TRADE
In Mexico, US complaints help union organizing efforts
AP
By Mark Stevenson
Feb. 12, 2023
It has been nearly two years since the United States began pressing Mexico over labor rights violations by using rapid dispute resolution methods contained in the U.S.-Mexico Canada free trade agreement. The administration of President Joe Biden has brought six such complaints and brags that, for the first time, someone is challenging Mexico’s anti-democratic, old-guard unions that have kept wages painfully low for decades. But workers and union organizers are mixed on the results, saying it’s hard to build a real union movement overnight, and that employers and old union bosses continue to resist change.
JOINING TOGETHER
Big Union Steps Up Help to Fill Frontline Public-Sector Jobs
Governing
By Carl Smith
Feb. 15, 2023
The public sector is short over 500,000 jobs, says AFSCME President Lee Saunders. To help turn the tide, his union is launching a retention, recruitment and outreach campaign for public service workers, “Staff the Front Lines.” “We’ve got to be creative,” Saunders says. “States and cities across the country are working on this issue and we’re hopeful that we can work together.”
Nurses rally outside of Wichita hospital ahead of first union contract negotiation
KWCH
By KWCH Staff
Feb. 15, 2023
Nurses rallied outside Ascension Via Christi St. Francis Wednesday morning ahead of union contract negotiations. It’s the first contract negotiation since the staff voted to join the National Nurses United Union. The nurses at Saint Francis are the first at a private-sector hospital in Wichita to unionize. “We need better staffing, we need ascension to get serious about recruiting and retaining nurses and we need to have a better safety workplace violence program. Nurses are in danger when we go to work and ascension needs to take care of their nurses,” said Sara Wilson, a registered nurse.
Striking Transit Workers Push Loudoun Supervisors to Intervene
Loudoun Now
By Renss Greene
Feb. 15, 2023
Striking Loudoun Transit workers rallied outside the County Government Center on Tuesday evening to push supervisors—particularly those who took campaign donations from unions in their last election campaigns—to back them in their battle with contractor Keolis. “Throughout this entire pandemic, we took them where they needed to go. You had a doctor needed to get to the hospital, we made sure he got there. You had a nurse who needed to go home, we made sure they got there. If you needed medicine, who took you there? That’s right, we did,” Amalgamated Transit Union Local 689 President Raymond Jackson said. “Transit workers across this country stood up, and now how do they repay us? In the middle of a pandemic, they cut our health insurance, and cut our wages, and we’re demanding better. We’re demanding that these politicians stand up and do what they said were going to do. They took our money when they was running them campaigns, and now we're going to hold you to it.”
Academic Workers Rally for Union Recognition
Harvard Magazine
By Lydialyle Gibson
Feb. 15, 2023
Organizers said that Harvard Academic Workers-United Auto Workers (HAW-UAW) would represent up to 6,000 University employees, a group that includes lecturers, preceptors, postdoctoral fellows, instructors, teaching assistants, researchers, and adjunct faculty members. Some of those positions operate on short-term contracts that must be renewed annually; in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS), non-tenure-track faculty members can only hold teaching appointments for a maximum of eight years. After that, they are ineligible for renewal, regardless of teaching performance or scholarly achievement.
IN THE STATES
Wisconsin AFL-CIO: Statement on Governor Evers’ proposed 2023-25 Wisconsin state biennial budget
WisPolitics
Feb. 15, 2023
Wisconsin AFL-CIO President Stephanie Bloomingdale released the following statement: Governor Tony Evers’ proposed Biennial Budget was thoughtfully and boldly designed to support working Wisconsinites and our families in order to bolster a robust middle-class economy.
WORKPLACE SAFETY AND HEALTH
Lawmakers consider stiffer penalties for Oregon businesses that violate workplace safety rules
The Oregonian
By Jamie Goldberg
Feb. 15, 2023
The federal report did not look at the division’s average penalties in the wake of worker deaths specifically, but an analysis of Oregon OSHA data conducted by The Oregonian/OregonLive last August showed the division had issued an average fine of about $3,700 over the previous five years to companies found to have committed safety violations that resulted in worker deaths. In comparison, data compiled by the AFL-CIO showed that investigations into worker deaths nationwide in fiscal year 2021 resulted in an average fine of $11,626.
RAISING WAGES
Lawmakers push for higher pay for federal employees
Wavy
By Basil John
Feb. 14, 2023
Lawmakers are pushing for higher pay for federal and Washington, D.C. government employees. “The government workers must have 8.7%,” Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) said. Tuesday, Booker joined other lawmakers and activists to demand better pay for federal employees across the country.