Posts tagged AFL-CIO
Labor Department under GOP fire for hosting ‘union pep rally’ ahead of election
October 1, 2024 // The panel discussion that succeeded the occasion spotlighted “commitments unions have made at the national and local levels to foster a diverse workforce, including pledging to increase the percentage of women in the building trades and establish committees for underrepresented workers to involve them in their local union’s work.” Panelists were from some of the nation’s largest unions, including the AFL-CIO and the Service Employees International Union. SEIU was one of the nine inductees. Foxx stated her committee “has long been concerned about DOL’s lapses in judgment involving holding one-sided events near an election.”
In swing states that once went for Trump, unions organize to prevent a repeat
October 1, 2024 // This year, UNITE HERE says it is once again mobilizing its members and plans to knock on more than 3 million doors in Nevada, Arizona, Pennsylvania, Ohio, North Carolina and Michigan “to ensure that Kamala Harris wins the presidency.” In Wisconsin, the Laborers are building political messaging into a union project to engage members more closely, “connecting union members with other union members,” Miller said, to explain how negotiations affect wages and health and retirement benefits, as well as the importance of increasing union representation.
OPINION: For Workers, Strikes Offer High Risk, Low Reward
September 30, 2024 // The only way to avoid union retaliation is cancelling membership entirely. Beyond the rank-and-file, consequences of union strikes impact consumers, too. Last year, the healthcare industry, for example, saw the largest work stoppage in United States history as 75,000 hospital employees across five states plus Washington, D.C. walked off the job
Op-Ed: Painting the Targets
September 24, 2024 // I next went looking for data about union density—the percentage of employees in an industry who are union members—in New York and California. For New York City, Hofstra University’s Center for the Study of Labor and Democracy put together this report showing industries that have seen declines in union membership. About half of the industries line up with those listed on the independent-contractor complaint form:
Union Members Offered $100 To Attend Rally for Dem Rep. Susan Wild, Leaked Text Message Shows
September 23, 2024 // An official with the International Union of Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers offered the stipend to union members to attend a "Labor Rally/Canvass Launch" on Sept. 7 in Allentown, the message shows. "Wear your Union Colors and there will be a $100 stipend for those that would like to participate," wrote Randy Eberly, the secretary treasurer of the local chapter of the bricklayers union. He signed off the message with, "In Union Solidarity."
The real impact of the Teamsters’ non-endorsement
September 20, 2024 // “Union endorsements are valuable because they usually come with access to resources, particularly volunteers to knock on doors and work phone banks,” Squire said. “Leadership may be able to persuade some members to vote the way they would like, but the real value is in campaign assistance.” Besides the setback of having fewer volunteers, there’s also some possibility that the non-endorsement could sway non-union voters sympathetic to labor issues.
The Union Members Who Never Voted for Their Union
September 10, 2024 // Reform federal labor law to require a secret-ballot election for unionization, as the Employee Rights Act would do. A 2022 survey showed that 70 percent of Americans — and 76 percent of union households — support this concept. At present, unions can succeed without support from a majority of its workforce when only a tiny portion of eligible employees vote in the election. For example, the NLRB is considering certifying an election in California in which just three employees out of 24 voted to unionize. A fourth voted against the union, and the rest did not vote. Federal labor law should require a quorum — such as two-thirds of all eligible voters — in order for an election result to be upheld. Such a requirement is popular: Eighty-four percent of Americans support this idea.
Commentary: The Rise of “Pro-Labor” Conservatism
September 9, 2024 // Yet O’Brien’s move has attracted the attention of commentators from both sides of the political spectrum who see it as a bellwether. It is what conservative commentator Sohrab Ahmari has called a “brave gambit” and veteran labor reporter Steven Greenhouse dubbed a “huge gamble.” “A glacier of hostility has divided the GOP from organized labor for two generations,” Ahmari wrote in Compact. But the Teamsters president “took a pickaxe to that glacier” by speaking at the RNC. Ahmari attributes the rise of this strain of pro-labor, anti-union conservatism to Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO), a MAGA firebrand who has come out as perhaps the lone GOP senator to oppose right to work legislation, the anti-union laws on the books in 28 states.
The labor movement could prove pivotal this election year
September 5, 2024 //
Trump and Harris, with starkly different records on labor issues, are both courting union voters
September 5, 2024 // By comparison, two days after taking office in 2021, Biden issued an executive order that established masking guidelines, and his administration made health and safety protocols on the job during the rest of the COVID-19 pandemic a high priority. Compared with the inaction by the Trump administration during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Biden administration has been more active in proposing health and safety measures. For example, in July 2024 it proposed rules designed to protect some 36 million workers from health risks associated with extreme heat. After a period for written comments, public hearings will be held on the bill. When Trump tried cutting OSHA funding for 2018 by approximately US$10 million, Congress blocked his efforts. The Biden administration is seeking a 3.7% increase in OSHA’s budget for the 2025 fiscal year.