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Today's AFL-CIO Press Clips

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LABOR AND ECONOMY

Racial employment divide continues in recovering US economy

Yahoo! News

Chris Stein

August 3, 2021

As vaccines help quell Covid-19 cases, millions of Americans have gone back to work -- but fewer Black and Hispanic workers are being rehired, entrenching persistent inequalities in the United States. The divides are fueled by long-running employment discrimination, experts say, worsened by unique, virus-related disruptions that have left many jobseekers unable to find work they can get to, or feel safe doing. "We all do better when the pie is bigger, and you get the pie bigger by being aggressive about this," William Spriggs, chief economist of the AFL-CIO trade union federation, told AFP.

 

JOINING TOGETHER

Solidarity rally for striking Alabama miners

Workers World

By Dianne Mathiowetz 

August 3, 2021

Preparations are under way in Brookwood, Ala., for an Aug. 4 solidarity rally for striking United Mine Workers (UMWA) members who have maintained a picket line 24 hours a day, seven days a week, at the entrances to Warrior Met Coal facilities since April 1. Miners, other union members and community supporters are expected to travel  from near and far to let the Wall Street hedge fund investors backing Warrior Met know that this is a battle the working class is determined to win. This writer will be travelling to Brookwood on a bus caravan leaving from Atlanta organized by the Georgia State AFL-CIO. Retired UAW members have already filled one bus as of this writing.

IN THE STATES

We need the PRO Act. Here’s why (Opinion)

Juneau Empire

By Corey Baxter

August 2, 2021

The hard-working men and women of Alaska’s building trades need the Protecting the Right to Organize Act. The PRO Act was passed with bipartisan support in the U.S. House of Representatives earlier this year — including support from Rep. Don Young. The PRO Act, put simply, would renew the promise made in the National Labor Relations Act of 1935 — that workers have “full freedom of association, self-organization, and designation of representatives of their own choosing, for the purpose of negotiating the terms and conditions of their employment or other mutual aid or protection.”

 

PAYWATCH/CEO PAY

CEO Compensation Blows Away Average Worker's Salary

PC Mag

By Oliver Rist

August 3, 2021

If one of your fantasies is having a semi-tractor-trailer back up to your house and dump a giant mountain of cash on your front lawn, you should consider becoming the CEO of a large corporation. Recent data published by the AFL-CIO covered CEO pay rates from 2020 to 2021 and compared them to the median salary of employees working in the same company—and the differences are staggering.

 

AMAZON

The Amazon union drive isn’t over yet

Vox

By Sara Morrison 

August 3, 2021

“We support the hearing officer’s recommendation that the NLRB set aside the election results and direct a new election,” RWDSU president Stuart Appelbaum said in a statement. “Amazon’s behavior throughout the election process was despicable. Amazon cheated, they got caught, and they are being held accountable.”


Amazon workers should get a new vote, union says. No final decision yet from NLRB

USA Today

By Associated Press

August 3, 2021

The Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union on Monday said that a hearing officer for the National Labor Relations Board has recommended that the vote by workers in April to overwhelmingly reject the union be set aside and that another vote be held in its place. The hearing officer determined that Amazon violated labor law, according to the union.