUAL PAY

Governor Mills Proclaims March 15 National Equal Pay Day in Maine 

Maine.gov

March 15, 2022

“While the wage gap experienced by women is narrowing, the progress is much too slow and the COVID-19 pandemic has made the need to change that much more urgent,” Cynthia Phinney, President of the AFL-CIO, said. “One thing that moves the needle on wage levels and wage equity is belonging to a union. Union members in general earn higher wages than their non-union counterparts doing the same or similar work, and the pay gap for union women is smaller.” 

What is Equal Pay Day?

KSDK

By Anne Stegen

March 15, 2022

It's Equal Pay Day 2022. The date means to symbolize the pay gap between men and women in the United States. Women would have had to work from January 1, 2021, to March 15, 2022, to earn the same amount men made in 2021. This based on the wage of the average woman who works full time compared to the wage of the average man who works full time.

 

JOINING  TOGETHER

Workers begin strike at City Brewing Company in Latrobe

Trib Live

By Megan Guza

March 15, 2022

Union employees at Latrobe’s City Brewing on Tuesday took to the picket line, stopping work at the plant in what they called a strike over unfair labor practices. Brewery employees have been without a contract since March 3. They staged an informational picket the following day, with no work stoppage. Employees from the evening shifts picketed during the day and day-shift employees took over following their shifts. “They’ve not answered information requests that we’ve given them and they have changed policies in the plant unilaterally in retaliation to union activities in the plant,” Bill Palmer, president of IUE-CWA Local 22, said of management.

Sutter Health Nurses Plan Informational Pickets At 15 Of Its Hospitals After Contract Negotiations Stall

Health Leaders Media

By Carol Davis

March 14, 2022

RNs at 15 Sutter Health hospitals across Northern California are planning to hold informational pickets on Tuesday, March 15, to protest what they call Sutter’s "refusal to address RNs’ proposals about staffing, workplace violence, and pandemic readiness," according to the California Nurses Association/National Nurses United (CNA/NNU).

 

IN THE STATES

Bill adding extra penalties for assault on utility workers advances to Idaho House floor

Idaho Capital Sun

By Clark Corbin 

March 15, 2022

Jason Hudson of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, or AFL-CIO, said utility workers often find themselves in dangerous situations alongside law enforcement or emergency responders. Utility workers may be called upon to shut off gas or electrical power before firefighters can enter a home to fight a fire. Utility workers are also sometimes called to restore power to neighborhoods and businesses after a driver crashes a vehicle into a powerline.