Today's AFL-CIO press clips
MUST READ
YOUR LETTERS: AFL-CIO celebrates LGBTQIA+ Pride Month
Labor Tribune
By Liz Shuler
June 24, 2024
This June, we celebrate the LGBTQIA+ community, and reaffirm our commitment to ensuring equity, dignity, and inclusion both in life and in the workplace. Collective bargaining remains the best tool against discrimination of any kind, which is why the AFL-CIO fights so that working people of all sexual orientations, gender identities and expressions can enjoy the protections of a union contract. We honor the legacy of queer organizers, whose contributions have too often gone underappreciated and unknown. From Bayard Rustin’s central role in the March on Washington to the ongoing advocacy of Pride at Work, queer leaders have always been at the cutting edge of worker advancements. Still, queer people face ongoing discrimination due to the lack of adequate federal protections in the workplace. Meanwhile, state legislatures continue to pass extreme, discriminatory laws that restrict both LGBTQIA+ rights, especially trans rights, and the freedom to join a union. This movement will never tolerate hate and will continue to be a force for progress whether it’s in the courts, on the streets or at the ballot box this fall. The AFL-CIO proudly stands in solidarity with the LGBTQIA+ community everywhere, this month and always.
JOINING TOGETHER
iHeartMedia Workers Vote to Ratify First Union Contract
The Hollywood Reporter
By Katie Kilkenny
June 24, 2024
More than two years after negotiations began, iHeartMedia workers represented by the Writers Guild of America East have ratified their first labor contract. Ninety-nine percent of the 100-member group voted to ratify the contract in a recent vote, while one percent voted against. The WGA East represents writers, producers, editors and other people who work in storytelling at the audio company.
AT&T workers in Lowcountry hold picket as contract negotiations approach
ABC News 4
By Perrin Moore
June 24, 2024
Lowcountry AT&T workers with the Communications Workers of America Local 3704 held an informational picket Monday morning outside of the telecommunications company's facilities in North Charleston and Summerville. CWA Local 3704 is a member of CWA District 3, which comprises many states in the southeast. Informational pickets are held to show support and rally behind unions heading to the negotiating table, as well as raise public awareness on upcoming negotiations.
Writers At iHeartPodcast Network Ratify First Contract More Than 2 Years After Unionizing With WGA
Deadline
By Katie Campione
June 24, 2024
There will be no strike after all for the writers at iHeart Podcast Network. The 100-member bargaining unit of the Writers Guild of America East has “overwhelmingly” ratified its first deal with the network, the union announced on Monday. The ratification comes after more than two years of negotiations and an Unfair Labor Practice charge against the management at iHeart. “We are incredibly proud to announce the ratification of our first contract. After two long years of bargaining we’ve landed on a contract that we feel greatly improves our working and every day lives. We are excited to begin life under a union contract and to continue to advocate for our entire unit,” the bargaining unit said in a statement.
The Stand
By Staff
June 24, 2024
Everett NewsGuild members, represented by the Pacific Northwest Newspaper Guild, will participate in a one-day strike and picket in downtown Everett on Monday in the wake of layoffs announced last week. These layoffs cut the newsroom staff in half, with notices handed down to 10 of 18 union workers. The Everett NewsGuild is taking action to urge the newspaper’s new owner, Carpenter Media Group, to negotiate and reinstate these jobs.
“Finally Somebody’s Fighting For Us”: Grocery Store Workers are Fed Up
Workday Magazine
By Amie Stager
June 24, 2024
The past year and a half, let alone the past four years, have been busy for grocery store workers in Minnesota, especially union members who have been in contract negotiations. Thousands of metro-area UFCW Local 663 members at UNFI Cub Foods, Lunds & Byerlys, Kowalski’s Markets, and Seward Community Co-op voted to authorize unfair labor practice (ULP) strikes, and reached tentative agreements (TA) that members voted to approve. Workers took actions, from voting to authorize strikes and marching on the boss to flyering outside stores. In many cases, in the eleventh hour before going on strike, employers gave into workers’ demands. A monumental labor struggle has taken place in the Brainerd Lakes Area, a two-hour drive north from the Twin Cities where almost 100,000 Minnesotans live and work. Workers at two Cub Foods, two Super Ones, and a SuperValu voted 88% in favor of accepting a contract on May 2. They had been negotiating since November and conducted a four-day ULP strike over the Christmas holiday from December 22 to 25. After that strike, members rejected another contract offer in January.
New contract for Miami solid waste workers highlights the union difference
Labor Tribune
By Staff
June 24, 2024
Despite Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis ramming extreme union-busting legislation through the state legislature last year, AFSCME Florida members working at Miami’s solid waste department recently ratified a new three-year contract with the city that proves the power of collective action. The bill, S.B. 256, requires most public sector unions to maintain 60 percent dues payment rates, requires anti-union language to be added to membership cards, outlaws their right to receive dues via paycheck deductions, requires them to undertake costly auditing procedures, and more provisions aimed at undermining the rights of union members. AFSCME Local 871 members refused to back down and resolved to retain their union through these attacks. They signed and re-signed every new card and were one of the first locals to pass the law’s 60 percent membership threshold. As of last week, nearly 85 percent of the workers in Local 871’s bargaining unit are AFSCME members.
UC offers wage, health care proposals to AFSCME union workers
The Daily Californian
By Matthew Yoshimoto
June 24, 2024
The University of California presented an updated wage package and a health care cost proposal to the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, or AFSCME, last Tuesday. AFSCME consists of 31,700 service workers and patient care technical employees across the UC system. If the union accepts the wage proposal, AFSCME-represented employees will receive either $25 an hour or a 5% raise to their base hourly rate — depending on whichever is greater — by the start of this July. This effective date is 10 months earlier than previously proposed, noted a UC press release.
CBD Kratom employees at 17 stores in eastern Missouri and Illinois vote to unionize with UFCW
Labor Tribune
By Staff
June 24, 2024
Fifty employees at 17 CBD Kratom stores in eastern Missouri and Illinois have voted to unionize with UFCW. Employees voted 23 to 6 to unionize, with 75 percent of the eligible employees participating. St. Louis-based CBD Kratom sells kratom and hemp-derived THC products. The employees join more than 15,000 cannabis industry workers nationwide as members of UFCW. Of the 17 locations that voted to organize, 14 are located in St.Louis and will be represented by UFCW Local 655. The remaining 3 in Illinois will be represented by UFCW Local 881.
How workers took on L.A.’s hotel industry and won
Audacy
By Kate Gallagher
June 24, 2024
When Unite Here Local 11 kicked off the largest hotel strike in modern U.S. history, even the union leadership wasn’t expecting it to go this far. “We have a militancy in our membership now that I don't – it's unmatched. I've never seen anything like it,” co-president Kurt Petersen said. “I mean, I'm scared of the workers now.” In July 2023, Unite Here Local 11, which represents 32,000 hospitality workers in Los Angeles and Orange counties, began a series of work stoppages after their contracts expired with 65 major hotels.
LABOR AND ECONOMY
Union membership means more wealth for working Americans
Labor Tribune
By Staff
June 24, 2024
New studies prove what unions have been arguing for years: Union membership means more wealth for working Americans. The Center for American Progress (CAP) analyzed new data from the Federal Reserve’s Survey of Consumer Finances and found that the median union household has significantly more wealth than non-union households, and these differences hold across demographic groups including race, ethnicity and education levels.
LABOR AND COMMUNITY
“Since day one we’ve been learning.” Boys and Girls Club celebrates Pre-Apprenticeship graduation
Madison 365
By Omar Waheed
June 24, 2024
A group of Madison high schoolers graduated from a pre-apprenticeship program last week after getting a chance to explore careers in the trades. On May 31, the students graduated as the second cohort from the Boys and Girls Club of Dane County’s Pre-Apprenticeship Program. For four months, 18 students made rounds through local trade unions from electricians to sheet metal workers to explore what a career in the trades looks like and a starting point in their post high school plans. For this round of the program, BGCDC partnered with Wisconsin Laborers’ District Council, part of Laborers’ International Union of North America.
WORKPLACE SAFETY AND HEALTH
Crew Deaths Put Safety Back In Spotlight For Guilds & Studios
Deadline
By Katie Campione
June 24, 2024
As IATSE nears what is likely to be the final round of talks with the studios over a new three-year contract beginning Monday, safety is again one of the primary concerns of guild members. In December, a woman died in a car accident after a lengthy overnight shoot on Peacock’s upcoming series Hysteria! Her death was not previously reported widely or linked to the production but, earlier this year, more on-set accidents did begin to make the news. In February, a crew member on the set of Marvel’s Wonder Man died after falling from a catwalk. In April, several crew members were injured after a stunt-gone-wrong on the set of Eddie Murphy’s Amazon film The Pickup.