Today's AFL-CIO press clips
MUST READ
The Real Reason NWSL Players Are Walking Out in "We Said Now" Shirts
PopSugar
By Chandler Plante
Aug. 26, 2024
On Aug. 25, Liz Shuler, president of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) congratulated the players from the Washington Spirit and KC Current (the first teams to play since the new CBA was announced) on such a historic accomplishment. "By ending the draft, they've won the right to shape their own futures—a victory for all workers," Shuler wrote on Twitter. "This is the power of unity! #wesaidnow."
POLITICS
Harris girds for battle with Trump over union workers and their Big Labor bosses
CBS News
By Daniel Klaidman
Aug. 26, 2024
"There are 2.7 million union members in the battleground states," wrote Julie Chavez Rodriguez, the Harris-Walz campaign manager, in an Aug. 8 memo shared with CBS News. "That means something when roughly 45,000 votes in key states decided the election four years ago." Last week, Democratic Party convention planners overlooked no detail in wooing labor. A record number — 20% — of Democratic delegates were union members; all delegation members from the 50 states and territories stayed in union hotels; almost all of the physical work at the convention drew from union labor, from building the sets to the electrical work, as well as the makeup for speakers and performers. And raucous callouts to unions were strategically placed in many of the celebratory roll call votes. The Harris campaign sees its tight collaboration with labor as a force multiplier. "We are in a fragmented media environment and it's very hard to reach undecided voters," one campaign official said. "Unions are the ultimate validator: they can break through the noise and misinformation and lay out the facts on our record vs. Trump."
UAW files federal Labor charges against Trump and Musk for attempted worker intimidation
Labor Tribune
By Staff
Aug. 26, 2024
“Greedy bosses aren’t just laughing at workers in smoke-filled backrooms anymore. They’re broadcasting it for the world to hear,” said AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler in a press release. “We applaud our union brothers, sisters and siblings at the UAW for filing federal Labor charges with the NLRB against Trump and Musk for threatening and intimidating workers. That was illegal union-busting in real time, and they should be held accountable.”
Harris goes after Trump on economy and inflation in new ad
Politico
By Adam Cancryn
Aug. 26, 2024
Vice President Kamala Harris is trying to make up ground with voters who still give former President Donald Trump an edge on the economy, airing a new ad this week that attempts to go on offense on inflation. The ad, titled “Everyday” and first shared with POLITICO, features clips of Harris’ speech earlier this month in North Carolina, where she unveiled a series of proposals aimed at making housing more affordable, targeting corporations over price gouging and expanding a tax credit for families.
IMMIGRATION
Judge Pauses Biden Administration Program That Aids Undocumented Spouses
The New York Times
By Miriam JordanHamed Aleaziz and Serge F. Kovaleski
Aug. 26, 2024
A federal judge in Texas temporarily blocked on Monday a Biden administration program that could offer a path to citizenship for up to half a million undocumented immigrants who are married to U.S. citizens, ruling in favor of 16 Republican-led states that sued the administration. Judge J. Campbell Barker of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas issued an administrative stay that stops the administration from approving applications, which it started accepting last week, while the court considers the merits of the case.
TRANSPORTATION
‘Barely surviving’: Some flight attendants are facing homelessness and hunger
The Washington Post
By Natalie B. Compton
Aug. 26, 2024
America’s largest flight attendants union, the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA (AFA), said in a recent news release that many members working with Alaska Airlines have reported financial insecurity, including some that have “experienced homelessness, lived in their car, lived in a shelter, or endured some combination of these circumstances.” An employment verification letter from American Airlines showing a projected starting pay of $27,315 per year recently went viral, with some calling it a “poverty verification” letter that could be used to apply for government assistance programs like food stamps. American confirmed the letter reflects the current base rate for first-year flight attendants on reserve, without premiums or incentives.
LABOR AND ECONOMY
Kroger and Albertsons defend merger plan in federal court against US regulators’ objections
AP News
By Dee-Ann Durbin And Claire Rush
Aug. 26, 2024
The commission also alleges that workers’ wages and benefits would decline if Kroger and Albertsons no longer compete with each other. Before the hearing, several members of the United Food and Commercial Workers International union gathered outside the federal courthouse in downtown Portland to speak out against the proposed deal. “Enough is enough,” said Carol McMillian, a bakery manager at a Kroger-owned grocery store in Colorado. “We can no longer stand by and allow corporate greed that puts profit before people. Our workers, our communities and our customers deserve better.” The labor union also expressed concern that potential store closures could create so-called food and pharmacy “deserts” for consumers. For people in many communities across the U.S., when a grocery store shutters, “their only source of food actually is walking to the nearest gas station,” said Kim Cordova, the president of UFCW Local 7, which represents over 23,000 members in Colorado and Wyoming.
ORGANIZING
Concessions workers at Reagan National Airport set to picket this week
ARL Now
By Jared Serre
Aug. 26, 2024
Roughly 150 employees at Reagan National Airport are holding informational pickets this week as they pursue the right to organize a union. The employees, who work across four concessions operated by Master ConcessionAir, were scheduled to picket from 10-11:30 a.m. today (Monday) as well as from 1-3 p.m. tomorrow(Tuesday) on the airport’s ticketing level, just outside of Door 6. Among the employees’ demands is a greater accommodation of the needs of immigrants working at the airport, one employee said. “The company has a policy that says you can’t take a personal leave of absence for more than 28 days without having to reapply for your job… at my other union restaurant job at the airport, I am able to go back home for up to 3 months,” Yewbdar Zeleke, a bartender at the airport, said in a statement. “MCA, please let us visit our families.” The employees are working with the support of UNITE HERE Local 23, which represents food service workers at other eateries in National Airport, Dulles International Airport, Smithsonian museums and more.
Statistics show more people in Alabama are joining unions
WAFF
By Sarah Grace Kennedy
Aug. 26, 2024
Recent data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics reveals more people in Alabama are joining unions. That’s despite a new law that Governor Kay Ivey recently signed that restricts employers from voluntarily recognizing unions. It means businesses that voluntarily recognize a union could lose their right to get state economic incentives. Jacob Morrison with the North Alabama Labor Council said he isn’t sure if the recent spike in unionized workers will rise. Morrison said more people are joining unions for a couple of main reasons. “They want a voice on the job, they want to have better pay, and they want to have better working conditions,” said Morrison. “I think that that a lot of folks are seeing that unionization is going to be one of the best ways to do that.” In the past year, 600 workers at the New Flyer electric bus plant in Anniston successfully unionized and created their first union contract.
NEGOTIATIONS & STRIKES
Boeing Workers Are on the Verge of Striking
Jacobin
By Jenny Brown
Aug. 26, 2024
Mondays and Wednesdays are loud at the vast Boeing factory in Everett, Washington. As the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers’ (IAM) contract campaign heats up, the workforce has been serenading management at lunch with air horns, train horns, and vuvuzelas — plus chants of “Out the Door in ’24.” Forty miles south, in Renton, where workers construct the moneymaking 737, second-shift workers have used their meal breaks to blast Bluetooth speakers at top volume with ’90s rap, death metal, ’80s pop, and opera — all simultaneously, said Jon Voss, a thirteen-year mechanic in the wings building. The resulting racket “really drove management and HR nuts.” The Boeing contract expires September 12 for 31,000 members of Machinists District Lodge 751 in Washington and 1,300 District W24 members in Gresham, Oregon. The last time a full contract was negotiated was 2008, with a fifty-eight-day strike.
CWA Local 3702 members strike in Summerville
The Summerville Journal Scene
By Brandon Roberts
Aug. 26, 2024
Several Communication Workers of America Union Local 3702 members were on the picket line this past Saturday in downtown Summerville. CWA members, mainly customer service representatives and installation and maintenance technicians, have been on strike for more than two weeks to raise awareness about what Local 3702 President Bill Johnson said is AT&T’s failure to send competent negotiators to the bargaining table.
Labor agreement reached between Houston County and IUOE, Local 49
Hometown Source
By Rose Korabek
Aug. 26, 2024
After the closed session at the end of the Aug. 20 meeting, the Houston County Board of Commissioners (BOC) a labor “agreement between Houston County and International Union of Operating Engineers, Local 49 was accepted,” reported BOC Clerk Allison Wagner. “Commissioner Severson made the motion, Commissioner Schuldt seconded it, and all voted in favor except for Commissioner Burns who abstained due to a conflict of interest.” The new terms include wage increases of 6.5% for 2025, 3.5% for 2026 and 3.25% for 2027. Other highlights include: for Holidays, adding Juneteenth and Indigenous People Day as well as giving a half day for Christmas Eve for all days of the week; adding 20 hours for a maximum of overtime “banked” hours to now be 160 hours; updating the Sick Leave policy to include Minnesota’s newest law; an increase in insurance premiums paid by the county; as well as increases for uniform and professional development costs.
City of Plattsburgh and AFSCME reach tentative agreement
Sun Community News
By News Report
Aug. 26, 2024
After several rounds of negotiation, the City of Plattsburgh Mayor’s office and AFSCME union leadership have reached a tentative agreement for a five-year contract renewal. The agreement has been approved by union members and is pending approval by the Common Council. The contract approval will be placed on the Sept. 5 regular meeting agenda. “AFSCME’s members, the work they perform for our city, and their dedication to our future is tangible and profound. Our city staff is the lifeblood of our community,” Mayor Christopher Rosenquest said Aug. 26. “This is the second contract my office has negotiated successfully with this union and I’m proud to say the negotiations were smooth and amicable. This is proof of the excellent relationship we’ve been able to build with this and other unions over the short time I’ve been in office.”
Hotel workers in Seattle, Hawaii, California authorize strikes
Hotel Dive
By Noelle Mateer
Aug. 26, 2024
Union workers in Seattle, Hawaii and California have voted to approve strikes, according to social media posts by local chapters of hospitality union Unite Here. Thousands of workers nationwide have now authorized strikes as workers seek wages that better keep up with the rising cost of living and a restoration of pre-pandemic staffing practices. Though momentum for nationwide hotel strikes continues to build, no union has officially called for a strike yet — despite the fact that contracts have already expired for thousands of workers.
CVS Workers Rally For Fair Pay, Affordable Healthcare and Safe Stores at South LA Pharmacy
Random Lengths news
By Reporters Desk
Aug. 26, 2024
On Saturday, August 24, scores of CVS employees from across California, along with community supporters, banded together at a CVS pharmacy in South Los Angeles to call on CVS to negotiate a fair contract with fair pay and benefits, safe staffing levels, affordable and comprehensive health benefits, and safer shopping experiences for customers. Despite providing essential healthcare services for CVS, a prominent healthcare corporation that reported a staggering net operating income of $11.173 billion last year, many CVS employees continue to struggle with basic necessities like paying rent, buying food, and affording their own healthcare. UFCW 770 president Kathy Finn stated that after being in negotiations with CVS representatives for several months, “where workers have told heartbreaking stories of struggling with low pay, understaffing, workplace violence, and their own inadequate healthcare while CVS has rejected all our proposals to solve these issues. CVS’ stated purpose is ‘bringing our heart to every moment of your health’ but I can’t describe them as anything other than heartless.”
UAW strike leads to negative dining, move-in impacts at Cornell as bargaining stalls
Ithaca Journal
By Jacob Mack
Aug. 26, 2024
As the new academic year began, Cornell University representatives provided an update on its ongoing negotiations with the United Auto Workers (UAW) chapter 2300. The university’s Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer Christine Lovely, Interim Provost John Siliciano and Vice President of Student and Campus Life Ryan Lombardi sent a joint statement on the negotiations and their effect on campus life to students Friday. The university reiterated its commitment to “negotiating in good faith,” despite limited progress in recent talks.
BNSF, NS, CSX reach tentative labor pacts with multiple unions
Progressive Railroading
By Staff
Aug. 26, 2024
BNSF Railway Co. (BNSF) and Norfolk Southern Railway (NS) announced late last week they’ve reached tentative five-year collective bargaining agreements with the Brotherhood of Railway Carmen Division/TCU (BRC), International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers–Mechanical Department (SMART-MD) and the Transportation Communications Union/IAM (TCU). BNSF has also reached a tentative agreement with the American Train Dispatchers Association (ATDA), and NS announced it has reached tentative agreements with multiple General Committees for the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers–Transportation Division (SMART-TD).
JOINING TOGETHER
What PG news striker supporters are saying
Pittsburgh Union Progress
By Jon Schleuss
Aug. 26, 2024
More than 3,000 donors have given to Pittsburgh Post-Gazette strikers over the past 21 months. They’ve helped strikers raise more than $797,000 to cover rent, unexpected expenses, groceries and much more. This is what they’re saying when they donate: “Pittsburgh needs and deserves a strong newspaper, and the only way for us to have one is to settle this strike!” “Solidarity with you all from a retired CWA [Communications Workers of America] member who is also a member of the National Writers Union and an associate UMWA [United Mine Workers of America] member. I’ll be mentioning you on my labor solidarity blog published from Salem, Oregon. I was active around Pittsburgh years ago.”
The Cornell Daily Sun
By David A. Bateman
Aug. 26, 2024
Members of the Cornell community — custodians, groundskeepers, cooks, food service workers, greenhouse employees, gardeners, mechanics and others — are on strike. As the administration has acknowledged, the work these employees do is absolutely essential to the basic operation of the University. None of us can work, learn, research or teach in their absence. Naturally, the strike has placed enormous stress on the institution. Basic work can’t be done. And so the University leadership has asked us all to “step up” and pitch in, with emails from central administration, many colleges and other units giving guidelines on how all of us — students, faculty, staff, etc. — can do “our part.” To take extra responsibility to keep facilities clean. To volunteer for additional shifts. To serve food to students in dining halls. Retirees have been invited to fill in for former colleagues. The University leadership wants us to think of this as a noble, community effort to ensure that our students are fed, our facilities are clean and that Cornell continues to function despite the absence of its essential workers.
SPORTS UNIONIZATION
NWSLPA announces initial list of players eligible for league’s first free agency under new CBA
The New York Times
By Meg Linehan
Aug. 26, 2024
The union picked Monday for a reason for the announcement. It’s Women’s Equality Day in the U.S., honoring the ratification of the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote. “On Women’s Equality Day, we celebrate the pioneers who fought tirelessly to win the right to vote,” Tori Huster, NWSLPA president, said. “They laid the foundation for rights like free agency, which, similar to the right to vote, empowers players with the freedom of choice.” Under the new CBA, when a player’s contract expires they will now become full, unrestricted free agents. Under the previous CBA, ratified in 2022, players had to have a certain number of “service years” to become designated as either restricted or unrestricted free agents. That entire system has been removed, and any new player entering the league now enters as a free agent.
STATE LEGISLATION
New Illinois state law requires timelier processing of Unfair Labor Practices complaints
Labor Tribune
By Elizabeth Donald
Aug. 26, 2024
State Labor boards will have to move more quickly to resolve Unfair Labor Practice complaints for public sector unions, thanks to a new law supported by state Rep. Jay Hoffman (D-Swansea). Hoffman cosponsored the bill, which institutes new guidelines for timeliness in processing Unfair Labor Practice charges by the Educational Labor Relations Board and Public Labor Relations Board. The boards will have to complete the investigation with 100 days, and if a complaint is issued, the hearing must be scheduled within 60 days. Orders and decisions must be issued within 120 days from the close of the case, and appeals should be filed within 90 days of the objection deadline.
IN THE STATES
Missouri AFL-CIO President Jake Hummel looks ahead to labor’s impact on state elections
STLPR
By Jason Rosenbaum
Aug. 26, 2024
During an episode of the Politically Speaking Hour on St. Louis on the Air, Missouri AFL-CIO President Jake Hummel discussed how labor unions are approaching the upcoming election cycle. And that includes how his group endorsed Democrat Crystal Quade and Republican Mike Kehoe during last month’s primary races for governor — something he said was somewhat unusual.
Minimum wage, paid sick leave, reproductive rights to appear on Missouri’s Nov. 5 ballot
Labor Tribune
By Tim Rowden
Aug. 26, 2024
Missouri voters will decide whether to raise the state’s minimum wage and guarantee paid sick time when they go to the ballot box Nov. 5. They will also decide on a proposed constitutional amendment guaranteeing the right to an abortion in the state, as well as whether to legalize sports betting in Missouri. The ballot measures are likely to drive voters to the polls, but not in numbers that can be taken for granted as Labor works to pass the worker measurers and elect Labor-friendly candidates to the state House and Senate. “This election is not going to be handed to us,” said Jake Hummel, president of the Missouri AFL-CIO. “We have to work for turnout. We cannot rely on state ballot measures to turn people out for us. We’ve got to talk to our membership.” Hummel said Labor would be reaching out to union voters on races from the federal level down to the hotly contested races for the state House and Senate, as well as the Labor-friendly ballot measures.
Senator Sherrod Brown visits North Kingsville union hall
Star Beacon
By Brian Haytcher
Aug. 26, 2024
U.S Senator Sherrod Brown spoke at the Laborers International Union of North America Local 245 union hall on Sunday afternoon, and told stories about how how unions had impacted his family and Ohioans. Brown, a Democrat spent time talking to each of the attendees before addressing the group. He shared a trio of stories about how unions have improved people’s lives, including a story about how his wife, Connie Schultz, received extensive healthcare thanks to her father’s union membership.
APPRENTICESHIPS & TRAINING
PR Newswire
By Powering Chicago
Aug. 26, 2024
As the school year begins for Chicagoland students, Powering Chicago, the advocate for the unionized electrical industry in Chicago and Cook County, is preparing to welcome the future generation of electricians for its Registered Apprenticeship program at the IBEW-NECA Technical Institute (IN-Tech) in suburban Alsip, Illinois. While many students choose the conventional college path and graduate with significant student loan debt, apprentices in our program undergo five years of paid, intensive training. This equips them with the skills needed to secure high-demand union positions and competitive wages in the electrical construction industry. "Union electricians have long been in high demand, but the recent increase in renewable energy projects has significantly expanded job opportunities for both current and future apprentices," said Elbert Walters III, Executive Director of Powering Chicago. "Acknowledging that the traditional college route may not be suitable for everyone, we are committed to educating young people about alternative career paths in the trades, where they can build rewarding and well-compensated careers."
LABOR HISTORY
The Origins of the Five‑Day Work Week in America
History.com
By Dave Roos
Aug. 26, 2024
Five days of work and two days of play is how most Americans structure their lives. But the 40-hour, 5-day work week wasn’t enshrined until the passage of the Fair Labor Standards Act in 1938. That law was the culmination of more than a century of American workers fighting for shorter hours, better wages and safer working conditions. “At the turn of the 20th century, it was not uncommon for most Americans to work 60 or more hours a week,” says Joseph McCartin, a labor historian at Georgetown University. In 1898, Massachusetts published a “labor bulletin” tracking the wages and hours of domestic workers in the commonwealth. Domestic cooks at the time worked between 78 and 83 hours a week for about 9 cents an hour. They got Sundays off and sometimes a half day on Saturdays. Some factory workers in Massachusetts were slightly better off; according to state law, women and children could only work a maximum of 58 hours a week in textile mills.
LABOR AND COMMUNITY
Wood River Labor Day parade celebrates local unions
The Telegraph
By Scott Cousins
Aug. 26, 2024
Union workers and supporters got a chance to show the community the impact organized labor has in Madison County, and also let people know that there are good jobs available, in Saturday’s Wood River Labor Day Parade. The parade is one of two sponsored by the Greater Madison County Federation of Labor, with the second, larger parade set for Labor Day in Granite City.
UNION BUSTING
Dallas Black Dance Theatre fires union dancers, brings in scab labor
People’s World
By Stu Becker and Gene Lantz
Aug. 26, 2024
On Saturday, Aug. 17, in the Dallas Fine Arts District, the fired union dancers of the Dallas Black Dance Theatre held a picket line and a rally to protest the firing of the entire group of dancers at the company because they unanimously voted to form a union with the American Guild of Musical Artists. The action was held while the Dallas Black Dance Theatre was holding auditions to replace the dancers with scab dancers—anti-union workers willing to cross picket lines. On May 29, the dancers at the Dallas Black Dance Theatre voted unanimously to form a union. Immediately after they did, management started to retaliate, said Griff Braun of the American Guild of Musical Artists.
Chipotle illegally denied raises to unionized workers, labor watchdog says
CBS News
By Kate Gibson
Aug. 26, 2024
A union's claims that Chipotle Mexican Grill violated federal labor law by withholding raises from workers who unionized have merit, U.S. labor board prosecutors have determined. The quick-service restaurant chain will face a formal complaint by the National Labor Relations Board's general counsel unless it settles the allegations by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, according to the NLRB. Chipotle is accused of violating federal labor law by telling employees in Lansing, Michigan, that the company could not give them raises granted other employees because they had unionized, and then illegally withheld the pay hike from them.