Today's AFL-CIO Press Clips
POLITICS
Bowman joins activists in call for ‘equity for all’
The Hill
By Cheyanne M. Daniels
Jan. 31, 2024
Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) celebrated Black History Month a day early at a rally Wednesday outside the Capitol to introduce his Equity for All Resolution. The resolution intends to uplift the Equity or Else Quality of Life Agenda presented by the Journey for Justice Alliance grassroots organization.
ORGANIZING
Macy's employees in Washington sanction new contract after significant UFCW 3000 boycott
KIMA
By Austin Peppers
Jan. 31, 2024
We previously reported the boycott and strike that took place regarding Macy's workers and the U-F-C-W 3000 that reached an agreement. Yesterday they announced that Macy's workers voted to accept the new contract. Previously the U-F-C-W 3000 called for a boycott in most Washington Macy's stores, which included Macy's Valley Mall in Union Gap, but eventually led to a contract agreement.
Growing in the cannabis industry
Labor Tribune
By David Cook
Jan. 31, 2024
Those of you who follow our updates a little more closely than the average partner might have noticed that over the past year or more, we’ve talked a lot about our successes in organizing in one particular industry: legal cannabis. In January, I was fortunate enough to attend one of our first ever bargaining sessions with a cannabis employer. As we continue to grow by leaps and abounds in this industry — we have yet another election in just over a week — I think it’s time we discussed it in detail so anyone with questions can understand why there’s been a strong focus on these workers.
The Hollywood Reporter
By Katie Kilkenny
Jan. 31, 2024
Hollywood’s top crew unions have announced that they will be bargaining their health and pension benefits together at the outset of their 2024 labor negotiations with studios and streamers. IATSE and the Hollywood Basic Crafts coalition (which includes Teamsters Local 399) announced on Wednesday that they will jointly negotiate their Motion Picture Pension and Health Plan proposals with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers this year. Multiple sources have told The Hollywood Reporter that these talks will begin March 4, barring any unforeseen circumstances. Though the unions share health and pension plans, they haven’t come together to bargain changes to those plans since 1988, per the labor organizations. In recent years, the Teamsters and the Hollywood Basic Crafts have negotiated their benefits after IATSE bargained its Basic and Area Standards Agreements.
Labor Notes
By Nora Meek
Jan. 31, 2024
Production workers at Nickelodeon’s Animation Studio are fighting for their first contract alongside already-organized artists (writers, designers, colorists, storyboarders and background painters) who have been working under an expired contract for two and a half years. The workers collectively produce animated shows: The Loud House, Rugrats, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Spongebob SquarePants. The artists have been members of IATSE Local 839, The Animation Guild (TAG) since 2002, and 3D computer graphics staff joined in 2013.
JOINING TOGETHER
More than 200 staffers with Chicago Tribune and 6 other newsrooms begin 24-hour strike
The Washington Post
By The Associated Press
Feb. 1, 2024
More than 200 reporters, photographers and other staffers with the Chicago Tribune and six other newsrooms around the nation began a 24-hour strike Thursday to protest years of “slow-walked” contract negotiations and to demand fair wages. The strike, which includes 76 members of the Chicago Tribune reporting staff, photographers and some editors, began at 5 a.m., said Caroline Kubzansky, a member of the Chicago Tribune Guild who is a general assignment reporter with the newspaper.
Journalists at Virginian-Pilot, Daily Press hold 24-hour walkout and strike Thursday
13 News Now
By Kathleen Lundy and Stephanie Johnson
Feb. 1, 2024
Local journalists at The Virginian-Pilot and Daily Press are on strike Thursday in Norfolk, joining six other newspapers across the country protesting "stagnant wages" and demanding protection of benefits from parent company and hedge fund Alden Global Capital. Both The Virginian-Pilot and Daily Press newspapers have been providing news for Southeast Virginia and Northeast North Carolina for over a century.
Dispute between Philadelphia Museum of Art and employee union drags on, after strike in 2022
The Art Newspaper
By Anni Irish
Feb. 1, 2024
Unionised staff at the Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMA) are engaged in an ongoing dispute with museum administrators regarding longevity pay, despite having agreed to a contract that ended an unprecedented 19-day strike back in October 2022. The present disagreement concerns the part of that contract that covers length-of-service pay increases; each side has a different interpretation of the wording. “PMA management continues to refuse to implement a key agreement that ended our historic strike and are withholding longevity pay contractually guaranteed to staff,” says Amanda Bock, an assistant curator at the museum and vice-president of the AFSCME Local 397 PMA union. “This excludes a large number of employees from receiving pay increases for their years of service, among them those with the longest tenures at the museum—pay increases our members are depending on after years or sometimes decades of stagnant wages.”
STATE LEGISLATION
Georgia Senate panel advances bill aimed at making the state even less hospitable to union workers
WABE
By Ross Williams
Feb. 1, 2024
A bill backed by Gov. Brian Kemp aimed at making it more difficult for labor unions to come to Georgia took a step toward becoming law Wednesday, passing through the Senate Insurance and Labor Committee 4-3 on party lines. Brunswick Republican Sen. Mike Hodges’ Senate Bill 362 would bar new businesses opening up in Georgia from receiving state incentives if they recognize union representation without first holding a secret ballot rather than a card check, another method of organizing that generally makes it easier to form a union. It would not change anything for unions already in Georgia.
IN THE STATES
2023 was a big year for unions. Wisconsin labor leaders want to keep the momentum going.
Wisconsin Public Radio
By Joe Schulz
Feb. 1, 2024
Wisconsin has seen an uptick in union activity in recent years, and labor leaders hope to carry that momentum through 2024 and beyond. There have been 16 strikes and 30 labor protests in the state since the start of 2021, according to data from Cornell University’s Labor Action Tracker. That data includes a slew of strikes that happened across the state last year. Wisconsin AFL-CIO president Stephanie Bloomingdale said union activity in the state last year often translated to wins for workers. “We are seeing working people continue to come together to organize new workplaces in Wisconsin and also to participate in workplace actions when it comes to contract negotiations,” she said. “Whether that be through strikes (or) powerful collective bargaining, we’re seeing wins at the bargaining table that workers see in their paychecks every day.”