MUST READ
We all share the same fight (Opinion)
Labor Tribune
By Liz Shuler
March 4, 2024
Recently, the Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations and the University of Illinois School of Labor and Employment Relations released data that showed the number of striking workers in the United States climbed 141 percent from 2022 to 2023. That’s numbers-backed proof of the energy and hope that we feel every day, isn’t it? We are in a generation-defining moment—one in which workers are rightfully seizing our power and unrigging our economy so that it works for everyone, not just the ultra-wealthy. Researchers documented 470 work stoppages involving about 539,000 workers last year. These work stoppages resulted in a total of roughly 24,874,522 strike days.
LABOR AND ECONOMY
The Labor Movement is empowering working women (Opinion)
Labor Tribune
By Shari Semelsberg
March 4, 2024
Women’s History Month is a time to reflect on the paths paved by women before us, while also recognizing the barriers that still exist today. This includes gender wage gaps that vary by race and ethnicity, and lack of access to affordable childcare or paid maternity leave for working moms. However, my grandmother, my mother and I are living proof that women do not always have to compromise family life for career life – you can have both if you have a union job. My life story is a testament to how the Labor Movement empowers working women and why our movement must continue opening doors for women, young workers, immigrants, and all working people who can benefit from a union job. The momentum we are seeing around the Labor Movement today is a result of people demanding what they deserve. A study by the U.S. Department of the Treasury in 2023 found that unions help to close the wealth inequality gap and grow the American Middle Class.
ORGANIZING
Keystone Resort, CO, Ski Patrol Submits Petition to Unionize
Snow Brains
By Staff
March 4, 2024
Today, after many weeks of worker-led organizing efforts, a majority of Keystone Resort, Colorado, ski patrollers have chosen to file for a union representation election at the National Labor Relations Board. They are organized as the Keystone Ski Patrol Union (KSPU) into CWA Local 7781, the United Professional Ski Patrols of America (UPSPA). 70% of eligible ski patrollers signed union cards. The patrol has also asked Keystone management for voluntary recognition of their union.
JOINING TOGETHER
Hollywood crew members take center stage as IATSE negotiations kick off
Los Angeles Times
By Christi Carras
March 4, 2024
Thousands of Hollywood crew members and their supporters gathered Sunday in the crisp morning air and muddy fields at Encino’s Woodley Park in a show of support ahead of contract negotiations that begin this week with the major film and TV studios. Slogans such as “Fighting for living wages,” and “Nothing moves without the crew” adorned dozens of tents representing everyone from cinematographers and costume designers to lighting technicians and video editors. Some demonstrators had just returned to work after last year’s strikes by writers and actors, while others hadn’t been employed since last summer. “Every union in the entertainment industry is standing here together, and that has never happened before,” said Matthew Loeb, international president of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, on Sunday. “We stand here together to demand fairness, to demand a living wage ... for everybody who works in this business.”
Nurses at UChicago Medicine plan one-day strike
Chicago Tribune
By Shanzeh Ahmad
March 4, 2024
Nurses at UChicago Medicine announced Monday they will go on a one-day strike March 14 to call attention to staffing concerns amid a breakdown in contract negotiations. The strike is planned to start at 7 a.m. and last for 24 hours. Nurses will gather outside of the hospital, 5841 S. Maryland Ave., according to a news release from the National Nurses Organizing Committee/National Nurses United, which represents about 2,800 nurses employed by the University of Chicago Medical Center.
WAMC
By Josh Landes
March 4, 2024
Around 120 employees of the contemporary art museum are members of Local 2110 UAW after a unionization vote in April 2021. “We've been in negotiations since October. It's been, frankly, a pretty slow and fairly tense negotiations, where management has really just barely inched in every proposal. I think all of this really to Josh has been, I think, colored by really divisive anti-union tactics that we feel we've seen over the past year through contract administration, from being fairly obstructionist in our grievance procedure, and by frankly, we think trying to go around the union at, you know, at every corner," said union spokesperson Chelsea Farrell. “All of that has really worked to color these negotiations. Looking at the numbers on the table, I think our members just feel that management’s offer, it doesn't keep pace with inflation, it doesn't keep pace with the raising rising cost of living in the Berkshire County and frankly, it's just not enough for the work folks are contributing to the institution.”
5-year contract proposed to increase pay for over 32,000 UC employees after AFSCME negotiations
The UCSD Guardian
By Giselle Hinojosa
March 4, 2024
Following negotiations with the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees on Feb. 22, the University of California proposed a 26% increase in wages for more than 32,000 union workers across the UC system. If the union accepts the proposal, all AFSCME members can expect an increase in hourly minimum wage to $24 in 2025, with the lowest paid union members receiving an average 47% increase through the full duration of the five-year contract. Individual pay increases will vary, so a Hospital Assistant may receive a 17.3% discount so their $20.46 hourly wage increases to $24.00 an hour. Contract negotiations are still underway with the AFSCME bargaining units.
Largo hospital nurses protest understaffing they say puts patients at risk
Tampa Bay Times
By Christopher O'Donnell
March 4, 2024
Frustrated that their concerns are not being listened to, close to two dozen nurses protested Monday morning outside the Largo hospital hoping to bring attention to a practice they say compromises patient care and safety and is causing burnout of registered nurses. “The (registered nurses) are increasingly overwhelmed,” Morris said. “The only way we can bring attention to the issue we face inside is to come out into the street and into the community.”
NLRB
NLRB official denies Dartmouth request to reopen basketball union case. Players to vote Tuesday
ABC News
By Jimmy Golen
March 4, 2024
Dartmouth basketball players remain on schedule to vote Tuesday on whether to form the nation’s first-ever college athletes' labor union after a National Labor Relations Board official rejected the school’s request to reopen the case. NLRB regional director Laura Sacks denied the school's request on Monday, saying there was no new evidence that wasn’t previously available to Dartmouth. Still pending is a request by the school to put off the vote. Sacks ruled on Feb. 5 that Dartmouth basketball players are employees of the school, clearing the way for an election on whether they want to unionize. The vote is scheduled for Tuesday on the school's Hanover, New Hampshire, campus.
STATE LEGISLATION
Progress, disappointment from State Legislature
The Stand
March 4, 2024
“While we were very disappointed that the Senate didn’t vote on HB 1893, we were inspired by the way Washington’s union movement rose up in support of protecting strikers and their families,” said April Sims, President of the Washington State Labor Council, AFL-CIO. “My heartfelt thanks to all the unions that organized and turned out for last week’s labor rally in support of the bill. This is not over. We will continue to fight to level the playing field for Washington workers.” Below is an update — effective today — on the status of the policy bills listed in the 2024 Legislative Agenda of the Washington State Labor Council, AFL-CIO. (Green titles denote bills that passed and are still alive; red titles are bills that died.) Note that there are additional bills that the WSLC and its affiliates are supporting/opposing that may not be listed in this agenda.
LABOR AND COMMUNITY
'It's our bridge': Local workers hope BSB corridor project brings once-in-a-lifetime opportunity
WVXU
By Nick Swartsell
March 4, 2024
The money is allocated. Designs are in progress. And relatively soon, crews will begin work on the long-awaited $3.6-billion Brent Spence Bridge Corridor project. But who will those crews be? And how many workers will be from places around the bridge, like Covington? Cody Johnson has lived in Covington and other places around Northern Kentucky all his life. He and some of his fellow union members just finished up a four-year apprenticeship program with Local Ironworkers 44 based in Hebron.