MUST READ
New report highlights challenges still faced by America’s working women
NJ Today
By Staff
April 18, 2023
“We were thrilled to work with IWPR to help produce this critical report. It reaffirms that women can and must play an important role in revitalizing America’s manufacturing sector,” said AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler. “These findings provide us with an invaluable blueprint to ensure that women have equal access to these careers and the resources we all need to succeed, including far better child care and paid leave policies.” “It also underscores how essential it is that these are good union jobs,” said Shuler. “That union women were far more likely to report being treated equally at work in terms of pay, benefits and scheduling is noteworthy. Unions help women to thrive and create environments where we can use our collective voice to transform our workplaces. Recruiting and supporting women is essential for guaranteeing that our nation re-enters the world stage as a powerhouse for manufacturing, innovation and technology.”
POLITICS
Biden Signs Executive Order to Make Child Care More Affordable (Video)
The New York Times
By The New York Times
April 18, 2023
President Biden said the executive order will make child and elder care more accessible for families.
IN THE STATES
Iowa state senate votes to allow children to work longer hours and serve alcohol
The Guardian
By Julia Carrie Wong
April 18, 2023
Labor unions have held protests against the bill. Charlie Wishman, president of the Iowa Federation of Labor, said efforts to loosen child labor laws around the US were “a lazy way of dealing with the fact that certain states don’t have enough workers”.
JOINING TOGETHER
Museum of Science and Industry workers are unionizing
Hyde Park Herald
By Hannah Faris
April 18, 2023
Workers at the Museum of Science and Industry publicly launched a campaign to unionize with the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Council 31. Months in the making, the campaign went public on Wednesday, April 12 with an open letter to museum management signed by 54 guest engagement facilitators, educators and other workers. Later that day, several off-the-clock staff gathered on the museum’s front lawn to share information with patrons and coworkers about the new union, Museum of Science and Industry Workers United.
Whiteside County Health Department workers picket for 'fair contract' at board meeting (Video)
WQAD 8
By WQAD.com
April 18, 2023
According to AFSCME 31, the union representing the health workers, management has been stalling contract negotiations since March 2022.
A Hollywood writers' strike looms: What to know
ABC News
By Max Zahn
April 18, 2023
Thousands of television and movie writers voted overwhelmingly to authorize a strike when their contracts run out on May 1, unions representing the writers said on Monday. The move sets TV creators on a collision course with the major studios as an industry-wide shift to streaming reorients the way shows are made and monetized.
UNION BUSTING
NBCUniversal Told Managers to Fight Unions in Role-Playing Exercise
Bloomberg
By Josh Eidelson
April 18, 2023
Comcast Corp.’s NBCUniversal held a role-play session for managers about how to defeat union drives, a task the training materials for the exercise said was necessary for employees to keep their jobs. In the hourslong simulation, managers were tasked with running a television station called WSEE-TV that had to figure out how to prevent employees from unionizing with the Communications Workers of America. Training materials that accompanied the 2019 session laid out the importance of keeping unions at bay. “It’s embarrassing that our managers continue to waste time and money on union-busting tricks to fight our right to organize for a better workplace, and it’s long past time for NBC to agree to a fair contract,” video editor and union leader Tate James said in a statement.