LABOR AND ECONOMY
The Fed’s Fight Against Inflation Could Cost Black Workers The Most
Five Thirty Eight
By Santul Nerkar
March 30, 2023
That racial gap in unemployment persists, too, at least in part because Fed policymakers have long tolerated lower Black employment as an intractable fixture of the economy, justified by Black Americans’ lower educational attainment and skill levels — even though there’s little evidence for that explanation, according to William Spriggs, a professor of economics at Howard University and chief economist for the AFL-CIO. Arguing against the notion that this disparity is based on an education or skills deficit, Spriggs pointed to the fact that white Americans without a high-school diploma typically experience lower unemployment than all Black Americans. And the Fed’s success story of bringing down inflation in the 1980s, as Spriggs sees it, leaves out the fact that the economic progress that Black Americans had made over the prior decades was wiped out by a crushing recession.
JOINING TOGETHER
Workers At Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum, Chicago’s Oldest Museum, Are Voting To Unionize
Block Club Chicago
By Jake Wittich
March 30, 2023
Workers at the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum in Lincoln Park are hoping to join other Chicago cultural institutions in unionizing for better pay and work conditions. Employees of the museum at 2430 N. Cannon Drive filed union representation petitions with the National Labor Relations Board in Chicago on Tuesday. This will trigger a union election in the coming weeks in which the employees will vote whether to formally certify a union with AFSCME Council 31. If certified, the union would represent 45 full- and part-time employees at the Nature Museum and its collections facility in Ravenswood, according to the NLRB filing.
Union chapter at Eastern Illinois University prepares for possible strike starting next week
WTHI-TV
By Annie Johnston
March 30, 2023
The Eastern Illinois University chapter of the University Professionals of Illinois is preparing for a possible strike over labor negotiations. In a statement, Eastern Illinois University announced it had received a Ten-Day Notice of Intent to Strike from the University Professionals of Illinois, Local 4100, IFT-AFT (UPI) on March 24. It allows members of the organization to strike after April 4 if the parties cannot reach agreement at the bargaining table. The organization represents tenured and tenure-track instructors, annually-contracted staff and faculty, and academic support employees. The group's negotiations started about one year ago with a couple dozen proposals.
IN THE STATES
Women in Careers: A tribute to Snohomish County Public Utilities District
Lynnwood Times
By George Ftikas Jr.
March 30, 2023
In honor of Women’s History Month, the Lynnwood Times is highlighting women working in a few “blue-collar” fields traditionally associated with men; here is our second tribute: Snohomish County Public Utilities District. Kim Smith, a Meterman with Snohomish County Public Utilities District:
“The variety of tasks, plus mental and physical challenges make this the ideal career,” Smith said. “All the trades are members of the I.B.E.W. and — whether male or female — receive equal pay. That is important to me.”
Union workers carried the load during the pandemic, now ask for Maine lawmakers to give them relief
Spectrum News
By Susan Cover
March 30, 2023
Led by the AFL-CIO, the lobby day was the first in-person opportunity to make contact with legislators since the COVID-19 pandemic began in March 2020, said Cynthia Phinney, president of the Maine AFL-CIO. That’s significant because many unionized workers carried heavy loads during the pandemic that killed nearly 3,000 people in Maine. “We are here today because we need our legislators to stand up for an economy that works for everyone, not just those at the top,” she said.
Maine workers gather in Augusta seeking improvements across multiple industries
News Center Maine
By Sam Olsen
March 30, 2023
More than 200 union workers from across Maine gathered for the AFL-CIO's Labor Lobby Day at the State House on Thursday. Workers across multiple industries gave support for certain bills in the Legislature that they said would help improve the workplace. During the event, mill workers expressed support for restricting the use of forced overtime.
WORKPLACE SAFETY AND HEALTH
Lawmakers to reintroduce federal nurse staffing ratio bill
Healthcare Dive
By Hailey Mensik
March 30, 2023
The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the struggles of front-line healthcare workers including long-standing issues like staffing shortages and burnout. Some workers have taken action through union organizing, picketing and strikes to secure new contracts with terms to quell challenges — especially regarding staffing levels. National Nurses United is among the unions lobbying for federal staffing standards, arguing that safer conditions are needed to keep nurses from “leaving the healthcare field in droves” and making the crisis worse for workers who remain, NNU President Deborah Burger said at a Thursday press conference.