MUST WATCH
President Trumka on Worker-Focused Economic Recovery
Bloomberg TV
July 2, 2021
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka joined Bloomberg TV's Balance of Power to discuss how critical it is to keep working people front and center throughout the economic recovery, and the importance of passing the bipartisan infrastructure bill and the PRO Act.
LABOR AND ECONOMY
Black workers in U.S. saw gains in June, but racial gap persists
Reuters
By Jonnelle Marte
July 2, 2021
The more rapid rebound in labor force participation for Black workers suggests that unemployment benefits may not be deterring Black people from looking for work, William Spriggs, an economics professor at Howard University and chief economist for the AFL-CIO labor group, wrote on Twitter.
JOINING TOGETHER
Frito Lay union members reject latest offer from management. A strike is set to begin Monday.
The Topeka Capital-Journal
By Andrew Bahl
July 3, 2021
Employees at Topeka's Frito Lay plant voted Saturday to reject a proposed labor contract with the company, paving the way for a strike to begin on Monday. While workers had previously voted to go on strike last week, negotiations between Local 218 of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers union and PepsiCo, Frito Lay's parent company, had continued in a bid to reach a deal. According to John Nave, executive vice president of Kansas AFL-CIO, the state's labor federation, a strike is the last thing workers want when negotiating union contracts. He expected donations from the community and other labor unions throughout the state as the strike date nears. "It's kind of like the last line of defense," Nave said. "And that's a hard decision because it affects many, many people. Union members don't want to do that. ... But when the company fails to do a fair negotiation at the bargaining table — and history has shown (Frito-Lay has) repeatedly failed to do that — then there's no other alternative."
Mission Hospital RNs ratify first ever union contract
Fox Carolina
By Thomas Gore
July 3, 2021
Registered Nurses at HCA's Mission Hospital in Asheville voted to ratify their first ever union contract on Thursday and Friday, according to a release from the National Nurses Organizing Committee and National Nurses United. The release says that the three year contract will guarantee wage increases of up to seven percent in the first year and up to 17 percent total, based on experience.
Met Opera Strikes Deal With Stagehands Over Pandemic Pay
The New York Times
By Julia Jacobs
July 4, 2021
The Metropolitan Opera has reached a tentative agreement for a new contract with the union that represents its stagehands, increasing the likelihood that the company will return to the stage in September after its longest-ever shutdown. The deal was reached early Saturday morning, and the union is planning to brief its leaders and members after the Fourth of July holiday, said a spokesman for the union, Local One of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees. The union and the company declined to share details of the deal, which must be voted on by the union’s members.
Cook County nurses approve contract addressing short-staffing, patient care after strike, union says
ABC Chicago
By ABC 7 Chicago Digital Team
July 3, 2021
Cook County Health nurses "overwhelmingly" approved a four-year labor contract Friday after a strike last week. The nurses' union, National Nurses United, said the contract addresses short-staffing and improves patient care. More than 1,200 Cook County Health nurses planned to walk off the job for a one-day strike June 24.
IN THE STATES
Arkansas AFL-CIO has its first woman leader, Jessica Akers
Arkansas Times
By Max Brantley
July 2, 2021
Labor news of note: Retirement of Arkansas AFL-CIO leader Alan Hughes and relevant of the group’s secretary-treasurer, Jessica Akers, to succeed him. She’s the organization’s first woman president. A Memphis native, she’s been with the Arkansas AFL-CIO since 2011. Good luck to Akers on labor’s uphill slog in this Right to Work for Less state.
Montana union stalwart Al Ekblad retires
Montana Free Press
By Alex Sakariassen
July 2, 2021
When Al Ekblad woke up on Nov. 4, 2020, his mind immediately turned to the approaching legislative session. Montana voters had just elected a slate of Republican candidates to statewide offices — candidates the AFL-CIO, with Ekblad as executive secretary, had actively messaged against — by wider margins than pollsters had predicted. Republican supermajorities consolidated power in the statehouse. Election night was “pretty eye-opening,” Ekblad said, and he emerged from it knowing that another political fight was brewing for the labor movement. Sure enough, at the start of the session advocates of so-called right-to-work laws began pressing lawmakers to “free Montana workers from the shackles of compulsory unionism.” Several Republican legislators proposed stricter laws regulating union dues collection in the public and private sectors, and rolled out House Bill 251, dubbed the “Worker Freedom Act,” to broadly implement right-to-work provisions in the state. When the latter made its debut in the House Business and Labor Committee in mid February, Ekblad was the first opponent at the lectern.
The Tennessee Tribune
July 4, 2021
Ahead of the state’s official withdrawal from federal pandemic unemployment programs on Saturday, July 3, Tennessee AFL-CIO President Billy Dycus issued the following statement.
“With just hours left before federal unemployment benefits are abruptly cut off, Tennessee workers are scared. For many who have lost their jobs through no fault of their own, this extra $300 a week has been a critical lifeline that has allowed Tennesseans to put food on their tables, pay their bills, and stay in their homes while searching for work. Now, that remaining bit of security during a difficult time is threatened as a direct result of Governor Bill Lee’s disregard and disrespect for the needs of those who are still feeling the painful and ongoing effects of this pandemic. Instead of repeatedly insulting hard-working Tennesseans by saying they are lazy and would rather draw unemployment benefits than look for work, Governor Lee and the Republican supermajority would be wise to focus on some of the real issues facing our state, including a lack of jobs that pay a living wage and an economy that clearly does not work for working families.
Longtime AFL-CIO director looks ahead to retirement
News-Press Now
By Ryan Hennessy
July 3, 2021
Penny Adams began answering the Help Me Hotline and connecting individuals with local resources back in 1987. In the years since she has worked her way up to the executive director position at AFL-CIO Community Services. With her retirement on Sept. 29, the woman who many know as the face of St. Joseph's annual Adopt-A-Family Christmas program will end more than three decades of service to the organization. A search committee is working to find Adams' replacement.