Today's AFL-CIO Press Clips
POLITICS
Coalition of Black Trade Unionists President: Choice is democracy or dictatorship
People’s World
By Mark Gruenberg
Feb. 13, 2024
The choice in the 2024 general election is between democracy and dictatorship, not just between Democratic President Joe Biden and presumed Republican nominee Donald Trump, the White House denizen whom Biden beat four years ago. So says Terry Melvin, president of the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists and the most outspoken speaker to address the Government Employees (AFGE) Legislative Conference in D.C. on February 12. The key issue for attendees at the legislative conference was a 7.4% pay raise for federal workers in fiscal 2025, which begins October 1. All the speakers, led by union President Everett Kelley, pushed that cause. Delegates planned a February 13 rally plus lobbying on Capitol Hill about that. The outlook for it is murky. “It’s getting really impossible to determine what this Congress would do,” Kelley admitted. “Now we’re listening to these little echoes” of Trump and Trumpite goals. Biden seeks a 5.2% hike.
ORGANIZING
New Orleans Nurses Fight for a New Union as Hospitals Merge and Revenues Soar
Scheer Post
By Jesse Baum
Feb. 12, 2024
Last fall, Tujague and her colleagues had finally had enough of what they described as persistent undersupplying and short-staffing. In October, nurses at University Medical Center filed for a union election. Two months later, on Dec. 9, over 80% voted to join the National Nurses Organizing Committee/National Nurses United (NNOC/NNU), the country’s largest nurses’ union. The election was Louisiana’s largest National Labor Relations Board election in nearly 30 years. With the vote, University Medical Center became Louisiana’s first unionized private-sector hospital. About 4% of Louisiana’s workers are unionized, compared to about 10% nationwide.
Disneyland's character performers look to form union under Actor's Equity Association
KGW 8
By Amy Taxin
Feb. 13, 2024
Workers who bring Disneyland’s beloved characters to life — including Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and Cinderella — are looking to unionize. Labor organizers announced the campaign Tuesday, saying performers want better safety conditions and scheduling policies to help keep the magic alive for visitors.
While most of the more than 35,000 workers at the Disneyland Resort already have labor unions, about 1,700 performers and character actors do not.
Whitefish Mountain Resort's Ski Patrol Is Unionizing
Yardbarker
By Matt Lorelli
Feb. 13, 2024
The Whitefish Mountain Resort Professional Ski Patrol (WMRPSP), which patrols Montana's famous Whitefish Mountain Resort, announced via Instagram on February 11, 2024 that they intend to unionize under the United Professional Ski Patrols of America/CWA. According to WMRPSP's mission statement, they have yet to reach an agreement with Whitefish Mountain Resort at this time, but is looking, "...forward to reaching a mutual agreement... to ensure a strong patrol that will continue to serve our guests."
DreamWorks Animation, Flying Bark Productions Workers Take Steps Toward Unionizing
The Hollywood Reporter
By Caitlin Huston
Feb. 13, 2024
The Animation Guild is organizing production workers at DreamWorks Animation and at Flying Bark Productions. The guild (IATSE Local 839) sent a letter to DreamWorks Animation on Feb. 7 and filed for recognition with the National Labor Relations Board on Feb. 9 to represent 162 production workers at the studio.
JOINING TOGETHER
FRESHFARM farmers market workers vote to ratify union contract
WTOP News
By Jeff Clabaugh
Feb 13, 2024
Employees of FRESHFARM farmers markets, the largest network of farmers markets in the Mid-Atlantic and the third-largest in the country, have voted to ratify their first union collective bargaining agreement.
The Monday vote in favor of ratification with the United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 400 makes FRESHFARM the first farmers market operator in the country whose employees have approved a collective bargaining agreement. They unionized last year, with contract negotiations starting shortly after.
‘It’s going to be historic’: US flight attendants picket at major airports
The Guardian
By Michael Sainato
Feb. 13, 2024
Flight attendants are holding picket protests at over 30 major airports across the US on Tuesday as part of the Worldwide Flight Attendant Day of Action. Picket line events are planned in New York City, Orlando, Miami, San Francisco, Charlotte, Washington DC, Dallas, Atlanta, Chicago, Boston, Cleveland, Las Vegas, Los Angeles and several other major cities. Some 100,000 flight attendants across three different labor unions are expected to participate.
Morgan State regents approve collective bargaining contract with AFSCME
The Daily Record
By Daily Record Staff
Feb. 13, 2024
Morgan State University’s Board of Regents voted unanimously to approve a new collective bargaining agreement with the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Council 3. The vote came during the public session of the regents’ February quarterly meeting. The new three-year agreement, which expires on June 30, 2026, provides union employees working at Morgan with a host of expanded benefits and provisions, further improving workplace conditions. Of the University’s nearly 2,000 staff employees, approximately 400 are members of AFSCME Local 1885.
Unions protest Wood & Brooks project in Tonawanda for paying substandard wages
The Buffalo News
By Jonathan D. Epstein
Feb. 13, 2024
Union construction workers will rally in front of a Tonawanda redevelopment site Wednesday morning to protest a state law that allows the owner of the project to pay them less than prevailing wages, despite getting 70% of the project funding from tax credits and tax breaks. Members of the Buffalo Building and Construction Trades Council will gather in front of the Wood & Brooks construction site on Kenmore Avenue to protest against what they call “anti-worker” loopholes in the state’s prevailing-wage labor law that was passed a few years ago.
NLRB
ANALYSIS: Workers Spent 2023 Unionizing—and Striking—in Droves
Bloomberg Law
By Robert Combs
Feb. 13, 2024
Two new statistical analyses of Bloomberg Law data show that workers are engaging in organizing and picketing activity at a magnitude that hasn’t been seen in the US labor market in years. Unions organized almost 100,000 workers in National Labor Relations Board representation elections in 2023, according to Bloomberg Law’s semiannual report on NLRB election statistics. The total of 99,116 newly organized workers is the largest single-year cohort since 2000, and the fourth largest since at least 1990.
STATE LEGISLATION
Michigan’s Right-To-Work law repealed today
WKZO
By Michael Arney
Feb. 13, 2024
Michigan has become the first state to repeal the right-to-work law as the repeal takes effect today. Michigan AFL-CIO president Ron Bieber says unions are pleased with the move and says everyone contributing to the strength of the union and their ability to negotiate and improve wages benefits all workers.