Today's AFL-CIO Press Clips
JOINING TOGETHER
SFO workers earn raises after strike, union says
KRON4
By Phil Mayer
Oct. 2, 2022
Some fast food workers at San Francisco International Airport (SFO) earned raises of up to $5 per hour after a three-day strike at the airport, UNITE Here Local 2 said in a press release. UNITE Here is a union that represents many SFO workers.
The Best Solution to Fixing Your Crappy Job Is a Union
Jacobin
By David Borer
It’s no mystery why millions of workers are quitting their jobs: pay is low, conditions are terrible, and on-the-job disrespect is rampant. But the best way to transform a terrible job isn’t to leave it — it’s to organize a union.
Hollywood Unions, Studios Extend COVID-19 Protocols as Negotiations Continue
The Wrap
By Jeremy Fuster
Sept. 30, 2022
Though COVID-19 cases have steadily declined over the past two months in Los Angeles and across the U.S., Hollywood’s labor unions and studios have agreed to extend the enforcement of COVID-19 safety protocols on production sets as they continue to negotiate a new agreement. “The Directors Guild of America (DGA), International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE), International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) and the Hollywood Basic Crafts, and Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA), today announced a continuation of negotiations of the Return to Work agreement while discussions continue with the AMPTP,” the guilds said in a joint statement.
Architecture Firm Recognizes First Private-Sector Architects Union
The National Law Review
Sept. 30, 2022
Bernheimer Architecture, a private architecture firm, has voluntarily recognized a union seeking to represent its architects. The union will be part of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers. From published reports, the unionization effort at the New York City firm resembles other recent trends in union organizing. Like other recent organizing efforts involving younger workforces and directed at socially conscious consumer brands, this organizing effort arose from internal discussions among employees about unionization, rather than active recruiting by large labor unions. This organizing effort refutes the stereotypical picture of traditional organizing in blue-collar workplaces and supports a trend among educated, younger workers who organize as part of a broader social movement.
Austin Nurses Win Largest Hospital Union in Texas
Texas Observer
By Delger Erdenesanaa and Justin Miller
Sept. 30, 2022
Kellen Gildersleeve, a labor and delivery nurse in Austin, has just helped birth one of the Texas labor movement’s biggest victories in recent memory. Last week, nurses at Ascension Seton Medical Center voted overwhelmingly to join National Nurses United, the largest nurses’ union in the United States. Approximately 800 nurses will be covered by the union, which is now entering contract negotiations with hospital management. “I’m so excited to be a part of something that’s so historic,” Gildersleeve said. “We have been talking about this for a long time.”
Low-paid workers are unionizing. Corporations are spending a ton to stop them.
The Center for Public Integrity
By Alexia Fernández Campbell
Sept. 30, 2022
Thousands of workers across the country have been busy gathering signatures from their co-workers in the past year. Candy makers at a Hershey’s factory in Virginia. Cooks at a Chipotle restaurant in Michigan. Six employees at a Dollar General store in Connecticut. Their goal: form a labor union to force their bosses to negotiate better pay and benefits after years of brutal working conditions during the COVID-19 pandemic. Many of them are low-paid service employees trying to establish the first unions at multibillion-dollar companies.
IN THE STATES
Insider NJ
October 2, 2022
The New Jersey State AFL-CIO continued its weekly door-to-door union voter education effort as hundreds of union volunteers gathered in locations around the state before hitting the streets in support of the labor federation’s endorsed candidates. The energy at each location was electric as volunteers caught up with old friends and made new connections before being trained in the latest political technology and pounding the pavement to mobilize their union sisters and brothers and their families to participate in this year’s election.