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AFL-CIO Now

Showing blog posts tagged with organizing

Hotel, Broadcast, Theater Workers Join AFL-CIO Unions

UNITE HERE photo

Hotel workers, broadcast technicians, TV and theater employees are just some of the workers who’ve recently joined AFL-CIO unions.

The 705 workers at Levy Restaurants at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y., the new home of the Brooklyn Nets, won union recognition with UNITE HERE Local 1 through a majority sign-up agreement in which an employer agrees to recognize the worker’s choice of a union when a majority of workers sign union authorization cards. 

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NLRB Says Boeing Can’t Ban Union Talk at S.C. Plant

NLRB Says Boeing Can’t Ban Union Talk at S.C. Plant

A National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) Administrative Law Judge ruled last week that the Boeing Co. violated federal labor law when it banned workers at its North Charleston, S.C., assembly plant from talking about joining a union on company time.  

Workers at the 787 Dreamliner plant have been meeting off-site with Machinists (IAM) representatives to talk about organizing for a voice on the job with the IAM. Administrative Law Judge William Nelson Cates ruled that if the company allows workers to discuss other nonwork-related issues while on the job, it cannot forbid them from discussing union issues.

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SoCal Wal-Mart Workers Strike

Los Angeles County Federation of Labor photo.

For the first time in history, Wal-Mart workers have gone on strike. Workers participating in the one-day strike at several Southern California stores say they are striking to protest attempts by Wal-Mart to silence and retaliate against associates who speak out about working conditions, low-pay, lack of respect and other issues that plague workers at the notorious anti-union retail giant.

While the striking workers are not union members, they have joined together in OUR Wal-Mart, a worker-led organization that stands up to make change in its company.

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Union Summer: Turning Organizing Theory into Practice

Lesley Salinas, a Union Summer intern, practicing house calls with the Oregon School Employees Assocation (OSEA).

Organizing and mobilization, in theory, is one thing; it’s a whole different ballgame in practice.

After a week of orientation at the AFL-CIO headquarters in Washington, D.C., Union Summer interns in Portland, Ore., are applying the theories they learned to the hands-on work they do on-site.

Intern Lesley Salinas explains:

The time spent in Washington I classify as 'theory’ versus the hands-on training that I have been involved in locally in the community. During the training, I was given a lot of information that has been truly useful during these Union Summer weeks.

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One Big Union: Q and A with SAG-AFTRA’s Gabrielle Carteris

SAG-AFTRA joined forces early this year.

This is a cross-post from Labor's Edge by Rebecca Band of the California Labor Federation.

For decades, performers have been coming together in unions to bargain for fair protections and decent working conditions. And this year, actors and performers took their collective voice to the next level by voting overwhelmingly to merge the two biggest entertainment and media industry unions—Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA)—into one big union, SAG-AFTRA. Actress Gabrielle Carteris, who starred as Andrea Zuckerman on the original series Beverly Hills, 90210, has been actively involved with the merger for nearly two years, a process which she describes as “exciting, challenging, inspiring and historic.” Carteris spoke with Labor's Edge for a Q and A on the merger and her involvement in the labor movement. 

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Chilean Mine Accident Sparks College Student's Interest in Unions

Photo Credit: Hugo Infante/Government of Chile

Two years ago on Aug. 5., a San José copper-gold mine located in Chile’s northern Atacama Desert, caved in, trapping 33 miners 2,257 feet underground. “The 33,” as they were quickly known around the world, survived a staggering 69 days underground before their rescue.

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Law Students Connect with Workers, Community in Summer of Service

Law students pose outside AFL-CIO's headquarters in Washington, D.C.

Check out the AFL-CIO's new Innovators website feature, "Law Students Connect with Workers, Community in Summer of Service" here.

As participants in the AFL-CIO’s Law Student Summer (LSUS) program, Mehta, Callahan and 10 others “are learning, hands-on, how they can make a difference in people’s lives,” says AFL-CIO Associate General Counsel Nancy Schiffer, who coordinates LSUS. 

LSUS’ sister initiative, the Minority Outreach Program, taps into the extensive network of some 1,900 union attorneys who belong to the AFL-CIO Lawyers Coordinating Committee(LCC) and encourages law students of color to apply for summer clerkship opportunities at LCC law firms and legal departments throughout the country.

The LSUS and the Minority Outreach Program internships are no fillers for vacationing office support staff. They are all about boots on the ground, with interns fanning out across the country to help workers gain a voice on the job and help unions represent members and contribute to the community.

Click here to find out more

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Music, Art, Comedy, Organizing Come Together at Great Labor Arts Exchange

Music, Art, Comedy, Organizing Come Together at Great Labor Arts Exchange

The 34th Annual Great Labor Arts Exchange and Conference on Creative Organizing kicks off today and runs through Monday at the Conference Center at the Maritime Institute in Linthicum Heights, Md. Sponsored by the Labor Heritage Foundation, the Great Labor Arts Exchange celebrates the rich cultural heritage of working people and brings together talented labor artists, activists, cultural workers, educators and students.

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