UPDATED: State AFL-CIO-sponsored flood relief caravan gearing up for Saturday morning departure from Lexington
TRADE
U.S. trade rep declines to probe alleged rights violations at Saint-Gobain in Mexico
Yahoo!
By Reuters
Oct. 27, 2022
AFL-CIO International Director Cathy Feingold said the federation would check that Saint-Gobain bargains in good faith with the union for a new collective contract, and urged the United States to also track the matter.
IN THE STATES
Tennessee’s right-to-work (for less) amendment - don’t settle for less (Opinion)
Chattanooga Times Free Press
By Gay Henson
Oct. 21, 2022
A "misnomer" is a wrong or inaccurate name, term or designation. "Morning sickness" is a misnomer because feelings of nausea can hit women day or night. Another example is Tennessee's constitutional Amendment 1 -- the Right-to-Work amendment. It more accurately should be called the "Muzzling of Workers and Right-to-Work for Less Amendment." Like morning sickness, it's nauseating. Here's why: We live in a time of rising income inequality, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Furthermore, inflation is at a near 40-year high, with many working families struggling to pay bills. The minimum wage in the Volunteer State is $7.25 an hour, half the living wage in a place like Nashville. Meanwhile, CEOs of large companies make 340 times the wages of a frontline worker, a pay gap of 340:1. Despite this imbalance, some of our so-called state leaders have decided that now is the time to not only limit the little leverage workers have, but to enshrine this injustice in the Tennessee Constitution.
RETIREMENT SECURITY
Wis Politics
Oct. 27, 2022
This week the AFL-CIO launched a digital campaign highlighting candidates’ positions on retirement security. A survey conducted by the AFL-CIO this summer revealed that retirement security is a top issue for 97 percent of union members. The digital campaign in Wisconsin includes a report card that compares Ron Johnson’s positions on retirement security against those of his opponent Mandela Barnes. The report card makes a clear contrast between the candidates. “As we begin voting in this very important election, all Wisconsinites should be aware that their retirement benefits are on the ballot,” said Wisconsin AFL-CIO President Stephanie Bloomingdale. “In Mandela Barnes, we have an ally who is committed to protecting and expanding our Social Security and Medicare benefits, and controlling prescription drug prices,” Bloomingdale said. “And in Ron Johnson, we have something different, something dangerous,” she said. “Johnson clearly intends to cut the very benefits that Wisconsinites have earned and worked our whole lives for,” Bloomingdale said. “We all deserve dignity and security in our retirement, and Ron Johnson wants to rob us of just that,” she concluded.
JOINING TOGETHER
Ascension Via Christi St. Francis nurses can soon vote to unionize
KSN
By Stephanie Nutt
Oct. 27, 2022
Nurses at Ascension Via Christi St. Francis will soon be able to vote to unionize. A petition for nurses at Ascension Via Christi St. Francis to unionize was filed on Monday, Oct. 3, by the National Nurses Organizing Committee -Missouri & Kansas/National Nurses United.
AFSCME pickets turn up the heat on Lightfoot to deliver new contract
Chicago Sun-Times
By Fran Spielman
Oct. 27, 2022
Members of AFSCME Council 31 picketed four city job sites Thursday to pressure Mayor Lori Lightfoot to deliver the pay hikes, hiring bonuses and retention incentives they say their 3,000 city members deserve.
Columbus Museum of Art employees vote to unionize
NBC4
By Sarah Szilagy
Oct. 27, 2022
mployees at the Columbus Museum of Art voted to unionize Thursday. According to a press release, 97% of employees voted to establish the Columbus Museum of Art Workers United, making it the first museum in Columbus to unionize. The group joins AFSCME Ohio Council 8, a labor union representing some Ohio’s municipal, county and regional authorities, universities, hospitals, and non-profit workers.
Union leaders, Ingredion head back to negotiating table next week
CBS2
By Shannon Moudy
Oct. 27, 2022
When a union negotiating team and Ingredion meet next week, it will be exactly three months since Cedar Rapids BCTGM Local 100G workers walked out. Mike Moore, president of Local 100G, says he and other union leaders will meet in-person with Ingredion November 1. Union members walked off the job August 1 over 'the outsourcing of the bargaining unit jobs, diminished seniority rights, the elimination of guaranteed days off, an expanded management rights clause, and a wage scale that will move many members’ wages backwards,' according to a union website.
After strike and with a hard-won new contract, Philadelphia Museum of Art employees go back to work
The Art Newspaper
By Anni Irish
Oct. 27, 2022
Workers at the Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMA) reached a contract agreement with the museum administration on 14 October, ending a two-year-long negotiation process. The contract was ratified by the union with a 99% majority vote on 16 October. Two days later the workers—who had been on strike for 19 days—went back to work. “We are all incredibly moved by the support we have received from the community, union siblings, city politicians, state politicians and the general public,” says Adam Rizzo, president of the PMA union, Local 397 AFSCME DC 47. “We never thought we would be out on strike for almost 3 weeks, but we were fighting for things we believed were important, not only for us as workers at the PMA, but also for workers at cultural institutions writ large. We are more united than ever and ready to keep fighting for positive change at the institution we love.”
Pittsburgh’s latest union? Confidential vote underway at WESA, WYEP
WESA
By Zach Hirsch
Oct. 27, 2022
A union election is getting underway at Pittsburgh Community Broadcasting Corporation, where about half of the staff could soon be represented by the national group SAG-AFTRA. “As a union town, Pittsburgh’s public radio stations should be union shops,” organizers said in a statement announcing their petition in August. SAG-AFTRA, which stands for Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, represents thousands of broadcast professionals across the country, including the employees of several public media outlets. WHYY in Philadelphia and WBUR Boston workers voted to join SAG-AFTRA in 2019, and WAMU in Washington followed suit in 2020.