POLITICS
State of the Union 2024: Here is the guest list for Thursday’s speech
WGAU
By Debbie Lord
March 6, 2024
President Joe Biden will give the State of the Union address on Thursday and there will be several notable guests in attendance. Liz Shuler: Invited by Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Wisconsin, Shuler is the president of the AFL-CIO.
VP Harris announces federal apprenticeship program during Madison visit
Wisconsin Public Radio
By Robert D'andrea
March 6, 2024
“By supporting workers and our unions, the Biden Administration is working to bring balance and fairness to our economy so that it works for everyone, not just the wealthy and big corporations,” Wisconsin AFL-CIO president Stephanie Bloomingdale said in a statement.
Strickland Welcomes April Sims As Guest To State Of The Union
The Seattle Medium
By Staff
March 6, 2024
Congresswoman Marilyn Strickland (WA-10) announced today that her guest to President Biden’s third State of the Union address is April Sims, President of the Washington State Labor Council (WSLC), AFL-CIO. Sims was sworn in as President of the Washington State Labor Council, AFL-CIO in January of 2023. She is the first woman to be elected WSLC president and the first Black woman elected to the presidency of any AFL-CIO state federation. As president, she leads Washington’s biggest union organization, representing over half a million members. “I am deeply honored to join Congresswoman Strickland as her guest for the State of the Union address. Since my days volunteering for her Mayoral campaign in Tacoma, she has embodied true leadership and unwavering commitment to our community. I’m eager to hear President Biden’s vision for addressing wage, wealth, and racial inequality and plans to lift working families,” said Sims.
JOINING TOGETHER
Variety
By Jazz Tangcay
March 6, 2024
As crew contract conversations get underway with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, the Costume Designers Guild‘s fight for pay equity has gained support from stars and labor groups. Earlier this year, the guild launched Pay Equity Now, a movement designed to spotlight the organization’s decades-long fight for pay equity and gender equity.
Fairfax Connector service to resume Friday after successful labor negotiations end strike
WJLA
By JeanneTyler Moodee Lockman
March 6, 2024
Fairfax Connector service will resume on Friday, March 8 after successful labor negotiations between ATU Local 689 and bus operator Transdev ended a 15-day strike, officials announced Wednesday evening. The bus service has been suspended since about 630 bus operators, mechanics and utility crews went on strike on February 22 during contract negotiations. The union and Transdev had reportedly been in talks over a new contract since October 2023, but after 12 bargaining sessions, union leaders claimed the bus operator had been "slow-walking the talks" and ignoring most of their key priorities.
REI workers to march to headquarters
Boston Globe
By Katie Johnston
March 6, 2024
REI employees from the company’s nine unionized stores around the country, including in Boston, plan to hike from a park in Issaquah, Wash., to REI headquarters Thursday afternoon to demand that executives come to the table and bargain in good faith. Over the past two weeks, union members have held events in the nine communities where they’re organized to unveil a national platform demanding job security, guaranteed minimum hours, a consistent sick policy, and minimum staffing levels.
Teen Vogue
By Duncan Crabtree-Ireland
March 6, 2024
When actors walked off set and hoisted their picket signs during the summer of 2023, everyone began learning a complex truth about the lives of professional performers. Those who appear in our favorite films and series are, in fact, mostly not millionaires living in mansions in Beverly Hills. Even those who manage to secure coveted recurring roles on series — after hundreds of hours of unpaid auditioning — often take on additional employment waiting tables or driving for ridesharing services to make ends meet.
Massachusetts art museum workers strike over wages
NBC Boston
By Staff
March 6, 2024
Unionized workers at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art went on strike Wednesday after no agreement was reached with the museum on wages. Carrying signs such as “Living Artists Living Wages” and “Our Power is in Our Unity,” the workers picketed outside of the North Adams museum, commonly referred to as MASS MoCA. They said they plan to picket daily until there’s a resolution. The employees' union is part of United Auto Workers Local 2110 and represents about 120 full- and part-time workers, including curators, educators, administrative staff, custodians, employees in visitor services and others. They formed the union in 2021, joining the staff of other renowned museums that have unionized, including Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts and the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
South Bend Tribune, NewsGuild reach two-year agreement
South Bend Tribune
By Cory Havens
March 6, 2024
The union representing The Tribune’s reporters, photographers and some other newsroom employees on Tuesday signed a two-year contract, the first collective bargaining agreement since the newsroom voted in 2020 to form the South Bend NewsGuild, a union affiliated with the national NewsGuild-CWA.
City of Virginia union workers walk off the job Wednesday
Northern News Now
By Briggs LeSavage
March 6, 2024
City of Virginia union workers walked off the job Wednesday morning amid ongoing contract negotiations. AFSCME Local 454 union leaders posted on Facebook that they began their strike at 6 a.m. Wednesday. The union represents Virginia’s public works, including 60 employees who handle storm sewers, sanitary sewers, plowing, and garbage collection. It also includes city mechanics and other jobs. “This strike is a direct result of the city and council’s lack of fairness and respect for its own workers,” union leaders wrote Tuesday night.
IN THE STATES
Matt Smith, Darrin Kelly and Greg Bernarding: Seizing Western Pa.’s unique hydrogen opportunity (Opinion)
Trib Live
By Matt Smith, Darrin Kelly and Greg Bernarding
March 6, 2024
While proudly recognizing its industrial past — which helped to build our region and the modern world — Pittsburgh has emerged as a beacon of transformation primed to redefine America’s cleaner energy future. Hydrogen is widely recognized as the most effective way to reduce emissions from hard-to-abate sectors, especially from heavy industries like steel, transportation and cement manufacturing. Through the decades, Pittsburgh has worked hard to revitalize our region’s environment, and we are committed to continuing to reduce emissions from the industrial sector — meaning southwestern Pennsylvania represents both the need and the opportunity presented by the administration’s energy agenda. Perhaps that’s why last fall, Pennsylvania became the only state to receive funding for two regional hydrogen hub networks to help build America’s hydrogen supply and scale technologies.