Today's AFL-CIO Press Clips
JOINING TOGETHER
Why So Many Food Workers Unionized This Year
Bon Appetit
By Nico Avalle
Dec. 15, 2022
Why are so many workers in the restaurant industry unionizing? The rising gap between executive pay and employees’ wages is a good place to start, particularly in one of the few industries where subminimum wages are allowed. The public perception of unions also may have something to do with the recent surge in organizing—more Americans have a positive view of unions than they have had in decades.
Actors' Equity Members Vote to Approve New 3-Year Contract Agreement
Broadway World
By Blair Ingenthron
Dec. 19, 2022
According to a report from The Hollywood Reporter, members of Actor's Equity have voted to approve the 3-year collective bargaining agreement for Broadway shows and sit-down productions. Actors' Equity has been in negotiations with the Broadway League since September. The new agreement will be in effect through September 28, 2025.
Striking UC Workers Begin Voting on Tentative Labor Deal with University
NBC News
By Ceci Partridge
Dec. 19, 2022
University of California graduate student workers and researchers began voting Monday on a proposed labor deal reached with the university amid a roughly five-week work stoppage. The tentative agreement was announced Friday. Affected employees represented by the United Auto Workers union are expected to vote on the proposal throughout the week. “These tentative agreements include major pay increases and expanded benefits, which will improve the quality of life for all members of the bargaining unit,” United Auto Workers President Ray Curry said in a statement Friday. “Our members stood up to show the university that academic workers are vital to UC’s success. They deserve nothing less than a contract that reflects the important role they play and the reality of working in cities with extremely high costs of living.”
Broadway News
By Ruthie Fierberg
Dec. 19, 2022
Actors’ Equity Association announced on Dec. 19 that its members have ratified the tentative production agreement reached between the union and The Broadway League. This renders the previously reached tentative agreement as the new contract that governs Broadway shows and sit-down productions in the U.S. produced by members of The Broadway League. The new contract will remain in effect through September 28, 2025.
NLRB
ND Union Voices: More Funding Needed for NLRB
Public News Service
By Mike Moen
Dec. 19, 2022
Meanwhile, there's a growing caseload thanks to increasing unionization. Landis Larson, president of the North Dakota AFL-CIO, said if things don't change, there's concern more cases will drag out. "With the staffing the way it is right now and the funding," said Larson, "it takes so long that it really, really hurts these people that are trying to organize their places."
WORKPLACE SAFETY AND HEALTH
On eve of strike, millworkers say: ‘I want more than a t-shirt for feeling essential’
Maine Beacon
By Lauren Mccauley
Dec. 19, 2022
Workers at the Woodland Pulp mill in Baileyville say that during the pandemic they helped keep the local economy afloat, despite personal risk to themselves and their families, but in return were only given “toilet paper and a t-shirt that said we were ‘essential,’” explained Mark Prenier, a member of United Steelworkers Local 27.
INTERNATIONAL
Pope Francis: Without unions, there are no free workers
Vatican News
By Christopher Wells
Dec. 19, 2022
“There is no union without workers, and there are no free workers without a union,” Pope Francis said on Monday, during an audience for members of the Italian General Confederation of Labour (CGIL). In his address, the Pope lamented that in spite of modern technological advances – “and sometimes precisely because of that perverse system called technocracy” – our expectations for justice in labour relations fall short of the ideal.