POLITICS
Biden’s labor support may stall unless Senate enacts protections
Roll Call
By Caitlin Reilly
May 18, 2021
Tim Schlittner, a spokesman for the AFL-CIO, said the Senate must pass the bill “by any means necessary.” “We have had 100 days of a pro-union president, and it’s inspiring, it’s heartening, but we know the best is yet to come and that’s going to require the Senate to pass the PRO Act,” he said, referring to the so-called Protecting the Right to Organize Act. Biden used his April 28 joint address to Congress to call on the Senate to pass the bill. The president since March has said those provisions are integral to the infrastructure package unveiled that month, a point that cheers the unions.
JOINING TOGETHER
Workers at Skylight Books in Los Feliz vote to unionize
The Eastsider.
By Barry Lank
May 19, 2021
Employees at Skylight Books - a Vermont Avenue institution that has been offering a curated book selection since 1996 - have voted to unionize. Publishers Weekly reported that the Skylight Booksellers Union will be affiliated with the Communications Workers of America Union, an AFL-CIO affiliate. The union at Skylight made the announcement on Instagram, also using the occasion to honor a Skylight coworker, Ian Irizarry, who recently died. “Ian passed away last month and we wish we could share this day with him,” the union stated on Instagram. “Ian is remembered for his endless enthusiasm for Los Angeles, its arts culture and the community that forms around it. This movement we’ve created together is from that same love for bookselling, our coworkers, and this community.”
Cannabis workers unionize at three local dispensaries, a first for San Diego region
San Diego Union-Tribune
By David Garrick
May 18, 2021
Workers at three local cannabis dispensaries have voted to unionize, the first time that has happened at any cannabis business in the region. Labor union leaders and the owners of the affected dispensaries said the contracts ratified Wednesday will set a precedent for future cannabis union contracts across the region.
They Work On An App. They Deliver Groceries. And Now They Have a Union
KQED
By Sam Harnett
May 18, 2021
Since the coronavirus pandemic began, workers across the grocery delivery business at places like Instacart, Safeway, Whole Foods, and Trader Joe's have been trying to unionize to get more protections and benefits. Last month, delivery workers at Imperfect Foods succeeded. The vote was tight: 28 workers in favor, 23 against. The company is now set to join the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union.
Longview news reporters go union
NW Labor Press
By Don McIntosh
May 19, 2021
Newsroom staff at The Daily News in Longview, Washington voted 6-0 to unionize with NewsGuild-Communications Workers of America (CWA) in mail ballots counted May 14. It’s the latest in a wave of unionization at news organizations around the nation.
NLRB
Law Gives U.S. Workers ‘Broad’ Protections, Says New NLRB Chair
Bloomberg BusinessWeek
By Josh Eidelson
May 19, 2021
In 1935, when Congress passed the National Labor Relations Act and established employees’ right to protest and organize, it gave Americans a single place to file complaints if those rights were violated: the National Labor Relations Board, a five-member federal agency charged with interpreting and enforcing the law. On his first day in office, President Joe Biden fired the board’s general counsel and replaced its Trump-appointed chairman with Democrat Lauren McFerran, an attorney and former Senate staffer who was first appointed to the board by Barack Obama in 2014. McFerran talked with Bloomberg Businessweek on May 6.
IN THE STATES
Forklift operator who introduced Biden calls experience 'once-in-a-lifetime opportunity'
Detroit Free Press
By Eric D. Lawrence
May 19, 2021
For Angela Powell, introducing President Joe Biden to the stage Tuesday after he toured Ford's electric vehicle plant in Dearborn was the honor of a lifetime. The 44-year-old mother of three who lives in Eastpointe, north of Detroit, and hails from Atlanta has been a forklift operator at Ford's Rouge plant for the last five years (she’s worked there for seven). She's also a trustee at UAW Local 600. “It’s a moment I’ve never experienced before. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and man, I just feel honored to be here at the right place at the right time,” she told the Free Press after Biden spoke, noting that she got a call last week from the UAW leadership about making the introduction. “I couldn’t do nothing but thank God for the opportunity because I know it wasn’t anybody but Him who placed this blessing on my life.”
Bill seeks to protect Oregon workers from employer retaliation
Salem Reporter
By Jake Thomas
May 19, 2021
Currently, it’s illegal in Oregon for an employer to fire, demote or change the scheduling of an employee who raises a safety concern or complains to state workplace safety regulators. Workers who think they’ve been retaliated against can file a complaint with the Bureau of Labor and Industries or take their employer to court. But the worker has the burden of proving they were retaliated against. “Those concerns aren’t always easy to raise and sometimes employers take retaliatory measures against workers when they do,” said Jess Giannettino Villatoro, Oregon AFL-CIO political director, at a House Rules Committee hearing earlier this month.
WORKPLACE SAFETY AND HEALTH
Death on the Job: The toll of neglect
NW Labor Press
By Don McIntosh
May 19, 2021
April 28 marked 50 years since the law creating the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) took effect. Since then, the agency has prevented hundreds of thousands of workplace deaths. But lately progress has slowed. Every year since 1992 the AFL-CIO—the federation most unions belong to—has published a report on workplace fatalities, looking at causes, trends, and the resources dedicated to keeping workers safe. The 2021 edition of the Death on the Job report shows OSHA resources have been declining.