Today's AFL-CIO Press Clips
POLITICS
Voting rights equal worker rights: Unions fight for John Lewis Act, PRO Act
People’s World
By Mark Gruenberg
August 23, 2021
“We are standing up for voting rights. We are standing up against racial discrimination. We are standing up against voter suppression,” new AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler told the crowd of more than 150 people—most of them from AFSCME and the Teachers (AFT)—in a D.C. park 12 blocks from the U.S. Capitol. “In our House” of Labor, “voting rights and workers’ rights are one. Together we are facing a fundamental assault,” Shuler declared in her first public speech since being elected to succeed the late Richard Trumka. The white supremacists and their political allies are “trying to take our voting rights away and corporations are trying to take away voting rights at the workplace,” too. “This is not coincidental.”
LABOR AND COMMUNITY
Labor federation donates school supplies for new Council Bluffs teachers
The Daily Nonpareil
By Tim Johnson
August 23, 2021
The Western Iowa Labor Federation donated a carload of school supplies to the Council Bluffs Education Association to help teachers with some of the items that aren’t furnished by the school district. The materials will go to new Council Bluffs Education Association members and teachers in the Council Bluffs Community School District, according to a press release from the federation.
JOINING TOGETHER
Colectivo Coffee workers vote to unionize
CBS 58
By CBS 58 Newsroom
August 23, 2021
Workers at Colectivo Coffee can now form a union. A union vote back in March was tied 99-99 after the company challenged seven ballots. The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ruled those ballots need to be opened and counted, which happened Monday, Aug. 23. All seven votes were pro-union. “Colectivo Coffee workers have worked diligently for the opportunity to have their voices heard," International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 494 Business Manager Dean A. Warsh said in a statement. "Now that the ballots have been counted, and once certified, IBEW Local 494 will begin moving forward with bargaining surveys and plans to assist them with their first negotiated contract.”
Warrior Met Coal’s strike practices could bring National Labor Relations Board complaint
AL.com
By William Thornton
August 23, 2021
The United Mine Workers of America is hailing a decision by the National Labor Relations Board against Warrior Met Coal. The NLRB notified Warrior Met on Aug. 13 that it is prepared to issue a complaint if the company does not enter into a settlement and provide the union with information in ongoing contract negotiations. The UMWA has filed multiple unfair labor practice charges against the company since a strike began April 1. The NLRB’s action dealt with what the union called bad faith bargaining, with the union saying Warrior Met did not provide information it was obligated to disclose. “This is welcome news, but is no great surprise,” UMWA International President Cecil E. Roberts said in a statement. “We have seen this company act in ways contrary to American labor law from the outset of this strike.”
IN THE STATES
Hawkeye Area Labor Council AFL-CIO unions cancel Eastern Iowa Labor Day picnics
The Gazette
By James Q. Lynch
August 23, 2021
Rising levels of COVID-19 cases have led to the cancellation again this year of an annual Labor Day celebration in Cedar Rapids. The Hawkeye Area Labor Council AFL-CIO announced Monday that Labor Day picnics in all chapters — also including Iowa City, Waterloo, Mason City and Marshalltown — have been called off because of the latest COVID-19 surge.