Today's AFL-CIO press clips
POLITICS
This independent candidate is worrying Republicans in deep-red Nebraska’s Senate race
WHEC
By Margery A. Beck and John Hanna
Oct. 26, 2024
He is getting support from at least a dozen labor unions. Two weeks before the election, the national AFL-CIO brought in top officials to Omaha to lead a phone bank in support of Osborn. Around 30 union members and officials — including AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler — worked the phones to secure support and donations for Osborn. “His message of backing working families is really resonating with people,” Shuler said. As she spoke, a phone-bank worker nearby shouted out that volunteers had made 3,000 calls and secured fresh promises of support from Nebraskans they were calling. “People now are so cynical about politics,” Shuler said. “And he’s getting traction with those people because he’s one of them.”
Sen. Bernie Sanders talks workers' rights in Erie, high stakes for labor in election
Go Erie
By A.J. Rao
Oct. 26, 2024
Sanders was joined by AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Fred Redmond and Pennsylvania AFL-CIO President Angela Ferrito. Together, their appearance kicked off a union canvass, in which union members formed into small groups, and knocked on doors of union member households in and around the city.
Walz meets with labor leaders in Louisville
Forward Kentucky
By Berry Craig
Oct. 25, 2024
Kentucky State AFL-CIO President Dustin Reinstedler has met his share of big name politicians. “So far, I would put Joe Biden at the top of the list in being easy to talk to,” he said. “But Tim Walz is a very close second.” Reinstedler was part of a union delegation that got to meet Walz, Minnesota’s governor. Reinstedler credited Bob and Caitlin Blair of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 227 with helping “organize the event and making sure labor was invited. I owe a huge thank you to them.” Bob is the Local president; his wife is political and communications director.
Biden fires up labor for Harris, as Pittsburgh's Mark Cuban says she'd be better for business
WESA
By Bill O'Driscoll and Chris Potter
Oct. 26, 2024
Later, at the Allegheny/Fayette Central Labor Council, in Duquesne Heights, Biden honored a group of “super volunteers” who had made more than 5,000 calls in a week, according to pooled press reports. Biden helped serve four pizzas from nearby Fiori’s Pizzaria to 13 phone-bankers there.
US union members door-knock in swing states for Harris: ‘It’s a no-brainer for us’
The Guardian
By Michael Sainato
Oct. 27, 2024
As the US election nears, union members are knocking on millions of doors in swing states across America in a last-ditch attempt to swing the too-close-to-call election for Kamala Harris.
Joe Biden billed himself as the most pro-union president ever. Now his successor is hoping that the all-out support of organized labor can push her bid over the line.
Scab JD Vance crosses News Guild picket line in Pittsburgh
People’s World
By Mark Gruenberg
Oct. 25, 2024
Both News Guild President Jon Schleuss and AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler jumped on Vance. “JD Vance is a piece of work,” Shuler opened her tweet. “Post-Gazette workers have been on strike for two years, battling relentless union-busting. Today he crossed the picket line with his op-ed, throwing ThePUPnews and CWA-union members under the bus.” The News Guild is a CWA sector. “JD Vance has crossed a very obvious picket line by striking Americans,” Schleuss said. “And JD Vance is a scab just like anybody else who crosses a picket line.
Democracy and unions go together – vote for both this fall
Forward Kentucky
By Bill Londrigan
Oct. 25, 2024
The prospect of losing our democracy and the resurgence of interest in labor unions have recently been the focus of much attention. Absent, however, from conversations about the fate of America’s democratic experiment and the explosion of interest in and support for unions is that democracies and free trade unions are symbiotic – one cannot exist without the other.
Unions rally in support of Harris, Walz
The Chief
By Duncan Freeman
Oct. 25, 2024
Hundreds of union workers and officials rallied outside of City Hall on Wednesday in a show of support for Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate Governor Tim Walz. Since Harris became the Democratic Party’s standard bearer following President Joe Biden’s July exit from the race, endorsements from labor organizations have poured in, including from the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, the parent union of District Council 37. Henry Garrido, DC 37’s executive director, said it was "important to show we have massive support here in New York” for the Democratic ticket. "New Yorkers have a lot of family members in Florida and other places and it's important for them to hear from us,” he told The Chief. “I have family living in Pennsylvania and in Virginia and I want to make sure they know that we reaffirm our support for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz."
GOP candidates embrace Trump’s call to abolish Education Department
The Washington Post
By Laura Meckler
Oct. 24, 2024
Closing the Education Department is a central plank in former president Donald Trump’s schools agenda. Inside the Republican Party, he’s not alone. GOP candidates in some of the most competitive Senate and House races have proposed shuttering the agency, in some cases following Trump’s lead. Project 2025, the conservative blueprint for a future Republican administration, lays out a detailed plan for how to go about ending it. And former Trump education secretary Betsy DeVos has said she would come back for a second term if the mission was closing her former department.
Jill Biden bonds with teachers over stakes of the election at Delco union campaign launch
The Philadelphia Inquirer
By Aliya Schneider
Oct. 26, 2024
First lady Jill Biden visited a canvass launch for Vice President Kamala Harris geared at teachers and union members Saturday at Penn Wood High School in Lansdowne, Delaware County. Biden, a community college teacher who has roots in the Philadelphia area, was greeted by an enthusiastic crowd at the campaign stop, which was hosted by the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers and Delaware County AFL-CIO. Biden waved at the cheering volunteers who surrounded her behind a black rope in the high school’s gymnasium. A union member herself, she was all smiles, wearing a pink blazer over a flowery dress, and had immediate rapport with the crowd.
President Biden rallies union members to vote for Harris in Pittsburgh visit
Pennsylvania Capital-Star
By Abigail Hakas
Oct. 26, 2024
President Joe Biden spoke to members of the Laborers’ International Union of North America on Oct. 26 during a visit to Downtown Pittsburgh, one of the latest in many high-profile visits for Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign. He celebrated the audience of union members, adding that his father used to preach about the importance of labor.
Biden rallies Pittsburgh’s union base to support Harris
TribLive
By Ryan Deto
Oct. 26, 2024
President Joe Biden returned to Pittsburgh on Saturday, rallying and canvassing with building trades workers, selling Vice President Kamala Harris as a continuation of his pro-labor policies and the best hope to improve wages and union rights into the future. Biden rallied Saturday afternoon with about 100 members of the Pennsylvania District Council of the Laborers International Union of North America at their hall in Downtown Pittsburgh. He then met with campaign volunteers at the Allegheny-Fayette Labor Council apprentice training center in Pittsburgh’s Beechview neighborhood.
Georgia Saved Democrats 4 Years Ago. Now They Need A Repeat.
HuffPost
By Igor Bobic
Oct. 27, 2024
Four years ago, Black voters in Georgia helped flip the state blue for the first time in decades, electing Joe Biden president and winning Senate seats in a pair of upset runoff elections that gave Democrats control of the U.S. Senate — a resounding rebuke of Trumpism and his handling of COVID-19. As a result, the party was able to pass a historic list of achievements, including pandemic relief, lower drug pricing reforms, massive investments in green energy and manufacturing, and the appointment of the first Black woman to the U.S. Supreme Court.
'Close the deal.' Weekend Dem event in Janesville focuses on final campaign message
Gazette Xtra
By Stan Milam
Oct. 27, 2024
Baldwin, Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, Wisconsin AFL-CIO President Stephanie Bloomingdale, congressional candidate Peter Barca and IBEW International Vice President Mike Clemmons spoke to an estimated crowd of 200.
NEGOTIATIONS & STRIKES
SAG-AFTRA Video Game Negotiations Extended Amid Strike
The Hollywood Reporter
By Katie Kilkenny
Oct. 26, 2024
SAG-AFTRA and a coalition of video game companies have extended negotiations after returning to talks for three days but failing to reach a deal. The union announced the decision on Saturday, adding that dates were not yet set and would later be announced. Meanwhile, the union’s strike against employers signed to its Interactive Media Agreement -— which is nearing its 100-day mark — continues. The Hollywood Reporter has reached out to a representative for the employer coalition.
94% of Benton County union members vote to strike, citing unfair wages and safety
KMTR
By News Staff
Oct. 25, 2024
An overwhelming number Benton County workers, represented by theOregon AFSCME, have voted in favor to strike as of Thursday, October 24, 2024. The decision comes after months of negotiations aimed at better wages and safety measures for county workers. According to the Oregon AFSCME, they've been at the bargaining table for months, since February, with the county.
UAW holding strike authorization vote for GM Indiana truck plant
The Detroit News
By Breana Noble
Oct. 25, 2024
United Auto Workers Local 2209 is holding a vote on Wednesday on whether to strike General Motors Co.'s Fort Wayne Assembly Plant in Indiana that produces full-size trucks, according to a letter from the local's leadership. The union and Detroit-based automaker have been in a tussle over the use of temporary workers to help build the profit-rich Chevrolet Silverados and GMC Sierras there. Unable to reach an agreement for extending the part-time temporary employees, the company said it was laying off about 250 of them at the end of September. Since last December, the union has sought to make the workers full-time temps, if not permanent employees.
Baltimore Chamber Orchestra Reaches New Labor Agreement With Musicians
The Violin Channel
By The Violin Channel
Oct. 25, 2024
The Baltimore Chamber Orchestra (BCO) has announced the ratification of a new two-year collective bargaining agreement with its musicians, who are represented by the Musicians’ Association of Metropolitan Baltimore Local 40-543 of the American Federation of Musicians. This is now the second agreement negotiated between the BCO and its musicians, and the orchestra’s first in more than a decade.
Animation Guild & AMPTP “Trying To Find Some Common Ground” As Negotiations Restart Next Week
Deadline
By Katie Campione
Oct. 25, 2024
Animation Guild (IATSE Local 839) is resuming negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers next week in the hopes of finalizing a new three-year deal before the contract expires yet again on Nov. 1. Deadline hears the two parties have lengthy bargaining days set aside on Monday and Tuesday to hammer out the deal. A source tells Deadline that there hasn’t been much movement beyond casual exchanges since the last round of bargaining in September, which ended with a contract extension. “The biggest issue we’re facing right now is trying to find some common ground,” the source says.
Duval County Schools food service workers could go on strike for better wages
First Coast News
By Christina Burgess
Oct. 25, 2024
Lunchroom staff in Duval County Public Schools could be walking off their jobs soon. After contract negotiations between members of AFSCME local 2941 and the food service company, Chartwells K12, have not yet made an agreement. These unions workers are paid $13 an hour, minimum wage, and are seeking more money.
SEPTA union authorizes strike if no deal reached next week
Metro Philadelphia
By Jack Tomczuk
Oct. 27, 2024
SEPTA’s largest labor union on Sunday voted to authorize a strike, setting up the possibility that workers could walk out next week and paralyze much of Philadelphia’s transit system. The contract for Transport Workers Local 234’s City Transit Division expires at 11:59 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 7. If no deal is reached by then, more than 4,300 employees are expected to walk off the job, halting service on the Market-Frankford and Broad Street Lines and all city bus and trolley routes.
IN THE STATES
With 10 days left in tight Senate race, Casey takes his campaign to Philly-area unions
The Philadelphia Inquirer
By Katie Bernard and Michelle Myers
Oct. 26, 2024
U.S. Sen. Bob Casey dubbed Saturday “labor day” for his campaign. The Pennsylvania Democrat, locked in a tight fight for reelection, addressed hundreds of union workers across Philadelphia as they held get-out-the-vote events and knocked on doors 10 days before Election Day. “We’ve got to remind them that the right to organize a union is on the ballot this election, because that is the next right they’re coming for,” Casey told a crowd of union members gathered by the Communications Workers of America to knock on doors for his campaign and that of Vice President Kamala Harris.
UNION BUSTING
Dallas City Council: ‘Union-busting has no place in our city!’
People’s World
By Gene Lantz
Oct. 25, 2024
The Dallas City Council stood up for working people at its session on Oct. 23. Councillors voted to pause a $248,000 subsidy for the Dallas Black Dance Theatre in light of “allegations” that theater management fired ten professional dancers in May because they organized themselves with the American Guild of Musical Artists.
Hard Rock Casino Rockford workers rally as they push to organize six labor unions
Rock River Current
By Kevin Haas
Oct. 25, 2024
Hard Rock Casino Rockford workers rallied outside the new entertainment venue on Friday in response to what they say are union-busting tactics taken by the company. A few dozen members of Rockford Casino Workers United gathered outside the casino, 7801 E. State St., between three oversized inflatable rats that are a symbol of union protests. There are six labor unions organizing with workers at the casino as part of the coalition. They are the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, the International Union of Operating Engineers, the Service Employees International Union, the United Auto Workers and Unite Here.