Today's AFL-CIO press clips
EDITOR'S NOTE: Kentucky State AFL-CIO President Dustin Reinstedler and Kentucky Alliance for Retired Americans President Kirk Gillenwaters are quoted in the LA Progressive story headlined "Whatever You'veHeard, Democrats Are Better for Unions"
MUST READ
In last-ditch effort, Democrats push to get Julie Su confirmed as Labor Secretary
NPR
By Andrea Hsu
Dec. 17, 2024
"[She] has led the Department of Labor in a way that Secretary Perkins would be damn proud of," said AFL-CIO president Liz Shuler in her introduction to Su. "She has taken the fight to anyone who tries to exploit working people. She has stood with our unions. She has turned DOL into a true house of labor." And yet, Su's legacy will likely be marked with an asterisk. For despite all the labor wins that the Biden administration can claim, getting Su confirmed as labor secretary isn't among them. "It should have happened two years ago," said Shuler in an interview, adding that Su, like her predecessor Perkins, is somewhat of an unsung hero. "That's often how women leaders end up in our history books — that their work is often behind the scenes. It's not recognized and appreciated like it should be."
POLITICS
National monument in Maine honors labor advocate Perkins
Public News Service
By Kathryn Carley
Dec. 17, 2024
A new national monument in the town of Newcastle in Maine will honor FDR-era Labor Secretary Frances Perkins. The first woman to serve in a presidential Cabinet, Perkins is credited with driving New Deal policies including the 40-hour work week, the minimum wage and Social Security. Liz Shuler, president of the AFL-CIO, called Perkins an "unsung hero." "... who has inspired millions of women, millions of workers and is directly responsible for so many of the rights and benefits we have as working people today across this country," Shuler emphasized.
Shuler said Perkins opened doors for women in the labor movement and helped secure workers' legal right to form a union and collectively bargain.
Whatever You've Heard, Democrats Are Better for Unions
LA Progressive
By Berry Craig
Dec. 17, 2024
Last month, "union members voted for Democratic endorsed candidates from the top of the ticket on down at a much higher rate than the general public,” said AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler in a statement. Shuler would quickly point out that unions don’t endorse Democrats just because they’re Democrats.
Biden: Cries of workers burning in 1911 fire heard in today’s struggles
People’s World
By Mark Gruenberg
Dec. 17, 2024
The valedictory journey to Joe Biden’s presidency and its meaning for workers began on March 25, 1911, when a young social worker in Manhattan, Frances Perkins, heard sirens and screams and raced to a tragic scene. What she saw that sunny afternoon was the horrifying fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, an eighth-floor sweatshop employing young immigrant workers, toiling for pennies a day in a closed room with flammable materials all around. The owners, upper class white men, had locked the fire doors, allegedly to prevent “theft” by the woman workers they vastly underpaid.
Federal workers union vows to fight Trump push to end remote work
The Hill
By Sarah Fortinsky
Dec. 17, 2024
AFGE National President Everett Kelley said the union would fight the incoming administration if he followed through on that pledge. “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,” Kelley said.
Workers love Donald Trump. Unions should fear him
The Economist
By Staff
Dec. 17, 2024
It has been a banner year for America’s unions. In November 33,000 machinists returned to their stations at Boeing having won a 38% wage increase over four years. Their victory followed a seven-week strike that brought the plane-maker to its knees. A month before, 47,000 dockworkers walked out for three days at some of the country’s busiest ports. Teamsters union members at Amazon warehouses in New York are threatening a strike. What will Mr Trump’s second term mean for this momentum? American conservatism is certainly edging closer to the country’s workers. Mr Trump has promised “historic co-operation between business and labour”. Yet his inauguration is also likely to bring unprecedented cosiness between the White House and billionaires such as Elon Musk. The populists and plutocrats that make up Mr Trump’s uneasy coalition have vastly different ideas about the future of the labour movement. American workers, unions and industry cannot help being caught in the middle.
NLRB
'Love Is Blind' cast are employees, labor board says. Could a reality TV union be next?
WUSF-NPR
By Emma Bowman
Dec. 17, 2024
A first-of-its-kind labor action — one that could set a precedent for the entire reality TV industry — argues that the participants of the hit Netflix reality show Love Is Blind are employees and therefore eligible for basic labor protections under federal law. In a complaint issued last week, the National Labor Relations Board found that the show's producers had misclassified the contestants — who agree to date other contestants sight unseen, leading to on-screen engagements and even marriage — as "participants." The complaint calls for contestants to be reclassified as employees and for them to receive back pay for any lost wages while they were on the show.
ORGANIZING
'We're making history': Salt Lake library workers reach key step in effort to unionize
KSL.com
By Carter Williams
Dec. 17, 2024
A group of Salt Lake City Public Library employees and supporters erupted into boisterous celebration almost immediately after the city library's board of directors voted Monday to approve a resolution that will allow employees to formally unionize, all but completing a journey about two years in the making. The jubilation poured out into the basement of the Salt Lake Main Library branch afterward, as employees and supporters embraced. The board's decision sets up a final vote by the Salt Lake City Council that is expected to take place as early as next month. If approved by city leaders, Salt Lake City Public Library Workers United — a branch of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees — would become the first public library union in the state.
Noguchi Museum Workers Move to Unionize
Hyperallergic
By Isa Farfan
Dec. 16, 2024
Workers at the Noguchi Museum in New York City are unionizing. Staff across administrative, curatorial, education, and visitor services departments, among others, have petitioned the National Labor Relations Board for a vote to form a union with Local 2110 United Auto Workers (UAW), according to a press release shared with Hyperallergic. The union includes both full and part-time workers and will be “wall-to-wall,” which means all staff members can join regardless of their job title or department.
UNION NEGOTIATIONS
Thousands of union nurses at Mid-Michigan’s largest hospital stand ready to strike
The ‘Gander
By Kyle Kaminski
Dec. 17, 2024
About 2,000 nurses and healthcare professionals at Mid-Michigan’s largest healthcare provider could soon be going on strike depending on how contract negotiations pan out this week between union and corporate officials at University of Michigan Health-Sparrow. Nearly every member of the Professional Employee Council of Sparrow Hospital-Michigan Nurses Association (PECSH-MNA) voted this month to authorize their bargaining team to call a strike with a 10-day notice. And their next move could hinge on whether or not the union can sort out a “fair” contract with corporate officials at the bargaining table before the holidays.
Upper Darby union workers vote to authorize strike as contract nears expiration
Philly Voice
By Chris Compendio
Dec. 17, 2024
The union representing municipal workers in Upper Darby unanimously voted to authorize a strike Monday, saying the township's contract proposal includes "unreasonable demands." Transport Workers Union Local 234 represents 115 employees who handle garbage collection, snow removal, street maintenance and animal control services. Their current contract expires Dec. 31.
These New Orleans nurses voted to unionize—but say they can’t get a contract without a strike
Fast Company
By Capital and Main
Dec. 17, 2024
On October 25, Tonjanika Webster joined a line of nurses on Canal Street, outside of New Orleans’s 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 Beyoncé 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.
S.F. Artists Keep Up the Fight for Better Labor Contracts
San Francisco Classical Voice
By Janos Gereben
Dec. 17, 2024
The SF Symphony Chorus had dramatic confrontations with management after the contract for the group’s 32 professional singers expired on July 31 and the administration proposed an 80 percent reduction of choristers’ salaries. With the support of the American Guild of Musical Artists (AGMA), the union that represents the paid choristers, the singers’ negotiating committee called a strike the day before the SF Symphony’s season-opening performance of Verdi’s Requiem. Management canceled the concert and the other two scheduled performances.
Culinary Union aids Virgin Las Vegas strikers with holiday baskets amid contract fight
News3LV
By Jenelle Vannoy
Dec. 17, 2024
On the 33rd day of the ongoing strike, the Culinary Union distributed Christmas baskets for Virgin Las Vegas strikers on Tuesday. A STRIKEmas Carnival for the children of strikers will follow on Thursday, December 19, at the Culinary Union HQ. These events support the hundreds of strikers fighting for a new union contract with fair wage increases.
IN THE STATES
A new California law bans your boss from ordering you to attend anti-union meetings
Cal Matters
By Jeanne Kuang
Dec. 17, 2024
Starting Jan. 1, California employers won’t be able to require workers to attend any meetings related to their political or religious views — or how their bosses feel about unions. That’s according to a new law, Senate Bill 399, that is one of the most prominent of the usual wave of new workplace laws businesses are expected to follow each year. The legislation came as the Legislature’s Democratic supermajority sought to support a rising wave of unionization across California and the nation.
APPRENTICESHIPS & TRAINING
Illinois AFL-CIO announces effort to narrow gender gap among women in construction
Labor Tribune
By Sheri Gassaway
Dec. 16, 2024
The Illinois AFL-CIO has announced a concerted effort to effectively narrow the gender gap among women in construction trades in the state. The federation approved a resolution recently that would increase the percentage of tradeswomen in the state to 20 percent in the next five years. Nationwide, women only account for 4.3 percent of the construction workforce. In Illinois, that percentage comes in a little higher at five percent, said Illinois AFL-CIO President Tim Drea. However, he noted that number has remained stagnant over the last few years.
Trading on their skills: More women are choosing to work in the trades for better pay and benefits
Shaw Local News
By Amanda Marrazzo
Dec. 17, 2024
Taylor Diaz of Marengo was recently up in a ceiling running piping to encase electric wiring in a newly constructed commercial building in Huntley. The 28-year-old married mother of two young children works for Lauderdale Electric in East Dundee. She is a journeyman wireman with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local 117 and – despite traditional terms like “brotherhood” and ”journeyman” – she is among a growing number of women entering the trades in recent years.
WORKPLACE SAFETY AND HEALTH
Walmart employees are now wearing body cameras in some stores
NBC Los Angeles
By Gabrielle Fonrouge
Dec. 17, 2024
"There's too much harassment that goes on throughout the year, but especially during the holiday season ... it's even worse," said Stuart Appelbaum, president of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union. "Everyone is stressed out. If they can't find the item they're looking for, they get upset and whom do they blame? They blame the shop worker." However, it's unclear whether body cameras actually help to deescalate conflict. Appelbaum, whose union does not represent Walmart employees but includes staff from retailers such as Macy's and H&M, said the RWDSU is concerned that body cameras are more about surveillance and deterring theft than making employees safer. "Workers need training on deescalation. Workers need training on what to do during a hostile situation at work. The body camera doesn't do that. The body camera doesn't intervene," said Appelbaum. "We need safe staffing and we need panic buttons."
OTHER UNION NEWS
Amazon Hit With Potential Strike and Damning Senate Report Ahead of Holiday Rush
Truthout
By Mike Ludwig
Dec. 17, 2024
Thousands of Teamster workers overwhelmingly voted in the past week to authorize strikes at two major Amazon warehouses in New York City and one near Chicago at the height of the holiday shopping season in an effort to force the company to recognize their union and come to the bargaining table. The Teamsters, a major labor union, says Amazon is violating federal labor law by refusing to negotiate a contract that addresses the company’s “low wages and dangerous working conditions.” The union set a December 15 deadline for contract negotiations, one that it said the company ignored. That means Amazon workers in New York and Illinois could go on strike at the busiest time of the year.
Starbucks union votes to authorize strike ahead of this year's last scheduled bargaining session
NBC News
By Amelia Lucas
Dec. 17, 2024
Starbucks Workers United said Tuesday that 98% of union baristas have voted to authorize a strike as they seek a contract with the coffee giant. Bargaining delegates are set to return to negotiations with Starbucks on Tuesday in the last scheduled session of the year with the goal of agreeing on a “foundational framework.” Starbucks and Workers United have spent hundreds of hours this year at the bargaining table, and both sides have put forward dozens of tentative agreements, the union said in a press release.
Trump backs dockworkers as costly strike looms before inauguration
The Hill
By Julia Shapero
Dec. 18, 2024
President-elect Trump has thrown his weight behind dockworkers’ demands for automation protections, as he braces for a strike that could significantly disrupt the economy just days before he is set to take office. Negotiations between the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) and United States Maritime Alliance (USMX) broke down in mid-November, a little over a month after the union suspended a three-day strike at dozens of ports along the East and Gulf coasts.
Amazon faces US strike threat ahead of Christmas
Yahoo! News
By João da Silva
Dec. 18, 2024
Amazon workers in the US could go on strike ahead of Christmas, after members of the Teamsters union voted to support industrial action. The workers say the online retail giant has refused to recognise their union and ignored a 15 December deadline to hold talks over their contract. Amazon's facilities in Southern California, New York and Illinois could be affected, according to a Teamsters statement.