MUST READ
Arizona civil rights leaders join nationwide marches for voting rights legislation
Azfamily.com
By Brittni Thomason
August 28, 2021
Liz Shuler also went to the event. She's the first female president of The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations. "The labor movement sees workplace rights and voting rights as one," she said. "We are basically here to stand in solidarity with the community, with working people, joining together to make sure our voices are heard at the ballot box and make sure voting is accessible and available for everyone."
VOTING RIGHTS
Hundreds rally for voting rights in Phoenix on 58th anniversary of 'I Have a Dream' speech
AZ Central
By Lacey Latch
August 28, 2021
With labor activists wearing red sprinkled shirts throughout the crowd, Elizabeth Shuler, the newly appointed president of AFL-CIO, one of the nation’s most powerful labor unions, delivered the keynote speech. Shuler highlighted that workers’ rights and voters’ rights go hand in hand. “It’s not a coincidence where there are attacks on unions there are attacks on voting rights,” Shuler said. “Unions are democracy in the workplace and voting rights are democracy at the ballot box.”
CIVIL, HUMAN, AND WOMEN’S RIGHTS
Delaware Online
By Natalia Alamdari
August 27, 2021
A national labor leader is joining the calls for Rep. Gerald Brady’s resignation, this time calling for him to step down from his role as executive director of the Delaware AFL-CIO. This comes after the Wilmington lawmaker’s use of an anti-Asian slur in an email sparked backlash from legislators and community organizations. Liz Shuler, national president of the AFL-CIO, said in a statement on Friday that she was “sickened” by Brady’s “despicable remarks,” and called for his immediate resignation from the union chapter.
IN THE STATES
Labor Day event to celebrate dignity of work and challenge inequity in theater
DC Metro Theater Arts
By News Desk
August 28, 2021
Beginning on Labor Day, a new project named Working in DC will host a public celebration of the dignity of work through the lens of history, labor, justice, and the arts. Presented in collaboration with The Labor Heritage Foundation and hosted by the AFL-CIO, the performances will take place outdoors on Black Lives Matter Plaza in Washington, DC. The headliner event of this three-weekend-long celebration is Working, A Musical — a joyful musical highlighting workers in America based on Studs Terkel’s acclaimed oral history — with music by some of Broadway’s best-known composers (Stephen Schwartz, Micki Grant, Lin-Manuel Miranda).
Letter to the editor: Remember workers on Labor Day
The Post Star
By Ron Briggs
August 29, 2021
Labor Day is a time to reflect on where we stand as members of the American labor force. Work during a pandemic has brought the issue of workplace safety to the forefront. Essential, front-line and public facing workers risked the most and died in the greatest numbers while the wealthiest among us watched their portfolios expand from the comfort of their country homes. Public services continued at great personal risk to the workers whose job it is to maintain those services.
JOINING TOGETHER
Nabisco workers on Southwest Side vow solidarity as strike continues
Chicago Sun-Times
By David Roeder
August 27, 2021
The Chicago strikers are members of Local 1 of the Bakery, Confectionary, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union. They started the walkout Aug. 19, part of a strike that began earlier in August in Portland, Oregon. Veronica Hopkins, a business agent at Local 1, said the union has about 325 members at the Chicago plant, 7300 S. Kedzie Ave., and about 20 workers at a sales distribution site in Addison. She said the strike involves about 1,000 people nationwide whose contract expired May 31.
Richmond Times-Dispatch
By Gregory J. Gilligan
August 27, 2021
Unionized employees at Kroger stores in the Richmond region and Hampton Roads ratified a new collective bargaining agreement with the supermarket chain that gives them pay raises. After weeks of negotiations, Kroger and the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 400, which represents the Kroger employees, reached a tentative agreement on Aug. 6. The union bargaining committee unanimously recommended the contract be ratified. Voting took place this week on Wednesday and Thursday and the votes were counted Friday. Union members voted 358-12 in favor of adopting the new contract, the union said.