UNION VETERANS
Judge denies request to sequester military ballots following Milwaukee election official case
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
By Sophie Carson and Alison Dirr
Nov. 7, 2022
The Washington, D.C.-based Union Veterans Council filed to intervene in the case. Executive director Will Attig said he is afraid the suit is "a canary in the coal mine" of similar suits to come around the country. "This is a combined effort to sow doubt around the election, and they just picked military members as a pawn, as a tool to do that," Attig said. "This is just an outrageous attack that is completely unwarranted."
POLITICS
Bill Clinton stumps in Vegas, Henderson in support of Cortez Masto
Las Vegas Review-Journal
By Brett Clarkson
Nov. 6, 2022
Inflation was on the former president’s mind as he urged the Democratic faithful at rallies in Las Vegas and Henderson to reject what he said was the Republican effort to exploit Americans’ anger over rising costs — a worldwide problem that Clinton argued has little to do with Cortez Masto or the other Democrats currently in office. Afterward, Clinton mingled with the crowd. Andrea Dudley, 45, a United Domestic Workers of America union board member in California, managed to get a selfie with Clinton.
“I think he’s getting us motivated to stay on the right track, by coming out and giving us that pep talk,” Dudley said. “We’ve been out here knocking these doors since September and it’s been a labor of love. Very intense because the race is so close and we want to make sure we stay on the right track.”
IN THE STATES
Union Workers are Mobilizing to Turn The Tide in Nevada’s Elections
The Real News Network
By Jaisal Noor
Nov. 7, 2022
Things are heating up in Nevada ahead of the midterm elections on Tuesday, Nov. 8. A Republican victory in the state could end up flipping the Senate, and undermine the Democrats’ federal agenda for years to come. That’s why union workers are mobilizing to turn the tide in their state. Culinary Workers Union Local 226 has been leading the charge. 400 Local 226 canvassers have knocked on 800,000 doors across the state, and reached over half of Nevada’s Black and Latinx workers, along with over a third of its AAPI voters. Local 226 is an affiliate of UNITE HERE, which represents 300,000 hospitality workers in the US and Canada. The Real News Network correspondent Jaisal Noor covers UNITE HERE’s efforts from the ground in Nevada.
Passage of the ‘right-to-work’ Amendment 1 would have lasting impact on workers
MLK50
By Brittany Brown
Nov. 7, 2022
With just one day before the midterm election, Memphis political leaders and organizers are making a final push to urge residents to vote “no” on Tennessee Constitutional Amendment 1, or the so-called “right-to-work” amendment. Currently, Tennessee is a “right-to-work” state and has been since the 1940s. Instead, under Tennessee’s “right-to-work” law, unions are required to represent all employees in a unionized workplace without requiring workers to pay membership dues in return. Essentially, it forces unions to provide workers with the benefits of membership without paying any of the cost, ultimately weakening the power of unions, according to labor organizers. In “right-to-work” states, workers earn about $11,000 less per year, the poverty rate is higher at 11%, workers are 12% more likely to be uninsured and workers have a 57% higher risk of dying on the job than people in non-“right-to-work” states, according to AFL-CIO’s Common Sense Economics training program.
Illinois voters to decide whether to codify collective bargaining
Cities929
By Andrew Hensel
Nov. 7, 2022
Labor unions support the amendment. Recently, the AFL-CIO, a group representing union workers from all over the state, urged voters to pass the measure. “We need mothers, brothers, cousins, girlfriends, whatever. We got to get them to the polls and vote to get the worker’s rights amendment passed and elect good Democratic candidates, labor-endorsed candidates who will move this state forward,” AFL-CIO president Tim Drea said at a campaign event Monday.
UNION BUSTING
Chicago Sun-Times union blasts new owner
Axios
By Monica Eng
Nov. 7, 2022
Four months into contract negotiations, Sun-Times union members are lashing out on Twitter at their new owners, Chicago Public Media, for trying to "strip" workers' rights "we've had for decades. "Why it matters: The January merger of the Sun-Times and WBEZ under CPM ownership was supposed to represent "a national model for the future of local journalism." Instead it's opening up CPM to criticism of "union-busting" tactics that could irk the nonprofit's traditionally progressive donor base just as it starts asking newspaper readers to donate and become members.
JOINING TOGETHER
'Off the job and onto the picket line': UC workers authorize mass strike
The Daily Californian
By Ratul Mangal
Nov. 7, 2022
United Auto Workers, or UAW, voted to authorize a strike Wednesday consisting of postdoctoral researchers, or postdocs, academic researchers, or ARs, academic student employees, or ASEs, and graduate student researchers, or GSRs. The strike is slated to start Nov. 14 with no set end date, according to political science department strike captains Anna Weissman, a UAW representative, and Kai Yui Samuel Chan, a UAW 2865 bargaining team member and recording secretary of the UC Berkeley chapter. Of the 75% of UAW members who voted on the strike referendum, 98% voted in favor of a strike, a figure that amounts to 35,000 favorable votes. The move comes in response to the UC system’s alleged unlawful bargaining practices. “The decision to move forward with a multi-unit statewide strike was made after months of increasing frustration at UC’s intransigence,” Weissman and Chan said in an email. “Since UAW members are struggling to make ends meet every month, we feel we can’t wait around for UC to change course and bargain in good faith on their own time.” Weissman and Chan alleged the university’s “unlawful tactics” include unilaterally changing their working conditions and refusing to provide information the negotiators need to bargain. They added they have filed more than 20 charges against the university to compel them to bargain in good faith. These charges, along with the university’s responses and upcoming California Public Employment Relations Board, or PERB, hearing dates can be found on the UAW strike website.
LABOR AND COMMUNITY
NY Firefighters Hand Out Nearly 200 Winter Coats
Firehouse
Nov. 7, 2022
Firefighters with the Syracuse Fire Department stopped by McKinley-Brighton Elementary School on Monday morning to make sure kids have the winter gear they need to stay warm. Having a warm winter hat and coat is a necessity many of us don’t think twice about, but for some families, a winter coat and hat are something they can’t afford. “Everybody knows in Syracuse there’s a need with cold weather. It’s one thing that will always come,” Robert Brandt, Syracuse Firefighter IAFF Local 280 told Localsyr.com. Syracuse Firefighters IAFF Local 280 are working to change that, by partnering with Operation Warm, a national non-profit whose mission is to help children who are in need. “Each kid will get to come down and pick a coat of their liking based on color, size things like that. They also pick a winter hat that may match the coat or another color that they might like,” Brandt said.