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Profiling Labor Leaders and Activists for Asian Pacific American Heritage Month
For Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, the AFL-CIO is spotlighting various Asian and Pacific Americans who have worked and continue to work at the intersection of civil and labor rights. First, let's take a look back at Asian and Pacific Americans we've profiled in the past:
Ai-jen Poo
Larry Itliong
Maf Misbah Uddin
May Chen
Philip Vera Cruz
Sue Ko Lee and the Dollar Store Strikers
Velma Veloria
Check back throughout May as we add more names to this prestigious list.
Kenneth Quinnell
Thu, 05/02/2019 - 11:48
Tags:
Labor History
‘State of the Unions’ Podcast: Not Good Enough
AFL-CIO
In the latest episode of "State of the Unions," podcast co-hosts Julie and Tim talk to Celeste Drake, the AFL-CIO's recently departed trade policy specialist, about flaws in the proposed new NAFTA and outline the labor movement's high standards for current and future trade agreements.
"State of the Unions" is a tool to help us bring you the issues and stories that matter to working people. It captures the stories of workers across the country and is co-hosted by two young and diverse members of the AFL-CIO team: Mobilization Director Julie Greene and Executive Speechwriter Tim Schlittner. A new episode drops every other Wednesday featuring interesting interviews with workers and our allies across the country, as well as compelling insights from the podcast’s hosts.
Listen to our previous episodes:
A chat with Kristen Johnson, a deli manager and shop steward at the Stop & Shop in Somerville, Massachusetts, about why she went on strike.
Talking about the #StampOutHunger food drive with Brian Renfroe, National Association of Letter Carriers (...
Labor's Resurgence: 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.
Alabama AFL-CIO:
11th annual "Road Kill BBQ" is getting off to a great start. #1U pic.twitter.com/Cm9BXBUSX0
— Alabama AFL-CIO (@AlabamaAFLCIO) April 3, 2019
Alaska AFL-CIO:
Keep our pioneers in Alaska! Time to testify on Alaska Pioneer Homes (HB 96) is NOW (3 pm)! #akleg pic.twitter.com/IkT9Gk4nhd
— Alaska AFL-CIO (@AKAFLCIO) April 23, 2019
Arizona AFL-CIO:
Huge thank you to all our Union Brothers and Sisters and Arizona State Legislators that participated in our 2019 #AZAFLCIO Day of Action at the Capitol today! Remember, the work does not stop here! #WeWorkForUnions @ Arizona State Capitol — at... https://t.co/ONnN7ZRS0K
— Arizona AFL-CIO (@ArizonaAFLCIO) April 17, 2019
Arkansas AFL-CIO:
Expensive degree and no guaranteed job: More students are considering options outside...
Marriott Should Tell the Truth About Sexual Harassment
UNITE HERE
Marriott International, the biggest hotel chain in the world, is hiding the truth about the dangers its workers face. UNITE HERE members are demanding that the company comes clean.
In 2018, working people at Marriott went on strike and won greater sexual harassment protections. For those protections to fully work, the company has to tell the truth about the pervasiveness of harassment at its hotels. But it refuses to do so.
Marriott was asked to report the total number of incidents of sexual harassment at its hotels to shareholders. Instead, it revealed the number of formal legal complaints that have been filed in the past five years, only 44 worldwide. But according to estimates from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's Select Task Force on the Study of Harassment in the Workplace, between 25% and 85% of women have experienced sexual harassment in the workplace, while only 6%-13% file a formal complaint. By revealing only the number of formal legal complaints, Marriott is likely under-reporting harassment in its hotels and making it harder...
12 Things You Need to Know About Death on the Job
AFL-CIO
The AFL-CIO today released its 28th annual Death on the Job: The Toll of Neglect report. Each April, we examine the state of worker safety in America. This year's report shows that 5,147 working people were killed on the job in 2017. Additionally, an estimated 95,000 died from occupational diseases.
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka (UMWA) called for action:
This is a national crisis. And it’s well past time that our elected leaders in Washington, D.C., stop playing politics and take action to prevent these tragedies. Instead, the Trump administration is actually gutting the protections we fought so hard to win in the first place. This is unacceptable. It’s shameful. And the labor movement is doing everything in our power to stop it.
Here are 12 key findings from the report:
Every day, 275 workers die from hazardous working conditions.
There is only one Occupational Safety and Health Administration inspector for every 79,000 workers.
Since 1970, there have been 410,000 traumatic worker deaths, but only 99 cases have been...
What Happens When Call Center Jobs Are Shipped Abroad and Workers Try to Organize?
BIEN
One of the world's largest "contact center" companies, U.S.-based giant Alorica, has been expanding in the Philippines, where more than 1.3 million women and men work in the business process outsourcing (BPO) sector. These workers and their allies came together through BIEN, the BPO Industry Employees Network, to defend workers' interests in this booming sector. Alorica, a global player in this industry, offers "customer experience" services to the U.S. market for clients like Comcast, AT&T, Citibank, Barclays and Caesars.
Since 2015, Unified Employees of Alorica (UEA) has been organizing to defend these workers' rights. At every step, Alorica has denied workers their right to form a union, broken laws and refused to recognize the union, retaliating against workers who unionize by firing them.
In September 2018, the union filed a notice of strike and began planning a legally protected strike to protest union-busting by Alorica. The United Employees of Alorica have the following demands:
Drop the criminal charges...
USITC Report Backs Up the Need to Fix New NAFTA to Add Real Enforcement
On April 18, the United States International Trade Commission released its analysis of the likely economic impacts of the new NAFTA (also known as the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement or USMCA). The report supports the AFL-CIO’s position on the new NAFTA: Congress should not vote on it until it is fixed.
The usual Washington, D.C., pundits will talk a lot about how the report "proves" that the new NAFTA is good for the economy. But they probably won’t talk very much about the most important thing: Does the report provide useful insight on what matters most to workers?
An important caveat: The USITC has a history of wrong predictions. Not just randomly wrong. The USITC has only erred in one direction: to overestimate how great trade deals will be.
For instance, the USITC predicted the original NAFTA would have small positive effects on wages in the United States and Canada and large positive effects on wages in Mexico. Instead, NAFTA suppressed wages in all three countries. Many U.S. union members saw their workplaces transfer production to Mexico,...
The U.S. Postal Service is Owned by the People—Let's Keep it That Way
As the tax deadline looms and millions scurry to get their forms sent on time, Tax Day is a good time to dispel the myth that the U.S. Postal Service is funded by tax dollars.
In fact, the Postal Service receives zero tax dollars for its operations. Without taking a dime in taxes, the Postal Service maintains the lowest prices for mail services in the industrialized world and delivers to 159 million addresses, six—and now often seven—days a week—all funded by revenue from the sale of stamps and other postal products.
While private courier companies only deliver where a profit can be made, the public post office provides universal service to everyone, no matter age, wealth, race, who we are or where we live.
It is little wonder that the Postal Service, a public institution enshrined in the U.S. Constitution and the crucial anchor of the growing e-commerce revolution, remains the most trusted federal agency. A recent Pew Research Center survey revealed that 88% of the population has a favorable view of the Postal Service, with the highest favorability ratings...
Get to Know AFL-CIO's Affiliates: Railroad Signalmen
Next up in our series that takes a deeper look at each of our affiliates is the Railroad Signalmen (BRS).
Name of Union: Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen
Mission: To represent the men and women who maintain railroad signal systems and highway-rail grade crossing warning devices across the nation. In addition, the BRS negotiates contracts and promotes safety in the industry for its members and the traveling public. Local lodges elect delegates to national conventions, which is the organization's supreme authority. Delegates set policy, review the general state of the union, establish collective bargaining goals and elect Grand Lodge officers, who direct the organization between conventions.
Current Leadership of Union: Jerry Boles was elected to serve as president of the BRS in 2019. Mike Baldwin serves as secretary-treasurer. The BRS also has six vice presidents who serve in various capacities: Joe Mattingly (Midwest), Kelly A. Haley (Headquarters), James Finnegan (Commuter/Passenger), Tim Tarrant (East), Cory Claypool (West) and Brandon Elvey (NRAB).
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Powerful Victory
Getty
A tentative agreement between the 31,000 members of the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) in New England and management at Stop & Shop supermarkets has been reached, effectively ending the historic strike that captured the country’s attention.
The proposed deal will preserve health care and retirement benefits, provide wage increases and maintain time-and-a-half pay on Sundays for members of UFCW locals 328, 919, 1459, 1445 and 371.
Workers walked off the job on April 11 after management proposed cuts to their health care benefits and wages, despite the company receiving a $225 million tax break in 2017.
The entire labor movement stood behind the workers, with AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka (UMWA) and AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler (IBEW) visiting picket lines last week.
In response to the tentative agreement, UFCW said in a statement:
We are incredibly grateful to our customers and everyone who proudly stood together with us every day for a contract that invests in the communities we serve, and makes Stop & Shop a better place to work and a...
