MUST READ
Unions, lawmakers protest Boeing firefighter lockout
Reuters
By David Shepardson
May 13, 2024
At a rally outside Boeing headquarters in Arlington, Virginia, IAFF President Edward Kelly, AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler and Representative Val Hoyle urged Boeing to make a deal. Shuler said Boeing "is looking to establish a pattern and if we can start here with the firefighters it might trickle over to a bigger impact with another union." She added having skilled firefighters was crucial for Boeing. "What makes the company safer ultimately makes the company more trusted and more profitable," Shuler said.
APPRENTICESHIPS
Trade Unions Tackle Workforce Challenges and Diversity
New Jersey Business Magazine
By Anthony Vecchione
May 13, 2024
Construction is a powerful engine that drives New Jersey’s economy. However, according to the Eastern Atlantic States Regional Council of Carpenters (EASRCC), the appetite for creating middle-class construction jobs is not keeping pace with the supply of qualified trades people seeking a sustainable living. As a result, the industry is faced with a paradox and some challenges. Between 2022-2024, EASRCC was unable to accept nearly 14,000 individuals due to the lack of employers willing to hire them, according to William C. Sproule, the organization’s executive secretary-treasurer.
Schuylkill Technology Center starts employment program
Times News
By Staff
May 13, 2024
Schuylkill Technology Center is launching a program to connect high school students in Schuylkill County with employment. This project will expand STC‘s existing programs in residential/industrial electricity, and electromechanical technology by introducing a pre-apprenticeship program through a partnership with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Labor Union Local 743.
ORGANIZING
Mercedes workers in Alabama face anti-union message ‘barrage’ before election
The Guardian
By Michael Sainato
May 13, 2024
The United Auto Workers (UAW) union is setting its sights on its next big union victory in the south, at two Mercedes-Benz plants in Vance and Woodstock, Alabama. Coming off the historic union election win at the Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, 5,200 workers are to begin voting in their union election from 13 May to 17 May. The UAW’s recent win at Volkswagen to represent about 4,300 workers was one of the biggest union election wins in manufacturing in the past 16 years.
Alabama Mercedes-Benz union vote begins today: What’s at stake in this historic labor fight?
AL.com
By William Thornton
May 13, 2024
Voting begins today at Mercedes-Benz’s Vance automotive plant as its 6,000 employees choose whether to make it the first vehicle factory in Alabama represented by the United Auto Workers. Vote totals are expected to be available Friday in the historic election that follows a whirlwind five months as union organizers signed up a majority of workers at the factory, which has been long resistant to union activity.
JOINING TOGETHER
Variety
By Jennifer Maas
May 13, 2024
The Writers Guild of America East council sent a letter to Vox Media brass Monday to demand the company allow employees at its publications The Dodo and Thrillist to merge into the Vox Media Union. The Dodo and Thrillist parent company Group Nine was purchased by Vox Media in December 2021. The Group Nine publications have been incorporated into Vox Media operations, but the employees say Vox Media leadership is refusing to allow them to join the Vox Media Union.
Healthcare workers, union reps rally at Capitol to enforce staffing minimums
CBS 6
By Olivia Jaquith
May 13, 2024
Several healthcare workers and union representatives rallied at the Capitol Monday morning in a call to action for the New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH) to enforce mandated staffing minimums. In 2021, then-Governor Andrew Cuomo signed into law a measure that required every hospital to establish a clinical staffing committee to develop a multidisciplinary staffing plan. Then, in January of 2023, a 1:2 nurse: patient minimum ratio went into effect for those requiring critical care. But, according to a release from the New York State Nurses Assocation (NYSNA), these staffing minimums are not always being met.
Machias hospital turns to mediation amid union negotiations
Bangor Daily News
By Joyce Kryszak
May 13, 2024
A federal mediator is stepping in after a strike earlier this month by Down East Community Hospital’s 50 nurses and technicians failed to end an impasse. A new round of negotiations will begin Thursday, with the mediator facilitating talks between the hospital and the Maine State Nurses Association. The Maine State Nurses Association represents 33 nurses and 17 technicians across various departments at Down East Community Hospital, roughly 12 percent of the workforce at the 26-bed facility in Machias. They have been working under the terms of a two-year contract that expired in mid-October.
MBTA commuter rail workers reach contract agreement, averting strike
Boston Globe
By Esha Walia
May 13, 2024
Commuter rail workers reached a tentative agreement with the MBTA’s contractor Keolis on Friday, heading off a possible strike and bringing potential pay increases of 23 percent. The contract agreement comes after commuter rail workers voted to authorize a strike last month, which threatened to disrupt a service that more than 100,000 riders typically rely upon on weekdays. If approved, the five-year contract would give workers paid sick days for the first time, a $2,000 signing bonus, and a paid holiday for Juneteenth, according to Transport Workers Union Local 2054, which represents commuter rail workers employed by Keolis, a transportation company.
Vogue, Glamour, and Vanity Fair writers tackle exploitative bosses
People’s World
By Mark Gruenberg
May 13, 2024
Writers at Vogue, Glamour, Vanity Fair and other glossy Conde Nast magazines just gave workers yet another outstanding example of how to use leverage to win at the bargaining table —via the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Annual Gala in Manhattan. Which shows that it’s not just industrial workers, such as Auto Workers and Teamsters, who know how to successfully use pressure points to triumph over their exploitative and rich bosses. Having bargained for months for a first contract after voting union in September 2022, and suffering layoffs of at least 100 colleagues just before Christmas, the writers, members of the Conde Nast unit of The News Guild Of New York, took to the streets to take their case to the public.
Solidarity Sends the Bullies Packing
Daily Kos
By David McCall
May 13, 2024
Management at Amfuel tried to bully Jo Tucker and her 200 co-workers—most of them Black women, a number of them single moms—into accepting dozens of unnecessary concessions in a new contract. For four years, however, the manufacturing workers in Magnolia, Ark., remained strong and resolute as the company tried to break the union and wear them down. And then, just as the workers prepared to launch an unfair labor practice strike a couple of weeks ago, Amfuel surrendered. Because of their unflinching solidarity, the workers beat back the concessions and won a contract with life-changing raises, additional holidays and other benefit enhancements. “We didn’t lose anything,” noted Tucker, a negotiating committee member and the financial secretary for United Steelworkers (USW) Local 607L. “That was good.”
Spokane grocery store workers ratify 3-year contract
Fox 28
By efrint1
May 13, 2024
Spokane grocery store workers overwhelmingly ratified a new three-year contract in their first union negotiation. UFCW 3000 confirmed their new contract on May 2, expressing their excitement with the negotiations. “In the midst of a proposed grocery mega-merger, we’ve sent a clear message —We have power in our communities, we have a voice in our workplace, and we have a strong new contract that will be the backbone for our future,” UFCW 3000 said.”
Minnesota grocery workers sign union contract
Supermarket News
By Timothy Inklebarger
May 13, 2024
Workers at Quisberg’s and Miner’s grocery stores in Brainerd Lakes, Minn., have ratified a contract through the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 663 union. The new three-year contract, which is retroactive to Dec. 3, 2023, includes higher wages and establishes new pathways for better part-time jobs, the union said in a press release.
STATE LEGISLATION
Senate expected to take up bill to end majority rule voting this week
Labor Tribune
By Sheri Gassaway
May 13, 2024
With the state budget out of the way, the Senate is expected to reconsider a bill this week to make it harder to amend the state constitution through the citizen-led initiative petition process, thus ending majority rule voting in Missouri. Currently, ballot referendums generated by citizen-led initiative petitions need only a simple majority to pass. SJR74 would require the approval of a majority of voters statewide and a majority of voters in five of the state’s eight congressional districts to pass. “I think this bill sets the Senate up for implosion, and it’s not going to end well,” said Jake Hummel, Missouri AFL-CIO president. “If the measure does pass, then voters will have to decide the issue, and we will be ready to ensure the principle of one person, one vote is upheld and the initiative petition process continues.”
Minnesota Unions Push for Bill Extending Unemployment Insurance to Striking Workers
Workday Minnesota
By Isabela Escalona
May 13, 2024
Going on strike is one of the most powerful tools workers have, but can be a difficult choice for workers to forgo weeks of pay in the hopes of making greater gains for the long term. However, Minnesota is currently one of a handful of states that may extend unemployment benefits to workers on strike. Local unions and allies are advocating for a bill that would allow striking workers to access unemployment benefits for strikes that last over one week.
Labor-backed bill banning 'captive audience' meetings awaits House action
Northrn Public Radio
By Alex Abbeduto
May 13, 2024
With two weeks left before the General Assembly's spring session is set to adjourn, negotiations continue on a labor union-backed initiative that would allow Illinoisans to skip religious and political work meetings without reprimand. Dubbed the “Worker Freedom of Speech Act,” Senate Bill 3649 advanced out of the Senate on May 2 with only Democratic support. The Illinois AFL-CIO labor organization brought the measure to Sen. Robert Peters, D-Chicago, in an effort to ban what the unions refer to as employer-sponsored “captive audience meetings” pertaining to religion and politics. Labor advocates say the meetings give employers an opportunity to coerce employees to listen to anti-union rhetoric.
LABOR AND COMMUNITY
Long Island Federation of Labor-AFL-CIO’s annual dinner
The Island 360
May 13, 2024
Sands New York served as the event sponsor for the Long Island Federation of Labor-AFL-CIO’s Annual Reception for the second year in a row. Honorees included U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, 1199 SEIU United Healthcare Workers East Vice President William Kee, and Long Island Contractors’ Association Executive Director Marc Herbst – with a special guest appearance by U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.
LABOR HISTORY
The Forgotten History of the Child Labor Amendment
Time
By Betsy Wood
May 13, 2024
Child labor protections in America are being challenged at the state level and, in some cases, reversed in ways we haven’t seen in decades. In 2022 and 2023, Arkansas, Iowa, New Hampshire, and New Jersey passed laws weakening protections for child workers. At least eight other states are considering similar laws. Most recently, Missouri is considering a bill to loosen restrictions for kids ages 14 and 15, and the Alabama Policy Institute is pushing for undoing child labor laws as a solution to Alabama's labor shortage.
UNION BUSTING
Providence Accused of Retaliating Against Union Drive
Willamette Week
By Lucas Manfield
May 12, 2024
Last month, the Pacific Northwest Hospital Medicine Association filed formal charges with federal regulators, accusing Providence Health & Services of firing a physician assistant in retaliation for helping to push a successful unionization drive among medical providers at the health system’s urgent care clinics. A Providence spokesperson declined to comment. The charging document, filed April 15 with the National Labor Relations Board, accuses the health system of having “discharged [the PA] because the employee joined or supported a labor organization and in order to discourage union activities.”