Today's AFL-CIO press clips
MUST READ
If Democrats Want to Reconnect With the Working Class, They Need to Start Listening to Unions
The Nation
By John Nichols
Dec. 13, 2024
The labor movement gave overwhelming support to Vice President Kamala Harris and mounted an aggressive campaign to turn out their members for Democratic candidates up and down the ballot in 2024. Their efforts proved to be dramatically more successful than those of the Democratic Party. “Union members voted for Democratic endorsed candidates from the top of the ticket on down at a much higher rate than the general public,” explains AFL-CIO President Elizabeth Shuler. Union members voted for Harris by a solid 57–39 margin, according to exit polls.
POLITICS
Senators Manchin and Sinema sink pro-worker NLRB Chair McFerran
People’s World
By Press Associates
Dec. 13, 2024
The vote severely disappointed AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler. Sanders’ successor next year in the Labor Committee chair, right-wing Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., snidely sneered at McFerran, cheered that Trump could pack the board, and flat-out lied that Trump will be a pro-worker president. “Fifty senators didn’t just vote against Lauren McFerran’s reconfirmation—they voted against the working people of this country,” Shuler said. “Make no mistake: This vote had nothing to do with stopping Chair McFerran’s renomination and everything to do with reversing generations of progress workers have made toward building a fairer and more just economy.
Social Security Fairness Act to get a vote in the Senate, Chuck Schumer says
CBS News
By Kate Gibson
Dec. 13, 2024
A House-passed bill that would expand Social Security benefits to millions of Americans just got a lifeline in the Senate. Senate Majority Chuck Schumer said Thursday he would start the process for a final vote on the Social Security Fairness Act, which would eliminate two federal policies that keep a portion of Americans from getting their full Social Security benefits, including cops, fire fighters and teachers. One living-and-breathing example is Terry Hoover, a firefighter in Louisville, Kentucky, for more than 20 years. Now retired, he says these two provisions cost his family more than $1,000 a month.
Biden is on track to appoint more federal judges of color than any other president
NBC News
By Char Adams
Dec. 13, 2024
As President Joe Biden makes a final push to confirm judicial nominees before his term in office ends, he is on track to have appointed more federal judges of color than any president before him. On Monday, the Senate confirmed Biden’s judicial nominee for the Northern District of Georgia, Tiffany Johnson, making her the 40th Black woman he has appointed to lifetime federal judgeships — more than any president in a single term.
Over 120 House Democrats call on Biden to have Equal Rights Amendment ratified
The Washington Post
By Mariana Alfaro
Dec. 15, 2024
More than 120 House Democrats have signed a letter asking President Joe Biden to urge the nation’s archivist to recognize the ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment by publishing the amendment first proposed 101 years ago — a move they believe would finally enshrine sex equality into the Constitution. If the president does as the Democrats ask, the publication of the ERA would probably spark legal challenges over the validity of the amendment, which, despite having met all the constitutional requirements, has not been added to the Constitution because not enough states ratified it in time to meet a Congress-mandated deadline.
IMMIGRATION
A Working-Class History of Fighting Deportations
Jacobin
By David Bacon
Dec. 15, 2024
The history of working-class organizing in the United States is full of examples of immigrant resistance to mass deportation, sweeps, and other tactics. Time and again, immigrant worker activity has changed the course of society. It has produced unions of workers ranging from copper miners to janitors. It turned the politics of Los Angeles head. And it is this tradition of worker resistance that is the real target of immigration enforcement waves, both current and threatened by the incoming administration.
ORGANIZING
Whole Foods Workers in Philadelphia Are Unionizing
Jacobin
By Sara Wexler
Dec. 14, 2024
On November 22, workers at a Whole Foods store in Philadelphia filed for a union election with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). This marks the first such filing by Whole Foods workers since logistics giant Amazon acquired the grocery store chain in 2017. Amazon has gained a reputation as a notoriously anti-union employer as it has faced down a growing swell of unionization efforts from its workforce across the country. Now the corporation is contending with union drives not just among its own warehouse workers and delivery drivers but from its prominent grocery subsidiary as well.
Amid intimidation claims, Wells Fargo investigators vote to unionize
Los Angeles Times
By Suhauna Hussain
Dec. 12, 2024
Wells Fargo employees who review customer complaints and workplace issues have voted to unionize. The move is the latest in a campaign to organize workers at the San Francisco bank, which is notable in an industry that historically has had low rates of unionization. After a legal back-and-forth over the vote, in which the bank contested the validity of ballots cast by former employees, the National Labor Relations Board certified the election results Tuesday. Members of the conduct management department voted 21-16 in favor of joining the union.
UNION NEGOTIATIONS
These Nurses Got a Union — But Say They Can’t Get a Contract Without a Strike
Capital & Main
By Jesse Baum
Dec. 13, 2024
On Oct. 25, Tonjanika Webster joined a line of nurses on Canal Street, outside of New Orleans’ University Medical Center. Some, like Webster, wore scrubs. Others, red for their union, National Nurses United. A giant banner reading “UMC Proud” unfurled over the hospital’s facade, while Beyonce and Taylor Swift echoed out of giant speakers, punctuated by approving honks from drivers. The air was jubilant, like a party, but it was a picket line. It was also Louisiana’s first-ever strike of private-sector nurses.
GE Appliances union workers in Louisville vote 'No' to tentative contract. What that means
Courier Journal
By Olivia Evans
Dec. 13, 2024
GE Appliances workers have spoken. Wednesday, the roughly 5,000 union workers at GE Appliances in Louisville, voted on the tentative agreement reached between the appliance manufacturer and IUE-CWA Local 83761 after two months of negotiations. Workers at the appliance company which operates out of Appliance Park on Buechel Bank Road rejected the contract with 73% voting "no."
Workers at Hyatt Regency Baltimore avert strike, agree to ‘life-changing’ contract
Fox Baltimore
By Lorraine Mirabella
Dec. 15, 2024
Two weeks after signaling that a strike could be imminent, more than 100 unionized workers at Hyatt Regency Baltimore have ratified a contract that will significantly boost wages and health insurance affordability. The 120 Hyatt workers represented by UNITE HERE Local 7 voted Friday to accept an agreement with the hospitality giant that runs through July 2028, the union announced. They include housekeepers, bellmen, cooks, banquet servers, bussers, food runners and operating engineers.
TD Garden concession workers vote to approve contract, avoid strike
NBC Boston
By Kaitlin McKinley Becker
Dec. 15, 2024
Following months of "grueling negotiations and increasing attention," the union representing over 600 concession workers at TD Garden says it has voted to approve a new contract, avoiding a strike this weekend. Workers represented by United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1445 -- including those responsible for providing food, beverages, and team gear, as well as serving guests in the suites, Legends Room, Press Room, and various clubs, bars, and VIP areas -- had planned to meet in Somerville Sunday to vote for a strike authorization but instead voted to ratify a new three-year contract.
Ben & Jerry’s employees lock in their first three-year union contract
Waterbury Roundabout
By Lisa Scagliotti
Dec. 14, 2024
More than 300 employees at the Ben & Jerry’s ice cream plants in Waterbury and St. Albans recently ratified their first ever union contract. The workers, new members of the UFCW Local 371, voted to accept the contract on Nov. 26, according to union and company officials. Prior to contract negotiations, the employees earlier this year went through the union-recognition process with Ben & Jerry’s parent company, Unilever.
JOINING TOGETHER
NFL players union shares support for strike at Virgin Hotels Las Vegas
News 3 LV
By News 3 Staff
Dec. 13, 2024
The union for NFL players says it's supporting the hospitality workers' strike at Virgin Hotels Las Vegas. The NFL Players Association released a statement Friday saying it will "not sleep, eat, or drink at Virgin Las Vegas and encourage our fans and fellow athletes to do the same."
WORKPLACE SAFETY AND HEALTH
Extreme heat deaths and illness spark push in NC for federal heat protection standards
NC Health News
By Anne Blythe
Dec. 13, 2024
“No one should die because their employer failed to do what is necessary to save their life from known and preventable hazards, including extreme heat. And it is the duty of the Department of Labor to see to it that never happens,” MaryBe McMillan, president of the N.C. State AFL-CIO, said in a statement circulated by the coalition.
Fewer California workers were dying on the job. Then fentanyl took a devastating toll
Local News Matters
By Jeanne Kuang and Jeremia Kimelman
Dec. 14, 2024
As the nation continues to struggle with an opioid crisis now supercharged by fentanyl, overdoses have become one of the leading causes of workplace deaths. California is no different: Workplace overdose deaths have risen so dramatically that in 2021 and 2022, they caused more fatalities than falls at construction sites or being hit by machinery, and in 2022 were second only to car crashes and other transportation incidents.
EDUCATION
Christian Nationalists Are Reshaping Texas’s Public School Curricula
Truthout
By Eleanor J. Bader
Dec. 15, 2024
This ball has continued to roll. Zeph Capo, president of the Texas chapter of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), and a former middle and high school biology teacher, told Truthout that some school districts have “removed all mention of environmental change from the curriculum, barring teachers from discussing it even if it is in the news or is being directly experienced.”
LABOR AND COMMUNITY
New Christmas album helping local families at the holidays
News-Press Now
By Kyle Schmidt
Dec. 14, 2024
Musicians from around the country have come together to create a Christmas album that benefits people right here in St. Joseph. The 23-track "Mark Murtha's Christmas Party in Kansas City" is helping nonprofit organizations across Missouri, including AFL-CIO's Adopt-A-Family program locally. Murtha, a guitarist and the producer of the album, gathered 40 artists to make it happen. "I just like to give back to the community, I think it is a great opportunity to do that," Murtha said. "People love Christmas music and a lot of people look for new Christmas music each year."