LABOR AND TECHNOLOGY
We must start preparing the US workforce for the effects of AI – now (Opinion)
The Guardian
By Steven Greenhouse
Feb. 29, 2024
Recognizing that workers aren’t in a position to assess the downsides of AI, Liz Shuler, president of the AFL-CIO union federation, has called for having a government agency vet AI technologies to determine whether they’re harmful to workers – just as the FDA vets drugs to make “sure drugs don’t kill people before they’re put out into the world”.
ORGANIZING
The Marshall Project, Pulitzer-winning nonprofit newsroom, to unionize
The Washington Post
By Kim Bellware
Feb. 29, 2024
Staffers at the criminal justice journalism nonprofit the Marshall Project announced Thursday that they are unionizing, a move that puts the award-winning newsroom among the growing ranks of organized labor in the digital and nonprofit media world. The Marshall Project Guild will be part of the NewsGuild of New York, CWA Local 31003, and as a “wall-to-wall” union will represent about 50 staffers on the editorial and business sides. The union, which has the support of more than 80 percent of the staff, is receiving voluntary recognition.
JOINING TOGETHER
Twin Cities workers headed for massive coordinated strikes
People’s World
By Press Associates
Feb. 29, 2024
More than 13,000 workers around the Twin Cities—Teachers, Laborers, Service Employees and United Food and Commercial Workers, transit workers—are headed for coordinated strikes in mid-March unless their bosses, including Minneapolis city officials, reach new pacts with their union locals. The potential strikes by the “What Could We Win Together?” coalition could see 8,000 janitors and security guards, members of SEIU Local 26, take a hike. Joining them would be 3,700 teachers and staffers from the St. Paul Federation of Teachers/AFT, 1,000 workers at 12 nursing homes represented by Local 26 and by UFCW Local 663 and 400 Minneapolis city workers, members of Laborers Local 363. Also in the coalition: 2,000 Metro Transit workers in Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1005.
'Everybody's pretty fired up': Akron General, union negotiate against contract deadline
Akron Beacon Journal
By Patrick Williams
Feb. 29, 2024
The nurses union at Cleveland Clinic Akron General plans to continue working even if an agreement is not reached with the hospital before their contract's midnight expiration Friday, said Linzi Lentz, intensive care nurse and co-chair of the union. Negotiations between the hospital and the union, the Professional Staff Nurses Association, Ohio Nurses Association of Akron General Cleveland Clinic (PSNA), continued on Thursday, the last day before the union’s three-year contract expires.
Boston Teacher Union contract talks kick off amid budget cutting
Boston Globe
By James Vaznis and Maddie Khaw
Feb. 29, 2024
The Boston Teachers Union attempted to drum up public support for a new contract Thursday, calling for fair wages and a host of other proposals at a highly-publicized press conference, moments before beginning its first negotiations with the School Committee. The talks kicked off as Boston Public Schools prepares to slash hundreds of positions and close dozens of classrooms in an effort to balance next year’s budget. It is the toughest budget season confronting BPS in years, even as annual spending is expected to exceed $1.5 billion next year, and those financial constraints could influence the talks.
Keolis commuter rail workers protest wages, benefits
NBC Boston
By Chris Lisinski
Feb. 29, 2024
More than a dozen Keolis workers packed into an MBTA Board meeting Thursday to describe low pay and lackluster benefits, and they urged the agency's leader to think about "safeguards" the T can install when the time comes to decide the future of commuter rail operations. "For years, the MBTA has treated the commuter rail as the illegitimate stepchild of the MBTA, only paying child support to whoever runs it, and the provider takes their cut before it comes down to us," said Ed Flaherty, president of Local 2054 Transportation Workers Union, which represents car inspectors and coach cleaners at Keolis, Amtrak and CLX.
Striking Fairfax Connector workers denied healthcare as strike continues into 9th day
WJLA
By Jeanne Tyler Moodee Lockman
Feb. 29, 2024
Fairfax Connector bus service will remain suspended through Friday, March 1 as unionized workers continue to strike, demanding a new contract with the bus’ contractor group. Contract negotiations between Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 689 and bus operator Transdev continued Thursday, though the session ended without a new contract for workers, according to union officials.
SPORTS UNIONIZATION
CBS Sports
By Jonathan Jones
Feb. 28, 2024
The Miami Dolphins rank No. 1 in the second annual NFL Players Association team report cards, going up from No. 2 last year in the inaugural survey. The Washington Commanders again rank 32nd. The NFLPA released its annual team report cards for all 32 teams Wednesday in Indianapolis at the NFL Scouting Combine. The report cards were produced after surveying 1,706 players -- nearly 76 percent of all players and up from 60 percent last year -- and bringing in Artemis as a third-party service to handle the survey.
STATE LEGISLATION
The Salt Lake Tribune
By Bryan Schott
Feb. 29, 2024
Pushback by Utah’s labor unions was enough to derail a pair of bills that aggressively targeted workers during this year’s legislative session. A show of force from Utah’s labor unions likely played a big hand in the outcome. Jeff Worthington, president of the Utah AFL-CIO, says the massive turnout of union members at the Capitol this year was a message and a warning. “We made our intentions known,” Worthington told Tribune on Tuesday. “We let members know these bills were trying to harm us, and we weren’t going to take it lying down.”
WORKPLACE SAFETY AND HEALTH
Boeing Hit by Damning FAA Report Faulting Safety Culture
Bloomberg through Yahoo! Finance
By Ryan Beene, Julie Johnsson and Alan Levin
Feb. 26, 2024
US regulators issued a scathing assessment of Boeing Co.’s safety culture, putting further pressure on the company as it contends with the fallout from a near-catastrophic accident at the start of the year. The planemaker was faulted for ineffective procedures and a breakdown in communications between senior management and other members of staff, a panel of experts convened by the Federal Aviation Administration said in a report released Monday. Constant changes to complex procedures and trainings led to confusion, while other shortcomings hindered the average employee’s understanding of their role in how Boeing manages safety, according to the report, which was mandated by US lawmakers. “I really hope this is a wake-up call to the Boeing Company,” said Rich Plunkett, a member of the expert review panel and director of strategic development for the union that represents Boeing’s engineers.
M.T.A. Workers, Upset Over Subway Safety, Disrupt Morning Service
The New York Times
By Hurubie Meko, Ana Ley and Wesley Parnell
Feb. 29, 2024
In a statement on Thursday, John Samuelson, the president of the Transport Workers Union International, which represents 150,000 workers in sectors that include airlines, railroads and transit industries, criticized Janno Lieber, the chairman and chief executive of the M.T.A. Mr. Samuelsen said the attack of Mr. Scott was a “horrific example of the epic, decades-long failure” by the M.T.A. and Mr. Lieber “to protect transit workers.”
SPEEA: Pilot Contract Talks Illustrate Boeing Safety Culture Problems
Business Wire
By Staff
Feb. 29 2024
The union for Flight Technical and Safety Pilots with Boeing’s Flight Operations Group says it has first-hand experience of the kinds of safety-culture problems an expert panel reported on earlier this week. “Boeing has systematically hollowed out the SPEEA Pilot Instructors Unit, replacing valued Boeing expertise with contractors. The resulting degradation in expert advice given to Boeing’s airline customers is another example of the safety-culture problem highlighted by the FAA.” That highly critical report on Feb. 26 from the Federal Aviation Administration said there was a “disconnect” between public commitments to safety and quality made by senior executives at Boeing and the situations faced by Boeing employees in the workplace. SPEEA, the union that represents some two-dozen technical and safety pilots at Boeing, says it is experiencing that as it tries to negotiate a new contract for the pilots.