Today's AFL-CIO Press Clips
POLITICS
Kamala Harris’s Entry Has ‘Electrified’ Presidential Race: American Federation Of Teachers President (Watch)
Forbes
July 29, 2024
During The American Federation of Teachers’ convention last week, President Randi Weingarten spoke in support of Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign.
UAW planning to endorse Harris
Politico
By Adam Cancryn and Sarah Ferris
July 30, 2024
Harris personally reached out to Fain shortly after declaring her candidacy, a measure of direct contact that the two people said was instrumental to shoring up support and convincing union leadership that the campaign now had a plan to win in November — and remained committed to courting the blue-collar workers that the UAW represents. The vice president has also promoted her organized labor bona fides during the first days of her campaign, pointing to the administration’s pro-union policies and her close work with labor leaders as the head of the White House’s task force on worker organizing and empowerment. Many of the nation’s largest labor unions have since endorsed her, including the AFL-CIO, SEIU and American Federation of Teachers.
How unionized voters could decide the election
Axois
By Emilt Peck
July 30, 2024
Between the lines: A big question heading into November is whether the Biden administration's pro-union moves — like the president walking the UAW picket line, and putting union protections into key legislation — will make a difference on Election Day. So far, many big unions have thrown their support behind Harris' campaign.
Atlanta voters embrace Kamala Harris candidacy with energy, enthusiasm at campaign rally
Savannah Morning News
By Maya Homan
July 30, 2024
“This was the shock of energy that the Democrats needed,” said Atlanta-based makeup artist Jennifer Bennett, who got tickets to attend the rally through her union, the Georgia AFL-CIO. Her biggest priorities, she said, were issues that affect workers and families, as well as access to healthcare and calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. She thinks Harris has a much better chance of winning in a state like Georgia than President Joe Biden would have, had he stayed in the race, because of the excitement surrounding her candidacy.
LABOR AND TECHNOLOGY
The Video Game Industry Is More Successful Than Ever. Why Are the Workers Treated Like Garbage?
Slate
By Nitish Pahwa
July 30, 2024
Video game workers—whatever their job, employer, or status—have clearly had enough. This month alone, the labor movement has made some of its biggest advancements ever in organizing the techies, artists, and creatives who keep the largest, most culturally significant sector of the global entertainment industry running and thriving.
ORGANIZING
New Report Shows Greater Interest in Labor Unions, Especially Among Young Workers
UC San Diego Today
By Christine Clark
July 30, 2024
A new report from the University of California San Diego School of Global Policy and Strategy reveals significant changes in support for labor unions among U.S. workers. The report, published by the Economics Policy Institute, delves into the evolving attitudes toward unions and identifies three major shifts are occurring in U.S. workers: a recent, marked decline in opposition to labor unions, a rise of workers who are interested in—but unsure about—unions and an emerging generation gap in attitudes toward unionization between younger and older workers.
NEGOTIATIONS & STRIKES
Disneyland workers ratify new contract, avoiding strike
The Washington Post
By Samantha Chery and Kelsey Ables
July 30, 2024
The Southern California resort workers — called cast members — who voted Monday said yes to the three-year contract, which includes a minimum wage of $24 this year (or more in some cases), wage increases, seniority increases, and more flexible attendance and sick leave policies, among other gains for 14,000 Disney workers covered by the agreement. The contract goes into effect immediately upon ratification.
Disneyland Avoids Strike, Workers Agree To $24 Hourly Minimum Wage
Forbes
By Suzanne Rowan Kelleher
July 30, 2024
Disney Workers Rising is a coalition of unions representing 14,000 workers at Disneyland, Disney’s California Adventure, Downtown Disney, and Disney hotels, in roles ranging from custodians and ride operators to candy-makers, balloon-sellers and retail workers.
Actors' Equity Association Supports Striking SAG-AFTRA Video Game Workers
Broadway World
By Chloe Rabinowitz
July 29, 2024
Actors’ Equity Association is offering its support to the SAG-AFTRA members in the video game industry who are currently on strike. After more than a year and a half of bargaining, these performers are striking against some of the largest video game companies in the industry. The major concern of these workers is the use of artificial intelligence in video games and the needs for guardrails that protect performers’ likenesses from being used without their active participation or fair compensation.
Towson Apple Store Workers Set To Vote On Landmark Union Contract With 10% Pay Raise
Hoodline
By Emily White
July 30, 2024
These 85 employees stand at the forefront of a nationwide trend of retail worker unionization, and their actions may set a precedent for other stores. This landmark agreement was reached after the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers' Coalition of Organized Retail Employees (IAM CORE) at the Towson store authorized a strike in May. Eric Brown, a Towson Apple Store employee and member of the bargaining team, provided a local perspective stating that the pandemic underscored how little influence workers had in decision-making processes, leading to all-time low morale in the early days of the pandemic, as reported by WMAR.
NLRB
US court weighs impact on NLRB of Supreme Court ruling on agency powers
Reuters
By Daniel Wiessner
July 29, 2024
A U.S. appeals court on Monday signaled that a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling curbing the in-house enforcement powers of some federal agencies could impact the National Labor Relations Board, in a case involving alleged labor law violations by Macy's.
A three-judge panel of the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit asked lawyers, opens new tab for the board, Macy's, and a union representing the retailer's employees to file briefs explaining how the Supreme Court's June ruling in Jarkesy v. U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission may affect the NLRB's ability to impose remedies in administrative cases.
Top NLRB lawyer tells metro Detroit workers agency has their backs
Detroit Free Press
By Eric D. Lawrence
July 30, 2024
The top lawyer for the National Labor Relations Board told workers at a union hall in metro Detroit on Monday that her agency has their backs. Jennifer Abruzzo, the general counsel for the federal agency that investigates complaints about issues, including unfair labor practices, gave both a pep talk and explanation of worker rights during a visit to UAW Local 174 on Middlebelt Road in Livonia, where she met with workers employed by Webasto. The union hall includes a large portrait of legendary UAW leader Walter Reuther, who had also served as president of the local.
IN THE STATES
Union organizing, actions on the rise in different kinds of Minnesota workplaces
Star Tribune
By Zoë Jackson
July 30, 2024
Union activity across industries and workplaces not always associated with the labor movement — museums, nonprofits, restaurants and bookstores among them — has ramped up in recent years, both in Minnesota and around the country. That brings new attention to the labor movement from people who might associate it with more traditional blue-collar workplaces, said John Budd, professor of work and organizations at the University of Minnesota's Carlson School of Management.
WORKPLACE SAFETY AND HEALTH
Delta Caved to Harassment Over Palestine Flag Pins, But Workers Are Fighting Ban
Truthout
By Kim Kelly
July 29, 2024
Delta is not currently unionized, but the AFA-CWA has been working to change that since 2021, when the union announced its intention to organize the carrier’s 28,000 flight attendants. The DeltaAFA campaign itself began even earlier, in 2019, when flight attendants began organizing around wages and workplace safety. In-flight harassment is a major occupational hazard for flight attendants, and highly charged public dramas like the pin affair only increase the potential for tension on board. Pins may seem like small potatoes to some, but consider this: today the controversy is over a Palestine flag; tomorrow, it could be a Pride flag, a pronoun pin, or a Black Lives Matter pin. Allowing passengers to bully airlines into altering policies to fit their own specific political prejudices sets a dangerous precedent, and flight attendants are the ones who will be left to deal with the fallout head-on.
LABOR AND COMMUNITY
Chicago Tribune
By Pioneer Press
July 30, 2024
The township participated in one of the largest one-day food drives in the nation, National Association of Letter Carriers’ Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive, where residents were encouraged to leave a bag of requested items – dried goods, canned goods and other nonperishable food – by their mailboxes, the release states.
UNION BUSTING
Station Casinos union-busting complaint goes to labor court
Las Vegas Review-Journal
By McKenna Ross
July 30, 2024
The next phase of a trial at the nation’s top labor relations court beginning Tuesday puts allegations of union-busting at Station Casinos in court. The case stems from a complaint announced in April 2021. Attorneys for the National Labor Relations Board argued that Red Rock Resorts – the parent company of the Station Casinos brand – used the COVID-19 pandemic layoffs to undermine Culinary Local 226 union-affiliated workers and union representation in the company.
AMAZON
Company documents reveal 45% of Amazon warehouse workers injured during Prime Week
Labor Tribune
July 29, 2024
The Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee has released initial findings from its year-long investigation into Amazon’s injury crisis. The committee — whose investigation was prompted by organizing among workers at the STL8 fulfillment center since 2022, including multiple visits with Senate HELP Committee staff on Capitol Hill last spring — found evidence that Amazon knows its injury rate is much higher than it has revealed to the public and regulators. In 2019, nearly 45 percent of workers were injured during peak times like Prime Day and holidays, as a result of company management pressuring employees to work at unsafe speeds, according to internal company documents made public for the first time.