Today's AFL-CIO press clips
MUST READ
"Direct attack on working people": On their way out, Manchin and Sinema vote to kneecap the NLRB
Salon
By Charles R. Davis
Dec. 12, 2024
Liz Shuler, president of the AFL-CIO, offered an explanation in Sinema’s absence: “[T]hey voted against the working people of this country.” Indeed, the fight was not over McFerran nomination, per se, but had “everything to do with reversing generations of progress workers have made toward building a fairer and more just economy,” Shuler said in a statement.
POLITICS
US Senate rejects Biden labor board nominee, teeing up Republican control
Reuters
By Daniel Wiessner
Dec. 12, 2024
The U.S. Senate on Wednesday rejected Democratic President Joe Biden's nomination of a U.S. labor board official for a new term, giving President-elect Donald Trump a chance to cement Republican control of the agency soon after taking office. The Senate voted 50-49 against holding a confirmation vote on the nomination of National Labor Relations Board Chair Lauren McFerran, whose term expires next week. Senators Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, both Democrats who left their party during Biden's term after repeatedly bucking his legislative priorities, provided the decisive votes.
Public workers get holiday cheer as Schumer pushes vote to boost their Social Security
USA Today
By Medora Lee
Dec. 12, 2024
Public sector workers are heartened after Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said he would bring a bill that could boost their Social Security benefits to a vote. The bill to eliminate the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and the Government Pension Offset (GPO) which reduce Social Security benefits for certain retirees who also receive pension income was passed last month by the House. The bill, or Social Security Fairness Act, has 62 co-sponsors, suggesting it has filibuster-proof support to also be approved by the Senate. Instead, it has languished there to the frustration of public sector workers, who rallied on Wednesday at the Capitol in the rain to demand Schumer bring the bill to a vote. If the bill doesn’t pass by yearend, it dies.
Senate begins final push to expand Social Security benefits for millions of people
AP News
By Stephen Groves
Dec. 12, 2024
The Senate is pushing toward a vote on legislation that would provide full Social Security benefits to millions of people, setting up potential passage in the final days of the lame-duck Congress. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Thursday he would begin the process for a final vote on the bill, known as the Social Security Fairness Act, which would eliminate policies that currently limit Social Security payouts for roughly 2.8 million people.
Los Angeles Times
By Michael Hiltzik
Dec. 12, 2024
“If the law is against you, talk about the evidence. If the evidence is against you, talk about the law, and, ... if the law and the evidence are both against you, then pound on the table and yell like hell.” Thus the poet Carl Sandburg’s version of an ancient lawyer’s adage in his epic poem, “The People, Yes.” It isn’t his fault that his rendering is incomplete, since he was writing in 1936 and the modern legal mind has cooked up a further advisory, applicable when the entity against you is a government agency: If pounding the table and yelling won’t succeed, then get your adversary declared unconstitutional. That’s the weapon being wielded at this moment against the National Labor Relations Board and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The first was created by Congress in 1935 to protect workers’ organizing and bargaining rights, the second in 2010 to protect consumers from ripoffs by financial service firms.
LABOR AND TECHNOLOGY
Writers Guild demands studios stop tech companies from training AI on their work
Los Angeles Times
By Wendy Lee
Dec. 12, 2024
Writers Guild of America this week sent a letter to major Hollywood studios asking them to take action against tech companies that are using writers’ work to train AI tools without their permission. “The studios, as copyright holders of works written by WGA members, have done nothing to stop this theft,” the guild’s leadership said in a letter. “They have allowed tech companies to plunder entire libraries without permission or compensation. The studios’ inaction has harmed WGA members.”
Writers Guild Calls on Studios to Take “Immediate Legal Action” Against AI Companies
The Hollywood Reporter
By Katie Kilkenny
Dec. 12, 2024
The Writers Guild of America is forcefully calling on Hollywood’s major studios to take a stand on the purported use of their members’ works as AI training data. Leaders of the WGA West and East demanded that companies take “immediate legal action” against any firms that have used writers’ work to train AI tools in a letter sent to the chief executives of Warner Bros. Discovery, Disney, Paramount Global, NBCUniversal, Sony, Netflix and Amazon MGM Studios on Wednesday. “It’s time for the studios to come off the sidelines,” the letter stated. “After this industry has spent decades fighting piracy, it cannot stand idly by while tech companies steal full libraries of content for their own financial gain.”
Variety
By Michael Schneider
Dec. 12, 2024
The Writers Guild of America‘s east and west chapters have sent a strongly-worded letter to the heads of the major Hollywood studios, criticizing them for inaction as artificial intelligence appears to be taking copy-written scripts and using it to “plagiarize stolen works.”
NLRB
No justice, no peach: UFCW files complaint in wake of Eastside Natural Grocers store closing
KGUN
By Eddie Celaya
Dec. 12, 2024
Natural Grocers has permanently closed its location at 7220 E. Broadway Blvd., citing lease expiration and market saturation. However, according to an official complaint to the National Labor Relations Boardon behalf of a local union branch, the decision was influenced by unionization efforts.
Seaport Hotel engaged in unfair labor practices, federal labor board rules
Mass Live
By Alvin Buyinza
Dec. 12, 2024
Seaport Hotel Boston broke the law when it refused to recognize and bargain with UNITE HERE Local 26, the union representing the hotel’s banquets and convention services employees, the National Labor Relations Board has found. The board handed down a decision on Tuesday that forces the Seaport Hotel to stop engaging in unfair labor practices and to recognize and negotiate an employment contract in good faith with the UNITE HERE Local 26.
UNION NEGOTIATIONS
After wave of hotel strikes, union says most workers have reached new contracts
Boston Globe
By Stella Tannenbaum
Dec. 12, 2024
After months of contract negotiations and strikes at multiple hotels across the city, workers at most Boston hotels have reached agreements that include significant raises, their union said this week. Out of 36 hotels where Unite Here Local 26 represents workers, 28 have signed new contracts, the hotel workers’ union said. Those contracts account for 90 percent of the rooms at the union’s Boston hotels, the eight remaining unsigned are smaller hotels.
New York Times reaches tentative agreement with tech workers union after Election Week strike
TAG24
By Kaitlyn Kennedy
Dec. 12, 2024
The New York Times has reached a tentative agreement with its tech workers' labor union after they launched an Election Week strike in their fight for a fair contract. The New York Times Tech Guild – which represents around 600 data analysts, software engineers, product managers, designers, and more – announced the three-year tentative agreement on X.
WNBA Players Aiming for Equity-Based Model in CBA Negotiations With League
Sports Illustrated
By Grant Young
Dec. 12, 2024
One storyline from the current WNBA offseason that isn't necessarily top of mind but will have a massive impact on the league's future is WNBA players deciding to opt out of the current Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), which was announced in October. The existing CBA was set to expire following the 2027 season. However, because the WNBA Players Association (WNBPA) exercised the opt-out clause in the agreement, it will now expire following the 2025 campaign.
San Francisco Symphony and Chorus Reach Tentative Contract Agreement, Thanks to $4 Million Donation
Symphony.com
By Staff
Nov. 12, 2024
In Wednesday’s (12/11) San Francisco Chronicle, Aidin Vaziri writes, “The San Francisco Symphony and the union representing its paid Chorus members have reached a tentative two-year contract agreement after months of contentious negotiations thanks to a $4 million donation. The deal between the Symphony’s Board of Governors and the American Guild of Musical Artists members promises to maintain the current compensation and performance levels for the 32 paid choristers during the 2024-25 and 2025-26 seasons. The contract is subject to ratification by the union. The breakthrough, which includes retroactive application of the agreement from Aug. 1, was made possible by the generous donation from an anonymous patron, whose support enabled the Symphony to meet the terms of the new contract … The gift is earmarked for both the immediate operational needs of the Chorus and for a newly established San Francisco Symphony Chorus Endowment Fund, providing long-term financial stability for the group…. The new agreement ensures that the 32 professional choristers will continue to perform up to 26 concerts and rehearse for 53 sessions each season.”
SF hotel strike targets major conference as health insurance remains a chokepoint
The San Francisco Standard
By Kevin V. Nguyen
Dec. 12, 2024
Nearly three months into a strike against the city’s major hotels by a union representing some 2,500 workers, both sides say a deal is nowhere close. The work stoppage has blemished key parts of Union Square and the Financial District during the holiday season, as tourists and shoppers have had to navigate clamorous protests and tension spilling onto the streets. In the latest escalation, the striking workers of the Unite Here Local 2 union have called on J.P. Morgan to cancel its 2025 Healthcare Conference, slated for Jan. 13-16. The confab, which kicks off the city’s annual event calendar, is set to take place at the Westin St. Francis, one of six hotels affected by the strike.
IN THE STATES
Efforts to Close Maines Trades Gap Creates Big Opportunities for the Next Generation
WMTW
By Scott McDonnell
Dec. 11, 2024
“I wanted to jump right into this, and I grew up in a trades-oriented household. My father is also an ironworker, so I had that kind of childhood where I was able to understand trades. From a very young age,” said Arsenault. Helping others understanding the trades – and the opportunities they provide – is the goal of Sam Boss – who leads up apprenticeships for the Maine AFL-CIO…a federation of over 200 local labor unions.
WORKPLACE SAFETY AND HEALTH
IATSE Appoints Two Firearms Experts in the Wake of ‘Rust’
Variety
By Carolyn Giardina
Dec. 12, 2024
Weeks after the controversial premiere of ‘Rust,’ IATSE has appointed a pair of industry vets as firearms experts for the entertainment labor union. The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees has named Larry Zanoff, a longtime member of IATSE Local 44, who will serve as the firearms expert representing the Basic Agreement; and Brook Yeaton, prop master, armorer, and president of IATSE Local 478, who will serve in the same capacity but instead representing the Area Standards Agreement.