Today's AFL-CIO Press Clips
POLITICS
‘He has our backs’: Pa. steelworkers cheer Biden’s proposed tariffs on Chinese steel
Penn Live
By J.D. Prose
April 17, 2024
Darrin Kelly, the president of the Allegheny/Fayette Central Labor Council, told PennLive that Biden’s tariffs proposal “is just one further acknowledgment that this is the most worker-friendly president in the history of our great country.” Kelly praised Biden’s commitment to labor and the middle-class, saying that, “Every step and every breath this man takes has the American worker in his blood, in his heart. That’s why we’re here. That’s why we’ll always stand with him.”
Biden vows to shield US steel industry by blocking Japanese merger and seeking new Chinese tariffs
AP
By Chris Megerian and Will Weissert
April 17, 2024
President Joe Biden suggested to cheering, unionized steelworkers on Wednesday that his administration would thwart the acquisition of U.S. Steel by a Japanese company, and he called for a tripling of tariffs on Chinese steel, seeking to use trade policy to win over working-class votes in the battleground state of Pennsylvania. The Democratic president’s pitch comes as Donald Trump, his likely Republican opponent, tries to chart a path back to the White House with tough-on-China rhetoric and steep tariff proposals of his own. During a visit to the Pittsburgh headquarters of United Steelworkers, Biden said U.S. Steel “has been an iconic American company for more than a century and it should remain totally American.”
Biden makes unions and steel the focus of his first 2024 visit to Pittsburgh
Michigan Advance
By Kim Lyons
April 18, 2024
President Joe Biden came to the Steel City for the second leg of a three-city trip across Pennsylvania on Wednesday and did two things that bode well for his chances of winning Allegheny County in the general election. First, he reiterated his pledge to oppose the $14.9 billion sale of U.S. Steel to Japan-based Nippon Steel. Second, he picked up an order at Sheetz. As he entered the lobby of the U.S. Steelworkers headquarters, he was greeted by a small gathering of union workers. One woman shouted, “Let’s keep U.S. Steel in America!” Biden responded, “Guaranteed.” He then headed up to a larger gathering of union workers, where he was joined by Allegheny County Executive Sara Innamorato, Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey and United Steelworkers president David McCall.
LABOR AND ECONOMY
The Paradox of the American Labor Movement
The Atlantic
By Michael Podhorzer
April 18, 2024
Last year was widely hailed as a breakthrough for the American worker. Amid a historically hot labor market, the United Auto Workers and Hollywood writers’ and actors’ guilds launched high-profile strikes that made front-page news and resulted in significant victories. Strikes, organizing efforts, and public support for unions reached heights not seen since the 1960s. Two in three Americans support unions, and 59 percent say they would be in favor of unionizing their own workplace. And Joe Biden supports organized labor more vocally than any other president in recent memory. You could look at all this and say that the U.S. labor movement is stronger than it has been in decades.
ORGANIZING
Shedd Aquarium employees launch union drive
Chicago Tribune
By Rebecca Johnson
April 18, 2024
Employees at the Shedd Aquarium announced plans to unionize Thursday, the latest in a series of unionization campaigns at Chicago’s prominent cultural in recent years. The employees eventually plan to file for a union election with the American Federatin of Sate, County and Municipal Employees Council 31, which since 2022 has union ized workers at the Museum of Contemporary Art, the Art Institute and its affiliated school, the Museum of Science and Industry, the Field Museum, the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum in Lincoln Park and the Newberry Library, a research library on the Near North Side.
Mercedes-Benz workers to vote on whether to join the UAW in May
The Detroit News
By Breana Noble
April 18, 2024
Employees at Mercedes-Benz Group's assembly and battery plants outside Tuscaloosa, Alabama, will vote whether to join the United Auto Workers from May 13-17, the National Labor Relations Board said Thursday. The election will be the Detroit-based union's second at a foreign-owned assembly plant following the launch of its $40 million organizing campaign at auto and battery plants in the wake of record contracts with the Detroit Three automakers last fall. The first test is underway as workers at the Volkswagen AG plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, currently are voting on whether to unionize. Results from that election are expected late Friday.
Learning to lead: ILR institute trains the next generation of union organizers
Cornell Chronicle
By Susan Kelley
April 18, 2024
A former sanitation worker, Hill is one of 32 labor professionals set to graduate June 6 from the AFL-CIO/Cornell-ILR Union Leadership Institute (ULI). Based in the ILR School, the year-long program prepares New York’s up-and-coming union leaders to strengthen their organizations and advance the rights of all workers as the state’s labor activity is on a rapid rise. About 20% of New York workers are union members – or 1.7 million people, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. That rate of unionization is about twice the national average, and the highest in the country except for Hawaii. The state also has the second-highest number of unionized workers in the nation, behind California – a much more populous state. “You get a sense of the really important role that unions play in New York state’s economy,” said Kathleen Mulligan, interim executive director of the Worker Institute in ILR. “How do we do business in New York? We do it with union workers.”
Low pay, long hours, and dangerous work: Why ski patrollers in Colorado are fighting to unionize
Fast Company
By Capital and Main
April 17, 2024
After more than a year of trying to form the first ski patrol union at Eldora Mountain Resort outside Nederland, CO, Nick Lansing found himself navigating an unexpected trail. Like other patrollers, Lansing said he took the job because it fused two of his passions: skiing and helping others. In his four years on the job, he came to see it as a possible career. But Lansing and other patrollers struggled to overcome one big obstacle: wages that start as low as $19 an hour, too little to pay rent in the expensive area. In October 2023, Lansing and about 70% of his coworkers filed a formal petition to form a union with the National Labor Relations Board. On April 1, about two weeks before the expected end of the ski season, more than 90% of the patrollers voted for the union, the Eldora Professional Ski Patrol Association.
Disney Vacation Club sales reps seek union election in Anaheim
Los Angeles Times
By Gabriel San Román
April 18, 2024
It’s never happened at the Disney Vacation Club since the timeshare program first began in 1990. But after the pandemic and with the Villas at Disneyland Hotel, a new 12-story 344 room tower of timeshares, open for business, sales representatives in Anaheim are fighting for the right to unionize. An April 10 filing with the National Labor Relations Board seeks an election on the question of whether dozens of sales reps will join Unite Here Local 11, a union that already counts thousands of Disney hotel workers among its ranks.
JOINING TOGETHER
New contract at Portland Hilton, after two years bargaining
Northwest Labor Press
By Mallory Gruben
April 18, 2024
UNITE HERE Local 8 reached a tentative agreement on April 11 that raises wages and restores automatic daily room cleaning at the Hilton and Duniway hotels in downtown Portland. Local 8 represents about 125 workers across the two Hilton-owned hotels, including housekeepers, cooks, bellhops, and reception clerks. Under past contracts, most workers have received raises every February and August. But the previous agreement expired February 2022, and those workers have gone more than two years without a raise. (At least some tipped workers at the hotel, like bellhops, are paid the Portland minimum wage, which is currently set at $15.45 an hour. Their wages go up when minimum wage does.)
Aramark workers at Wells Fargo Center will strike again next week
Philly Voice
By Michaela Althouse
April 18, 2024
Aramark workers at the Wells Fargo Center will strike Thursday, April 25, interrupting a 76ers playoff game, employees announced at a City Council meeting. This is the second time workers declared a strike as they negotiate for a new contract with the food company. "We are fans of the team, but I must announce at this time, we will be starting another strike again on Thursday for the playoffs," Carlton Epps, who works for Aramark at all three stadiums, said during the meeting. Bartenders, concession workers, cooks, servers, dishwashers and warehouse employees represented by the Unite Here Local 274 union have been in negotiations for the past few months. Workers seek higher wages and full-time benefits, as they often work at all three sports complex venues – Wells Fargo Center, Citizens Bank Park and Lincoln Financial Field – but their hours at each are counted separately. Thus, many work the equivalent hours of a full-time job without health care benefits.
'Sesame Street' writers authorize a strike if they don't reach a contract by Friday
NPR
By Ayana Archie and Rachel Treisman
April 18, 2024
Writers for Sesame Street have voted unanimously to authorize a strike if they are unable to reach an agreement on their new contract before Friday, the Writers Guild of America East announced Tuesday. Thirty-five WGA union members are asking Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit that produces the mainstay children's program, for "industry standard annual raises, improvements to residuals, and union coverage for Sesame Workshop's popular animation and social media segments," for the show's writers, WGA said.
Nurses union holds rally at Mission Hospital ahead of contract negotiations
WSPA
By Robert Cox
April 18, 2024
A union representing more than 1,500 nurses at Mission Hospital hosted a rally Thursday ahead of contract negotiations with the hospital. National Nurses United said their contract with HCA Healthcare, the parent company of Mission Hospital, will expire on July 2. “When HCA took over Mission in 2019, it completely changed our hospital for the worse,” said Kelly Coward, RN in the cardiovascular intensive care unit at Mission Hospital since 1997 in a statement released by National Nurses United. “We used to be the place that every nurse in the region wanted to work, and we had high retention because of it. But HCA cares more about profits than the people we take care of. This contract fight is about reclaiming Mission as a hospital to provide care for patients, not just an investment to milk for cash.”
Chicago Teachers Union goes big with new contract demands
Axios Chicago
By Justin Kaufmann
April 18, 2024
The Chicago Teachers Union released a list of "transformative" demands this week as they begin the arduous process of negotiating a new contract. Why it matters: Chicago Public Schools and the CTU — one of the most progressive teachers unions in the country — are looking to disrupt the pattern of contentious standoffs that have led to multiple work stoppages since 2012. What they're saying: "Our collective bargaining agreement is a tool, a vehicle for transformative change and we are going to up the ante," CTU president Stacy Davis-Gates said at a recent press conference. State of play: The union has put forth over 700 new items in what they're calling the most "ambitious" contract proposal ever.
Walgreens pharmacists rally for fair pay and conditions across Chicago area
Fox 32 Chicago
By Jenna Carroll
April 18, 2024
The National Pharmacists Association-LIUNA (NPhA-LIUNA), representing nearly 900 Walgreens pharmacists in Chicagoland, will begin demonstrating at 46 Walgreens stores throughout the Chicago area starting Thursday. The aim is to advocate for improved pay and working conditions for Walgreens pharmacists.
STATE LEGISLATION
Alabama lawmakers OK bill barring state incentives to companies that voluntarily recognize union
CBS 42
By Associated Press
April 18, 2024
Alabama lawmakers on Tuesday advanced legislation that would withhold economic incentive dollars from companies that voluntarily recognize a union without holding a secret ballot election. The Alabama Senate voted 23-5 for the bill by Republican Sen. Arthur Orr, of Decatur. It now moves to the Alabama House of Representatives. The measure says that companies would be ineligible for economic development incentives if they voluntarily recognize a union after a majority of employees return union-authorization cards — a process sometimes called “card check-off.” Under the proposal, a secret ballot election would be required to determine if a union would be formed.
IN THE STATES
The union building trades can be a gateway to wage equality for MN women
Minnesota Reformer
By Kailee Schminkey
April 18, 2024
In my union, we have no wage gap, but there’s still a lot of work to be done to eliminate it in Minnesota. According to the Office of the Attorney General, women with master’s degrees in our state still earn over $1,000 per year less than comparable men with only a bachelor’s degree. Only 3% of Minnesota middle-wage construction workers are women, but nearly half of FTIUM grads are women and people of color. A recent study from Kevin Rinz and John Voorheis pointed to insidious racial wage inequality in our state. With our large Black and immigrant population, how can so many industries not respond to the detrimental economic effects this has on our communities?
LABOR AND COMMUNITY
JobCorps crew leaves mark on Oregon Labor Center
Northwest Labor Press
By Don McIntosh
April 18, 2024
Oregon AFL-CIO’s Portland headquarters got a spruce-up in early April thanks to a paint crew from Timber Lake Job Corps in Estacada. Job Corps is a federally funded vocational training program for low income young people aged 16 to 24. Over 10 to 24 months, enrollees get room and board, health care, and a small stipend while they gain exposure to occupations like painting, carpentry, and wildfire fighting. “It feels like it’s the best kept secret,” said Job Corps Northwest Field Coordinator Tandy Sturgeon, a member of Painters Local 10. The International Union of Painters and Allied Trades is one of several unions that partner with Job Corps and offer direct entry into an apprenticeship programs for graduates who meet qualifications.
WORKPLACE SAFETY AND HEALTH
Increasingly, letter carriers face armed robbery
Northwest Labor Press
By Mallory Gruben
April 18, 2024
To counter a 200% increase in robberies of letter carriers in the last six years, federal lawmakers in March introduced new legislation at the request of the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) union. The number of robberies reported to the U.S. Postal Inspection Service (postal police) rose from 140 in 2020 to 423 in 2022. Willie Groshell, a former president of the Oregon state branch of NALC who now works for the national union, said most of the cases involve an attempted theft of the carrier’s arrow key. Arrow keys provide access to all of the locked mailboxes located in one zip code — a valuable prize for a thief looking to steal packages, prescriptions, and Social Security checks inside those boxes.