Today's AFL-CIO Press Clips
MUST WATCH
AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler: The Labor Transformation at CNBC Work Summit
CNBC
Nov. 13, 2022
Whether it’s video game developers, or minor league baseball players who just joined the AFL-CIO, graduate researchers at the University of California – the workplace is the workplace no matter what kind of work you do, and it’s working people coming together, having that conversation that forms a union. And businesses don’t need to be afraid of that.
JOINING TOGETHER
Striking Post-Gazette union workers set to have first bargaining session with company
CBS Pittsburgh
By Jessica Guay
Nov. 14, 2022
Union members from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette are gaining traction in their pursuit of a contract, having been on strike for weeks now. After picketing together on Friday, the workers on strike finalized plans for the first negotiating session between the two sides in more than two years, according to the Pittsburgh Union Progress, the publication of the striking workers. Workers say they've gone five years without a contract and endured cuts to pay and vacation time, and now healthcare coverage. Supporters of the Guild are expected to gather nearby before negotiations begin.
In largest strike of 2022, California academic workers walk off job
The Washington Post
By Lauren Kaori Gurley
Nov. 14, 2022
In the largest work stoppage of the year, thousands of academic workers at the University of California system went on strike Monday over the university system’s bargaining practices with their union, which is trying to secure higher wages. Some 48,000 teaching assistants, postdocs, researchers and graders on the front lines of teaching and research at California’s prestigious public university system are seeking a minimum annual salary of $54,000 and increased child-care benefits, saying they do not earn enough to live in the state. They also accuse the university of not bargaining in good faith with their union, the United Auto Workers. “At every turn, the university has sought to act unlawfully at the bargaining table, which is preventing us from reaching an agreement,” said Neal Sweeney, the president of UAW Local 5810, which represents more than 11,000 UC postdocs and academic researchers.
University of California Academic Employees Strike for Higher Pay
The New York Times
By Shawn Hubler
Nov. 14, 2022
Tens of thousands of academic workers across the University of California system walked out on Monday in one of the nation’s largest strikes in recent years, as teaching assistants, researchers and other university employees called for significant pay increases in the face of rising housing costs. The walkout, the latest in a wave of union activity in a booming labor market, covers nearly 48,000 unionized campus employees at the prestigious public university system. Classes were disrupted, research slowed and office hours canceled as thousands of workers picketed at campuses from San Diego to Berkeley. Some faculty canceled lectures in sympathy with the strikers or shifted instruction to Zoom to avoid crossing picket lines in the largely pro-labor state.
TRANSPORTATION
Staffing Up Aviation Workforce Among 2023 Union Priorities
Bloomberg Government
By Lillianna Byington
Nov. 10, 2022
Addressing staff shortages at air traffic control facilities and stopping airlines from misusing visa programs are among the top priorities for transportation unions next year. The Transportation Trades Department of the AFL-CIO brought together 37 unions on Thursday, including the Air Line Pilots Association and Transport Workers Union, to vote on an agenda of advocacy goals for 2023 for aviation, transit, maritime, rail, and other transport workers. Labor Secretary Marty Walsh also spoke to the unions and answered questions about their priorities at the closed meeting.
Labor unions push for ‘stress test’ to determine whether railroad employment levels are adequate
Trains.com
Nov. 14, 2022
A rail labor union coalition has proposed that Congress require federal regulators to conduct an annual “stress test” that would determine whether the Class I railroads have enough people, equipment, and infrastructure capacity to meet freight demand. The recommendation, made Nov. 10 by the Transportation Trades Department (TTD) of the AFL-CIO, comes amid ongoing rail service problems due to crew shortages at the big four U.S. Class I railroads, BNSF Railway, CSX Transportation, Norfolk Southern, and Union Pacific. The labor coalition, which has been stung by a 30% reduction in U.S. Class I railroad employment since 2015, says the Surface Transportation Board needs expanded tools to ensure that railroads can meet their common carrier obligations. “Such a human and capital infrastructure ‘stress test’ would proactively ensure the railroads could indeed meet their common carrier obligation rather than waiting until things got so bad that emergency orders from the STB were needed, as has been the case recently,” the TTD says.