More than 5,000 registered nurses and professional health care employees have become part of the Office and Professional Employees (OPEIU) with the affiliation of the Florida Nurses Association (FNA)/Labor & Employment Relations Council (LERC).

Emergency medical workers, massage therapists, bus mechanics and home health care workers are among the latest workers to choose a voice on the job with AFL-CIO unions. 

In California and Arizona, some 240 emergency medical services professionals voted recently to join United EMS Workers-AFSCME.

Some 2,000 telephone workers in Puerto Rico recently voted to affiliate with the Office and Professional Employees (OPEIU). The members of the Independent Union of Telephone Workers (UIET) voted by a 10–1 margin to become part of OPEIU.

Las Vegas taxi drivers represented by the Industrial, Technical and Professional Employees Union (ITPEU)/OPEIU Local 4873 won a new contract as a result of their 60-day strike at Yellow Checker Star Transportation. Drivers will receive a share of the metered fares, reinstatement of eligibility for a four-day/12-hours-a-day workweek, increases in annual bonuses and other benefits. The new contract was signed Thursday morning.

More than 100 striking taxi drivers from Las Vegas traveled to the state Capitol in Carson City, Nev., this week to rally in support of legislation to crack down on the practice of "long-hauling" and to give drivers a voice on the Nevada Taxicab Authority Board. As previously reported, the drivers, who are members of ITPEU/OPEIU Local 4873, have been on strike since May 3 from Yellow-Checker-Star Transportation.

Last Sunday, taxi drivers employed at Yellow-Checker-Star Transportation in Las Vegas authorized a strike, triggered by what they say are the company’s unfair labor practices by refusing to provide the union with information relative to collective bargaining. There are 1,703 drivers in the bargaining unit.

Industrial, Technical and Professional Employees (ITPEU) represents the taxi drivers and is an affiliate of the Office and Professional Employees (OPEIU). Unfair labor practice charges were filed by ITPEU/OPEIU Local 4873 on Friday, March 1.

This Thanksgiving, Leslie Martes, program and outreach director at The Voter Participation Center, is thankful her father, John, had access to union retiree health care benefits. Without that health care plan, it's likely John wouldn't have lived to celebrate the holiday with his family.  

The Coalition of Arizona Appraisers (CoAA) has voted to affiliate with the American Guild of Appraisers (AGA), a guild of the Office and Professional Employees (OPEIU).

Two groups of Wisconsin public employees showed Gov. Scott Walker (R) and his anti-worker allies they are not intimidated by Walker’s law that eliminates most collective bargaining rights for public workers.

Steven Rush was elected president of the Professional Helicopter Pilots Association International (PHPA), at the union’s annual meeting in Dallas Feb. 12. He is a founding member of the PHPA which, was established in 2002 and represents approximately 3,000 helicopter pilots throughout the United States and Canada.