EDITOR'S NOTE: See: Workers at Half Price Books in Louisville seek union election
MUST READ
Marching Forward: An exclusive interview with AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler
People’s World
By Mark Gruenberg
Aug. 17, 2022
What workers really want is a seat at the table about decisions that affect their daily lives—through unions in the AFL-CIO or independent of it. Agreeing to that, rather than labor law-breaking to stop union organizing, is good for business, too, Shuler stated. It produces more-willing workers who stay longer, produce higher-quality products and boost profits. All this with a vision in mind: To lead/march unions forward into new work sectors, new directions and new bottom-up decision-making in politics, union leadership and organizing.
POLITICS
NW Labor Press
By Don Mcintosh
Aug. 17, 2022
It passed 50-50 on strict partisan lines Aug. 7, with Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris casting the tie-breaking vote. It then passed the House Aug. 12 by 220-213, again on party lines, with Jared Golden of Maine the only Democrat in opposition. The bill, HB 5376, started last September as the Build Back Better Act, but was renamed the Inflation Reduction Act at the request of Democratic Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia. National AFL-CIO president Liz Shuler applauded the bill’s passage, saying it will deliver real help to working families. “Enacting clean energy tax incentives with labor standards and domestic content requirements will create good-paying jobs in construction and manufacturing right here in America,” Shuler said in a press statement. “And this legislation will address long overdue changes to our tax system that will finally make the most profitable corporations pay their fair share.”
LABOR AND ECONOMY
US labor leaders say underfunding at federal agency has ‘reached crisis stage’
The Guardian
By Steven Greenhouse
Aug. 17, 2022
“We’ve been blocked for nine straight years in seeking to increase the NLRB’s funding, and inflation has left its budget 25% behind where it should be,” said Bill Samuel, legislative director of the AFL-CIO, the nation’s main labor federation. “When you take into account the explosion in the NLRB’s workload because of increased organizing, renewed enforcement and the increase in labor law violations, they’ve reached a crisis stage.”
JOINING TOGETHER
Strippers have a new tactic in a North Hollywood labor fight. Organizing with an actors union
Los Angeles Times
By Suhauna Hussain
Aug. 17, 2022
“Every worker who wants a union deserves a union and should be able to have the protections of fair wages, safe working conditions, benefits and a workplace free from discrimination and harassment and wage theft and all of the things that the Star Garden strippers are telling us they’ve experienced. So this feels like the right thing to do,” said Actors’ Equity Assn. President Kate Shindle.
Minnesota nurses vote to authorize a strike
Axios
By Torey Van Oot
Aug. 17, 2022
More than 15,000 health care workers in the Twin Cities and Duluth are one step closer to staging one of the largest nurse strikes in U.S. history. Members of the Minnesota Nurses Association voted Monday to authorize a strike amid stalled contract negotiations. The vote covers nurses working at 15 hospitals, including Abbott Northwestern, Children's St. Paul and North Memorial.
North Hollywood adult dancers seek to become first unionized strippers in the country
CBS Los Angeles
By CBSLA Staff
Aug. 17, 2022
The dancers of Star Garden Topless Dive Bar filed a petition Wednesday for a union recognition election. And if the National Labor Relations Board grants the petition and the dancers vote to unionize, their bargaining unit would be affiliated with Actors' Equity Association, the national labor union affiliated with the AFL-CIO representing more than 51,000 professional actors and stage managers working in live theater. "Strippers are live entertainers, and while some aspects of their job are unique, they have much in common with other Equity members who dance for a living," said Kate Shindle, president of the Actors' Equity Association.
NW Labor Press
By Colin Staub
Aug. 17, 2022
A dozen workers who paint commercial vessels on Swan Island in Portland have unionized, increasing the union density at the Vigor Industrial shipyard. They work for Specialty Finishes, a company that’s affiliated with Vigor, and do ship repairs alongside the union-represented Vigor workers who bargain together in the AFL-CIO Metal Trades Department. In ballots counted Aug. 9, the Specialty Finishes workers voted 8 to 1 to join Painters Local 10. The Specialty Finishes painters will bargain separately from the Metal Trades Department. Painters Local 10 Business Representative Scott Oldham expects bargaining toward a first contract could begin in four to six weeks.In a release announcing the vote, Specialty Finishes painter David Warnieke said workers anticipate that unionizing will bring wage increases, family medical coverage, and workplace protections.
Workers at Half Price Books in Louisville seek union election
WDRB
By Chirs Otts
Aug.17, 2022
Workers at the Half Price Books store on Hurstbourne Parkway in eastern Jefferson County filed to hold a union election, part of a recent uptick in retail organizing in the Louisville area. The United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 227 — which also represents thousands of local Kroger employees — filed a petition Tuesday with the National Labor Relations Board on behalf of 18 "booksellers and leads" employed at the store at 2025 S. Hurstbourne Parkway. A majority of the workers would have to vote in favor of union representation in an NLRB-overseen election, which typically comes within a few months of a petition. The filing triggers negotiations between the employer, petitioning workers and the NLRB over the details of the election, such as who is eligible to vote and whether it will be conducted by mail or in person.