School Supply Drive by Saginaw Labor Council to Kick Off United Way Campaign
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AFL-CIO Community Services Director Will Fischer sends us this report.
More than 90 children received school supply bags through donations of union members in 10 locals from Saginaw County, Mich. AFL-CIO/Michigan Community Services liaison Steven Lamb reports that earlier this month, the unions gave the school supply bags to the YMCA, First Ward Community Center, Salvation Army and the Neighborhood House to distribute to area school children.
Taking part in the donation drive: UAW locals 668, 699, 467, 6000 and 455; Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 557, Machinists (IAM) Local 557, Ironworkers Local 25, United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 951 and Operating Engineers (IUOE) Local 324. PMN Saginaw Metal Castings also contributed supplies.
Join the Rally to Tell Wal-Mart: ‘Pay What You Say’
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Hundreds of participants in the Jobs with Justice (JwJ) national conference in Washington, D.C., this week will join with members of the Making Change at Walmart campaign, Wal-Mart employees, faith leaders and community activists to rally Friday, Aug. 5, and deliver a message to the world’s largest retailer: “Pay what you say.”
If you’re in the Washington, D.C., area on Friday, join the rally at 4:30 p.m. outside Wal-Mart’s corporate lobbying office at 701 Eighth St., N.W., in Chinatown.
According to the campaign, Wal-Mart has a track record of paying poverty wages, disrespecting employees and making verbal promises it doesn’t intend to keep. Ralliers will demand that the company pay its associates the hourly wages it promises.
Join Jobs With Justice’s National Conference and Fight Back Against Corporate Agenda
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There’s still time to register online to join hundreds of activists from Jobs with Justice (JwJ) and stand together to “Build Power and Fight Back” against the attacks on America’s working people by corporate executives and politicians.
At JwJ’s national conference Aug. 5–7 in Washington, D.C., workers, students, religious leaders, community activists and many others will plan strategies to build a powerful movement of working people to defeat the corporate agenda. Register for the conference online here.
In the spirited, creative JwJ style, they will carry their fight to one of the world’s largest corporations with a march Friday on Wal-Mart’s corporate offices in Washington. They will join with members of the Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) to let the giant retailer know that its workers deserve a decent living and a voice on the job.
Flash Mob Sings for Respect at Wal-Mart
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Shoppers at a Laurel, Md., Wal-Mart yesterday got some unexpected entertainment while Wal-Mart managers got a serious message in the form of a rousing, revamped version of Aretha Franklin’s “Respect” from a flash mob and brass band.
Wal-Mart is planning to open four stores in nearby Washington, D.C., but the retailer hasn’t met with community members to talk about standards for respecting workers and the neighborhoods, said D.C. Jobs with Justice (JWJ) and the coalition Respect DC.
Wal-Mart drives down standards and wages, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka and United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) President Joe Hansen said yesterday.
When Wal-Mart opens in a community, it regularly displaces existing jobs with poverty-level jobs.
Wal-Mart’s Low-Wage Jobs Not Worthy of Praise
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Representatives from Wal-Mart and other retailers attended a White House event today to recognize grocery chains and other corporations for expanding their businesses into underserved areas.
But, say AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka and United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) President Joe Hansen in a joint statement, including Wal-Mart in the event:
undercuts the message of the need for good jobs that can rebuild our middle class.
The administration’s focus, say the union leaders, should be on the importance of a strong middle class and protecting and creating good jobs on a scale big enough to right the economy.
We ask the administration to stand with communities that have called on Wal-Mart to strengthen the communities it enters rather than drive standards and wages down.
SoCal Union Members Show Solidarity with Grocery Workers
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In Southern California, 63,000 United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 770 members are fighting for a fair contract that doesn’t force the workers to pay as much as 50 percent of their take home pay for health care coverage. But they are not fighting the battle alone against the mega-grocery chains Albertsons, Ralphs and Vons.
Dozens of unions in the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor have “adopted” stores to take the workers’ message to shoppers and store managers. During the July 4 weekend, several International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) and Inlandboatmen’s Union (IBU) locals went to 13 stores.
They delivered letters of support for grocery workers to the store managers and told them in the case of a strike, they and other Los Angeles working families would not cross picket lines. They also talked with store workers and customers.
A recent survey found that 62 percent of Southern California shoppers said they would honor picket lines in case of strike. Says Los Angeles Federation Executive Secretary-Treasurer Maria Elena Durazo:
Union Volunteers Wrap Up Big Clothes Drive in Kenosha, Wis.
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AFL-CIO Community Services Director Will Fischer describes union volunteer efforts in Kenosha, Wis., to collect clothes for those in need.
United Way of Kenosha County (Wis.) recently wrapped up its “Bare Necessities Drive” which included participation of 20 area businesses and unions that aided 13 nonprofit care agencies in the community.
The Bare Necessities Drive originated in 2010 and helps provide undergarments for men, women and children. This year, volunteers from various schools, organizations and unions helped in pick up donated collection barrels and filled a school bus with more than 3,100 new socks, underwear, and pajamas.
Volunteers also sorted and distributed the clothing items at UAW Local 72’s Hall, which the union offered for use throughout the event.
AFL-CIO Community Services Liaison Dale Seianas thanked United Way’s Day of Action Committee for its expertise in making this year’s event such a success.
As AFL-CIO Community Services Liaisons, our role is to serve the entire community and promote the efforts and deeds of labor in helping build and bond relationships in those communities. Whether the building trades are providing and installing a scoreboard for the girl’s high school baseball team or helping serve meals at the soup kitchen, the fact is that labor is and always will be a major part of any community’s success story.
Toilet Paper Drive Collects 115,000+ Rolls for Sacramento Area Nonprofits
AFL-CIO Community Services Director Will Fischer describes union volunteer efforts to stretch the limited dollars of Sacramento area nonprofit organizations.
Every year local nonprofit agencies spend thousands of dollars on toilet paper for families in need. That’s money they could be spending on much-needed services that benefit the community. Since 2009, the Sacramento Central Labor Council and the local United Way have partnered to create Toilet Paper Drives to help local nonprofit partners offset costs and redirect the money saved into vital programs.
This year the partners collected 77,227 rolls of toilet paper (compared with 50,000 rolls last year) that were matched by a local company, bringing the total to an impressive 115,000 rolls.
Supreme Court Backs Wal-Mart in Pay Discrimination Case
The U.S. Supreme Court today ruled 5-4 that as many as 1.6 million women who are current or former Wal-Mart employees cannot sue Wal-Mart for pay discrimination in a class-action suit. A lower court had ruled that the women could join together in a class action.
But the court did not rule on the women’s claims of systematic and company-wide pay and promotion discrimination.
Ten years ago, a group of women who worked at Wal-Mart stores, led by Betty Dukes, filed a lawsuit alleging the corporation engaged in company-wide gender discrimination by paying women less than men, promoting fewer women to management positions and promoting male employees more quickly.
United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) President Joe Hansen called the decision “deeply disturbing.” The UFCW has been a longtime supporter of Wal-Mart workers’ fight for justice.
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka says working people are disappointed by today’s Supreme Court ruling in favor of Wal-Mart.
Our courts should be available to working men and women who seek to challenge discriminatory promotion and pay practices by their employers. Today’s decision continues a disturbing trend of closing the courthouse doors to workers seeking redress against corporations.
The ruling means the already uphill battle for women to fight pay discrimination will get even worse. John Nichols at The Nation writes that the ruling is “a big win for Wal-Mart, and for other large firms that may not choose to treat employees fairly.” The court ruled on the grounds that
the class-action status that could potentially involve hundreds of thousands of current and former female workers was too large.
Newspaper Guild Ratifies Contract with Associated Press—and More Bargaining News
Members of The Newspaper Guild-CWA (TNG-CWA) ratified a new contract with The Associated Press, and more news from the “Bargaining Digest Weekly.” The AFL-CIO Collective Bargaining Department delivers daily, bargaining-related news and research resources to more than 1,400 subscribers. Union leaders can register for this service through our website, Bargaining@Work.
SETTLEMENTS
TNG-CWA, The Associated Press: Members of The Newspaper Guild-CWA (TNG-CWA) ratified a new contract with The Associated Press that expires in August 2013. The 1,200 workers will receive a 4.5 percent raise over the term and maintain their current health benefits.
