MUST READ
Labor leaders honor Key Bridge victims on Workers Memorial Day: ‘We have more work to do’
The Baltimore Sun
By Dan Belson
Sunday was Workers Memorial Day, an annual day of remembrance for laborers killed or hurt on the job, started in 1989 by the AFL-CIO. Thousands of workers nationwide are estimated by the organization of labor unions to be injured or killed on the job each day, and the issue became front and center in Baltimore on March 26 after the six men, all employees of Brawner Builders, died while working an overnight shift filling potholes on the bridge that was struck by a cargo ship early that morning.
Latino workers are disproportionately at risk of dying while working, study shows
The Latin Times
By Demian Bio
April 26, 2024
Latinos face a disproportionate risk of dying while on the job in the United States, a new report by AFL-CIO found. Fatality rates have been increasing over the years and continued doing so in 2022, the year analyzed by the organization, reaching 4.6 per 100,000 workers. That is 24% higher than the national average and a 24% increase over the past decade.
On Workers’ Memorial Day, AFL-CIO’s Shuler says workers still pay “ultimate price”
People’s World
By Mark Gruenberg
April 26, 2024
Even after decades of enforcement, activism and union campaigning, “workers are still paying the price every day” in deaths and injuries on the job “for corporate greed,” AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler says. Flourishing a copy of the federation’s 33rd annual report, Death on the Job: A Toll of Neglect,” Shuler told a Labor Department audience the job of campaigning to cut the toll is incomplete. Workers and their allies must lobby for tougher laws against companies and more enforcement, too, she said.
MUST WATCH
AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler Talks Worker Safety, Union Expansion in the South, and Climate Change
Leslie Marshall Show
Hosted by Leslie Marshall
April 26, 2024
Leslie is joined by AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler. The two discuss the Union's 2024 'Death on the Job Report,' the recent UAW win in Tennessee and what it means for the broader Union movement in the South, as well as the Inaugural Climate, Equity and Jobs Launch held by the AFL-CIO on Earth Day this year.
POLITICS
U.S. labor secretary visits Atlanta, says unions in the South are fired up
WABE
By Marlon Hyde
April 26, 2024
Pro-business state leadership and federal tax credits from the Inflation Reduction Act have allowed Georgia to lure automakers, including EV manufacturers, to the state. The move has highlighted a lack of union representation in the state in an industry with a long history of labor ties. After a win in Tennessee, United Auto Workers will move on to Alabama next month, where they will continue pushing to organize thousands of nonunion employees in the South, including Georgia. “It doesn’t matter whether it’s battery plants, Hyundai, or whatever. The workers are fired up, fed up, and tired of low wages and lack of health care benefits,” said Tim Smith, the UAW Region 8 Director, which includes Georgia. United States Secretary of Labor Julie Su visited Atlanta this week for the African American Mayors Conference, stating that it was important for her to attend. “This is very much a part of President Biden’s vision. We know that we do our best work. And we do it in partnership, including with leaders on the ground, who are making things happen every single day in communities across the country,” said Su.
ORGANIZING
Austin Pets Allied Workers hosts rally in preparation for upcoming vote
CBS Austin
By Isabella Bass
April 28, 2024
Austin Pets Allied Workers (APAW) at Austin Pets Alive! (APA) prepared for a milestone Sunday at Texas AFL-CIO Headquarters in preparation to cast their ballots on May 1st. The vote will decide whether to join the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers District 776. Austin Pets Allied Workers is organizing to address critical issues, which include workplace safety and conditions, animal welfare policies, and fair compensation.
‘Eager to get to work’: Workers at Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh vote to form union
Pittsburgh Union Progress
By Andrew Goldstein
April 26, 2024
Workers at the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh this week voted “overwhelmingly” to organize with the United Steelworkers, the union said. The 65 newly unionized workers include museum educators, events staff, exhibit technicians, cleaning and retail associates, visitor services professionals, and more, according to USW. “We are thrilled to become USW members and are eager to get to work bargaining a first contract that ensures museum staff can continue to support Pittsburgh’s youngest learners,” said Annette Mihalko, an educator at the museum. “We’re extremely proud that The Children’s Museum was recently voted among the top museums in the country, and we know that’s in large part because of the work we do day in and day out. We look forward to having a seat at the table and a voice in the decisions that impact our workplace.”
KVUE
By Jessica Cha
April 28, 2024
Workers at Austin Pets Alive!, Austin's popular nonprofit animal shelter, are gearing up to vote on whether or not to unionize. They say Austin Pets Alive! fights for your pets. “We have over 200 animals right here at one time,” said Ryan Martinez, an dog behavior trainer at APA!. “We have animals coming in every single day."
JOINING TOGETHER
UAW strike at Daimler Truck averted at 11th hour
NPR
By Andrea Hsu
April 26, 2024
The United Auto Workers union announced late Friday it had struck a favorable new contract deal for 7,300 Daimler Truck North America workers. The union had threatened a strike starting at midnight when their last contract expired. A vast majority of the union employees work at plants in North Carolina, where Daimler makes Freightliner and Western Star trucks and Thomas Built buses. A smaller number of workers staff parts distribution centers in Atlanta and Memphis. The UAW first unionized workers at Daimler Truck starting in the 1990s.
Pitt faculty union tentatively agrees to first historic contract with university administration
Pittsburgh Union Progress
By Andrew Goldstein
April 26, 2024
The union that represents full- and part-time faculty at the University of Pittsburgh announced Thursday that it has reached a tentative agreement on its first contract with the school. The United Steelworkers, which Pitt faculty joined in 2021, said the deal includes “historic” language on wages and job security for the workers. “We unionized nearly three years ago so that we could have a voice in the decision-making process and increased transparency,” said Tyler Bickford, a professor in Pitt’s English department and member of the faculty’s bargaining committee. “We remained united through negotiations, and our perseverance paid off with a strong contract that will help us now and provide a firm foundation on which we can grow in the future.”
Remaining West Coast IATSE Locals Reach Craft-Specific Tentative Agreements With Studios
The Hollywood Reporter
By Katie Kilkenny
April 26, 2024
All West Coast IATSE Locals have now reached tentative agreements with studios and streamers on their craft-specific issues. The remaining two Locals of the crew union that had yet to cement provisional agreements, the propmakers’ and set decorators’ union Local 44 and the studios teachers’ union Local 884, reached their deals on Thursday and the prior Friday, IATSE announced. They join 11 other West Coast unions that previously hashed out agreements, which are still subject to a ratification vote by members, since bargaining over these Local-specific contracts began in March.
Rally to support striking electricians April 30 in Seattle
The Stand
By Staff
April 26, 2024
As the strike by Limited Energy (LE) Electricians represented by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 46 in the Puget Sound area enters its third week, negotiators for the National Electrical Contractors Association (NECA) are refusing to improve an offer that was unanimously rejected by the IBEW 46 members. So it’s time to let the area’s electrical contractors know that the labor community supports striking LE electricians!
Daimler Truck reaches deal with United Auto Workers, averts U.S. strike
CNBC
By Reuters
April 27, 2024
Daimler Truck agreed to a new labor contract on Friday with over 7,300 hourly workers represented by the United Auto Workers (UAW) at six facilities in the U.S. South, averting a strike at the 11th hour. “For months, we said that record profits should mean a record contract with no concessions,” UAW President Shawn Fain said in a late-night appearance on YouTube from Charlotte, North Carolina, near where the company has plants.
Food service workers at Phoenix Sky Harbor vote to ratify new contract
KTAR
By KTAR.com
April 28, 2024
Phoenix Sky Harbor food service workers with HMS Host voted on Thursday to ratify a new contract. According to a press release from the UNITE HERE Local 11 labor union, “The four-year agreement includes significant raises to keep up with rising inflation, a pension so workers can retire with dignity, and unprecedented tech protections and rights language.” The ratification also averts a potential strike that was authorized by workers in March.
Nurses Accuse HCA of Crushing Hospitals During Protest at Frist Family Gala in Nashville
The Tennessee Tribune
By Staff
April 27, 2024
Nashville, Tenn.-Nearly 100 union nurses from across the U.S. protested outside the April 27 Frist Family Gala at the Frist Art Museum in Nashville, Tenn., a black-tie event named for the family that founded and is a major shareholder in HCA, the largest for-profit health care company in the country. The protesting nurses work at HCA facilities, where they are in contract negotiations this year represented by National Nurses Organizing Committee/National Nurses United (NNOC/NNU), the largest union of nurses in the U.S. today.
'Enough is enough:' Rally seeks to stop assaults on mail carriers
WPTV
By Brooke Chau
April 28, 2024
Letter carriers, residents and community leaders across South Florida rallied together in support of safety and awareness when it comes to letter carriers and their daily mail routes. Dozens of people gathered around the podium in Port St. Lucie chanting, "enough is enough!" This rally was hosted in hopes to bring attention to the increasing number of assaults and robberies that letter carriers nationwide and here at home have been experiencing.
IN THE STATES
Steelworkers mourn hundreds of Region mill workers who have died on the job
NWI Times
By Joseph S. Pete
April 26, 2024
Culp urged steelworkers to be safe on the job at a Workers Memorial Day ceremony at USW Local 1010 in Hammond's Hessville neighborhood Thursday. "We need to remember our losses and our pain but learn as much as we can from our losses," he said. "Taking care of ourselves is the most important job we have." The union local, which represents workers at the former Inland Steel mill on the east side of Cleveland-Cliffs Indiana Harbor in East Chicago, held a memorial ceremony to mourn the dead Thursday.
Alabama union president says out-of-touch lawmakers are the ‘real leeches’ (Opinion)
AL.com
By Alabama AFL-CIO President Bren Riley
April 28, 2024
Governor Kay Ivey and House Speaker Nathaniel Ledbetter’s recent comments in the media attacking unions are nothing but outright lies from politicians who are afraid of workers having even a little power to better their lives. They both called the United Auto Workers (UAW) a “dangerous leech” this week, just days after Gov. Ivey released a statement—alongside a couple other bought-and-paid-for lawmakers who are in the pocket of big corporations—claiming unions are special interest groups here to “threaten our jobs and the values we live by.”
LABOR AND COMMUNITY
WTRF
By Jake McGlumphy
April 28, 2024
A special ceremony was held on Sunday to honor and remember the West Virginia men and women who lost their lives on the job last year and the 119 workers who tragically lost their lives in the Benwood Mine Disaster. A bell was tolled 20 times at St. Johns Fellowship Hall in Benwood for the 20 workers who showed up for work and never returned home in 2023. The West Virginia AFL-CIO and the Marshall, Wetzel, Tyler Central labor council held the 36th annual Workers Memorial Day Ceremony on Sunday.
Union leaders conduct yearly workers memorial ceremony on La Crosse riverfront
WIZM
By Brad Williams
April 28, 2024
On a cold and wet Sunday at La Crosse’s Green Island Park, a memorial service was held to honor people whose deaths were related to their jobs. The yearly Workers Memorial ceremony, sponsored by the Western Wisconsin AFL-CIO, recognizes dozens of people in region whose lost their lives at the workplace in recent years. State Senator Brad Pfaff says citizens need to fight to protect the safety of workers, and to help provide them with medical benefits such as Badgercare. “Far too many workers are still killed and injured on the job,” Pfaff told an audience at the ceremony. “No one should have to risk their life to make a living. Workers deserve dignity and respect and safety on the job.”
Community leaders pay tribute to construction workers killed during Key Bridge collapse
CBS News
By By Tara Lynch and Adam Thompson
April 28, 2024
"It doesn't matter what trade you're in, when or where your family came to America from," said Courtney Jenkins, President of the Metropolitan Baltimore Council AFL-CIO Unions. "We are all brothers and sisters, and everyone has the inherent right to a job that ensures they can go home safely to their family at the end of their shift." Workers Memorial Day is an international day of remembrance honoring those who were injured or lost their lives on the job. Members of the labor community and political leaders spoke about the six men who died from the Key Bridge collapse.
Union members, community leaders host memorial event for NC workers who died on the job
ABC 11
By Staff
April 28, 2024
A Raleigh community is honoring North Carolina workers who lost their lives on the job. Local workers, union members, and community leaders hosted a memorial event on Sunday at Bicentennial Plaza commemorating workers sickened, hurt, or killed on the job, and calling for stronger safety protections. A bell was rung 217 times by organizers for each person who died while working in NC in 2022.
WORKPLACE SAFETY AND HEALTH
Job Fatality Rate for Black Workers Now Highest in Almost 15 Years
Black Enterprise
By Nahlah Abdur-Rahman
April 26, 2024
In its newly released Death on the Job report for 2024, the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) revealed that the job fatality rate for Black workers reached its highest point in 15 years. The 33rd annual Death on the Job: The Toll of Neglect review went public on April 24 and detailed the concerning statistics regarding Black workers. The report aims to address the evolving state of job safety, spreading awareness and insight into where measures may be lacking. Suggesting policy changes and dissecting the safety standards within each state, the report intends to address critical issues within the workforce that lead to injury and death.
With Few Workplace Safety Protections, Latino Worker Deaths Are Surging
In These Times
By Stephen Franklin
April 26, 2024
While workplace safety is an issue that affects everyone, a disproportionate share of those who will be mourned this Workers Memorial Day — observed on April 28 to honor people injured or killed on the job — were Latino. There were 1,248 Latino workers killed on the job in 2022, reflecting a 57% increase over the previous decade, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
AFL-CIO Issues 2024 Death on the Job Report
Confined Space
By Jordan Barab
April 26, 2024
If you were to imagine a bible of occupational safety and health, combined with a review of where we are and a roadmap for the future, you’d have the AFL-CIO’s annual Death on the Job report. Published every year since 1992 for Workers Memorial Day, this report contains every statistic and narrative that every journalists and legislator — state or federal — should have on their bookshelves. It not only contains data and information on the health and safety of the nation’s workers, but also breaks down the data by state, so that activists, reporters and Congressional representatives can know what’s happening in their neighborhood. The 2024 edition of Death on the Job: The Toll of Neglect was published today. And despite the hundreds of hours of work that’s gone into it by the AFL-CIO’s huge health and safety department (Rebecca L. Reindel and Ayusha Shrestha), you can download a copy of the report for free, here.
Tim Drea-Pat.Devaney: Workers Memorial Day is a reminder (Opinion)
Pantagraph
By Tim Drea and Pat Devaney
April 26, 2024
On this Workers Memorial Day, stories like Larson’s are a sad reminder of the challenges facing working people on the job. Mail carriers point to the attack on Larson as motivation for legislation in Congress to better protect carriers with more federal prosecutors to send a clear message: Harm a postal worker, and you will pay a heavy price. The National Association of Letter Carriers, in its push for stronger federal legislation, highlighted the more than 2,000 crimes have been committed against letter carriers just since 2020. Robberies of letter carriers topped 643 nationally last year – an increase of nearly 30 percent – with injuries resulting from those robberies doubling.
AFL-CIO report exposes deepening racial disparities in workplace safety
Afro News
By Stacy M. Brown
April 28, 2024
The AFL-CIO, a coalition representing 12.5 million workers across various unions, has released its 33rd annual report, “Death on the Job: The Toll of Neglect,” uncovering troubling racial disparities in workplace safety. The report’s findings, based on the most recent data available, underscore the urgent need for policymakers, regulatory bodies and employers to confront the disproportionate rates of fatalities, injuries and illnesses faced by workers of color.
Fighting for safe workplaces on Worker Memorial Day (Opinion)
Anchorage Daily News
By Joelle Hall
April 27, 2024
April 28 is Workers Memorial Day. It is a day when working families, union members and labor leaders come together to remember each worker killed, injured or sickened on the job. The somber underpinnings of this important holiday drive us to fight for a brighter future — a future where every worker feels safe on the job, a future where the promises of politicians and government agencies become reality. Alaska has remained one of the most dangerous states to work in for years. Some say it’s the nature of our economy or the harsh surroundings of our state. From the fisherman who brave harsh open sea conditions to the laborer installing guard rails on the side of a busy highway, Alaska workers go above and beyond to accomplish their work, even if it jeopardizes their safety. Should we accept this as normal? While the fortitude and grit of our workforce are renowned, we must rebuff complacency and do more to protect working people on the job.