Today's AFL-CIO press clips
POLITICS
Biden honors country's first female Cabinet secretary, reflects on his own accomplishments for labor
Spectrum News 1
By Maddie Gannon
Dec. 16, 2024
Joined by AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler, administration officials, members of Congress and Perkins’ grandson at the Labor Department on Monday, Biden praised the late labor head’s accomplishments for workers over her career and in FDR’s administration in the 1930s and '40s. “Over decades of service, she became a fierce defender of unions and workers’ rights — an architect of the New Deal,” Biden said.
To promote workers’ priorities, AFL-CIO wades into Dem party fight
People’s World
By Mark Gruenberg
Dec. 16, 2024
The AFL-CIO is wading into the intraparty Democratic Party fight over its future direction, warning that the party’s new leader—whoever it is—must promote workers’ priorities while engaging in year-round grass-roots organizing and mobilizing. And the party must reject ties with the corporate class, federation President Liz Shuler adds. “Having leaders who prioritize big-money corporate donors is flatly unacceptable,” she declares. Shuler’s statement, two months before the Democratic National Committee elects new leaders, is important.
Politico
Dec. 17, 2024
FIRST IN PLAYBOOK: House Administration Committee Republicans will convene a hearingtomorrow on “Preventing Foreign Interference” in American elections. But to an array of unions and liberal groups, that is a first step toward advancing legislation that they fear could be used to silence advocacy groups under the guise of protecting democracy. Today those groups — including the AFL-CIO, Indivisible and SEIU — are launching Americans Against Government Censorship, a coalition aimed at opposing those efforts, such as bills allowing any nonprofit to be designated a “terrorist supporting organization” or to have its tax-exempt status revoked for inadvertently accepting donations from foreign nationals. See the group’s website
Joe Biden is declaring Frances Perkins’ Maine homestead a national monument
Bangor Daily News
By Christopher Burns
Dec. 16, 2024
President Joe Biden is creating a new national monument in Maine to honor the legacy of a crusader for workers’ rights and the nation’s first female Cabinet secretary. That is the culmination of a campaign to win that designation for Frances Perkins’ family homestead in Newcastle. Biden on Monday will officially sign a proclamation declaring the property the Frances Perkins National Monument during a ceremony at the U.S. Department of Labor’s Frances Perkins Building in Washington. “Honoring Frances Perkins with a national monument does more than acknowledge her work to establish Social Security, unemployment insurance, minimum wage and overtime pay, it is a challenge for us,” acting Labor Secretary Julie Su said in a statement. “We must all remember that the gains we enjoy today were not gifts, they were hard-fought victories because Frances Perkins dared to believe that workers should thrive and not just survive.”
Thousands log in to virtual town hall discussing plans to stop potential federal workforce cuts
Maryland Matters
By WTOP News
Dec. 16, 2024
“No one should expect that on Jan. 20, they’re going to get fired,” said Daniel Horowitz, the deputy legislative director of American Federation of Government Employees, a union for federal workers. Trump has said he plans to reimplement Schedule F, which reclassify some federal workers to make it easier to fire them without cause. Horowitz said a rule put in place by the Biden Administration would at least slow down any plan for mass-firing of federal workers.
Federal workers brace for change amid DOGE rhetoric
The Hill
By Rebecca Beitsch
Dec. 16, 2024
President-elect Trump’s focus on the federal workforce has sparked alarm among employees as they take center stage in discussions about transforming government. “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE) co-leaders Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy have floated a number of plans targeting federal workers, including plans to end telework.
Trump Says He Plans To Fire Federal Employees Who Continue Remote Work
HuffPost
By Dave Jamieson
Dec. 16, 2024
That union, the American Federation of Government Employees, said Monday that “rumors of widespread federal telework” are “simply untrue.” “More than half of federal employees cannot telework at all because of the nature of their jobs, only ten percent of federal workers are remote, and those who have a hybrid arrangement spend over sixty percent of working hours in the office,” the union’s president, Everett Kelley, said in a statement responding to Trump’s comments.
Trump says federal workers who don't want to return to the office are "going to be dismissed"
CBS News
By Melissa Quinn
Dec. 16, 2024
President-elect Donald Trump said Monday that his new administration will challenge a deal reached between the Social Security Administration and its union that would allow employees to continue teleworking into 2029. In his remarks from Mar-a-Lago, Trump appeared to be referencing an agreement reached by the Social Security Administration and the American Federation of Government Employees earlier this month. The deal keeps in place the agency's current telework policy until October 2029. Under the plan, employees must be in the office between two and five days per week, depending on their jobs, according to Bloomberg News. There are roughly 42,000 Social Security Administration workers who are represented by the American Federation of Government Employees.
Key union vows to fight back after Trump says he would end remote work for federal employees
NBC News
By Dareh Gregorian
Dec. 16, 2024
The union representing thousands of federal workers said it would fight any effort by President-elect Donald Trump to block a Biden administration agreement allowing thousands of federal workers to continue with remote work.In a statement later Monday, AFGE National President Everett Kelley said the union would fight any effort to strip those protections. "Collective bargaining agreements entered into by the federal government are binding and enforceable under the law. We trust the incoming administration will abide by their obligations to honor lawful union contracts. If they fail to do so, we will be prepared to enforce our rights,” Kelley said. "Telework and remote work are tools that have helped the federal government increase productivity and efficiency, maintain continuity of operations, and increase disaster preparedness," he added.
ORGANIZING
‘Time is running out.’ University unions rush to organize before the Trump White House
Los Angeles Times
By Jaweed Kaleem
Dec. 16, 2024
Two years after 48,000 University of California academic workers won big pay gains in a historic six-week strike, labor experts and organizers predicted that their success, along with a labor-friendly Biden administration, would spur broad union activism within higher education institutions. A flurry of recent university union activity coupled with fears of a more pro-business, anti-labor Trump White House is providing the answer. At campuses across the country — including top California universities, New York University and Harvard — unions representing graduate student workers, part-time and non-tenure track faculty and others are rapidly and aggressively moving to organize workers. For many part-time and non-tenured faculty, who are a backbone of undergraduate education, the union activism reflects their longtime frustrations as lower paid and easily let-go instructors, experts said. Now, time is of the essence.
Live Performance’s New Union Wave Goes Way Beyond Broadway
Jacobin
By Douglas Corzine
Dec. 16, 2024
Over the past three years, the union Actors’ Equity has strengthened its membership by organizing live performers outside the theater world, opening its ranks to escape room performers, strip club dancers, and Disneyland cast members. These organizing campaigns are beginning to have concrete effects, as the union recently secured the first two contracts of this wave of expansion – first for actors and front-of-house staff, then for planetarium lecturers in Los Angeles. With the likelihood of an anti-labor Trump administration looming, the union hopes an aggressive mobilization effort will be the counterweight it needs.
UNION NEGOTIATIONS
Upper Darby municipal workers to hold strike authorization vote
WHYY
By Kenny Cooper
Dec. 16, 2024
Upper Darby municipal workers will hold a strike authorization vote Monday, opening the possibility of a walkout as early as New Year’s Day. The 115 members of Transport Workers Union Local 234 handle animal control, garbage collection, municipal vehicle repairs, sewage maintenance, snow removal and street cleaning for the township. “Upper Darby administrators have dragged their heels and have not negotiated a contract for our members in good faith,” TWU Local 234 President Brian Pollitt said in Monday’s press release. “Their contract demands are outrageous and would harm both workers and residents. We are sounding the alarm.”
Municipal workers union in Philadelphia suburbs votes unanimously to authorize strike
CBS News
By Tom Ignudo
Dec. 16, 2024
The union representing municipal workers in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania, voted unanimously to authorize a strike on Monday. The union, Transport Workers Union Local 234, represents 115 workers who provide municipal services in Upper Darby, including garbage collection, snow removal, street and highway maintenance, street lighting, animal control and other services. Most of the workers are in the Department of Public Works. "Upper Darby administrators have dragged their heels and have not negotiated a contract for our members in good faith," TWU Local 234 President Brian Pollitt said in a statement. "Their contract demands are outrageous and would harm both workers and residents. We are sounding the alarm."
JOINING TOGETHER
Union coalition calls for Kroger CEO’s removal amid buyback controversy
Retail Insight Network
By Staff
Dec. 16, 2024
Afaction of the US trades union United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) has called for the ousting of Kroger CEO Rodney McMullen in the wake of a controversial $7.5bn stock buyback announcement. The move follows an unsuccessful attempt to consolidate its position in the grocery market by merging with Albertsons. The Stop the Merger coalition, spearheaded by several UFCW local unions, contends that the substantial buyback initiative is ill-timed, arguing that the company should prioritise investments in workforce enhancement, store maintenance and renovations.
Piedmont Airlines workers picket outside Norfolk International Airport for better pay
WTKR
By Madeline Miller
Dec. 16, 2024
A small group of Piedmont Airlines workers are picketing outside Norfolk International Airport Monday morning in an effort to secure better wages and standards. The airline is a subsidiary of the American Airlines Group. The Communications Workers of America union (CWA), which represents the passenger service and ramp workers, says they "cannot wait any longer" for a collective bargaining agreement that includes improved wages, safety on the job and health care for part-time employees.
Town, firefighters finalizing $100k settlement for overtime pay dispute
Brookline News
By Vivi Smilgius
Dec. 16, 2024
The town has tentatively agreed to pay a total of more than $101,000 to employees of the Brookline Fire Department to settle a class action lawsuit regarding unpaid overtime wages. Last December, Lieutenants Brian Bergeron and Paul Trahon, leaders of the union representing Brookline firefighters, sued the town for allegedly violating the Fair Labor Standards Act by failing to pay some employees overtime pay on time or at all. Later, 117 other members signed on to the class action suit. The union, Local 950 of the International Association of Fire Fighters, represents Brookline firefighters, fire lieutenants, fire captains and deputy chiefs. The union’s contract states that employees working more than 212 hours in a 28-day period should receive time-and-a-half overtime pay — compensation that the suit alleged many of the union members had not always received from 2020 to 2024.
Uptown Marriott hotel renovation under investigation for alleged labor violations
WGLT
By Eric Stock
Dec. 16, 2024
The Illinois Department of Labor [IDOL] has confirmed it is investigating the Marriott Hotel and Conference Center in Normal. This comes after union leaders filed a complaint alleging a series of violations related to pay and other workplace standards. Labor groups in McLean County have been protesting the contractor’s use of out-of-state workers for a project there. Ronnie Paul, business manager of the Laborers International Union North America [LIUNA] Local 362 in Bloomington, said the union spoke with employees on site who told them they were being paid between $15 and $18 per hour, far less than the required prevailing wage.
New report exposes rampant labor abuses in South Florida’s construction industry
Prism
By Alexandra Martinez
Dec. 16, 2024
Carlos began working as a carpenter in Miami two years ago because he said it was one of the higher-paying positions in the city’s booming construction industry. At first, he earned $18 an hour, and now he makes $23 an hour, averaging up to 50 hours a week sawing wood atop Miami’s staggering skyscrapers. However, Carlos, who requested only his first name be published, said the risks of working at the top of luxury condominiums are not worth the pay, which is still barely enough to afford rent in Miami’s inflated market.
APPRENTICESHIPS & TRAINING
Training the next generation in construction trades is vital to country’s future (Opinion)
The Morning Call
By Joe Merlino
Dec. 16, 2024
As we face a massive skills shortage in the industry, it is more important now than ever to raise awareness for careers in construction. The COVID-19 pandemic and the phenomenon known as the Great Resignation caused a major disruption in America’s labor forces. In 2022, more than 50 million workers quit their jobs, following the 47.8 million who did so in 2021.
WORKPLACE SAFETY AND HEALTH
Legal update: What's the status of the battle over mandatory overtime at Backus Hospital?
The Bulletin
By Matt Grahn
Dec. 16, 2024
A dispute between nurses and Backus Hospital is still ongoing. The Backus Federation of Nurses, Local 5149 of the American Federation of Teachers, filed an injunction with New London Superior Court Oct. 15. The union sought an injunction to stop mandatory overtime, another injunction to prevent nurses from being “on-call” after a 12-hour shift, and reasonable compensation for legal fees, legal filings state.
Simple Flying
By Steven Walker
Dec. 16, 2024
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has finalized rules requiring aircraft repair stations outside the US to conduct drug and alcohol testing for employees performing safety-critical roles. It is estimated, according to Reuters, that the ruling will affect more than 970 aircraft repair stations in 66 countries worldwide.
Advocates For Mine Workers Commend Black Lung Rule
WV Public Broadcasting
By Briana Heaney
Dec. 16, 2024
The United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) says a final rule by the Labor Department will help miners who have contracted black lung. The new rule issued by the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) requires coal companies to cover the disability benefits of miners who have black lung as a result of working in mines. “The burden of dealing with this always-fatal disease has for too long fallen on its victims. It’s time to put the burden where it belongs – on the coal companies that ignored laws and regulations that are in place to keep mine workers safe and healthy,” said UMWA President Cecil Roberts in an emailed press release.
EDUCATION
Hoodline
By Bryce Winslow
Dec. 16, 2024
Amidst these changes, Randi Weingarten, President of the American Federation of Teachers, voiced her dissatisfaction with the curriculum's rigid application. According to a Chalkbeat interview, she said, "It became much more about the performative aspects of saying the curriculum is being implemented as opposed to the real support that teachers need and students need in mastering new skills and new tools." Weingarten advocates for greater exemptions from the mandates and increased flexibility for teachers to properly engage with the new materials.