POLITICS
PRO Act will strengthen union retiree benefits
Senior Voice
By Susan Reilly
July 1, 2021
A strong and growing labor movement is good for workers and for all Americans. The labor movement has been and continues to be the leading force in the fight to strengthen Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, ensuring a measure of retirement security for all Americans. Our country, our democracy, and our people benefit when workers have a strong voice at work and are able to join together to build a more secure future for their families and their communities. The Alaska Alliance for Retired Americans endorses the PRO Act and urges Senators Murkowski and Sullivan to co-sponsor the PRO Act (S420) and work toward its enactment. It’s the right thing to do for Alaska’s working families.
EDUCATION
The Washington Post
By Hannah Natanson
July 6, 2021
The president of the nation’s second-largest teachers union is taking a strong stand against a recent spate of laws that restrict public-school lessons on racism, vowing legal action to protect any member who “gets in trouble for teaching honest history.” Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, warned in a speech Tuesday that conservative lawmakers, pundits and news sites are waging a “culture campaign” against critical race theory. The theory is a decades-old academic framework that asserts racism is woven into the history and thus the present of the nation, helping shape how institutions and systems function.
TRANSPORTATION
Transit workers risk 'great ambush' without federal investment in training, labor leaders say
Smart Cities Dive
By Chris Teale
July 6, 2021
"I think the government and the trade union movement and other stakeholders, the manufacturers of the technology, should be developing a system that's always looking 20 years to the future, to ensure the nation's workforce isn't ambushed by technology going forward," Transport Workers Union of America (TWU) President John Samuelsen said in an April interview. "There is a great ambush going on right now. There are many who work in diesel buses in cities across America that have no idea of the danger they're in." TTD President Greg Regan said agencies cannot afford to invest more, as they lack reliable federal funding for workforce development.
JOINING TOGETHER
Nurses union reaches tentative contract agreement with Bradenton hospital’s owner
Bradenton Herald
By James A. Jones Jr.
July 6, 2021
Registered nurses at 10 Central and Gulf Coast Florida hospitals, including Blake Medical Center in Bradenton, have reached a tentative agreement with HCA Healthcare on a new collective bargaining contract. The National Nurses Organizing Committee-Florida, an affiliate of National Nurses United, announced the tentative agreement on Tuesday. The proposed settlement will be presented to the RNs at all the facilities in membership meetings for ratification beginning Wednesday, depending on conditions caused by Tropical Storm Elsa.
Hundreds of workers on strike at Frito-Lay plant in Topeka
The News & Observer
By The Associated Press
July 6, 2021
About 600 workers are on strike at the Frito-Lay plant in Topeka after union workers rejected a proposed contract that had been recommended by union leadership. Workers said the main points of contention are small pay increases and employees being forced to work hours of overtime, The Topeka Capital-Journal reported. The workers are represented by Local 218 of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers union, which recommended a proposed two-year contract after months of negotiations. Workers voted on Friday and Saturday to reject the contract, and the strike began at 12:01 a.m. Monday.
IN THE STATES
Insider NJ
July 6, 2021
On behalf of our 1 million members, the New Jersey State AFL-CIO is pleased to announce that the national AFL-CIO has presented the New Jersey State AFL-CIO with the 2019 Path to Power Award. Our Labor Candidates won the most elections to public office of any state labor federation in America in 2019, and in honor of that, the national AFL-CIO has recognized our Labor Candidates Program as America’s gold standard.