Today's AFL-CIO Press Clips
JOINING TOGETHER
Philadelphia Orchestra singers unionize
The Philadelphia Inquirer
By Peter Dobrin
Aug. 12, 2023
The singers of the Philadelphia Orchestra have unionized. After members of the Philadelphia Symphonic Choir signed union authorization cards indicating their desire for the American Guild of Musical Artists to bargain on their behalf, a “card check” on Thursday determined that a majority answered in the affirmative, and now the singers will be represented by the union.
Counterproposal pauses negotiations in Hollywood writers strike
The Hill
By Nick Robertson
Aug. 12, 2023
The Writers Guild of America (WGA) and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) came to the negotiation table for the first time Friday since the union went on strike in early May. However, talks were paused after AMPTP offered a counterproposal to the writers union’s requests. “Your Negotiating Committee received a counterproposal from the AMPTP today. We will evaluate their offer and, after deliberation, go back to them with the WGA’s response next week,” the union said in a message to its members Friday.
Amalgamated Sugar Company and union representatives have reached tentative agreement
KMVT
By Gina Jameson
Aug. 11, 2023
A tentative agreement has been reached between Amalgamated Sugar Company leadership and union representatives. According to a post on the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers (BCTGM) Local 283G Facebook page on Thursday, the Union and the sugar company have reached a tentative agreement as talks resumed on Wednesday. Last week, 97 percent of union members agreed to authorizing a strike that would have affected more than 1200 Amalgamated employees across four facilities in the region. According to the union’s social media page, union representatives will host a special meeting on Monday at Harmon Park in Twin Falls at 7pm, and again on Tuesday evening at 5pm in the same location, to answer any questions that union members may have.
City and Austin Firefighters Association can't reach labor agreement
KVUE
By Johann Castro and Laura Sather
Aug. 12, 2023
abor negations between the City of Austin and the Austin Firefighters Association came to an end this week without an agreement in place on a new deal. A memo issued by the City this week detailed a plan presented to the union, which included a 4% pay raise starting in September, as well as 4% pay raises at the beginning of the next two fiscal years, resulting in a 2% base pay raise overall.
At LA stop, Staff the Front Lines bus tour encourages careers in public service
Daily Bruin
By Sharla Steinman
Aug. 11, 2023
A trade union launched a new initiative in July that includes a national bus tour, with a stop in Los Angeles on Saturday. The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees – a trade union of public employees – launched its Staff the Front Lines initiative in July, which entails a bus tour across the U.S. As part of its bus tour, AFSCME stopped in LA on Saturday at the LA Labor Federation. The tour aims to address the understaffing crisis in public service by encouraging qualified individuals in underrepresented communities to apply for open positions, according to a press release. Jobs in public service include those in libraries, transportation and government entities.
IN THE STATES
Revitalized Union Power Helped Crush Attempts to Rig the System in Ohio
Work-Bites
By Bob Hennelly
Aug. 11, 2023
It is said that history is written by the winners. But when it comes to big wins by organized labor, the corporate news media, itself fighting unionization at all costs, tends to ignore unions even when they are shaping history. Missing from much of the coverage about Ohio voters’ rejection of the Republican legislature’s attempt to raise the threshold for voter approval needed to amend the state constitution from a simple majority to 60 percent — was the central role organized labor played in mobilizing and helping to defeat the scheme.
Deadline
By David Robb
Aug. 12, 2023
Striking members of the Writers Guild and SAG-AFTRA who live in New York and New Jersey have a distinct financial advantage over their counterparts in California and elsewhere in the country: They are eligible for state unemployment insurance benefits even though they’re on strike. Lorena Gonzalez, Executive Secretary-Treasurer and Chief Officer of the California Labor Federation, AFL-CIO, thinks it’s “shameful.” In 2019, as a member of the California Assembly, she introduced AB 1066, which would have granted unemployment insurance to strikers. Her bill passed the Assembly but failed in the Senate by two votes. With the legislature set to reconvene Monday after its summer recess, Gonzalez thinks this is the right time for legislators and Gov. Gavin Newsom to take it up again. “It’s time to re-look at that policy,” she told Deadline, “and see what we can do, because we don’t want striking workers to not be able to make ends meet; we don’t want them to be at the brink of homelessness. Up and down the state, we don’t want a group of workers – especially the massive number of workers we have out on strike right now – to be economically insecure because they’re being forced to go out on strike.”