Today's AFL-CIO press clips
INTERNATIONAL
Largest US union federation presses Fifa on labor rights around 2026 World Cup
The Guardian
By Michael Sainato
April 8, 2022
Fifa wrote back in January 2022, dismissing concerns about the governing body’s human rights policies and implementation of them. “It was really just a superficial response. There were no initial commitments, no serious commitment to engaging us,” said Cathy Feingold, Director of the International Department at the AFL-CIO. Feingold explained now is the time multi-million dollar deals are made ahead of the 2026 World Cup, in terms of major tax breaks and contract bids, and the coalition is pushing for minimum labor standards to be included in these deals, such as local hiring and diversity hiring directives, use of unionized labor discrimination protections for workers, healthcare access while workers are working events, and minimum wage standards for the event that generates billions of dollars in revenue and profits. In their response, the AFL-CIO and other groups set a deadline of 15 March 2022 for Fifa to schedule a meeting with the groups to discuss the issues before host cities for the 2026 World Cup are selected.
JOINING TOGETHER
Fordham Graduate Assistants Vote to Unionize
Inside Higher Ed
By Colleen Flaherty
April 8, 2022
Graduate assistants at Fordham University's Graduate School of Arts and Sciences voted, 229 to 15, to form a union affiliated with the Communication Workers of America, they announced Thursday. The new union’s first contract goals include formal grievance structures, pandemic-related funding extensions, protections for international students, better pay and comprehensive health care and childcare accommodations.
Delta pilots protest scheduling concerns outside of Salt Lake City International Airport
The Salt Lake Tribune
By Saige Miller
April 7, 2022
As travelers arrived at Salt Lake City International Airport on Thursday, they were greeted by roughly 70 Delta Air Lines pilots stoically standing with signs that read “If I look tired it’s because I am” and “Fatiguing schedules = poor reliability.” Delta pilots silently picketed outside the Terminal 1 departures in protest of the company’s scheduling practices, stating they are overworked and exhausted. Cars passing by honked in support of the pilots. One man gave protesters a thumbs up as he entered the airport. “We’re out here today to send a message to Delta management,” Baach, who is a member of the Air Line Pilots Association, the union that represents all 13,500 Delta pilots, said. “We want them to match the flying that they’re scheduling with the staff that they have available.”
Grocery Workers Ratify Contract with Stater Bros.
NBC Los Angeles
By City News Service
April 10, 2022
Southern California grocery workers voted "overwhelmingly" to ratify a new three-year contract with Stater Bros., with voting scheduled this week on a tentative deal with other stores including Ralphs and Vons/Pavilions/Albertsons. Members of United Food and Commercial Workers Locals 8GS, 135, 324, 770, 1167, and 1428 ratified the Stater Bros. deal that was reached on April 1. It will go into effect immediately for more than 13,000 employees in approximately 170 Stater Bros. locations across Central and Southern California. The contract is retroactive to March 7, 2022.
New Haven union gets support from alders in seeking new contract
New Haven Register
By Mark Zaretsky
April 8, 2022
The 400-plus members of the city’s AFSCME Local 884 who have been working without a contract for more than two years gained some support from members of the Board of Alders this week, as an aldermanic committee voted to send a letter calling on the city to sit down and negotiate a contract. The unanimous vote from the four sitting members of the City Services and Environmental Policy Committee, which followed testimony Thursday night by nine union members, left Local 884 President Kymberly Bray in good spirits.
San Mateo County nurses ratify new contract
San Mateo Daily Journal
By Daily Journal Staff
April 9, 2022
A new labor contract between San Mateo County and its nurses union was ratified Thursday, promising the health care workers better pay, greater say in infectious disease protections and improved language around anti-discrimination and harassment. The new contract received 94% approval from county nurses, represented by the California Nurses Association. In an interview, Harrington said she and her RN colleagues are very happy with the contract, noting she saw the greatest amount of turnout to vote on the document this go-round than during the previous seven contract negotiations she’s seen in her 25 years with the county.
Deadline
By David Robb
April 9, 2022
SAG-AFTRA’s national board voted today to approve a tentative agreement on a new $1 billion-a-year commercials contract and to recommend its ratification to the guild’s members. The deal, which was approved by 93% of the national board members, was reached Tuesday with the Joint Policy Committee of the advertising industry. Bargaining got underway February 16 in New York.
Three Brothers Coffee employees vote to unionize in Nashville
News Channel 5
By Emily West
April 8, 2022
After a vote this afternoon, Three Brothers Coffee will become the first unionized coffee shop in Nashville. Baristas, the owner and a member of the National Labor Relations Board oversaw the vote. Despite the less than ideal weather conditions for April, supporters for the union gathered outside the coffee shop and rallied for the union vote.
LABOR AND COMMUNITY
IBEW members donate to FFOC program
Bonner County Daily Bee
April 8, 2022
Members of the IBEW Local Union No. 77 have donated $1,145 to Food For Our Children and its weekend food program. IBEW picked the program due to their concern for community members knowing that there is food insecurity for many families. Whenever she sees an opportunity to help feed children and families, she does what she can, IBEW member Kellee Merrill said.
WORKPLACE SAFETY AND HEALTH
Health care worker groups push appeals court for a permanent standard on COVID-19
Safety + Health Magazine
April 8, 2022
National Nurses United was among the labor groups that filed an emergency petition Jan. 5 after an emergency temporary standard for health care workers, issued in June, wasn’t made permanent. The groups argued that health care workers’ well-being is in grave danger without the protections provided by the ETS, and asked the court to retain it until a permanent standard can take its place. “The impact of this pandemic has been borne disproportionately by the health care workers tasked with caring for those infected by this disease,” NNU Legal Director Nicole Daro told the court, according to an NNU press release. “Yet OSHA has left these very workers without necessary protections, despite a clear statutory mandate to protect workers in precisely this situation.” The other petitioners: AFL-CIO; American Federation of Teachers; American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees; New York State Nurses Association; and Pennsylvania Association of Nurses and Allied Professionals.