POLITICS
To Build Back Better, Give Workers a Voice and a Stake(Opinion)
Newsweek
By Tom Perriello
July 21, 2021
Bezos is not the first entrepreneur to get rich imagining a product or service people love. But there was once a time when Americans who actually did the work saw a part of the profits and had a voice in the workplace. Henry Ford famously believed that his company benefited from his workers being able to buy the product they made. Living wages and labor unions helped build an American middle class that welcomed workers who built and grew things, even without a college degree. Today, those same workers are fighting for the Protect the Right to Organize Act (PRO Act), a piece of common-sense legislation that would give workers a fair shot at economic mobility and the right to form unions. It gives workers a voice and a stake in America building back better, as well as an ability to bargain for a family wage and to demand safety and dignity on the job.
Big, Ugly Hero to Workers Spared Execution
Intelligencer
By Sarah Jones
July 21, 2021
But rodent admirers can rejoice. The National Labor Relations Board has decided that unions can continue to display the famous inflatable rat after opposition from employers and Peter Robb, the former general counsel of the NLRB who was appointed by President Trump and fired by President Biden. On Wednesday, the NLRB in a 3-1 decision found that the display of inflatable labor mascots such as Scabby did not violate the National Labor Relations Act. Robb had argued that the use of Scabby was unlawfully coercive.
Senator Mark Kelly Says He Supports ‘Overall Goals’ Of PRO Act
HuffPost
By Igor Bobic and Dave Jamieson
July 21, 2021
A key Senate Democrat hinted Wednesday that he would back his party’s effort to overhaul labor law and boost union membership through landmark reforms. Sen. Mark Kelly (Ariz.) told HuffPost that he supports “the overall goals” of the Protecting the Right to Organize Act, or PRO Act, and that he’s open to using budget reconciliation rules to pass parts of it.
We Are Zoomers and We Want the PRO Act
In These Times
By James Coleman and Nick Gonzalez
July 20, 2021
Congress is currently devising a solution that makes it easier for workers to organize and collectively bargain through unions. In March, the House passed the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act, a bill that would allow gig workers to unionize, legalize solidarity strikes and ban various union-busting tactics that keep workers underpaid and overworked. By expanding access to unionization, the PRO Act strengthens avenues for workers to improve their wages and working conditions. It’s a necessary long-term policy for Millennials and Gen Z to remedy endemic economic inequalities.
JOINING TOGETHER
Half of the tech workforce wants to join a union
Protocol
By Anna Kramer
July 21, 2021
A decade ago, many tech workers seemed more concerned with their stock options than forming a union. But in the last two years, a growing list of tech workers have formed unions or tried to, including a very powerful and rapidly-expanding one at Google — and about half of all tech workers are now interested in joining a union, according to a survey conducted by Protocol in partnership with Morning Consult. Fifty percent of survey respondents who identify as technology industry workers said that they are very or somewhat interested in joining a union at their workplace in the survey, conducted from June 17-July 2. Just under 50% of tech industry workers also said that to their knowledge, there is definitely or probably interest in forming a union at their workplace. (To review margins of error and other questions about methodology, see this explanation of how Protocol designed the survey.)
‘We didn’t have a voice’: How the pandemic spurred a museum workers’ rights movement
Boston Globe
By Malcolm Gay
July 19, 2021
When the EcoTarium in Worcester finally reopened its indoor exhibits to the public earlier this month, the science and nature museum promised visitors a variety of changes, including new traveling exhibitions, cashless transactions, and enhanced safety protocols. But the biggest transformation took place a few days before, when a tally revealed museum staff, buffeted by a year of extensive layoffs and shuttered indoor exhibits, had voted overwhelmingly to unionize, joining a national labor movement among museum workers catalyzed by the pandemic. “There’s been a lot of renewed interest,” said Maida Rosenstein, president of Local 2110 UAW, which has organized staff at numerous museums in recent years, including several in New England. “I thought the pandemic would really harm our organizing efforts.”
IN THE STATES
Congress must take action to protect workers (Opinion)
The Outlook
By Jeff Merkley and Graham Trainor
July 21, 2021
As Oregon's U.S. senator and president of the Oregon AFL-CIO, the state's largest federation of unions, we have long advocated for the rights of workers to collectively bargain free from employer interference. Yet, union-busters, big business and woefully outdated labor laws continue to undermine workers' rights. The massively uneven playing field in Bessemer illustrates the urgent need to improve our labor laws. That's why we're pushing to pass the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act — the most significant worker empowerment legislation since the Great Depression. It would dramatically increase penalties for employers that violate workers' rights, and so much more.
Some Pa. workers still waiting on unemployment benefits more than a month after new system launch
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
By Lauren Rosenblatt
July 20, 2021
“Unemployment was designed so people didn’t lose their homes, were able to put food on the table, gave them hope to [go] where they need [to] go,” Darrin Kelly, the president of the Allegheny/Fayette Central Labor Council, said Tuesday at the rally. “Three hundred thousand people have applied. All they’re waiting for is a decision.
Protesters in Norfolk will urge Warner to support union-strengthening PRO Act
WAVY
By Brian Reese
July 21, 2021
Protesters plan to gather outside Sen. Mark Warner’s office in Norfolk on Wednesday to pressure him to sign the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act. The Eastern Virginia Labor Federation, AFL-CIO is holding the protest from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the World Trade Center building downtown. “Our labor laws are outdated and no longer protect our right to form and join unions, the group said in a press release. “The PRO Act is the most significant worker empowerment legislation since the Great Depression. The PRO Act will hold corporations accountable for union-busting and strengthen democracy in the workplace, protect workers’ rights to form and join unions, including in new industries like Big Tech, repeal racist ‘right to work’ laws and more.”
Union Rally Urges Blackburn, Hagerty To Vote For PRO Act
Tennessee Lookout
By Dulce Torres Guzman
July 20, 2021
Workers and union leaders rallied in front of the offices of Tennessee's U.S. senators on Tuesday, urging them to support working-class Americans by voting to provide protections for employees seeking to unionize. "Healthcare for us in the unions is no burden to the taxpayer," said Kim Sansom, president of the Tennessee chapter of International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, an electrical union.
"They've always been essential, the country just now realized it," said A.J. Starling, the secretary/treasurer for the Tennessee AFL-CIO said of workers.
Labor activists hold rallies at four senators’ offices to gain support for Pro Act
KVRR
By George Gonzales
July 21, 2021
Community activists are fighting for a change to labor laws in Minnesota and North Dakota. After receiving support from Minnesota Democratic Senators Tina Smith and Amy Klobuchar, community activists are asking North Dakota Republican senators Kevin Cramer and John Hoeven to join forces and stand with the working people. “Speaking about basic working conditions, pay, or safety are things workers are illegally retaliated for. The Pro Act would hold employers accountable, especially when they punish, harass or fire workers for attempting to organize in improving working conditions,” North Dakota AFL-CIO President Landis Larson said.
AMAZON
Jeff Bezos thanks Amazon workers for Blue Origin launch in revealingly tone-deaf moment
NBC News
By Paris Marx
July 21, 2021
The weeks leading up to the launch featured renewed criticism of the so-called billionaire space race. At a time of ever-worsening inequality and with the effects of the climate crisis more apparent with every passing day, critics asked whether so much attention and resources should be dedicated to the visions of space privatization and colonization put forward by billionaires.