Today's AFL-CIO Press Clips
JOINING TOGETHER
Union Hotel Workers in New York Suburbs Score Biggest Pay Raise in 100 Years
The Wall Street Journal
By Kate King
April 10, 2023
A New York hotel union has reached a deal with hotel owners and operators that will boost the wages of hospitality workers by $7.50 an hour, the largest increase in the union’s 100-year history. The agreement covers 7,000 members of the Hotel and Gaming Trades Council who work at 87 suburban hotels spanning from Princeton, N.J., to New York’s Albany region and Long Island. The five-year pact has already been ratified by the employers and is expected to be ratified by workers this month, according to union President Rich Maroko.
World Bank Cafeteria Workers Struggle To Afford Food Or Rent, Union Says
DCist
By Amanda Michelle Gomez
April 12, 2023
Many of the 140-plus workers preparing and serving meals for the World Bank, a D.C.-based international institution whose mission includes fighting poverty, struggle to afford rent or food, according to their union, UNITE HERE Local 23. The union contract for the World Bank cafeteria employees with the Compass Group expired at the end of January. Local 23 and the company are in the middle of contract negotiations, with the union hoping to secure a minimum wage of $20 per hour, says its president Marlene Patrick-Cooper. That would increase the pay floors for most job classifications, including food runners, baristas, and lower-level cooks, from what was in the previous contract. Local 23 did recently secure the $20 minimum wage in a new contract for Senate cafeteria workers — who are employed by a subsidiary of the Compass Group, Restaurant Associates.
Thousands of Cub Foods workers ratify new 2-year contract
CBS Minnesota
By WCCO Staff
April 12, 2023
housands of grocery store workers in Minnesota on Tuesday ratified a new two-year contract with Cub Foods' parent company, UNFI. Last Friday, a last-minute tentative agreement was made before about 3,000 union workers at 33 Cub Foods locations in the Twin Cities area were set to begin a strike. The workers had been working for a month without a contract. The union, UFCW Local 663, called the new contract a "historic win" for its members. "This is a union of people who sacrificed beyond imagination, to keep Minnesotans fed during the pandemic. It is no surprise, then, that these grocery workers were able to organize the most powerful contract campaign the Twin Cities grocery industry has seen in decades," UFCW Local 663 President Rena Wong said when the tentative agreement was made. "The bargaining committee believes that this tentative agreement respects, protects, and pays our members fairly. We look forward to sharing the agreement with the thousands of UFCW Local 663 members, and continuing to welcome new members who are working to organize their own workplaces."
Nurse practitioners at Bangor’s Northern Light Acadia Hospital will hold union vote
Bangor Daily News
By Leela Stockley
April 12, 2023
Around 45 nurse practitioners at a psychiatric hospital in Bangor have been granted the right to vote on whether to join the country’s second-largest educators’ union. Some 111 registered nurses and nurse practitioners at Northern Light Acadia Hospital announced they had organized as Acadia Nurses United with the American Federation of Teachers, and filed for an election with the National Labor Relations Board in October. The American Federation of Teachers, which boasts 1.7 million members across the U.S., also represents 200,000 nurses and other health care professionals as AFT Healthcare.
Actors’ Equity signals possible strike with ‘Jagged Little Pill’ leafleting
Chicago Sun-Times
By Miriam Di Nunzio
April 12, 2023
Local members of Actors’ Equity, the union representing professional actors and stage managers, were in the Loop on Wednesday evening outside the James M. Nederlander Theatre, handing out informational leaflets — about a possible strike — to theater patrons as they arrived for opening night of “Jagged Little Pill.” The leafleting, under the banner“#UniteTheRoad, is Equity’s way of calling attention to contract negotiations with The Broadway League, the New York-based national trade association for Broadway theater.
UFCW launches picket as contract negotiations with Wilmington nursing home stall
Delaware Public Media
By Paul Kiefer
April 12, 2023
The United Food and Commercial Workers International Union Local 27 began picketing a Wilmington nursing home this week as contract negotiations drag on with new management. The three-year contract with workers at Kentmere Nursing and Rehabilitation Center expired in February, and negotiations for a new one are at an impasse. During the most recent bargaining session, management walked out on UFCW negotiators. The union's bargaining unit is currently working under an extension of the last contract. Spokespeople representing the roughly 60 UFCW members working at the facility claim new leadership — an administrator hired last year — hasn’t been prepared to answer questions during negotiations, and shop steward Luis Ortega says other sticking points remain, including fair wage concerns and a proposed contract clause the union argues would give management too much authority to set work rules without union input.
Strike Authorization Vote Now Underway at Writers Guild, With Current Contract Due to Expire May 1
Yahoo! Entertainment
By Nick Caruso
April 12, 2023
The Writers Guild of America West (WGAW) Board and Writers Guild of America East (WGAE) Council this week are conducting a strike authorization vote (SAV), which could authorize the organization to call a strike after the current Minimum Basic Agreement (MBA) expires on May 1. Asking for a SAV is a step that unions take “to demonstrate resolve and support for the bargaining agenda, and to prepare for a possible strike, particularly in negotiations where critical issues are at stake,” according to the guild’s website.
IN THE STATES
State employee union rallies for raises, cost-of-living adjustments
KXAN
By Cora Neas
April 12, 2023
Members of the Texas State Employees Union (TSEU), Texas AFL-CIO chapter and Texas Communication Workers of America (CWA), as well as retirees and supporters, held a Lobbying Day at the Texas State Capitol on Wednesday.
Lawmakers, Culinary Union debate daily cleaning at Nevada resorts
KTNV
By Jarah Wright
April 12, 2023
"Since the pandemic, resort hotels in Nevada have cut short-term costs to achieve long-term downsizing of labor and increased their profits, which is very unfortunate because the customers are still paying for first-class rooms and not getting first-class service," said Ted Pappageorge, the Secretary-Treasurer of the Culinary Union. "You would think will all these profits, a lot more jobs for Nevadans would be created but in fact, the gaming industry has only provided as many jobs as it did in the mid-1990s." The Culinary Union said by eliminating daily room cleaning, it "unnecessarily downgrades and degrades the kind of resort experience guests would expect." The AFL-CIO also testified in opposition to Senate Bill 441. "Our hospitality workers propped up Nevada's number one industry during the pandemic and in return, this bill would leave them in fear of losing their jobs after putting their own health on the line for so long," said Susie Martinez, the organizations Secretary-Treasurer. "Hotel executives are raking in record profits now because workers allowed their businesses to survive. There is no reason why they shouldn't be able to retain and pay employees what they deserve."
RAISING WAGES
L.A. City Council members propose $30-an-hour wage by 2028 for hotel and LAX workers
Los Angeles Times
By Dakota Smith
April 12, 2023
The minimum wages of workers at larger hotels and Los Angeles International Airport would rise to $30 an hour by 2028 under a proposal put forth Wednesday by several L.A. City Council members. Councilmembers Curren Price and Katy Yaroslavsky introduced a motion for a law that would boost the pay of workers at hotels with more than 60 guest rooms. Certain categories of LAX workers, including security officers and janitors, would also be covered. Labor groups Unite Here Local 11 and Service Employees International Union-United Service Workers West are pushing the initiative.