ENVIRONMENT, ENERGY AND CLIMATE
Politico
By Matthew Choi
May 6, 2022
Raimondo made the remarks as top labor leaders and offshore wind company Ørsted signed a first-of-a-kind agreement that will ensure the company’s six U.S. offshore wind farms under development are built with union labor. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, National Climate Adviser Gina McCarthy and Bureau of Ocean Energy Management Director Amanda Lefton also attended.
Ørsted and NABTU Sign ‘Historic’ Project Labor Agreement for US Offshore Wind
Offshore Wind
By Adnan Memija
May 6, 2022
“The signing of this unprecedented agreement is historic for America’s workers and our energy future. NABTU’s highly trained men and women professionals have the best craft skills in the world. This partnership will not only expand tens of thousands of career opportunities for them to flourish in the energy transition but also lift up even more people into the middle-class,” said Sean McGarvey, President of NABTU. “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,” commented Liz Shuler, President of AFL-CIO.
LABOR AND ECONOMY
Black unemployment rate falls to pandemic-era low in April
CNBC
By Hannah Miao
May 6, 2022
When broken down by gender, the unemployment rate for Black men rose to 6.1% in April from 5.6% the month prior, even as nearly every other demographic group’s unemployment rate fell or held steady. However, the labor force participation rate for Black men jumped a percentage point in April to 68.9%. That shows more Black men entered the labor market but faced challenges in hiring. “This shows how the unemployment rate can be misleading on whether the labor market is tight. Workers who face hiring frictions are sensitive to actual hiring to get into the search,” William Spriggs, chief economist to the AFL-CIO, said in a tweet.
JOINING TOGETHER
Unions are brewing at coffee shops and restaurants. Will they change Philly’s food scene?
The Philadelphia Inquirer
By Jenn Ladd
May 7, 2022
Efforts to organize Philly’s food scene have floundered before, but this time could be different. Last year, employees of the Wayward restaurant and its adjoining hotel, Canopy by Hilton, organized a union; in March, they won their first contract. Twenty workers at Good Karma Cafe voted to unionize in March. Old City Coffee workers pushing to unionize narrowly lost an election, 15-13, in April. Multiple sources say more local campaigns are brewing.
Nurses at Providence St. Vincent in Portland vote to go on strike
OPB
By Amelia Templeton
May 6, 2022
Nurses at Providence St. Vincent Medical Center in Portland, one of Oregon’s most profitable hospitals in recent years, have voted to authorize a strike. The Wednesday night vote means it’s now up to the Oregon Nurses Association’s labor cabinet to decide whether to continue negotiating over a new contract for the nurses at Providence St. Vincent, or to call a strike. The union is required to give Providence 10 days notice before striking, a step it has not taken yet.
Fresno bus drivers union approves labor strike as negotiations with city break down
The Fresno Bee
By Brianna Vaccari
May 8, 2022
Fresno Area Express bus drivers voted overwhelmingly last week to reject the city’s proposed labor agreement, declare an impasse, and to strike, union leaders told The Bee. While union members approved going on strike, there are no plans to do so “at this time.” “But that may change,” said Alfredo Molina, the secretary for Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1027, which represents around 270 FAX bus drivers. “At this moment, passengers don’t have to worry about the bus not showing up,” Luis Alcazar-Montoya, the ATU Local 1027 president, told The Bee on Thursday afternoon. “We don’t want to scare the public.” The union’s contract expired in the fall of 2020, but negotiations were paused because of the coronavirus pandemic. Bargaining resumed in September 2021.
NLRB
Starbucks Broke Law By Firing And Threatening Pro-Union Workers, Labor Board Alleges
HuffPost
By Dave Jamieson
May 6, 2022
Starbucks committed a host of labor law violations by terminating six pro-union workers, disciplining and surveilling others, closing stores and changing work policies in the course of its battle with an organizing campaign, according to a complaint filed by labor officials on Friday. A regional director for the National Labor Relations Board brought the charges against the Seattle-based coffee chain, having found merit in allegations made by the union Workers United. The union has successfully organized more than 50 Starbucks stores since last year despite an aggressive counter-campaign by the company.
IN THE STATES
N.J. workers are unionizing at one of the fastest rates in the nation, new report says
NJ.com
By Derek Hall
May 7, 2022
The Garden State has seen a resurgence of labor organizing in the service industry over the past two years, according to a new report from Rutgers University. Researchers at Rutgers’ Labor Education Action Research Network (LEARN) analyzed federal data for 2019 through 2021 and found that unionization in New Jersey is outperforming 44 other states across the nation, according to a statement released earlier in the week.
President Biden hits Chicago next Wednesday for IBEW convention
Chicago Sun-Times
By Lynn Sweet
May 5, 2022
President Joe Biden visits Chicago next Wednesday, the White House announced Thursday, the first time he has been in the area since October. Biden is traveling to the city to speak to the 40th International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers International Convention.
What Unions Are Doing to Protect American Democracy
The New Republic
By Steven Greenhouse
May 6, 2022
With an eye to this November’s elections, Paul Spink—like many union leaders in Wisconsin—plans to do his utmost this year to salvage what’s left of democracy in his state. Spink, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, or AFSCME, in Wisconsin, says it’s vital to reelect the state’s Democratic governor, Tony Evers, to preserve some semblance of majority rule in Wisconsin and to keep some check on what he sees as a runaway Republican legislature that is pushing hard to lock in GOP rule for the next 10 years. “It’s really hard to use the term ‘democracy’ to describe what’s happening now in Wisconsin,” Spink said. “It has been years of them trying to undermine the idea of having average people pick their leaders.”