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Thanking Heroes for National Nurses Week: What Working People Are Doing This Week
AFL-CIO
Welcome to our regular feature, a look at what the various AFL-CIO unions and other working family organizations are doing across the country and beyond. The labor movement is big and active—here's a look at the broad range of activities we're engaged in this week.
Actors' Equity:
Our nation is in the midst of an interruption of business because of an economic and public health crisis. The idea that insurers would not meet the obligations of their policyholders is shameful and harmful to any economic rebound. - via @nytimes https://t.co/LY7Y8tKyUZ
— Actors' Equity (@ActorsEquity) May 7, 2020
AFGE:
As public servants, we work hard behind the scenes to keep our country moving. We're #ProudToBeAFGE. pic.twitter.com/hMQowskYl1
— AFGE (@AFGENational) May 7, 2020
AFSCME:
Front-line public service workers are risking their lives under the most difficult possible conditions. Believe it or not, many are being thanked with layoffs...
Asian Pacific American Heritage Month: An EVS Technician’s COVID-19 Story
Happy Asian Pacific American Heritage Month! Let’s uplift Asian American and Pacific Islander workers this month—those who are on the front lines of COVID-19 and those who are on the front lines of our families and communities.
Angel is an EVS technician in Seattle: Her work keeps patients safe by disinfecting hospital rooms, including COVID-19 patients. Angel is critical to stopping the spread of infection, but workers like her are not being allocated enough personal protective equipment.
It is terrifying for health care workers when they do not have access to personal protective equipment and safe working environments. Without protection for workers, both patients and workers suffer. Angel is fighting for the rights and protections of workers like her. Join us to support the Essential Workers Bill of Rights, which includes guaranteeing safety protections for all workers on the job; universal health care access; compensation and job protections workers deserve for their heightened risks; and more.
We can't let Angel and millions of workers like her...
If Trump Wants Meat Plants Open, He Should Protect Their Workers
The United States now has more than a million reported coronavirus cases, by far the most of any country in the world. The health of our nation, physically and economically, depends on the safety of our workers.
That has always been true, but perhaps never more so than in the face of today’s crisis—and it’s why we need clear and decisive action from the White House.
President Donald Trump has given us more confusion than solutions, failing to use his executive authority to protect working people.
In times of crisis, the Defense Production Act is an important tool for mobilizing resources and producing emergency supplies. Trump hemmed and hawed on using it—he said he would use it only if “we need to invoke it in a worst-case scenario.” If this isn’t a worst-case scenario, nothing is.
Take critical ventilators. Not until after GM and Ventec revealed that they had secured suppliers for 700 parts, made a deal with the UAW to staff the Kokomo, Ind., plant and started setting up the plant did the president issue an order telling GM to do what it was already...
Labor Radio–Podcast Weekly: Saluting Front-Line Workers, Remote Learning and More
Labor Radio-Podcast Weekly
The latest episode of the Labor Radio–Podcast Weekly features a daily salute to front-line workers in the Electchester community of New York, Chicago Teachers tackling remote learning and Richard Trevellick's fight for the eight-hour workday.
This week, Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 3’s Chris Erikson Jr. talks to "UCOMM Live" about the daily salute to front-line workers in Electchester, a New York City community built in the 1950s by Local 3 to house its members: "The windows open up, people start banging pots and pans and whooping and hollering."
Also on "UCOMM Live," actor Harold Phillips talks about the financial impact union television shows have on the community: "There were a lot of different unions that benefited from that one production being based in Portland, Oregon."
On "CTU Speaks," the podcast of the Chicago Teachers Union, it’s pretty clear that teachers don’t like remote learning, and students like it even less, but what about the parents? "CTU Speaks" talks with Andrea Mosley and...
A Message to Workers: The Working People Weekly List
AFL-CIO
Every week, we bring you a roundup of the top news and commentary about issues and events important to working families. Here’s the latest edition of the Working People Weekly List.
Union Leaders' Message to Workers About COVID-19: "Leaders of America's unions send a message of support and thanks to the union members and workers who are keeping our economy going and providing all of us with basic needs and essential services."
Labor-Radio Podcast Weekly: Danny Glover, Jamie Partridge and More: "This week, actor and activist Danny Glover says, 'We need to fight a fight for the new future' on Work Week Radio (KPOO), and Jamie Partridge of Communities and Postal Workers United says, 'This pandemic is life and death, if not for you, for your coworker, for your family, for their family, for our customers' on Labor Radio (KBOO), which included an excerpt from this year’s online Labor Notes conference."
Plant Workers in Kentucky Fight for Safer Workplaces: "In late March, when workers at GE Appliances, a Haier company in Louisville, Kentucky, were...
Nevada’s Labor Movement Comes Together to Support Each Other
Nevada State AFL-CIO
As the backbone of Nevada’s gaming and hospitality industry, more than 98% of the 60,000 members of the Culinary Workers Union/UNITE HERE Local 226 and thousands of other union members have been laid off since the pandemic began. Now, Nevada’s labor movement is swiftly responding to the unprecedented scale of need among union members and their families.
The United Labor Agency of Nevada (ULAN)—a partnership of the Culinary Workers Union, the Nevada State AFL-CIO, community organizations and Las Vegas-area labor unions—is providing services to not only union members, but also to people in the community who have been impacted by COVID-19.
“A number of different affiliates have contributed both funds and volunteers,” said Rusty McAllister (IAFF), executive secretary-treasurer of the Nevada State AFL-CIO. “A large part of the labor federation’s relief efforts are done through ULAN, helping to raise money and provide relief to those in need.” ULAN was founded 25 years ago by the Culinary Workers Union and the state federation. McAllister...
Mourn for the Dead, Fight for the Living: In the States Roundup
AFL-CIO
It's time once again to take a look at the ways working people are making progress in the states. Click on any of the links to follow the state federations on Twitter.
Alaska State AFL-CIO:
On this Workers Memorial Day, we remember and pay tribute to all those who have lost their lives on the job due to COVID-19, and those who have been injured or made sick from other preventable workplace tragedies.#WorkersMemorialDay pic.twitter.com/JdrIpFcyea
— Alaska AFL-CIO (@AKAFLCIO) April 28, 2020
California Labor Federation:
America Is About to Witness the Biggest Labor Movement It’s Seen in Decades by @stevelevine in @MRKR https://t.co/YDDRKAeT3g #1u
— California Labor Federation (@CaliforniaLabor) April 30, 2020
Colorado AFL-CIO:
Thank you @GovofCO for #DoingYourPartCO and expanding paid sick leave for all workers going back to work with the new #SaferAtHome phase. This important step will ensure workers aren't putting their paycheck or lives...
Labor-Radio Podcast Weekly: Danny Glover, Jamie Partridge and More
Labor Radio-Podcast Weekly
This week, actor and activist Danny Glover says, “We need to fight a fight for the new future” on Work Week Radio (KPOO), and Jamie Partridge of Communities and Postal Workers United says, “This pandemic is life and death, if not for you, for your coworker, for your family, for their family, for our customers” on Labor Radio (KBOO), which included an excerpt from this year’s online Labor Notes conference. Plus, “The Fight for Equality” from Labor History in 2:00.
Listen to the show.
Kenneth Quinnell
Wed, 04/29/2020 - 13:14
Tags:
Podcast
Union Leaders' Message to Workers About COVID-19
Leaders of America's unions send a message of support and thanks to the union members and workers who are keeping our economy going and providing all of us with basic needs and essential services.
Kenneth Quinnell
Wed, 04/29/2020 - 10:20
Tags:
COVID-19
Plant Workers in Kentucky Fight for Safer Workplaces
Kentucky AFL-CIO
In late March, when workers at GE Appliances, a Haier company in Louisville, Kentucky, were mandated to work during the COVID-19 crisis, members of IUE-CWA Local 83761 sprung into action to make sure they were protected on the job. While the plant was shut down for one week, Local 83761 President Dino Driskell reached out to Gov. Andy Beshear and other elected officials who agreed to send letters to Haier calling for stronger workplace safety measures. The local’s internal organizing team, led by Kindre Batliner, organized some 1,000 members for a “drive-by” rally on March 28, calling on Haier to keep the plant closed until stronger safety and health protocols were in place.
“That rally was tremendous, the morale really lifted after that. The company wasn’t even willing to talk to us before,” said Ashley Snider, vice president of the Kentucky State AFL-CIO and IUE-CWA staff. “Thanks to the members' political action and the rally, Haier really started to listen to our concerns.”
Since the rally, workers at GE Appliance Park secured new safety...
