AFL-CIO Blog

  • Service & Solidarity Spotlight: AFSCME Boosts Public Service Hiring Through ‘Staff the Front Lines’ Bus Tour
    Service & Solidarity Spotlight: AFSCME Boosts Public Service Hiring Through ‘Staff the Front Lines’ Bus Tour Working people across the United States have stepped up to help out our friends, neighbors and communities during these trying times. In our Service & Solidarity Spotlight series, we'll showcase one of these stories every day. Here’s today’s story. AFSCME's Staff the Front Lines bus tour made stops in 17 cities and turned out more than 2,000 job seekers looking for a career in public service. Six governors, 12 mayors and countless state, city and county employers joined the tour. They sat down with AFSCME members for listening sessions to find solutions and discuss how to better recruit and retain the essential workers needed to keep our communities running. At approximately half the stops, AFSCME also partnered with state and local leaders to put on job fairs. Later this fall, AFSCME plans to release a policy guide with recommendations on how to tackle the staffing crisis in public service, which will include learnings from the bus tour’s listening sessions. Kenneth Quinnell Fri, 09/22/2023 - 09:55 — Sep 22
  • Hispanic Heritage Month Profiles: Juan Rivera
    Hispanic Heritage Month Profiles: Juan Rivera Throughout Hispanic Heritage Month, the AFL-CIO will be profiling leaders and activists to spotlight the diverse contributions Hispanics and Latinos have made to the labor movement. Today's profile features Juan Rivera of the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC). Juan Rivera from Sinaloa, Mexico, comes to the U.S. through the H-2A program to harvest and plant crops. He's been doing it since the 1990s and has been a member of the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC) since the Mount Olive boycott in 2004. He harvests Christmas trees, sweet potatoes and strawberries. Throughout the years, he has leaned on the union to resolve various grievances with his growers, and this year he became part of the Union Advisory Council, where he offers input and guidance to union leadership. Kenneth Quinnell Thu, 09/21/2023 - 09:45 — Sep 21
  • Service & Solidarity Spotlight: Editors Guild Wins Higher Wages, Unanimously Ratifies New Nickelodeon Contract
    Service & Solidarity Spotlight: Editors Guild Wins Higher Wages, Unanimously Ratifies New Nickelodeon Contract Working people across the United States have stepped up to help out our friends, neighbors and communities during these trying times. In our Service & Solidarity Spotlight series, we'll showcase one of these stories every day. Here’s today’s story. The Motion Picture Editors Guild/IATSE Local 700 (MPEG/IATSE Local 700) ratified a new animation deal with Nickelodeon on Sept. 14. Some 70 post-production members of the Editors Guild are affected by the new four-year contract. “Witnessing this kind of solidarity throughout this challenging process was awe-inspiring,” said MPEG National Executive Director Cathy Repola. “It was such an honor for our team to represent them and to help them achieve a contract they are proud of. The negotiating committee needs to be commended; they spoke with a single voice and a single vision and vowed that no one would be left behind. In the end, nobody was. Kenneth Quinnell Thu, 09/21/2023 - 09:39 — Sep 21
  • Hispanic Heritage Month Profiles: Pedro Olguin
    Hispanic Heritage Month Profiles: Pedro Olguin Throughout Hispanic Heritage Month, the AFL-CIO will be profiling leaders and activists to spotlight the diverse contributions Hispanics and Latinos have made to the labor movement. Today's profile features Pedro Olguin of OPEIU Local 11. “I have an opportunity to reach out and organize folks who historically have not been in the labor movement,” said Office and Professional Employees (OPEIU) Local 11 organizer Pedro Olguin. “I offer through my own heritage and my own identity the ability for people to feel reflected and feel included.” Kenneth Quinnell Wed, 09/20/2023 - 14:33 — Sep 20
  • Service & Solidarity Spotlight: Tell The New York Times to Stop Union-Busting
    Service & Solidarity Spotlight: Tell The New York Times to Stop Union-Busting Working people across the United States have stepped up to help out our friends, neighbors and communities during these trying times. In our Service & Solidarity Spotlight series, we'll showcase one of these stories every day. Here’s today’s story. The NewsGuild of New York (TNG-CWA Local 31003) calls on The New York Times CEO Meredith Kopit Levien, its publisher A.G. Sulzberger and managers to stop union-busting through the farce of “subcontracting” to itself. These union-busting actions are clearly an attempt to undercut the hard-fought contract protections won this year by The New York Times Guild. Management claims that The Times will continue to write about sports, but the writers and editors who have been covering sports for The Times for decades are being scattered around the company with little to no guidance. We, the readers, deserve better. Send a letter today, demanding The Times stop union-busting.   Kenneth Quinnell Wed, 09/20/2023 - 08:55 — Sep 20