JOINING TOGETHER
Distinguished persons: Unions break through in 2022 (Opinion)
The Washington Post
By Jennifer Rubin
Dec. 18, 2022
Gallup reported in August, “Seventy-one percent of Americans now approve of labor unions.” This is up from 64 percent before the pandemic and is the highest share Gallup has found since 1965. Americans are enthusiastic about unions because they are winning, and then delivering, contracts. This encourages other employees to organize.
Minnesota Historical Society employees rally as contract talks continue
MPR News
By Todd Melby
Dec. 18, 2022
Employees at the Minnesota Historical Society rallied Saturday in St. Paul as negotiations continue for an initial union contract. The workers formed AFSCME Local 3173 last year, but have yet to reach an agreement with the MNHS. Some at the rally said they voted to join the union because they were frustrated with attempts to get management to listen to concerns.
University of California Academic Workers Reach Deal to End Strike
The New York Times
By Shawn Hubler
Dec. 16, 2022
The University of California and academic workers announced a tentative labor agreement on Friday, signaling a potential end to a high-profile strike that has disrupted the prestigious, 10-campus public university system for more than a month. Union and university officials expressed optimism about the deal, although it still must be ratified by the rank-and-file of two fractious bargaining units of the United Auto Workers, the union that represents the academic employees.
In a local first, workers at Intelligentsia Coffee ratify union contract
Chicago Sun-Times
By David Roeder
Dec. 16, 2022
With union organizing drives brewing at area coffee chains, workers at Intelligentsia Coffee in Chicago are the first to taste a collective bargaining agreement. The workers have ratified a two-year contract that delivers wage increases and job protections, Local 1220 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers announced Friday. The contract covers 31 employees at Intelligentsia’s five “coffeebars” in Chicago. The baristas and shift leads will get pay increases of about 14% over the term of the contract, said Brett Lyons, business representative for Local 1220. It’s the IBEW’s first agreement with a coffee chain.
Minnesota nurses gain voice in staffing levels in new pact
People’s World
By Steve Share
Dec. 16, 2022
A prior overwhelming strike authorization vote by members of the Minnesota Nurses Association drove Twin Cities-area and Duluth hospitals to bargain with and agree to new contracts with the union, whose 15,000 nurses then ratified them. And nurses won their key issue, a say on safe-staffing levels which lead to better patient care. Union President Mary Turner, RN, announced on Dec. 14 that the pacts with the hospitals were ratified in voting over several days. They covered seven different hospital systems in the Twin Cities and the Duluth-Superior Twin Ports area on the Minnesota-Wisconsin border. The two sides reached tentative agreements a week before.
'I'm not giving up': Racine union holds solidarity event as strike at Case tractor factory continues
Wisconsin Public Radio
By Joe Schulz
Dec. 17, 2022
More than 100 people gathered Saturday at the United Auto Workers hall in Racine to stand in solidarity with the nearly 700 Case tractor factory workers who have been on strike for eight months. UAW Local 180, which represents workers at CNH Industrial in Racine, held a rally outside the union hall before participating in a vehicle caravan that supported those on strike outside the plant.
IN THE STATES
Starbucks workers at Crocker Park join national strike today
Signal Cleveland
By Olivera Perkins
Dec. 15, 2022
Dan O’Malley, who heads the North Shore AFL-CIO Federation of Labor, raised concerns about how Starbucks treats unionized workers. “The company’s flagrant acts of retaliation, intimidation, and harassment of its own workers proves their complete disregard for federal labor law and good-faith bargaining,” he wrote in an email to Signal Cleveland. “Starbucks Workers United members are striking to say loud and clear that they’ve had enough. The entire Greater Cleveland labor movement stands with them.”
Nebraska workers call for better pay, saying vital services are critically short-staffed
ABC8
By Matt Chibe and Matthew Mittlieder
Dec. 15, 2022
Deadline day is quickly approaching to get a new deal done between the state and 8,000 of its employees. If Dhey don’t have an agreement by the end of the year, they will enter mediation. Then they must submit their final offers by Jan. 15. The Nebraska Association of Public Employees said progress has been slow.
LABOR AND COMMUNITY
Springfield firefighters to hold 2 drive-thru toy giveaways for families in need
Western Mass News
By Samantha O'Connor
Dec. 18, 2022
The Springfield Fire Department and the Springfield Association of Firefighters (I.A.F.F. Local 648) have teamed up to host two drive-thru toy giveaways for families in need this holiday season. Both events will be held on Monday, December 19th from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. Families can either go to the Mason Square Fire Station on Eastern Avenue or the Carew Street Fire Station on Carew Street to pick up toys for their children.
WORKPLACE SAFETY AND HEALTH
“We need somebody to help us:" Portland postal workers rally for safer working conditions
WGME
By Owen Kingsley
Dec. 18, 2022
Mail carriers in Portland rallied Sunday morning during the peak of the holiday season. Dozens of workers stood outside the post office on Forest Avenue asking for better workplace safety and mail delivery. The National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) union says carriers have long struggled with understaffing. As well as poor management that has created delayed delivery of mail and what they describe as an unsafe working environment. The union says some mail carriers in Maine have been working 16 hour days, seven days a week. The workplace safety concern stem from carriers having to deliver mail later into the evening, facing threats they say of robberies and car accidents.