Today's AFL-CIO Press Clips
POLITICS
Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown faces a tough election in 2024. And the stakes couldn't be higher
The Columbus Dispatch
By Haley BeMiller
Oct. 3, 2023
To Ohio AFL-CIO President Tim Burga, Brown's alignment with the Biden administration isn't so bad. Burga said the CHIPS Act, bipartisan infrastructure deal and Inflation Reduction Act helped communities that were left behind and promoted the importance of American workers making products in America. Last month, Brown and Biden appeared on the picket line in Ohio and Michigan to show support for striking auto workers. "A lot of the angst that has created the Trump support in Ohio are on issues of outsourcing our jobs and bad trade deals," Burga said. "Sherrod Brown has been the number one champion talking about fair trade deals and leveling the playing field to keep our industrial economy going here. Ohioans know that.”
LABOR LEADERS
One of nation’s key labor leaders, North Texan Robert Martinez, is retiring
The Dallas Morning News
By Arcelia Martin
Oct. 2, 2023
In Fort Worth lies a lineage of union men. A grandfather, father and son. Each generation introduced the next to the principles of the working class — how to stand in solidarity with other workers and how a union could provide stability for families. For now, this story ends with Robert Martinez Jr., the international president of one of the largest labor unions in the U.S. Robert Martinez’ grandfather, Pascasio Martinez was a retail meat cutter and became a union negotiator. He rode a train from Fort Worth to Chicago to bargain a deal between the United Packinghouse Workers of America with Swift & Co., then considered one of the big four of meatpacking and the company that championed the refrigerated railroad car. After nearly eight years leading the union with upwards of 600,000 aerospace, defense, airline, railroad, automotive and healthcare workers across the U.S., Canada, Puerto Rico, The Virgin Islands and Guam, two decades on the executive council and more than 43 years of membership, Martinez, who goes by Bob, is retiring.
JOINING TOGETHER
Culinary Union, Las Vegas resort companies resume contract talks
Las Vegas Sun
By Katie Ann McCarver
Oct. 4, 2023
The Culinary Union is back at the negotiating table with multiple resort companies this week for the first time since a strike authorization vote that passed with overwhelming support last month made it possible for Nevada’s largest labor coalition to walk out if it doesn’t get a satisfactory contract soon. “The companies have come prepared to bargain,” Ted Pappageorge, secretary-treasurer and chief negotiator for the union, told members of the media Tuesday afternoon in the middle of a negotiating session with MGM Resorts International. “And I think that that’s our impression. And that’s, I think, the direct result of an overwhelming, raucous show-up at the strike vote last week. And that’s good because, in the end, nobody wants to go on strike.” But, he said, the possibility of a strike still looms. Thousands of members of Culinary Union Local 226 and the Bartenders Union Local 165 a week ago voted by a 95% majority to authorize a citywide strike should talks for new five-year contracts with Las Vegas gaming properties stall.
United Food workers prepare to open contract negotiations with Meijer supermarket
Detroit Free Press
By Frank Witsil
Oct. 4, 2023
Tens of thousands of Meijer workers in Michigan are seeking wage increases, more paid time off and an enhanced medical plan during union contract negotiations expected to begin next week. The union, which represents about 23,000 Meijer employees, is emphasizing that in addition to putting their lives on the line during the deadly pandemic, workers deserve better benefits and conditions and, if necessary, could go on strike. At the same time, Meijer — which has more than 240 supercenters in six mostly Midwest states and employs about 70,000 — told the Free Press it has "a positive, long-standing relationship with the UFCW" and looks forward "to productive negotiations."
SAG-AFTRA, Hollywood studios to resume talks Wednesday
Los Angeles Daily News
By Tom Bray
Oct. 4,, 2023
After negotiators for SAG-AFTRA and the major studios met for the first time since the actors union walked off the job in mid-July, talks are set to resume today in a bid to put Hollywood back in business. Following Monday’s initial negotiating session, the two sides issued a joint statement saying only that they had met for a full day. The sides are set to reconvene Wednesday — while pickets continue outside all the major studios around the Los Angeles area. While no details of that first negotiating session were made public, SAG-AFTRA leaders earlier Monday wrote in a social media statement, “Today, we go back to the bargaining table to fight for the contract you deserve. Keep turning out in full force on our picket lines and at solidarity events around the country. Let the AMPTP hear your voices loud and clear.”
How Hollywood writers set a new standard for AI protections
The Hill
By Rebecca Klar
Oct. 4, 2023
A tentative agreement between Hollywood writers and film studios could set a precedent for protecting workers from being replaced by artificial intelligence (AI). After a 148-day strike, the Writers Guild of America (WGA) and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) reached a tentative agreement last week including several AI-related protections for writers.
Tacoma city workers rally on steps of City Hall for a fair contract
KIRO 7
By KIRO 7 News Staff
Oct. 4, 2023
City workers in Tacoma rallied on the steps of City Hall before a council meeting Tuesday. They’re demanding that the city negotiate an equitable contract that ensures wages keep up with the cost of living. Workers held banners reading “We run this city.” The city workers are members of Teamsters 117 and IBEW 483.
Striking Kaiser Permanente workers say patients and employees are suffering under staffing shortages
NBC News
By Elizabeth Chuck and Deon J. Hampton
Oct. 4, 2023
From coast to coast Wednesday, more than 75,000 Kaiser Permanente workers picketed outside of health care facilities, arguing that staffing shortages have reached crisis levels for employees and patients alike. Sarah Levesque, the secretary-treasurer for OPEIU Local 2, told NBC News’ Tom Costello that workers were “looking for Kaiser executives to come to the table and bargain in good faith over the short-staffing crisis.” She said there were about 180 optometrists and pharmacists striking in Springfield. “We just don’t have the staff to adequately take care of our patients,” Levesque said. “These people got into health care because they wanted to take care of patients and they’re just stretched too thin. It’s taking up to three months to get appointments with some of the doctors.”
IN THE STATES
Temp worker advocates hail Illinois law that promises equal pay
Chicago Sun-Times
By David Struett
Oct. 3, 2023
Illinois AFL-CIO President Tim Drea said the law outlaws retaliation against temp workers who refuse to cross picket lines. The new law requires temp agencies to tell temp workers that a workplace is on strike and give them the option to say no to an assignment. “This bill stops pitting neighbor against neighbor, brother against brother,” Drea said. “Because if there’s a picket line, you can refuse not to cross that picket line.”
California workers will see more paid sick time off under new law
Los Angeles Times
By Mackenzie Mays
Oct. 4, 2023
The bill signed into law on Wednesday was lauded by the California Labor Federation and Service Employees International Union in California, which sponsored the sick-time expansion, and comes after Newsom also received accolades from unions for signing a law to increase pay for fast-food workers.