LABOR AND ECONOMY
Workers of Color Made Up 100% of Union Growth in 2022
The New Republic
By Prem Thakker
March 24, 2023
Recent data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that the number of unionized workers in the United States increased by 200,000 from 2021 to 2022. And that growth came entirely from workers of color. There was an increase in 231,000 unionized workers of color last year, while white unionized workers actually decreased by 31,000. Further, of all racial and ethnic groups, Black workers have continued leading unionization rates, at 12.8 percent, higher than the figure of total unionized workers.
JOINING TOGETHER
Peoria library workers don’t want to live in poverty
People’s World
By Noah Palm
March 27, 2023
“We have a city that says its library system has to be predicated on working-class people living in poverty.” said Anthony Walraven, Vice President of AFSCME Local 3464 in a crowd of union workers and community supporters on March 21. “There’s hope…When working people get together in solidarity with each other there is literally nothing on earth we can not accomplish”. The chants of over 100 workers echoed in the streets of downtown Peoria as they came together in front of the Main Branch Library. Marching up and down the sidewalk to the beat of solidarity, workers and their supporters constructed an informational picket as the second action in what is becoming a drawn-out contract negotiation between Peoria Public Library and its workers.
Actors' Equity Association and League of Resident Theatres Reach New Five-Year Agreement
Broadway World
By Chloe Rabinowitz
March 27, 2023
Actors' Equity Association and the League of Resident Theatres have reached a tentative agreement for a new five-year contract. The agreement remains subject to ratification by both Equity members and LORT members. "We are pleased to have come to a tentative agreement with LORT that guarantees fair wages while also making significant gains reflecting the hard work of stage managers, understudies and actors who play musical instruments on stage," said Actors' Equity Association Assistant Executive Director Andrea Hoeschen, who served as Equity's lead negotiator on the agreement. "The mutual respect between Equity and LORT was palpable throughout the bargaining process, which resulted in an agreement that benefits both sides.
Please Touch Museum workers form a rare union for a children’s museum
WHYY
By Peter Crimmins
March 27, 2023
On Saturday, 40 workers from several departments within Philadelphia’s Please Touch Museum voted in a process overseen by the National Labor Relations Board. A supermajority of 34 voted ‘yes’ to unionizing. Organizing efforts toward a union began last year, inspired by watching the workers at the Philadelphia Museum of Art negotiate their first contract after a 19-day strike. Workers at the Please Touch Museum voted to form a unit with the same union as the Art Museum: American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees District (AFSCME). It is one of the few children’s museums in the country to unionize.
Bus drivers picket in front of City Hall
News-Press Now
By Greg Kozol
March 27, 2023
The city buses operated as normal Monday at the St. Joseph Transit transfer station near Downtown. But just a few blocks away, bus drivers staged a demonstration in front of City Hall to show that things are not operating smoothly behind the scenes. “We would like to raise the awareness that we do not make enough money for what we do,” said Gene Ritchheart, president and business agent for Local 847 of the Amalgamated Transit Union. “I mean, they’ve got to give us some money to get a decent wage. A living wage.” The transit union represents 42 people in St. Joseph, mostly drivers but also some maintenance workers. Their labor contract expired last June and the drivers have been working without a new agreement or an extension since late in 2022.
IN THE STATES
Iowa Federation of Labor against ‘child labor’ bills
KCRG
By KCRG Staff
March 24, 2023
The Iowa Federation of Labor calls two bills moving through the legislature ‘gross’ and ‘extreme’, saying they’ll put Iowa’s kids in dangerous jobs. Both bills change child labor laws, expanding what younger teens can do for work as well as expand work hours.
Indianapolis actors launch city’s first Black equity theater
Indy Star
By Domenica Bongiovanni
March 27, 2023
A group of Indianapolis actors and storytellers has come together to launch an entity the city has long lacked: a Black-owned professional equity theater that focuses on Black people's stories. Naptown African American Theatre Collective, known as NAATC, has released the schedule of its first slate of productions, beginning May 13 with "Black Book." The nonprofit NAATC is becoming what's known as an "equity house" — a theater that has a contract with the Actors' Equity Association union for actors and stage managers and typically provides better pay and benefits.
Local labor movement leader encourages other women to take leadership positions
Spectrum News 1
By Nora Mckeown
March 27, 2023
Harriet Applegate, the first woman to hold the position of executive secretary for the Cleveland AFL-CIO, is reflecting on women’s role in the local labor movement. Applegate is one of those retirees who isn’t really retired. Applegate, originally from New York, moved to Cincinnati after undergrad and almost immediately got involved with labor work. “There’s only one way to redistribute wealth in this country under capitalism,” she said. “One is tax policy, and the other is unionization.” She eventually started working for the national AFL-CIO, which moved her up to Cleveland, where she still lives. She said when she first got involved, there were women doing work for the unions, but rarely in positions of leadership. “There's some class issues, which make it harder in the labor movement for women to become leaders,” she said. “But if you look at, you know, women are 50% of the population, 50-plus. If you look at at all organizations, they're nowhere near 50% of the leadership.” Applegate became the Cleveland AFL-CIO’s first executive secretary in 2007, and while the accomplishment was celebrated by some, she said others weren’t happy to be led by a woman. Even though her time as executive secretary wasn’t always easy, Applegate said it’s important for other women to seek out those positions as often as possible. “I would really strongly encourage women to become leaders in their local unions,” she said. “I think women bring a tremendous amount to the labor movement. And I think things are really finally changing in the labor movement.”