MUST READ
AFL-CIO To Invest Millions In New Worker Organizing Efforts
HuffPost
By Dave Jamieson
Oct. 14, 2022
The AFL-CIO labor federation is increasing the fees paid by its member unions to fund more organizing and help restore union membership after years of decline. The federation’s board voted to approve a new measure Wednesday that will raise the per-capita contributions each union makes based on the size of its membership. Once the phased increases are in place, they would bring in roughly $11 million annually, all devoted to organizing campaigns. The pot of money would go toward a new department within the federation called the Center for Transformational Organizing, where organizers and researchers will develop campaigns to boost union density in industries where organized labor has struggled to gain traction. Liz Shuler, president of the AFL-CIO, called the new fee structure an “unparalleled investment” at a time when workplaces are ripe for unionization.
ORGANIZING
AFL-CIO to Raise $10 Million for New Organizing With Dues Hike
Bloomberg Law
By Ian Kullgren
Oct. 14, 2022
The AFL-CIO executive board voted this week to raise per-capita membership fees by 5 cents per member each month, federation spokesman Steve Smith said. The first 5-cent increase will take effect in January with a second increase to phase in later. The increases will create a new pool of cash to pay for President Liz Shuler’s election pledge to recruit 1 million new union members over the next decade. It’s the first time in 17 years the labor federation has raised membership fees levied for each of the 58 affiliated unions representing more than 12 million workers. The investment represents a coordinated attempt by organized labor to seize the spirit of worker unrest in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, with employees at Starbucks Corp., Amazon.com Inc., and Apple Inc. waging union campaigns nationwide. A new arm of the AFL-CIO—called the Center for Transformational Organizing—will use the money to put more organizers on the ground, funnel cash to member unions waging difficult organizing campaigns, and support research and collaboration among unions, though exact appropriations haven’t been decided yet, Smith said.
JOINING TOGETHER
Art museum staffers ratify first contract, look forward to returning to work
The Philadelphia Inquirer
By Stephan Salisbury
Oct. 16, 2022
Striking members of the first union in the storied history of the Philadelphia Museum of Art overwhelmingly approved their first contract Sunday evening and prepared to return to their jobs Monday morning, concluding a historic 19-day walkout. The PMA Union, an affiliate of AFSCME DC47, had been negotiating a deal with museum management for two years. In the end, the museum agreed to virtually all that the union wanted, approving a 14% pay hike over three years (retroactive to July of this year), an increase in the minimum hourly wage from $15 to $16.75, “longevity” pay increases that would grant workers an additional $500 for every five years of employment, four weeks of paid parental leave, and help with the high cost of health insurance.
Philadelphia Museum of Art workers agree to a deal to end strike
Philly Voice
By Brian A. Saunders
Oct. 15, 2022
Union members of the AFSCME DC47, Local 397, and PMA Union will vote on a new contract on Sunday. "After more than two years fighting for a fair contract and nearly three weeks on strike, Philadelphia Museum of Art workers have finally reached a fair deal that treats them with the respect and dignity they deserve. Sticking together in the face of union busters, scabs, and stonewalling from management, PMA workers showed us all how it's done," said AFSCME President Lee Saunders.
Union march in New Haven demands Yale ‘neutrality’
My Record Journal
By Thomas Breen
Oct. 14, 2022
That was the scene Thursday evening as hundreds of Yale graduate teachers, students, workers, and researchers joined with supporters for a street-closing march in support of UNITE HERE Local 33. That’s the Yale graduate union that — through various names and leaders and rally after rally after rally over the past three decades — has been trying to win the backing of fellow grads and the official recognition of the university in order to improve pay, healthcare, working conditions, and other benefits for their members. “You are the academic labor movement!” UNITE HERE Secretary-Treasurer and nationally prominent New Haven-born labor organizer Gwen Mills told the cheering crowd. “You are a part of the entire U.S. labor movement!” “We are calling on Yale to publicly commit to remaining neutral on this union election,” she continued.
IN THE STATES
Worker's Rights on the Illinois Ballot
WREX
By Manuel Estopinan
Oct. 13, 2022
"Right now anyone can unionize in Illinois, we just want to protect that in the constitution so that if there's ever a question our constitution speaks to it, There's no financial changes, there's no changes to whos going to be able to organize, there's no changes to how they'll be able to organize. What we want is to protect workers choices on the job," says Sara Dorner, President of Rockford United Labor, AFL-CIO.
“Our fight was his fight”; West Virginia’s labor community honors Jim Bowen
WV Metro News
By Carrie Hodousek
Oct. 16, 2022
Jim Bowen was a legend, a friend and a mentor to those who knew him. The former president of the West Virginia AFL-CIO stood up for the state’s working class until he neared his final days. “His whole entire life was not about himself. It was about other people,” United Mine Workers of America President Cecil Roberts told MetroNews. Roberts was among West Virginia’s organized labor community to join together Sunday afternoon in a Celebration of Life ceremony to honor Bowen at the Four Points Sheraton in downtown Charleston.