MUST READ
Morning Star
By Levi Sumagaysay
Aug. 6, 2023
"Performers are being asked to sign away the rights to their own likeness as a condition of employment so that the studios can add to their profits by digitally creating new content without them," said AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Fred Redmond at the news conference. "Writers not writing. Actors not acting. And their fight is our fight."
TRANSPORTATION
EXCLUSIVE: Top AFL-CIO official says rail safety within one GOP vote of Senate OK
People’s World
By Mark Gruenberg
Aug. 4, 2023
Six months after the Norfolk Southern freight derailment released a mushroom cloud of fumes over the small town of East Palestine, Ohio, the U.S. Senate is within one Republican vote of passing a bipartisan and comprehensive freight rail re-regulation bill, AFL-CIO Transportation Trades Department President Greg Regan says. The Senate’s 48 Democrats, three independents, and eight of the 49 Republicans apparently favor re-regulation. But the freight rail safety bill is not a money bill, so it needs 60 votes to pass—and now has 59. That means it needs another Senate Republican, and workers should lobby lawmakers for that last vote.
JOINING TOGETHER
WGA, AMPTP Meet But No New Negotiations Set Yet
Variety
By Cynthia Littleton and Gene Maddaus
Aug. 4, 2023
In their first meeting since the strike began, Writers Guild of America and Hollywood studio negotiators hit the same stalemate over two key TV-related contract proposals from the guild as its work stoppage stretches into its fourth month. A much anticipated meeting between WGA chief negotiator Ellen Stutzman and WGA West general counsel Tony Segall ran about an hour on Friday afternoon at the Sherman Oaks headquarters of the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. Sources said the WGA duo made clear that the guild will not bend on proposals to establish minimum staffing levels in episodic TV and a guaranteed minimum number of weeks of employment. The AMPTP has called those proposals non-starters, and gave no indication on Friday that they’re prepared to change that position. The SAG-AFTRA strike, which began on July 14, has added another complicating factor in negotiations with the writers. Sources said Stutzman and Segall indicated that even if the WGA gets a deal, writers will still want to honor all picket lines. That would essentially mean that no one could return to work until both strikes are resolved.
Writers Blast Latest AMPTP Efforts to Resume Negotiations: “Insulting and Out-of-Touch”
The Hollywood Reporter
By Lesley Goldberg
Aug. 5, 2023
Members of the striking Writers Guild of America voiced their frustrations about the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers’ latest attempts to resume negotiations following a meeting Friday that was designed to determine if there was a path forward. The guild informed members Friday — day 95 of the strike — that the talks with the group that represents the studios and streamers produced no agreement. Included in the update to WGA members was the union’s summary of the issues both sides planned to bring back to the table when negotiations formally resume.
Union workers negotiating new contract with Frontier Communications
WOWK TV
By Lane Ball
Aug. 4, 2023
A new contract between the company Frontier Communications and Communications Workers Association Local Union 2001 workers is on the negotiation table. The company provides services that people in their coverage area rely on and union workers answer the call whenever an issue arises. About 1,400 workers in West Virginia and a small part of Virginia are represented by the union. They’re all affected by this new contract and some hit the picket line in Rock Branch pushing for changes to be made.
Some Philly Dunkin’ workers want to unionize
The Philadelphia Inquirer
By Lizzy McLellan Ravitch
Aug. 4, 2023
Bakers, drivers, cleaners, and other non-management employees at a Dunkin’ manufacturing facility in Frankford are trying to form a union. The 46 workers filed paperwork with the National Labor Relations Board Wednesday, seeking to join United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 152. The proposed bargaining unit includes “all full-time and part-time drivers, cleaners, and production workers, bakers, finishers, bench, fryer and coffee” employed by Northeast Donut Shops Management at 5201 Darrah St. in Philadelphia.
WGA, AMPTP resume negotiations after three months of striking
CBS Los Angeles
By Nicole Comstock and Matthew Rodriguez
Aug. 4, 2023
The Writers Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers met for the first time since the union went on strike 95 days ago. Gene Maddaus, a senior media reporter for Variety, said the meeting between the two sides lasted for an hour. "The sides are still really at odds over some of the key fundamental issues," said Maddaus.
Automakers Face a Labor Showdown as the E.V. Era Looms
The New York Times
By Neal E. Boudette
Aug. 6, 2023
The United Auto Workers union has made a bold opening bid in negotiations for new four-year collective bargaining agreements with General Motors, Ford Motor and Stellantis. Its new president, Shawn Fain, has declared that the 150,000 hourly workers employed by the companies are prepared to strike to achieve the union’s goals. The U.A.W. presented the automakers with a list of demands, including a 40 percent wage increase — premised on the compensation gains that the union says the companies’ chief executives have made over the four years since the last contract talks. And with the pivot to electric vehicles, the union wants guarantees that workers hired at the automakers’ new E.V. battery plants will be covered by the U.A.W. national contracts, or at least given contracts with comparable wage and safety terms.
Bath Iron Works, union clear key hurdle in contract talks
The Times Record
By Jason Claffey
Aug. 6, 2023
Contract talks between Bath Iron Works and its largest union are going “smoothly and professionally,” according to both sides. Last week, the sides reached a tentative agreement over subcontracting, an oft-contentious issue that led the union to go on strike during its previous contract negotiations in 2020. Machinists Union Local S6, which represents about 4,250 of the shipyard’s 6,500 workers, and BIW officials started talks last month, and union members are scheduled to vote on a new contract by Aug. 20, when the current one is set to expire.
PAYWATCH/CEO PAY
In 2022 CEOs of S&P 500 Companies Made 272 Times What their Average Worker Did (Video)
KULR8
By Staff
Aug. 4, 2023
Experts say the wage gap between workers and their company’s CEOs is the worst it’s been since the gilded age and apparently it’s not turning around. According to a new report by The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations or the AFL-CIO, in the U.S. CEOs made on average 272 times what their employees did in 2022.
IN THE STATES
Ahead of abortion vote, Ohioans weigh making it harder to amend constitution
The Washington Post
By Patrick Marley and Rachel Roubein
Aug. 6, 2023
“The most corrupt state legislative majority in Ohio’s history is trying to make a power grab to take away the power of the people,” Shari Obrenski, the president of the Cleveland Teachers Union, told the crowd. “We are what’s standing in the way of that corrupt majority taking away our power to do what’s right for the people of our state.”