AFL-CIO Blog

  • Service + Solidarity Spotlight: Pro Baseball Players Lock Arms with AFL-CIO
    Service + Solidarity Spotlight: Pro Baseball Players Lock Arms with AFL-CIO Working people across the United States have stepped up to help out our friends, neighbors and communities during these trying times. In our regular Service + Solidarity Spotlight series, we'll showcase one of these stories every day. Here’s today’s story. On Wednesday, the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA) officially announced that it is joining the wider labor movement as the 58th affiliate of the AFL-CIO. “We have an opportunity to advance player rights and worker rights in a way that we have not seen in generations,” said MLBPA Executive Director Tony Clark. “So, if not now—if not us—then when?” Watch a short video of the announcement. Kenneth Quinnell Fri, 09/09/2022 - 10:53 — Sep 9
  • Working People Welcome Major League Baseball Players to AFL-CIO
    Working People Welcome Major League Baseball Players to AFL-CIO Yesterday, the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA) became the 58th affiliate of AFL-CIO. President Liz Shuler welcomed the MLBPA to the federation: “The MLBPA and every single one of its 1,200 players have a home in our movement because this union understands and lives the meaning of the word solidarity by leveraging the power of sports and helping others. Together, with our 12.5 million members, we will bring our strength to their fights, including working to organize 5,400 minor league players.” “The MLBPA has a proud, 56-year history of success rooted in unity and a highly engaged membership,” Executive Director Tony Clark said. “We look forward to bringing that history and experience to bear as a more formal part of the movement.” Here is what AFL-CIO's other affiliates said in welcoming the baseball players: AFSCME: American Federation of Teachers: Boilermakers: International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers: Italian American Actors: Jobs With Justice: Labor Council for Latin American Advancement: Machinists: National Association of Letter Carriers: National Nurses United: NWSL Players Association: NFL Players Association: Office and Professional Employees: Pride At Work: Professional Aviation Safety Specialists: Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union: Roofers and Waterproofers: SAG-AFTRA: Theatrical Stage Employees: Transport Workers Union: UNITE HERE: United Steelworkers: Kenneth Quinnell Thu, 09/08/2022 - 12:51 Tags: MLB Players Association — Sep 8
  • Once 'Essential,' Then Expendable, American Workers are Transforming the Economy
    Once 'Essential,' Then Expendable, American Workers are Transforming the Economy In just one second, Amazon’s executive chairman Jeff Bezos makes nearly $2500. That’s four times the weekly pay of an Amazon delivery or warehouse worker toiling in the sweltering summer heat. Last year alone $6.5 trillion flowed from the bottom 90% of wage earners to the top 1%. That means the janitor who cleans our child’s school, the nurse who cares for our sick father and the grocery clerk who always greets us with a smile are struggling, while the wealthiest among us literally skyrocket into space with bottomless bank accounts. Upward mobility seems out of reach for most Americans. Young people are backsliding with low wages, out-of-control housing prices and crushing health care costs. But our story—the American worker’s story—will not be written by billionaires. This Labor Day, working people are writing a new chapter infused with hope for a brighter future. We’re no longer tolerating being called “essential” one minute and treated as expendable the next. Whether on a manufacturing shop floor, in a high-rise office, in a corner cafe or Amazon warehouse, workers are transforming our economy. Recent data shows that workers won 639 union elections already this year, the highest win total in nearly 20 years. What’s notable is that those victories occurred in many different industries. The heroic organizing efforts at Starbucks and Amazon have captured our imagination. And there have been worker victories big and small across the economy this year. Like the 19,000 graduate researchers in California who won a union for more equitable treatment at universities and nurses in Maine and North Carolina who wore trash bags as makeshift protections against COVID before organizing unions to win safety protections every worker deserves. All across America, workers’ power is growing by the day as more demand the rights and democracy on the job that the laws of the United States promise us all. But too many corporations haven’t moved with the times. At every turn, working people meet resistance from our employers when we try to form a union. Public approval of unions is the highest in my lifetime, a 57-year peak according to a 2022 Gallup survey released this week. Nearly 60 million workers would vote to join a union tomorrow. But far too few get that chance. As president of the AFL-CIO, the umbrella organization of America’s unions, I am elected by everyone from soccer players to construction workers to educators to help all working people make our voices heard. My favorite part of this job is being on the frontlines of these fights with the workers who are leading them. I see a lightbulb go off when people realize we don’t have to accept abysmal working conditions. Instead of quitting jobs in frustration, we can stand together as part of a union, and have the power to demand change. Some corporate executives are evolving, like Microsoft President Brad Smith, who is respecting workers’ freedom to join a union. Microsoft worked with the Communications Workers of America to enter into a labor neutrality agreement at Microsoft and Activision Blizzard, because the company knows allowing workers to join a union is the best way for employers to count their employees as true partners. But Microsoft is the exception, not the rule. Most CEOs still revert to a decades’ old playbook of stifling worker voice, often breaking the law to do so. When employers use retaliation, harassment and illegal firings to try to stop organizing, they reject the best path forward for an equitable economy and basic fairness on the job. No worker should have to stand alone in the face of the power and ruthlessness of billionaire CEOs. That’s why the AFL-CIO is launching an effort this year to resource helping workers unionize at an unprecedented level, making organizing the center of everything we do as a movement. Our new Center for Transformational Organizing aims to level the playing field by uniting our unions in strategic support of workers who are simply fighting for the American Dream of a better, more secure life. Standing together, working people are raising wages that lift up entire communities. We’re solving climate change while creating good jobs with clean energy. We’re investing in the infrastructure that builds our nation’s future. We’re developing technologies like semiconductors to keep America globally competitive. We’re fighting for social and racial justice so economic gains are broadly shared. And we’re making workplaces safer, healthier and free from discrimination. A more democratic workplace is coming. If you are one of the majority of America’s workers who are thinking about joining a union, now is the time. This Labor Day marks the dawn of a new era of worker power. And we’re never going back. This post originally appeared in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Kenneth Quinnell Thu, 09/08/2022 - 10:30 — Sep 8
  • Service + Solidarity Spotlight: Union Members Rally and Canvass for Pro-Labor Candidates in Lansing
    Service + Solidarity Spotlight: Union Members Rally and Canvass for Pro-Labor Candidates in Lansing Working people across the United States have stepped up to help out our friends, neighbors and communities during these trying times. In our regular Service + Solidarity Spotlight series, we'll showcase one of these stories every day. Here’s today’s story. More than two dozen union members from the Greater Lansing Labor Council recently gathered in Michigan’s state capital to kick off their Labor 2022 campaign. They came together from a range of different affiliates, including the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU), National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA), Operating Engineers (IUOE), the UAW and the United Association of Union Plumbers and Pipefitters (UA), to rally and canvass for candidates endorsed by the labor movement. The event was held in front of the Michigan State AFL-CIO’s office in Lansing, and Rep. Elissa Slotkin was there to thank union members for coming out and showing support. Kenneth Quinnell Thu, 09/08/2022 - 09:57 — Sep 8
  • A.B. 257 Is a Big Step Forward for California Fast-Food Workers
    A.B. 257 Is a Big Step Forward for California Fast-Food Workers SEIU On Labor Day, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed A.B. 257 into law, delivering to workers one of the most significant labor law victories in recent years. It has taken a decade of perseverance and tireless organizing from fast-food workers, SEIU and other union members, pro-worker elected leaders and community partners to achieve this landmark win. The new law guarantees that fast-food workers get a seat at the table on the Fast Food Council, ensuring they have a voice in determining their working conditions and pay. More than half a million fast-food workers from across California will have the power to raise standards in terms of wages, freedom from discrimination and harassment, and other issues. There are many different ways that workers increase our wages—traditional collective bargaining, civil service processes, prevailing wage and wage boards. We are excited to see this model emerge in California. A.B. 257 is one more example of addressing the tremendous need to repair our broken labor law system, which creates absurd barriers to millions of working people who would join a union immediately if the process were not so stacked against us.   The AFL-CIO wants every fast-food worker in the United States to be able to join a union. The passage of A.B. 257 gives workers the power of a much-needed voice and brings us closer to that goal. Raising wages for fast-food workers will help vulnerable communities, particularly the Black, Brown and immigrant women who make up the vast majority of fast-food workers in California. This is part of the national wave of worker activism and organizing. Employers need to listen to their workers who are demanding unions and a voice on the job and work with them. Starbucks, McDonald’s, Amazon, Delta—all need to stop fighting their own workers who clearly desire engaging in collective action and having a seat at the bargaining table. “Governor Newsom’s signature on AB 257 makes this Labor Day a historic one and shows what’s possible when working people unite and raise our voices,” said Anneisha Williams, a Los Angeles fast-food worker and leader in the Fight for $15 and a Union. “We’ve gone on strike, marched in the streets and rallied across the state to make sure our demand for a voice on the job was heard even as powerful corporations pulled out all the stops to silence us. We look forward to having a say in creating safe and healthy workplaces across the fast-food industry and to AB 257 serving as a model for workers across the country who desperately need a seat at the table.” Read more about A.B. 257. Kenneth Quinnell Wed, 09/07/2022 - 12:30 — Sep 7