Today's AFL-CIO Press Clips
POLITICS
Kamala Harris to propose ban on ‘price gouging’ for food, groceries
The Washington Post
By Jeff Stein
Aug. 15, 2024
Vice President Kamala Harris on Friday will unveil a proposed ban on “price gouging” in the grocery and food industries, embracing a strikingly populist proposal in her most significant economic policy announcement since becoming the Democratic Party’s nominee. In a statement released late Wednesday night, the Harris campaign said that if elected, she would push for the “first-ever federal ban” on food price hikes, with sweeping new powers for federal authorities. Harris on Friday will also announce plans to lower prescription drug and housing costs, the campaign said.
Kamala Harris unveils populist policy agenda, with $6,000 credit for newborns
The Washington Post
By Jeff Stein and Dan Diamond
Aug. 16, 2024
Vice President Kamala Harris on Friday unveiled an aggressively populist economic agenda, providing the most detailed vision yet of her governing priorities since becoming the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee. Ahead of a speech in North Carolina, Harris’s campaign announced support for more than a dozen economic policies aimed at “lowering costs for American families,” including some that went beyond what President Biden had promised.
"Stark comparison": Union leaders praise Tim Walz as JD Vance tries to rebrand GOP as pro-labor
Salon
By Marin Scotten
Aug. 15, 2024
As a former high school teacher, Walz was once a union member himself. Long before Walz joined the national ticket, he helped make Minnesota one of the most worker-friendly states in the country. “He's done great work here with labor, and we appreciate his willingness to always be at the table with us,” said Bernie Burnham, the president of Minnesota AFL-CIO, the president of Minnesota American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO). “When you see Tim Walz, you can see he's as comfortable getting down the floor and talking to a toddler as he is listening to senior citizens and hearing about what their needs are,” Burnham said.
Biden and Harris announce deal to cut Medicare prices of popular drugs
PBS
By Amanda Seitz and Zeke Miller
Aug. 15, 2024
Taxpayers are expected to save billions after the Biden administration inked deals with pharmaceutical companies to knock down the lists prices for 10 of Medicare’s costliest drugs. But how much older Americans can expect to save when they fill a prescription at their local pharmacy remains unclear, since the list cost isn’t the final price people pay. After months of negotiations with manufacturers, list prices will be reduced by hundreds — in some cases, thousands — of dollars for 30-day supplies of popular drugs used by millions of people on Medicare, including blood thinners, diabetes drugs and blood cancer medications. The reductions, which range between 38 percent and 79 percent, take effect in 2026. “I’ve been waiting for this moment for a long long time,” President Joe Biden said Thursday, during his first policy-oriented appearance with Vice President Kamala Harris since leaving the presidential race. “We pay more for prescription drugs, it’s not hyperbole, than any advanced nation in the world.”
Kamala Harris is among 1 in 8 Americans who have worked at McDonald’s
The Washington Post
By Emily Heil
Aug. 15, 2024
Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris is emphasizing her middle-class bona fides, and one of the lines she’s coming to rely on in public appearances to make that case is a lesser-known entry on her résumé: former McDonald’s worker. In an ad that debuted Friday, the Harris campaign highlighted her stint at the Golden Arches. As the camera pans across a set of vintage family photos, the narrator intones: “She grew up in a middle-class home. She was the daughter of a working mom. And she worked at McDonald’s while she got her degree.”
Tim Walz and JD Vance Agree to Vice-Presidential Debate
The New York Times
By Simon J. Levien and Maggie Astor
Aug. 15, 2024
Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota and Senator JD Vance of Ohio have agreed to participate in at least one vice-presidential debate this fall, with both candidates accepting an invitation from CBS News to face off on Oct. 1. The network announced Wednesday on the social media platform X that it had offered Mr. Walz and Mr. Vance, the running mates of Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald J. Trump, four potential dates: Sept. 17, Sept. 24, Oct. 1 and Oct. 8. “See you on October 1, JD,” Mr. Walz wrote in response. The Harris campaign confirmed that it had accepted the network’s invitation for that day. On Thursday, Mr. Vance said he had accepted the Oct. 1 invitation, as well.
President Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris to visit Maryland Thursday
CBS News
By Janay Reece
Aug. 15, 2024
President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris are set for their first appearance together since he dropped out of the race, and it's happening in Maryland. This will be the first joint event for the two since Mr. Biden ended his 2024 campaign and Harris became the Democratic nominee for president. The White House announced Mr. Biden and Harris will be in Prince George's County Thursday afternoon to discuss progress they are making to "lower costs for the American people." They are expected to focus on prescription drug costs.
Harris is zeroing in on high food prices as inflation remains a big issue in the presidential race
AP News
By Staff
Aug. 15, 2024
Vice President Kamala Harris is zeroing in on high food prices as her campaign previews an economic policy speech that she will give in North Carolina on Friday, promising to push for a federal ban on price gouging on groceries.
2026 Prices for Drugs That Are Subject to Negotiations
The New York Times
By Noah Weiland and Rebecca Robbins
Aug. 15, 2024
The Biden administration on Thursday announced the results of negotiations between Medicare and pharmaceutical companies over the prices of 10 costly or common medications. The new prices, which will take effect in 2026, are the maximum Medicare Part D plans and patients will pay for a one-month supply.
See how Kamala Harris honored Biden at event (Watch)
CNN
By Staff
Aug. 15, 2024
President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris made their first formal joint appearance since Biden ended his reelection bid. Harris and Biden both spoke in Maryland about how they worked to allow Medicare to negotiate for lower prescription drug prices.
Kamala Harris to release her first major economic plan as a presidential candidate
CBS
By Nidia Cavazos
Aug. 15, 2024
Vice President Kamala Harris is set to deliver a speech Friday to roll out her economic portfolio in Raleigh, North Carolina, marking the first time Harris has released a major policy initiative since President Biden dropped out of the race last month. Harris will call for the construction of 3 million new housing units in her first four years in office. This is part of her economic policy that she is expected to roll out in Raleigh, North Carolina, campaign officials confirm to CBS News. The Biden administration has previously called for the construction of 2 million new homes.
Harris to announce 4-year plan to lower housing costs
CNN
By MJ Lee
Aug. 15, 2024
Vice President Kamala Harris plans to announce Friday what her campaign is describing as a four-year plan to lower housing costs, including $25,000 in down payment assistance for first-time homeowners and actions aimed at spurring the construction of new housing, including tax incentives for building starter homes. Harris intends to announce this plan as a part of a broader economic policy speech in North Carolina. As CNN has previously reported, the vice president is also announcing a proposal for a federal ban on price gouging aimed at lowering grocery costs.
Biden praises Harris in first joint event, saying she will make "one hell of a president"
CBS News
By Kaia Hubbard and Kathryn Watson
Aug. 15, 2024
President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris appeared together in their first public event since she replaced him as the Democratic nominee, touting the administration's new plan to lower prescription drug prices for Americans on Medicare. Appearing at Prince George's County Community College in Maryland, an untethered Mr. Biden praised Harris, saying she will make "one hell of a president." Mr. Biden and Harris announced the outcome of the first Medicare drug price negotiation as part of the administration's efforts to lower costs for Americans. "There's a lot of love in this room for our president," Harris said. "And I think it's for many, many reasons, including, few leaders in our nation have done more on so many issues, including to expand access to affordable health care, than Joe Biden."
Biden-Harris health-care event quickly takes the tone of a rally
The Washington Post
By Yasmeen Abutaleb and Cleve R. Wootson Jr.
Aug. 15, 2024
President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, touting their efforts to lower prescription drug prices for Medicare recipients, hosted their first joint appearance since Biden ended his reelection bid, a policy event that quickly took on the tone and feel of a campaign rally.
Kamala Harris leads Donald Trump in 5 battleground states, tied in Georgia, poll finds
USA Today
By Joey Garrison
Aug. 16, 2024
Kamala Harris is ahead or tied with Donald Trump in six of seven battleground states, according to a new survey released Wednesday, erasing the leads the former Republican president enjoyed before Joe Biden dropped out of the race last month. The Cook Political Report survey of seven key swing states found Harris leading Trump in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, North Carolina and Arizona, and tied with Trump in Georgia. Nevada is the only battleground state that Trump still leads, the poll found.
Biden, Harris hail Medicare drug price cuts that will save billions
Reuters
By Jeff Mason, Patrick Wingrove and Trevor Hunnicutt
Aug. 16, 2024
The United States has negotiated down the prices of 10 top-selling prescription drugs used by Medicare by as much as 79%, hoping to save $6 billion in the first year as part of a plan hailed on Thursday by President Joe Biden with the aim to ease anger about high prices ahead of November elections. Biden's signature Inflation Reduction Act, signed into law in 2022, was the first to allow Medicare to negotiate prices for some of the most costly drugs that the program covers for 66 million people. The new prices will go into effect in 2026.
J.D. Vance Makes Huge Mistake Trying to Defend Trump’s Workers Comment
The New Republic
By Paige Oamek
Aug. 14, 2024
It looks like no one briefed Vance on how to answer this question. Regardless of their workplace, threatening to fire workers for concerted labor activity, such as going on strike, is illegal under the National Labor Relations Act.
NEGOTIATIONS & STRIKES
Crooked Media Union Members Unanimously Ratify Contract With Wage Increases, AI Protection
The Hollywood Reporter
By Caitlin Huston
Aug. 15, 2024
Members of the Crooked Media union unanimously ratified their first collective bargaining agreement, gaining provisions including minimum starting salaries of $80,000, AI protections and a minimum of 49 days of paid time off. The 61-member unit of Crooked Media, which produces podcasts including Pod Save America and Lovett or Leave It, ratified the agreement after more than a year of negotiations and a one-day walkout on Aug. 5. Ahead of the walkout, Crooked Media workers said they hoped the negotiated terms would set the standard for other podcasting companies moving forward.
Cornell workers voting on strike authorization
The Ithaca Voice
By Jimmy Jordan
Aug. 15, 2024
Workers at Cornell University, represented by the United Auto Workers, are in the midst of voting on whether or not to authorize a strike as labor contract negotiations have reached a gridlock. UAW officials have threatened to strike if the university doesn’t meet them at the bargaining table with a contract that reflects the union’s demands, but months of negotiations haven’t resulted in a proposal both bargaining teams can agree on.
Striking SAG-AFTRA video game actors to hit picket lines for 2nd day
Fox 11 Los Angeles
By CNS Staff
Aug. 15, 2024
Striking SAG-AFTRA video game performers plan to picket outside Disney Character Voices Thursday -- the union's second picketing event since it walked off the job on July 23 to highlight a dispute it says focuses on an unwillingness by top gaming companies to protect voice actors from the emergence of artificial intelligence.
As AI Encroaches on Hollywood, Animators Say This Is An Existential Moment
The Hollywood Reporter
By Katie Kilkenny
Aug. 15, 2024
The animation industry is turmoil as Moreno King’s union entered its latest round of contract negotiations with top Hollywood studios and streamers on Aug. 12. While the larger entertainment business undergoes a major contraction, rounds of layoffs have buffeted top firms like Netflix Animation, Dreamworks Animation and Pixar in the last few years. The outsourcing of work and/or production to companies in foreign countries, long the bane of the union, has continued apace, per the guild. (Disney’s new animation studio in Vancouver, announced in 2021, for example, is non-union, the guild claims. DreamWorks Animation is reportedly moving away from in-house production on certain projects and working more with outside vendors.)
WGA East Ratifies First Union Contract With ‘Pod Save America’ Producer Crooked Media
Variety
By Jennifer Maas
Aug. 15, 2024
Writers Guild of America East members have unanimously ratified their first union contract at “Pod Save America” producer Crooked Media. The 61-member Crooked Media bargaining team achieved a three-year agreement that includes an immediate 15% increase to base salary, just cause and successorship, protections against generative Artificial Intelligence and improvements to healthcare and other benefits, per the union. On Aug. 9, Crooked Media and WGA East reached an agreement after more than a year of negotiations, and the writers guild withdrew allegations that the company had taken “union-busting” actions. The resolution came after the WGA staged a one-day walkout at Crooked Media Aug. 5 to protest lack of progress on a deal.
American Federation of Teachers New Mexico Celebrates Contract Wins in Grants-Cibola County Schools
Cibola Citizen
By Staff
Aug. 14, 2024
American Federation of Teachers New Mexico President Whitney Holland and Cibola County Federation of United School Employees, Local #2153 (CCFUSE) President Tia Harris released the following statements: “Ensuring that our students are transported to school each day by highly skilled professionals should be a goal of every K-12 district in New Mexico. Facing a shortage of incoming drivers and trouble retaining current drivers, local leadership of CCFUSE worked with District leaders to find a solution that best serves both employees and students. The result was a 24% pay increase for all drivers, representing a historic $25/hour starting pay, a $5,000 signing bonus for new drivers, and a $2,000 retention stipend for veteran drivers. These wins are further evidence that union and administrative collaboration can achieve real solutions for serving the Grants-Cibola County educational community,” said Holland.
Hundreds of San José Hotel Workers Set to Walk Out Over Contract Disputes
KQED
By Farida Jhabvala Romero
Aug. 14, 2024
Hundreds of hotel staffers in San José are prepared to walk off the job over wages and staffing levels as their union negotiates contracts with some of the industry’s largest companies. Hilton, Hyatt and Marriott employees in San José could start picketing as early as this week. The strike authorization vote on Monday passed with 98% support, according to Unite Here Local 19. On Friday, thousands of San Francisco hotel workers approved a potential strike. Contracts covering 650 cooks, room attendants, bartenders, bellmen and other employees at the five San José hotels expired on June 30. The union said it began negotiating with management at the three companies last month.
Volkswagen Chattanooga-UAW negotiations 6-8 weeks away, official says
Chattanooga Times Free Press
By Mike Pare
Aug. 15, 2024
Four months after a union victory to organize Volkswagen's Chattanooga plant, contract negotiations between the company and the United Auto Workers are about six to eight weeks away, an official said Thursday.
JOINING TOGETHER
AGMA Issues a Do Not Work Order as Fired Dallas Black Dance Theatre Dancers Seek Reinstatement
Dance Magazine
By Lauren Warnecke
Aug. 15, 2024
Nine former Dallas Black Dance Theatre main-company members are seeking reinstatement after an alleged attempt at union busting. The still-unfolding situation led the American Guild of Musical Artists to issue a Do Not Work Order on August 12, prohibiting AGMA, Actors’ Equity Association, and SAG-AFTRA members from performing services for Dallas Black Dance Theatre until the company agrees to enter into collective bargaining with AGMA. DBDT terminated all of its 2024–25 season dancers on August 9, shortly after posting a statement about the decision and an audition notice for new company members on Instagram. “An hour later, the dancers were all notified by email that they had been terminated,” says Griff Braun, national organizing director of AGMA. (Requests for comment from the dancers were directed to AGMA.)
Cornell Professors Stand in Solidarity with UAW Local 2300 Amid Contract Negotiations
Ithaca Times
By Matt Dougherty
Aug. 15, 2024
The Cornell University Chapter of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) issued a statement Wednesday expressing strong support for UAW Local 2300 as the union holds its strike authorization vote and continues negotiating with Cornell over a new contract. UAW Local 2300 members have also released a statement announcing they will hold a rally at Bailey Hall on Friday, August 16, at 11:30 a.m. The AAUP represents faculty, librarians, postdoctoral researchers, and academic staff and has urged the university to meet the demands of UAW Local 2300, emphasizing the need for fair wages and improved working conditions for university employees.
Hotel to pay Moon Rabbit workers $126,000 for murky tipping policies
The Washington Post
By Tim Carman
Aug. 15, 2024
Last year, when Moon Rabbit was still snuggled inside the InterContinental Washington on the Wharf, racking up one accolade after another for chef Kevin Tien’s modern Vietnamese cooking, the workers there petitioned management to hold a union election. Among their stated beefs was a lack of transparency about tip-sharing policies. On Thursday, more than a year after the original Moon Rabbit closed amid that high-profile union fight, those workers received some validation from D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb.
NLRB
UAW files unfair labor practice charges against Ford Bronco parts supplier Webasto
Detroit Free Press
By Eric D. Lawrence
Aug. 15, 2024
The UAW has filed unfair labor practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board against a company that supplies parts for the Ford Bronco. The union says German auto supplier Webasto engaged in a variety of improper actions against workers involved in a union drive at a Detroit-area plant on Haggerty Road in Plymouth Township.
Audubon Society good to birds but awful to its own staff
People’s World
By Mark Gruenberg
Aug. 15, 2024
When it comes to treatment of its unionized staffers, the Audubon Society is in trouble with the National Labor Relations Board. It has also forced the 260 unionized Audubon staffers, members of the “Bird Union” unit of Communications Workers Local 1180, to take to the streets, and not just to aid bird watchers. They’ll have a National Day of Action on August 17, bringing their case to the public. In 12 separate areas, NLRB New York Regional Director John Doyle Jr., decided on August 14, that Audubon shorted its union staffers, as opposed to its non-unionists, and that it therefore broke the law.
Labor board files injunction seeking to end lengthy Post-Gazette strike
TribLive
By Justin Vellucci
Aug. 15, 2024
The National Labor Relations Board on Wednesday filed an injunction to force the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette to take back striking workers and return to the bargaining table in a nearly two-year strike that might be the longest in the city’s history. The injunction in federal court encourages the Post-Gazette to return in good faith to negotiations and immediately rescind “the unilateral changes” it made in 2020 to the Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh’s previous collective bargaining agreement, which ran from 2014 to 2017.
IN THE STATES
Massachusetts governor signs law phasing out toxic PFAS in firefighters’ gear
AP
By Steve LeBlanc
Aug. 15, 2024
Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey signed into law Thursday a bill that would phase out the use of PFAS, a group of toxic industrial compounds, in firefighters’ protective gear. The chemicals — associated with health problems including several types of cancer, such as breast, kidney and testicular cancer — are used in gear to repel water and other substances when fighting a fire. Connecticut is the only other state with a similar law regarding firefighters’ protective gear.
WORKPLACE SAFETY AND HEALTH
‘Turn A/C off and drive them out,’ USPS says to force workers into heat
E&E News By Politico
By Ariel Wittenberg
Aug. 15, 2024
The email went out shortly after a dangerous heat dome in July had smothered upstate New York. A U.S. Postal Service manager in Buffalo, New York, was angry that letter carriers appeared to be lingering in air-conditioned post offices and told local supervisors to “get this time back.” “Turn A/C off and drive them out,” the manager ordered in a July 2 email obtained by POLITICO’s E&E News. “We need to tighten our 4 walls up.” One year after it was accused of falsifying heat-safety training records for thousands of letter carriers, the Postal Service is now facing allegations that it is pushing employees to rush mail deliveries in sweltering conditions. Letter carriers in locations across the country say that for a second year they have not received essential safety training on how to stay healthy in the heat, even as their personnel records say otherwise.
MTA subway workers face "substantial" risk of death, injury due to unsafe conditions, audit says
CBS News
By Tim McNicholas
Aug. 14, 2024
"Absolutely the subway is a far lesser place right now than it was just a few short years ago. There's been an extreme degradation of safety of both riders and in particular of workers," said John Samuelsen, international president for the Transport Workers Union.
LABOR LEADERSHIP
AFSCME Reelects Leaders for Four-Year Terms
The Washington Informer
By WI Web Staff
Aug. 14, 2024
The top two leaders of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) — the nation’s leading public service union — have been reelected to their posts to four-year terms. The delegates on Tuesday reelected President Lee Saunders and Secretary-Treasurer Elissa McBride by acclamation on the second day of the 46th AFSCME International Convention.
UNION BUSTING
United RAs at Penn accuses University of violating union contract
The Daily Pennsylvanian
By Isaac Pollock
Aug. 15, 2024
United RAs at Penn has accused the University of enacting union-busting tactics against the newly-formed Resident Advisor union. URAP filed an Unfair Labor Practice Charge with the National Labor Relations Board on Aug. 12. In an email, they alleged that the University is suppressing the ability of the newly-unionized GRAs to seek other on-campus employment via tracking their hours in Workday.