Today's AFL-CIO Press Clips
JOINING TOGETHER
Actors’ Equity To Join WGA Picket Line At NYC’s HBO And Amazon Offices
Deadline
By Greg Evans
May 9, 2023
Actors’ Equity Association, the union representing theater actors and stage managers, is inviting its members and allies to join the WGA picket line outside HBO and Amazon offices tomorrow. In tweets yesterday and this morning, Equity writes, “New York Members (and allies): Join us on Wednesday, May 10 from 11 .m. to 2 p.m. ET on the #WGAStrike picket line” at the HBO and Amazon offices in Manhattan’s Hudson Yards neighborhood. “Join Equity in standing with The WGA on Strike,” the tweet states.
Rutgers unions vote to ratify new contracts
NJ Biz
By Matthew Fazelpoor
May 9, 2023
It took nearly a year of tough negotiations and the first strike in school history, but three unions representing 9,000 Rutgers University educators, researchers, clinicians and librarians overwhelmingly voted to ratify new contracts with the school May 8. As NJBIZ reported, the Rutgers AAUP-AFT, which represents full-time faculty, graduate workers, postdoctoral associates, and counselors; the Rutgers Adjunct Faculty Union, which represents adjunct faculty; and AAUP-BHSNJ, which represents health science faculty in Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences facilities, announced Monday that some 93% of members who cast ballots voted yes to ratify a total of five tentative agreements with the university.
Postal workers rally in SW DC ahead of USPS board of governors meeting Tuesday
ABC7
By 7News Staff
May 9, 2023
U.S. Postal Service (USPS) workers are holding protests outside postal facilities and congressional offices across the nation to demand better service at the post office. A group of postal workers is rallying Tuesday outside of the USPS headquarters in southwest D.C. The event is being held ahead of a USPS Board of Governors meeting at 4 p.m. '"Although the USPS’ finances have improved significantly due to passage of the Postal Service Reform Act, service problems are widespread and no corner of the country has been spared,” said American Postal Workers Union President Mark Dimondstein.
St. Rose Hospital nurses ratify new contract
CBS Bay Area
By Bay City News
May 9, 2023
Nurses at St. Rose Hospital in Hayward have voted to ratify a new four-year contract after reaching a tentative agreement with management last week. The new contract includes protections to improve patient safety and nurse retention, according to an announcement from California Nurses Association/National Nurses United. Some of the terms include workplace violence prevention improvements, wage increases and improved health care benefits, union officials said Monday.
IN THE STATES
Minnesota Senate votes for paid family and medical leave
Star Tribune
By Jessie Van Berkel
May 8, 2023
A paid family and medical leave program that would allow all Minnesota workers to take months off work to care for a newborn, a sick family member or recover from illness is nearing reality at the state Capitol. The Senate voted along party lines to create a state-run leave program Monday that would enable people to take time off with partial pay. It would be funded by a payroll tax on employers and employees. Some employers and business groups oppose the bill, while other workers and small business owners have long pressed for the change.
Iowa City Starbucks employees host "sip-in" demonstration Monday morning, push for union
Iowa City Press-Citizen
By Ryan Hansen
May 9, 2023
Jen Sherer, president of the Iowa City Federation of Labor and state policy coordinator for the Economic Analysis and Research Network Worker Power Project, said the union was there to support employees who are looking for a voice in their workplace. “It’s a really important piece of the community,” Sherer said. “The reality is that policies can change without warning.”
LABOR AND COMMUNITY
Stamp Out Hunger® Drive Feeds Local Families for 30th Year
Vermilion County First
By Steve Brandy
May 9, 2023
The National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) will conduct its annual national food drive this Saturday, May 13. NALC’s food drive, first held in 1993, helps feed thousands of neighbors in eastern Illinois. The Stamp Out Hunger® Food Drive, the country’s largest one-day food drive, providing the community with an easy way to donate food to those in need. Simply leave a donation of non-perishable food items next to your mailbox on Saturday, May 13. Letter carriers will collect these donations on that day as they deliver mail along their postal routes, and Eastern Illinois Foodbank will distribute the food throughout their 18-county service area. The timing is important; with summer approaching many school meal programs are suspended, putting local children at increased risk of food insecurity.
WORKPLACE SAFETY AND HEALTH
Wisconsin workplace deaths down from 2018, but more work needs to be done
Wisconsin Public Radio
By Joe Schulz
May 9, 2023
Workplace fatalities in Wisconsin have decreased slightly since 2018, but new data may undercount job-related deaths because it doesn’t include people who died after being exposed to COVID-19 at work. That’s according to a new report from the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, or AFL-CIO. The report examined health and safety protections for workers in the United States and provided data from every state. Wisconsin had 105 workplace deaths in 2021, down from 114 in 2018, but the "true impact of COVID-19 infections due to workplace exposures is unknown," according to the report. Stephanie Bloomingdale, president of the Wisconsin AFL-CIO, said despite workplace fatalities decreasing slightly since 2018, even one death is too many. "Any worker who dies on the job, it's not only that worker that is affected but his or her entire family," she said. "That means that there's a mom no longer sitting at the kitchen table or a dad, a sister, brother, a son or a daughter." Bloomingdale said some of the deaths from transportation incidents — which made up 34 percent of all 2021 workplace fatalities in Wisconsin — involved individuals driving a company car. But more commonly they resulted from collisions with construction workers.
Nurses feel worse off now than they did during the height of the pandemic, survey shows
Up North Live
By Cory Smith
May 9, 2023
National Nurses United says there are 1 million registered nurses with active licenses who are not working as nurses. “I would say the job has gotten increasingly harder since I started nursing,” said Jean Ross, a nurse in Minnesota and one of the presidents of National Nurses United.