MUST READ
Emboldened labor movement seeks to expand on successes
The Hill
By Karl Evers-Hillstrom
May 10, 2022
“That was a historic moment. The White House visit in itself shows that every worker who is in a union and every worker who is thinking of organizing their workplace has an ally in the highest office in the country,” said Fred Redmond, secretary-treasurer and executive vice president of the AFL-CIO. “As we’re continuing to recover from this pandemic, what we’re finding is an entire workforce that is waking up to the realization that they deserve better,” Redmond said. “They were essential one minute and expendable the next minute.”
GLOBAL
A Resilient Global Economy Is Within Reach
Barron’s
By Eric LeCompte and Cathy Feingold
May 11, 2022
War rages in Ukraine and a global crisis looms. Gas prices rise and around the world, wheat, corn and fertilizer prices skyrocket. The International Monetary Fund says the global economy will slow, contributing to food shortages in developing countries. Russia’s war on Ukraine combined with Covid-19 made a terrible global situation worse. There are economic policies that Republican and Democratic leaders can find common ground with the Biden administration to make the U.S. and global economy more resilient in the face of these threats. Before the war, the pandemic revealed the catastrophic consequences of persistent global poverty and inequality for everyone—not just the poor. In response, U.S. economic strategy must focus on transparency, democracy, and what Pope Francis calls “a preferential option for the poor.”
LABOR AND ECONOMY
Are corporations using inflationary times to raise prices and up their profits? (Audio)
NPR
May 10, 2022
Inflation is high and so are corporate profits. NPR's A Martinez talks to Josh Bivens of the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, about whether corporations are benefiting from rising prices.
JOINING TOGETHER
House Votes to Extend Union Organizing Protections to Its Staff
The New York Times
By Emily Cochrane and Luke Broadwater
May 10, 2022
The House voted on Tuesday to grant its aides the legal protections to form a union, the most significant step in more than a quarter-century to ensure that the chamber’s staff members can bargain over their working conditions without fear of retaliation. “This is really not about me, this is not about my colleagues — this is about our staff,” Representative Andy Levin, Democrat of Michigan, said in an interview before the vote.
USW members will hold Arconic strike vote Thursday
WQAD 8
By Jennifer Somers
May 10, 2022
Members of the United Steelworkers International Union's Local 105 branch will decide Thursday, May 12 whether or not to strike against Arconic manufacturing company. USW workers will cast their votes Thursday at the Isle of Capri Conference Center in Bettendorf, according to a post on the USW Local 105 Facebook page. A Contract Countdown Rally, organized by USW, is scheduled to take place 4:30-7 p.m. Friday, May 13. During the event, members will walk from the union hall at 880 Devils Glen Road in Bettendorf to the main entrance of the Arconic location at 4879 State St. in Riverdale. USW's current contract with Arconic is set to expire at noon on Sunday, May 15.
Greenbrier employees ratify new contract
WV Metro News
By MetroNews Staff
May 10, 2022
Employees of the Greenbrier Resort have ratified a new three year contract with the resort. Members of the eight unions which make up the Unions of the Greenbrier collective bargaining unit represent 600 workers at the hotel. The new agreement is a three year deal and is effective immediately. It will run through May 1, 2025. A news release from the union announcing the results of the vote indicate the Greenbrier Hotel Corporation and the negotiators for the union bargained in good faith for 90 days to reach the agreement. The process involved one rejection of an agreement earlier and an extension of the old contract.
Kansas City, Missouri, city workers to receive pay bump in new union contract
KSHB
By Tod Palmer
May 10, 2022
Union employees who work for the city of Kansas City, Missouri, are set to receive an average raise of 12.6% under terms of a new collective bargaining agreement announced Tuesday. The new four-year agreement between KCMO and workers with the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 500 creates a citywide minimum wage of $16 per hour for seasonal and part-time workers and $17 per hour for full-time employees. “This is a step in the right direction," Local 500 President Reginald Silvers said. “The goal is recruitment, retention and training, and we have solved some of those problems with these negotiations. Local 500 is grateful and appreciative.”
The Baltimore Sun
By Hayes Gardner
May 10, 2022
Armed with a megaphone, placards and the platform that the upcoming Preakness Stakes provides, a union that represents hospitality workers at the Pimlico and Laurel Park racetracks chanted outside Pimlico on Tuesday, demanding that The Stronach Group invest in “good jobs.” Tracy Lingo, staff director of UNITE HERE Local 7, said union employment at Pimlico and Laurel has plunged from 45 mostly full-time workers at the two tracks in 2015 to only nine now. The union called for more jobs and better-paying ones, given that the state has authorized up to $375 million in bonds for improvements to the two tracks owned by The Stronach Group.
Adjunct faculty, lecturers at Art Institute’s school call for a union
Chicago Sun-Times
By David Roeder
May 10, 2022
Lecturers and adjuncts at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago said Tuesday they are organizing a union, adding to the labor activism among employees at the allied institutions. The nontenure-track faculty issued a letter announcing their plans to affiliate with Council 31 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. More than 190 faculty out of the proposed bargaining unit of about 600 signed the letter. “Our working conditions are intolerable. We write in protest of a two-tier system of compensation and benefits that is creating a permanent underclass of contingent faculty,” the letter said.