LABOR AND ECONOMY
Absent radical labor law reform the nation could be in trouble
People’s World
By Mark Gruenberg
April 5, 2024
Unions and labor activists have been warning that unless labor law is updated corporations will take advantage of the current law and its loopholes to set back progress on countless issues important to Americans. Current labor law, for example, allows bosses to drag their feet for years, at times, in negotiations with workers. Bill Samuel says, that when it comes to a top issue such as comprehensive pro-worker labor law reform, you have to take the long view about accomplishing it. Make that the very long view, as in decades. Which is what Samuel has done as the AFL-CIO Government Affairs Director for almost 24 years. He’ll retire soon. Before joining the federation, Samuel was the Mine Workers’ Legislative Director and held top positions with the Government Employees and the Treasury Employees, broken only by a stint as a key Labor Department official and a year as a top labor advisor to then-Vice President Al Gore. The long view is a particularly apt description of the struggle to enact comprehensive labor law reform, first with the Employee Free Choice Act 15 years ago, and now with the Protect the Right to Organize (PRO) Act, named by the late AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, who hired Samuel for the Mine Workers post and then supported Samuel as AFL-CIO’s legislative chief. “You have to be persistent,” Samuel said in an exclusive interview with People’s World. “Like labor law reform—I’ve spent decades fighting for it, so that we, as workers and as unions, will be able to confront these huge corporations with their battalions of lawyers.”
ORGANIZING
Autoworkers at Alabama’s Mercedes-Benz Plant File for a Union Election
The American Prospect
By Luis Feliz Leon
April 5, 2024
Mercedes-Benz workers in Vance, Alabama, will vote on whether to join the United Auto Workers (UAW). On Friday, the UAW filed for an election to represent all 5,200 of the plant’s hourly employees, after the union said a supermajority of workers at the company’s mammoth plant signed union cards in three months. Jeremy Kimbrell, a measurement machine operator at the plant, said as part of the UAW’s announcement: “At Mercedes, at Hyundai and at hundreds of other companies, Alabama workers have made billions of dollars for executives and shareholders, but we haven’t gotten our fair share. We’re going to turn things around with this vote. We’re going to end the Alabama discount.”
UVM graduate students form a union to bargain for better pay and benefits: where things stand
Burlington Free Press
By Dan D'Ambrosio
April 5, 2024
Last week, University of Vermont graduate students voted 373-9 to form a union in an election involving nearly two-thirds of the students in the bargaining unit. Among the top priorities for the students will be better pay and health care benefits, which currently don't cover vision or dental."I'm personally excited not just about increased pay but the health benefits," said Neil Traft, a second-year doctoral student in the complex systems and data science program. "A huge thing for me is dental and vision. I need work done on my wisdom teeth. I wear glasses and contacts. It will affect me directly."
Museum of Contemporary Art will voluntarily recognize staff union
Chicago Tribune
By Talia Soglin
April 5, 2024
The Museum of Contemporary Art has agreed to voluntarily recognize its staffers’ union, the museum and the union said Friday. The new bargaining unit will include about 100 staff members, including curatorial and collections workers, tour guides and building operations, front desk and retail staffers, all of whom are represented by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 31.
Berea students push for college to remain neutral as they work to have official union
Fox 56 News
By Daegiona Wilson
April 5, 2024
Students at Berea College in Madison County have officially launched a union campaign, pushing for federal approval; they’re calling it the United Student Workers of Berea (USWB). The group is organizing with the Communications Workers of America (CWA). Organizers are now stepping in front of cameras to explain their motivation. “No student should have to live in their car because they couldn’t afford to live in the dorm during winter and summer breaks,” said Olivine Painter, a Berea College junior.
DreamWorks Animation Production Workers Unionize Under IATSE Locals 700 & 839
Deadline
By Katie Campione
April 5, 2024
Dreamworks animation production workers have officially unionized. In total, 160 workers from DreamWorks Animation (DWA) Television and Feature productions will be represented across the The Animation Guild (IATSE Local 839) and the Motion Picture Editors Guild (IATSE Local 700) following a National Labor Relations Board election last week. According to the guild, this marks the largest unit to date with a seat on the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers to join the union. The Animation Guild now represents more than 70% of production workers across AMPTP signatories.
JOINING TOGETHER
Nurses rally outside Kapiolani Medical Center amid contract negotiations
Hawaii News Now
By HNN Staff
April 5, 2024
Nurses rallied outside Kapiolani Medical Center Thursday. The demonstration comes as the nurses’ union and hospital leaders continue negotiations on a new three-year contract for more than 600 nurses. The group has been working without a contract since December last year. Bargaining has been going on since mid-September, with a federal mediator joining the talks in February.
IATSE Sees ‘Momentum’ as Script Supervisors Reach Tentative Deal
Variety
By Gene Maddaus
April 5, 2024
IATSE leadership told members on Friday that they’re gaining “momentum” in negotiations with the studios, as another local union reached a tentative agreement. IATSE Local 871, which represents script supervisors, writers’ assistants, accountants and others, reached an agreement on its craft-specific issues on Wednesday. That makes seven of the 13 West Coast locals that have reached tentative deals. “The work continues for our remaining Locals’ Negotiating Committees, but there’s significant momentum created by these tentative agreements,” said Mike Miller, international vice president, in a message to members. “I congratulate the Negotiating Committee of Local 871 on their effective work.”
UM lecturers' union to hold protest over stalled contract negotiations
WEMU News
By Kevin Meerschaert
April 5, 2024
Earlier this week, the University of Michigan lecturers’ union announced it was circulating a strike pledge petition among its members. Today, lecturers and allies will be holding a rally and march seeking a new deal ahead of the end of the school year. Local LEO-AFT Union President Kirsten Herold says they have been meeting with the University every week since the end of October, but negotiations have stalled. She says the offers have been very slow to come and aren’t being fair to the lecturers on the Dearborn and Flint campuses.
IATSE Local 871 Reaches a Tentative Agreement on Craft-Specific Issues
The Hollywood Reporter
By Katie Kilkenny
April 5, 2024
IATSE Local 871 — the Hollywood crew union that bargains of behalf of script supervisors, art department coordinators and accountants, among others — has reached a tentative deal with studios and streamers on its craft-specific issues. The Local reached a provisional agreement with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers on Wednesday night after three days of bargaining. Members are expected to receive details of the deal once a memorandum of agreement (essentially a detailed summary of the tentative contract’s terms) is drawn up. IATSE confirmed the news in an update to members on Friday.
Workers at downtown Phoenix hotel strike during Final Four
12 News
By Kyra O’Connor
April 6, 2024
Workers at a downtown Phoenix hotel walked out on strike during the men's Final Four. Employees at the Sheraton Downtown Phoenix hotel walked out on strike to protest allegations of unlawful behavior by hotel management, according to a news release from UNITE HERE Local 11, a labor union representing more than 32,000 hospitality workers in Southern California and Arizona.
Democrat & Chronicle journalists prepare to strike through Monday
Rochester First
By Taylor Mulligan
April 6, 2024
Journalists with the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle are preparing to strike through Monday. Unionized journalists plan to continue the strike on the day of the Total Solar Eclipse over “unfair labor practices” after Gannett reportedly failed to agree on a contract Friday. The union cites “bad faith bargaining tactics and refusal to agree to fair pay as some of their main reasons.”
'You Are an Inspiration,' Sanders Tells LA Hotel Workers Fighting for Just Contracts
Common Dreams
By Jake Johnson
April 6, 2024
U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders joined hospitality workers in downtown Los Angeles on Friday as they picketed outside one of the dozens of hotels that have yet to reach a contract deal with UNITE HERE Local 11, whose membership is demanding better pay, benefits, and job protections in one of the nation's most expensive cities.
KVUE
By Morgan McGrath
April 5, 2025
Journalists with the Austin American-Statesman are on strike once again. On Friday, employees of the daily newspaper began their most recent strike in protest of "unfair labor practices and bad-faith bargaining" enacted by the Statesman's owner, Gannett. The journalists started their strike at noon Friday at the South Congress Bridge in Downtown Austin, and they plan to continue through Monday, April 8.