AFL-CIO Blog

  • Service + Solidarity Spotlight: Register for AFL-CIO’s 2023 MLK Conference
    Service + Solidarity Spotlight: Register for AFL-CIO’s 2023 MLK Conference 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. The 2023 AFL-CIO Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Civil and Human Rights Conference will be held in January in Washington, D.C. As we’ve seen over the past few years, there is so much work left to be done to advance civil and human rights, both across the country and inside our own labor movement. We hope you will join us for this engaging, inspiring and educational experience. Visit TheMLKConference.org for more information and to register. Kenneth Quinnell Mon, 11/21/2022 - 10:12 — Nov 21
  • AFL-CIO Partners with Permission to Dream to Offer Apprenticeships
    AFL-CIO Partners with Permission to Dream to Offer Apprenticeships Economic uncertainty is one of the major concerns young people face. They are often forced to fight for underpaid jobs with stagnant wages, meager benefits and low job stability. Student debt and the high cost of living have put the American dream out of reach for too many young people.  To address this crisis, the AFL-CIO is partnering with the Chris Gardner Foundation and the Permission to Dream program to put students with limited economic opportunities on an early path to the middle class. The new partnership will give students from disadvantaged communities the opportunity to enter paid, registered apprenticeship programs in the building and construction trades.  The program recently launched in two Detroit schools and will be piloted in select schools across the country. Funding will be provided for infrastructure and development projects. Students will complete the apprenticeship readiness program set by North America’s Building Trades Unions (NABTU). Once they graduate, students will have the opportunity to be placed in a registered apprenticeship program with an affiliate union. They also will be given a stipend to cover the cost of required tools and equipment. The program even provides assistance with transportation to and from training locations. Founding partners of the Permission to Dream collaboration also include NABTU; the American Federation of Teachers (AFT); the International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America (UAW); the School Administrators (AFSA); the NFL Players Association (NFLPA); SAG-AFTRA; and Ullico, labor’s insurance and investment company.  Kenneth Quinnell Fri, 11/18/2022 - 14:03 — Nov 18
  • National Native American Heritage Month Profiles: Marty Bowman
    National Native American Heritage Month Profiles: Marty Bowman Throughout National Native American Heritage Month, the AFL-CIO will be profiling leaders and activists to spotlight the diverse contributions Native Americans have made to the labor movement and toward expanding the rights of working people. Today's profile features Marty Bowman, a shop steward with the Communications Workers of America (CWA) Local 7019. CWA Local 7019 shop steward Marty Bowman lives in Window Rock, Arizona, and has worked for Navajo Communications and Frontier Communications for 30 years, currently as a services and sales technician. Bowman was instrumental in organizing his co-workers in the self-contained bargaining unit on the Navajo Nation. Bowman lives and speaks the Navajo tradition every day of his work and family life. He was elected to the first bargaining committee for CWA at Frontier during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, and initially engaged in virtual bargaining with the company and negotiated all the way through ratification on June 2, 2021. Bowman exemplifies the spirit of the Navajo tradition on the reservation and currently serves on the local school board, as well as coaches and assists with Native Youth Sports, including football, baseball and basketball. Kenneth Quinnell Fri, 11/18/2022 - 10:30 — Nov 18
  • Behold! Medieval Times Workers Score Second Organizing Victory
    Behold! Medieval Times Workers Score Second Organizing Victory Bilgin Sasmaz/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images. After months of delays and union-busting tactics from their employer, the workers at the Medieval Times castle in Buena Park, California, voted decisively last week to form a union with the American Guild of Variety Artists (AGVA). This is the second group of workers to form a union at the dinner theater company after their counterparts in New Jersey successfully organized with AGVA in July. Medieval Times workers said they were motivated to organize in order to work under the protection of a collective bargaining agreement, which will achieve better working conditions, a safer work environment and wages commensurate with their skills. “There was a dismissiveness and feeling that the company views us as replaceable and having a union really sets us apart and shows that...we take our jobs seriously and we want to be treated with the same respect,” Erin Zapcic (not pictured), a union organizer who performs as a queen in Buena Park, told NPR. Kenneth Quinnell Fri, 11/18/2022 - 10:28 — Nov 18
  • Service + Solidarity Spotlight: NABTU Highlights America’s Registered Apprenticeship System During National Apprenticeship Week
    Service + Solidarity Spotlight: NABTU Highlights America’s Registered Apprenticeship System During National Apprenticeship Week 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. This week is National Apprenticeship Week, and North America’s Building Trades Unions (NABTU) is promoting an American success story: the registered apprenticeship system. NABTU President Sean McGarvey (IUPAT) emphasized how registered apprenticeship programs are crucial to massive federal investments in infrastructure and high-tech manufacturing. “As our system expands to meet the demands for new workers in these critical infrastructure jobs, we are committed to recruiting more women, communities of color, indigenous people, veterans and the justice involved for these new opportunities in the unionized construction industry,” McGarvey pledged. “That is why we are pleased to be part of [the Labor Department’s] efforts like National Apprenticeship Week and look forward to helping continue to elevate and showcase this proven model to other industries and the American public.” Kenneth Quinnell Fri, 11/18/2022 - 10:00 — Nov 18