Today's AFL-CIO press clips
MUST READ
Ørsted and NABTU Sign ‘Historic’ Project Labor Agreement for U.S. Offshore Wind
GCaptain,
By Mike Schuler
May 5, 2022
“This is what it looks like to put the words ‘high-road labor standards’ into action,” said AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler. “The partnership between Ørsted and NABTU is monumental, for the thousands of workers who will have great jobs, and for the example it sets for the U.S. offshore wind industry.”
ENVIRONMENT, ENERGY AND CLIMATE
Clean energy tax credits deja vu
Politico
By Matthew Choi, Kelsey Tamborrino and Josh Siegel
May 5, 2022
WIND TIME: A whole host of the administration’s clean energy bigwigs will be at the AFL-CIO headquarters today for a signing ceremony between North America’s Building Trades Unions and Norwegian offshore wind company Ørsted on an agreement to employ American labor on its offshore wind farms. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, White House Climate Adviser Gina McCarthy, BOEM Director Amanda Lefton and AFL-CIO President Elizabeth Shuler will all be attending."
Yahoo! Finance
May 5, 2022
“This is what it looks like to put the words ‘high-road labor standards’ into action,” said AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler. “The partnership between Ørsted and NABTU is monumental, for the thousands of workers who will have great jobs, and for the example it sets for the U.S. offshore wind industry. The project labor agreement signed today is proof that labor and employers working together can create an equitable clean energy transition with opportunity for everyone. When we make good on our values – workers’ rights, gender and racial justice, economic equality, and safe and healthy workplaces – then we all win. This PLA meets that test and sets the bar high for working people and the planet. Clean energy jobs can and will be good-paying, family-sustaining union jobs.”
WORKPLACE SAFETY AND HEALTH
Thousands of Americans die from injuries on the job each year – these workers are most at risk
MarketWatch
By Emma Ockerman
May 4, 2022
A new report from the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), shows that nearly 5,000 Laborers died on the job in 2020, with Latino and Black workers having the highest fatality rates.
TRANSPORTATION
Railroaders quit after BNSF institutes ‘draconian’ attendance policy
Montana Free Press
By Justin Franz
May 5, 2022
“This draconian attendance policy has made a poor work environment even worse,” Greg Regan, president of the Transportation Trades Department of the AFL-CIO, told MTFP. Regan said most of the big railroads in North America have “severe” attendance policies, but that BNSF’s new Hi-Viz policy is by far the worst, in his opinion. Because of it, many railroaders have quit. According to the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers & Trainmen and SMART Transportation Division, more than 700 operating employees have resigned since Feb. 1, and some have said the number is even higher. But during a recent hearing in Washington, D.C., a BNSF executive called that figure “greatly exaggerated.” BNSF declined to offer its own figure to MTFP.
JOINING TOGETHER
D.C. Circulator tentative agreement reached, could end drivers’ strike
The Washington Post
By Luz Lazo
May 5, 2022
A bus drivers union and the operator of D.C. Circulator have reached a tentative agreement that if approved Thursday could bring back normal bus service as early as Friday and avert a days-long stoppage of Circulator. The leaders of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 689 and RATP Dev, the company that operates the transit system for the District, reached a tentative deal early Thursday, after negotiations that began early Wednesday. The union members are expected to vote on the proposal Thursday afternoon.
Student employee group on Washington State University campuses file to form union
Komo News
By KOMO News Staff
May 5, 2022
About 1,600 student employees at Washington State University campuses across the state filed to form a union on Wednesday. Graduate and undergraduate teaching and research assistants, as well as tutors and graders and more — known as academic student employees, or ASEs — filed their representation petition with the Public Employment Relations Commission, according to the International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America (UAW). Per UAW’s news release, WSU is the only major public research institution on the West Coast that doesn’t have a union for student employees.
SAG-AFTRA Members Ratify Commercials Contracts Deal
The Hollywood Reporter
By Katie Kilkenny
May 5, 2022
After a voting period of several weeks, SAG-AFTRA members have opted to ratify three-year successor agreements to the union’s commercials contracts. The vote saw 92.25 percent of members choosing “yes” on the tentative deal, reached April 5 with advertising industry bargaining representative the Joint Policy Committee, the union announced Thursday. In a statement, union president Fran Drescher said, “We did it!” She added, “As we move into a digital age, bold moves and structural changes had to be made. Our amazing negotiating committee heard what members needed and delivered new contracts with more money for streaming, more contributions to the health plan, limitations on self-tape auditions, hair and makeup equity, intimacy protections and more. These contracts create a baseline upon which to build a new future.”
UFCW 8 Members Ratify Historic Contracts with Safeway/Vons and Save Mart/Lucky/Food Maxx
Business Wire
May 4, 2022
Members of UFCW 8-Golden State, representing supermarket workers in Northern and Central California, voted overwhelmingly to ratify newly-negotiated labor agreements with the Safeway and Vons supermarket chains as well as the Save Mart, Lucky and Food Maxx chains in the region. The three-year agreements include substantial wage increases and protects current health care and pension benefits. They affect more than 15,500 members of UFCW 8 in addition to members of UFCW Local 5 in the Bay Area and Local 648 in San Francisco. "The new contracts feature historic wage increases in recognition of Union members’ courageous service in keeping the stores functioning efficiently throughout the COVID-19 pandemic," said Jacques Loveall, president of UFCW 8-Golden State. "They also include medical benefit improvements with employer-paid contributions for the plans, adjustments to wage progressions, and the creation of additional Lifetime Income Security Accrual Account (LISA) retirement plans for current and future members."
IN THE STATES
Connecticut Passes Legislation to Ban ‘Captive Audience’ Meetings
SHRM
By Allen Smith, J.D.
May 5, 2022
Once Gov. Ned Lamont signs the bill into law, as he is expected to do, Connecticut will be the second state with such legislation. Oregon is the only other state with a law prohibiting captive audience meetings. The AFL-CIO views such laws as a protection against intimidation.
LABOR AND COMMUNITY
Letter Carrier Food Drive Returns Saturday, May 14
The Atmore Advance
By Andrew Garner
May 5, 2022
Get your sturdy bags ready as the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) will hold its 30th annual food drive next Sat., May 14. Stamp Out Hunger, the country’s largest one-day food drive, provides communities with an easy way to donate food to those in need, according to the NALC. The traditional food drive returns this year after a two-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2020 and 2021, the drive was replaced by the NALC’s donor drive, in which those wishing to help made online donations to local food pantries.