Marin workers hold first strike since 2019: More than 100 medical technicians
at MarinHealth Medical Center struck for one day as they fight to protect their
health benefits and win strong raises. Read more here.
Dolores Huerta statnds in solidarity when Sutter workers strike again in
Sacramento: NUHW members at Sutter Health’s Sacramento psychiatric hospital
held a three-day strike as they continue to fight for a first contract with fair wages
and no healthcare takeaways. Read more here.
The National Council for Occupational Safety & Health is celebrating 20
years of activism and leadership and everyone is invited. Read more here.
Labor leaders honor Key Bridge victims on Workers Memorial Day. An article in The Baltimore Sun under the date of April 28 has the photo above and says the following:
Father Ty Hullinger echoed the words of labor activist Mary Harris “Mother” Jones during a Sunday ceremony honoring the lives of workers killed on the job: “Pray for the dead and fight like hell for the living.”
The pastor of Transfiguration Catholic Community in Pigtown proceeded to offer a prayer for the six workers killed just over a month ago after the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed below them. Joined by labor leaders and local officials at a solemn ceremony at Baltimore’s Middle Branch Park, Hullinger went on to call for the protection of all laborers facing unsafe working conditions.
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. Read more here.
Alabama AFL-CIO President Bren Riley gave a powerful response to recent aggressive attacks on the International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America (UAW) and the larger labor movement in the South made in the media by Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey and Alabama Speaker of the House Nathaniel Ledbetter.
Why It Matters:
Last week, both state politicians called the UAW a “dangerous leech,” just days after Ivey released a joint statement with five other Southern governors claiming unions are special interest groups that threaten jobs and regional values. President Riley, a third-generation union member born and raised in the state, pushed back against these outright lies and pointed out that lawmakers on taxpayer-funded salaries that do nothing for their constituents were the real leeches on the South. He also wrote about his family’s connection to the labor movement, what union membership provides to both workers and our communities, and how union values of good wages, quality benefits and job security are Alabama values.
“Corporations and the politicians they bankroll want to keep workers divided and afraid of demanding the rights and freedoms we deserve. They’re working overtime right now to spread fear and lies so bosses can keep paying poverty wages while they rake in record profits,” Riley said in the op-ed. “But the Alabama AFL-CIO sees right through this charade, and I know the honest, hardworking people of Alabama can see through it, too. When workers stand together in unions to bargain for good wages, quality benefits and their fair share of corporate profits, we have the power not just to change our own lives, but the lives of our neighbors and communities, too.”
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