Posts tagged Massachusetts AFL-CIO
Julie Su: ‘Unions were built for big fights’
February 23, 2025 // In four years at the U.S. Department of Labor under President Biden, including two as acting secretary of labor, Julie Su ’94 helped to implement the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, extend overtime pay for salaried workers, and facilitate agreements between employers and unions for autoworkers, longshoremen, school bus manufacturers, and airplane machinists. In those contract negotiations, Su, a labor rights activist, often heard from employers that the wage increases demanded by workers were too high because they were “above the market wage.” She pushed back on that premise, she explained in remarks at the Feb. 14 graduation of the Harvard Trade Union Program (HTUP).
Wage activists thankful minimum wage has finally hit $15, but say it’s not enough
January 5, 2023 // “Inflation is putting real pressure on workers, and the minimum wage needs to keep up with their costs,” she said in the release. Lynch doesn’t believe another minimum wage increase would solve the problem, but said moving closer to a living wage would help. Tying minimum wage to inflation or indexing it could help workers keep up with rising costs, she added.
Union members rally for Democrats in Dorchester ahead of midterm elections
September 27, 2022 // On Saturday, hundreds of unionized workers gathered in Dorchester to show their support for gubernatorial candidate Maura Healey and attorney general candidate Andrea Campbell, two Democratic women who, if elected, will make history at the polls. The event was held in the parking lot of IBEW Local 103, where Healey and Campbell addressed the crowd while standing on a flatbed trailer. After the rally, some in the crowd planned to canvas door-to-door and ask voters to cast ballots for Democrats running for statewide office. Republican, Geoff Diehl, Donald J. Trump