Consider these union news items as you make travel plans

The following comes from the Association of Flights Attendants-CWA. Please check in with the union's latest news as you are making travel plans. Many of the airlines are not treating workers with respect or doing enough to ensure their safety. With all of that in mind, it's helpful for us to recall the lives of thoose who were killed on 9/11 and reflect on their lives and their sacrifices as workers and as union members (see below).

Unleashing Our Power: United AFA Day of Action

August 20, 2024 - In two weeks, United AFA will hit the picket line for a system-wide Day of Action on August 28 to announce the results of their strike vote live. Already 72% of eligible Flight Attendants have cast their ballot. These powerful pickets will show United management and the flying public that United Flight Attendants are ready to do whatever it takes to get an industry-leading contract.

We raise the standards of our careers with our Solidarity. There are events at more than 14 airports across the globe — find one near you and join our United siblings in Unleashing Our Power!

2024 AFA September 11 Honor Guard

August 20, 2024 - Twenty-three years ago, we made a promise to Never Forget the events of September 11, 2001 and never allow them to be repeated. No matter the uniform we wear, the routes we fly, or the years we have worn our wings we will always remember the events of September 11th and lift up our heroes.

2024 AFA September 11 Honor GuardOur ninth annual AFA Honor Guard will attend services at our nation’s three national memorials to ensure the public remembers the sacrifice of Flight Attendants. This Honor Guard is comprised of Flight Attendants who have done work to advance our Never Forget priorities:

2024 AFA Honor Guard

September 11th Memorial New York

Kimberly Fritsch, United
Maria Alpogianis, United

National Flight 93 Memorial Shanksville

Jackelyne Cuin, Piedmont
Samantha Wolff, Alaska

National 9/11 Pentagon Memorial

Kaela Berg, Endeavor
Edgardo Mangual, United

Frontier Airlines Flight Attendants to Vote on Strike Authorization as Management Refuses to Bargain on Business Model Change

DENVER (July 30, 2024) – Flight Attendants at Frontier Airlines, represented by the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA (AFA), will take a strike authorization vote as management refuses to negotiate over the impact of the carrier’s business model change. Frontier management has a legal obligation to bargain over that impact, separate and distinct from their obligation to engage in regular contract negotiations, yet it refuses to do so or to even engage in mediation through the National Mediation Board.

“Frontier management’s “out and back” business model has resulted in a massive hit to our compensation and time away from our homes,” said Jennifer Sala, AFA Frontier President. “Frontier Flight Attendants are experiencing harm right now. There’s no time to wait to address the impact of management’s decisions on our lives.”

Strike vote ballots will be sent to the 4,000 Flight Attendants, with the vote opening on August 20, 2024 and closing on September 18, 2024.

One common example illustrates how quickly and significantly Flight Attendant pay and work life have been affected. When comparing the same number of days at work in February with March, a Flight Attendant experienced 11% fewer paid flight hours, coupled with a requirement of 5 more trips to the airport. In April that became a 17% reduction in flight hours paid (base compensation) and 8 more trips to the airport. This example means over the course of two months, Flight Attendants lost nearly 20% in pay for the same number of days worked, while also being required to report to work 40% more.

“This strike vote will show just how serious this issue is and the action Flight Attendants are willing to take to get it fixed,” said Sara Nelson, AFA International President. “The change in time on the job and compensation is staggering. We will not pay for this business model change. The longer this goes on, the more Frontier will have to pay to make it right.”

AFA has a trademarked strike strategy known as CHAOS™ or Create Havoc Around Our System™. With CHAOS, a strike could affect the entire system or a single flight. The union decides when, where and how to strike without notice to management or passengers. There is no strike date set at this time. The first step is authorization by the members to empower the union to set a strike deadline, if necessary.

The Flight Attendant Union filed for federal mediation with the National Mediation Board (NMB) in May after issuing a formal notice to management on April 3, 2024, that its “turn” plan constitutes a dispute under the Railway Labor Act, separate from regular contract negotiations. This impact of the new business model has a significant negative effect on the working lives of the over 4,000 Flight Attendants in a way not contemplated under the negotiated collective bargaining agreement.

Portland Jobs with Justice Jubilee with AFA-CWA President Sara Nelson on September 26

We’re so excited to announce this year’s annual dinner! Join us on Thursday, September 26 at 6:30PM at the Portland Art Museum to celebrate a year of victories.

In addition to a delicious meal, cash bar, and raffle, we’re thrilled to announce our keynote speaker is none other than AFA-CWA International President, Sara Nelson. Sara has served as the International President of the AFA-CWA, AFL-CIO since 2014, representing 55,000 of aviation’s first responders at 20 airlines. She has been a union Flight Attendant since 1996 when she started flying at United Airlines.

The New York Times called her "America's most powerful flight attendant,” InStyle Magazine placed her on their Top 50 Badass Women list, the New Yorker did a major profile in 2022, and Fast Company put her on the cover of their Summer 2021 magazine with the headline, “Workers Strike Back.” Sara often says corporations have money and control but workers have the power, and the Labor Movement is for all working people. She encourages women everywhere to join unions and run unions. Come to our annual dinner to deepen community with comrades and be inspired by Sara’s words as we prepare to keep fighting for the working class in 2025!

General admission tickets are $100. Student tickets are $50. Ask your organization or union about sponsoring JwJ and buying a table for 10 or consider becoming an individual sponsor for $125.

Masks required when not eating or drinking. Thank you for keeping our communities safe!Get more information and purchase your tickets now at: https://bit.ly/2024PJWJAnnualDinner

Tell Delta: Protect Flight Attendants from Passenger Harassment

From The Delta AFA:

On July 9, 2024, Delta Air Lines’ official X account responded to an inflammatory and racist post of two pictures taken of Delta Flight Attendants wearing small Palestine flag pins, without their consent while at work. Delta’s response, initially stating, “I hear you as I’d be terrified as well” and “Nothing to worry, this is being investigated already” showed a blatant disregard for workers’ safety and dignity, and further inflamed bigotry. This incident reflects Delta’s repeated failure to stand up for Flight Attendants and is unacceptable.

Current work provisions that allow Flight Attendants to “request they not be recorded or photographed and/or identified on camera” fail to protect us from doxxing and harassment due to non-consensual recording. This leaves Flight Attendants vulnerable to harassment, which is unacceptable especially given the industry-wide increase in aggressive verbal and physical harassment from passengers since 2020.

In response to Delta’s affirmation of bigoted and false comments, the Delta AFA Steering Committee—the national representative body of Delta Flight Attendants organizing our union at Delta—sent an Open Letter to Delta CEO Ed Bastian, demanding a public apology, prohibition of non-consensual photography, and immediate action to address Delta’s corporate social media moderation.

In response to worker and community pressure, Delta’s initial responses were deleted and the social media moderator was reassigned. But to date, Delta has not issued a public apology to the targeted Flight Attendants or taken meaningful steps to protect Flight Attendants.

Instead, on July 12, Delta issued a new policy prohibiting Flight Attendants from wearing any flag pins other than the US flag. For decades, Flight Attendant flag pins have been a proud symbol of our aviation history and a bridge between cultures. This move creates a chilling effect on anyone deemed “not American enough,” sets a dangerous precedent, and violates Delta’s own commitment to inclusivity.

Delta AFA calls upon supporters and allies to sign our community petition demanding immediate action to end the widespread harassment of Flight Attendants and to protect our rights and safety on the job.

Please go here to sign a petition telling Delta: Protect Flight Attendants from Passenger Harassment

Flights Attendants to kick off Solidarity Summer with picketlines on June 13

On June 13, the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA (AFA-CWA) Flight Attendants will kick off “Solidarity Summer” with a Worldwide Day of Action, and you can join your CWA siblings as they make their voices heard. A recent survey of Alaska Airlines Flight Attendants found that nearly 10 percent of those who responded live with family or friends because they cannot afford rent in the city to which they’ve been assigned.

Click this link to take part in a global action!

As the summer travel season begins, Flight Attendants are demanding fair contracts, respect, and livable wages. Join them at any of over 30 airports on June 13. Flight Attendants are putting corporate executives on notice: corporate greed won’t fly!

Click here to find a local picket.

CODE RED: Summer travel is coming and corporate greed is in full swing.

We’re kicking off this red hot Solidarity Summer with a Worldwide Flight Attendant Day of Action to demand our contracts. Airline executives have had no problem dolling out massive raises for themselves. We’re coming for our share of the profits we create.

Our solidarity transcends airlines. Together, in the height of summer travel season, we’ll show management and the flying public that we’re united in the fight to raise the standards for our careers. No matter what uniform we wear, we’ve earned the long-term security, benefits, flexibility, dignity, and respect that comes with a strong contract. It’s time for airline management to pay up and get this done.

Join us on Thursday, June 13, at more than 30 airports for a Worldwide Day of Action. It's our turn.

Breeze Flight Attendants Vote Overwhelmingly to Join the Flight Attendant Union

 

WASHINGTON, D.C. (May 7, 2024) — Breeze Airways Flight Attendants voted 76.3% to join the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, AFL-CIO (AFA) in an election certified today by the National Mediation Board (NMB). AFA continues the wave of union organizing in the south with Flight Attendants based in the least unionized state of South Carolina and Florida, Louisiana, Utah, and Virginia - all in the bottom ten.

“Breeze Flight Attendants filed for an election two weeks after taking their campaign public in January and kept organizing together to turn out a clear mandate to address their concerns at work. Today they gain the legal right to bargain and have a voice in their future at Breeze. We are inspired by their solidarity and thrilled to welcome them to our AFA family,” said AFA International President Sara Nelson. “Our labor movement is growing. Everywhere.”

Read the full story here. The union's websitre is here.

Glamour, Travel, Sexism: When Flight Attendants Fought Back

I believe that this story ran in The New York Times under date of February 19, 2024 with the photograph that I added from the Association of Flight Attendants--CWA. It is certainly an inspiring story.

Decades ago, “stewardesses” earned less than men, couldn’t get married or gain weight, and had to retire at 32. A key figure in a landmark lawsuit looks back at a not-so-golden era.

In 1958, when Mary Pat Laffey Inman became a stewardess — as they were then called — for Northwest Airlines, she was 20 years old and the clock was already ticking. At 32, she would be forced to retire. That is, if she didn’t marry, get pregnant or even gain too much weight before that: All were grounds for termination. It was the golden age of aviation for everyone except, perhaps, the women serving in-flight meals to the nattily dressed passengers.

Six years later, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act, outlawing discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex or national origin, and female flight attendants began to join forces against sexism.

In 1970, Ms. Laffey Inman, a union leader and Northwest’s first female purser — the lead attendant on a flight — spearheaded a class-action suit, Laffey v. Northwest Airlines Inc., that resulted in the airline paying more than $30 million in damages and back wages in 1985. It also set the precedent for nondiscriminatory hiring of flight attendants across the industry. But even then, not everything changed: Flight attendants on some airlines were still subjected to “weigh-ins” into the 1990s. (Northwest merged with Delta Air Lines in 2008.)

Now, decades after the landmark decision, Ms. Laffey Inman, 86, is one of several former flight attendants featured in “Fly With Me,” an “American Experience” documentary that chronicles how women fought to overcome discrimination in the airline industry. It premieres on PBS on Feb. 20. The New York Times spoke to Ms. Laffey Inman about how she made history. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

What inspired your career in the airline industry?

I was working at Montefiore Hospital, in Pittsburgh. I always wanted to travel, ever since I was a kid. As a flight attendant, I could travel — all expenses paid. I thought it was wonderful. Other stewardesses and I laugh about how lucky we were to be in the industry at that time. We would bid for three-day layovers in Paris, London, Amsterdam, Tokyo. A limo would be there to pick you up and take you to the hotel.

What was involved in training at the time?

Flight attendants had a six-week session where we learned about the airline and had emergency and safety training. We learned the commands to use in case of emergency. And we had grooming classes — women came and taught us how to put on our makeup and polish our fingernails.

Aside from keeping up appearances, how was sexism evident in the industry?

When I started, senior stewardesses talked about younger men being hired to be in charge of the aircraft and the crew, bypassing stewardesses who had been flying for quite a while. They discussed this in whispering tones, or sometimes not whisperings. It was always a bone of contention. Men were elected to positions that controlled the union, and they did the negotiating. Stewardesses could not really look at the job as a career because we had to quit when we got married or when we were 32. That was always in the back of your mind.

How did you become the first female purser?

In 1968, Northwest hired four men off the street to be pursers. I called the director of labor relations and said, “You must post this bid!” When they did, many women were intimidated, but I applied and got the job.

How were flight attendants’ duties different in the 1960s?

We had to work with military air contracts. In times of emergency, the U.S. military has a right to commandeer aircraft to be used on a military basis. We flew to Vietnam quite often during the Tet offensive in 1968. I was a purser, but I was new and didn’t have any seniority, so I was assigned to those flights. We’d bring 165 soldiers to Okinawa, then shuttle them to Vietnam and bring 165 back — hopefully. We got in and out of Vietnam as quickly as possible because there were missiles going back and forth.

Taking on a giant corporation is no easy feat, especially as young women in the 1960s.

We didn’t have a leg to stand on legally until the Civil Rights Act, which included discrimination based on gender. That was our renaissance.

What role did you play?

In 1967, I became the head of the union at Northwest, and negotiated the first nondiscriminatory contract with the airline. We could prove women flight attendants had equal skills and responsibilities. That’s when we brought back the stewardesses who were fired because they were over 32, or because they were overweight or because they were married.

How did you end up with a class-action lawsuit?

In 1969, negotiations for the next contract commenced. The negotiating committee was dominated by men. I had expected changes, but Northwest refused to include language that would treat women pursers the same way as male pursers. I talked to a labor lawyer, who said we had a case. Ultimately, 70 percent of the union signed on. The airline dragged it out for 15 years — took it to the Supreme Court twice, but the case was remanded back to the Federal District Court of Appeals, where Ruthie Bader Ginsburg was the judge who’d written the opinion in our favor.

At the time you filed the lawsuit, did you have any idea of the impact you would have on the industry — and on history?

No, I was just looking for equality in pay. I wasn’t thinking 40 or 50 years ahead. I was simply hoping every step on the judicial ladder would go our way.

As far as flying today, with the many reports of passengers behaving badly on flights and the stress that causes the crew, what do you think can be done to make flying better?

I’d like someone to pass a law to widen the seats. That’s one of the reasons there’s so much tension.

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Labor journalist Hamilton Nolan and union leader Sara Nelson spoke in Corvallis yesterday. Here's what I heard them say.

Labor journalist Hamilton Nolan  and Sara Nelson, International President of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, AFL-CIO since 2014 spoke in Corvallis yesterday as part of a book tour publicizing Nolan's book "The Hammer." The book is described as "A timely, in-depth, and vital exploration of the American labor movement and its critical place in our society and politics today, from acclaimed labor reporter Hamilton Nolan." I attended the talks, but I have not read the book. The following notes contain some of my take-away thoughts. I want to encourage others with differing points of view to send in their comments or do some posting here or elsewhere with their take-aways.

I have often disagreed with Nolan and In These Times, the publication where I most often read what he is thinking. It's more difficult to disagree with Nelson because she gives inspirational speeches and she can draw on her considerable experience in union leadership. The Association of Flight Attendants is making great progress with her leadership, and just last week the AFA made headlines with once more leading a militant movement of flight attendants and other airline industry workers in protests in advance of union contract negotiations and increasing union organizing. In fact, both Nelson and Nolan have union organizing experience and this made their presentations especially important. At least half of the audience in Corvallis were union members. I imagine that more union members will attend their talks that are being given in Portland today.

Nolan and Nelson are syndicalists, but of a non-revolutionary sort. Syndicalism is a long-standng and difficult-to-define way of thinking about workers, unions and social change. I have intentionally provided a link to a liberal definition of the term because syndicalism is usually (and mistakenly) associated with anarchism in the United States. We have the conservative syndicalism of the building trades unions that uses forms of capitalist market-based mechanisms to build union stability and power, the traditional liberal syndicalism of the American Federation of Labor that has been focused on working-class mutual aid and integration, the industrial unionism of the Congress of Industrial Organizations, and the anarchist-revolutionary syndicalism of the Industrial Workers of the World that is focused on overthrowing capitalism and establishing a kind of decentralized socialism. Syndicalism decenters politics in favor of formsof "workers' control," strong unions, working-class solidarity of different kinds, and forms of direct action in order to achieve goals that fall within and outside of mainstream union contract bargaining. I doubt that Nelson and Nolan think of themselves as syndicalists, but it seems to me that they land somewhere in that tradition.

Nolan was an early leader in the relatiely successful movement to unioinize workers employed in digital media. He learned some hard truths in that effort: unions are not always prepared to organize, there isn't one plan in place within organized labor to reverse union declines, and there is not always a desire among union members and leaders to organize non-union workers. He sees two choices available to unions as we think through how to reverse the years of decline and take on the widespread economic inequality that the decline of union membership has brought on. Either we work on reforming government and social policies or we rely on workers leading mass organizing campaigns. Nolan did not say this---and this may be covered in his book---but it seems that he's thinking of this as an either/or proposition while others, myself included, think that this is an "and" proposition. He' right when he says that "Unions have a great opportunity---we just need to seize it," but he's less clear when he talks about "giving workers their power back."

"The Hammer" apparently features Sara Nelson, although it sounds as if the book is also built around case studies of union organizing campaigns and activism. We cycle through prescriptions on how to rebuild unions every few years. Awhile back it was Andy Stern, a few years ago it was Jane McAlevey, and it's also been Joe Burns and a few others. Kim Kelly is an emerging voice. But some of the best voices have either been marginalized or have to fight for the mcrophone in order to be heard. I'm thinking of Frank Emspak and Bill Fletcher, Jr. here. In any case, the talks in Corvalis became a kind of Nolan-Nelson conversation or interview.

Photo from Getty Images and AFA-CWA.

Nelson knows how to move a room. She trained as an educator and she has been a guest lecturer in many universities and she never turns down an interview. She understands how workers think and what moves workers to act. I have never heard her speak without her going to her own and other's emotions. Corvallis is her home town and she had a friendly audience to work with.

Nelson has a story that most of us can identify with even if we did not experience what she did during 9/11 and in the period immediately following the terrorist attacks. She lost friends and union siblings when the towers in New York were hit, and airline industry greed and a helpful intervention by Senator Ted Kennedy helped push her to taking a more active role in her union. Nelson could build on growing up in a working-class family in Corvallis and having already achieved some level of social success as she constructed both her union leadership and her political consciousness. She pointed out that "There is not incredible inequality in Oregon as there is in other places," and she could rightly highlight the democratic advances that we have won here, as a way of talking about rising inequality and the need for union organizing.

Nelson referred to leadership in the airline industry as "crisis capitalists" and talked about how 9/11 was used by these industry leaders to redefine work in the airline industry. This was her "real schooling," she said, and she used that to point out the barbarity of capitalism and point to how high union density in the airline industry has forced the companies to appear as progressive entities and how this, in turn,  brought them into conflict with the Trump administration. Effective union leadership at any level needs to be able to tell such a story and give real-life examples. Where Nelson stumbles, I think, is when she says "The idea that we're a divided nation is utter baloney" after telling her story. It's precisely the barbarity of capitalism that she describes that divides us. 

From that Nelson argues that union leadership must be results-oriented. She goes on to say that union members want more money and better union contracts, but that we also want a voice at the table. It is at this point where some of the other limitations in her thinking become apparent, I think. She's correct in pointing out that the decline in union power and presence has meant a decline in participation by working-class people in politics, but she is so issue-oriented that she believes that greater union power will somehow "balance out" what happens in politics. Union organizing then becomes the means to check what she acknowledges is a barbaric system and not replace it with something else. 

For his part, Nolan claims tht ninety percent of people can't or won't talk union because what we're doing is not relevant to them. He wants to reframe what politics means, and he seems to want polititicized strikes that are not tied to political parties and yet somehow produce working-class political power. I see a contradiction in how Nolan thinks of strikes and possible strike outcomes, but I am more interested in how Nolan sees us moving from a situation in which masses of workers reject us to a situation in which those workers are willing to join strikes that become politicized in positive ways. He cites the Las Vegas culinary workers  as a model, but I'm not sure that this is a good example for him to use in making his case.

Image from In These Times.

   

Nelson and Nolan take on some other tough issues. They're opposed to unions endorsing Republicans, even those who claim to support union programs, and Nelson made at least one comment indicating that she supports President Biden and said that she thinks Representative Katie Porter is what a candidate should look like and be. They're taking on union leaders and members who can't visualize us organizing ten million new members and they're holding out for the kinds of sizeable investments that are needed to make this organizing possible. They reject American Compass and that attempt by the right-wing to pose as being pro-labor. Nelson well understands how the current popularity that unions have has to be joined to action, but not everyone on our side will agree on what "action" means or is willing to do what that entails. They support the call for a ceasefire in Palestine/Israel and see this as a labor issue. On the other hand, they're not really rooted in the traditional left-wing of the labor movement. They reject forming a labor party on the grounds that that is divisive and they're cautious about general strikes.

But where are Nolan and Nelson going here? They understand that a working-class movement can be built from common working-class interests and through action aimed at winning positive results. They get that using union power builds union power. Nelson gets the importance of building rank-and-file leadership and moving every valid working-class issue into the mainstream of the labor movement. She and Nolan do not seem to think that the AFL-CIO can build such a movement. They take the historic labor concept of "an injury to one is an injury to all" to its logical and broad conclusions. The AFA lives this out by actualizing women's union leadership, by requiring leadership to put in blocks of time working with others not in the AFA, and by engaging in organizing that may double the union's ranks if it is successful. Nelson accepts that new members mean changes in unions.   

Nelson and Nolan both highighted a need for non-profits to take the lead in organizing workers, and Nelson is engaged with Unioin Now. She spoke of this as a coalition of non-profits supporting one another in organizing, but it was not made clear where the large amounts of money needed for mass organizing will come from or what interests have to be negotiated in order to get and use that money. Nolan mentioned using college students and leveraging government funding in order to carry on organizing. All of that is intriguing, but it means that unions as we know them will disappear, it raises many questions about class interests (will wealthy people and government really pay for union organizing?), and it leaves alone the questions of how we convince our union siblings that new union organizing benefits all of us and how anyone---unions, non-profits or something else---can organize in industries or markets that they don't know. It's a fact, I think, that it takes unions about a decade to learn the dynamics of every new industry they seek to organize, so why would non-profits have an easier time of it? Missing from the talks were points about the special role of Black labor in organizing and leadership, a troubling omission. And what happens if Nolan and Nelson lead critical numbers towards non-profits and another kind of labor movement and we have a repeat of the Change to Win disaster?

I still disagree with Nolan on many things, and I found reason to disagree with some of what Nelson had to say, but I found it more difficult to articulate my disagreements as I listened to them. They're raising real issues.

Does anyone want to read "The Hammer" as part of a group?

Harlan County, Kentucky miners organizing in 1939.

   

The opinions expressed here do not reflect the views of the Marion-Polk-Yamhill Central Labor Chapter or the Oregon AFL-CIO.  

Sara Nelson & Hamilton Nolan to speak in Corvallis on Saturday, Feb. 17

The Hammer looks at the simmering battle inside of the labor movement over how to tap into its revolutionary potential--or allow it to be squandered--will determine the economic and social course of American life for years to come.

Hamilton Nolan is a labor journalist who writes regularly for In These Times magazine and The Guardian. He has written about labor, politics, and class war for The New York Times, the Washington Post, Gawker, Splinter, and other publications. He was the longest-serving writer in Gawker’s history, and was a leader in unionizing Gawker Media in 2015. Hamilton is a proud member of the Writers Guild of America, East. He lives in Brooklyn.

Sara Nelson is the international president of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, AFL-CIO and a Corvallis native.

Date: 02/17/2024
Time: 2:00pm - 4:00pmPlace: The Corvallis Book Bin
215 SW 4th St
Corvallis, OR 97333

Four Important Labor Solidarity & Action Requests

It’s time to take action on behalf of union Flight Attendants who are represented by AFA-CWA.

It’s time to take action on behalf of union Flight Attendants who are represented by AFA-CWA. This coming Tuesday, February 13, Flight Attendants from around the world are coming together to bring their collective struggle to the public eye.

Together, Flight Attendants are taking a stand against corporate greed and fighting for the contracts they’ve rightfully earned. It’s time to send a message to management: Flight Attendants won’t tolerate stall tactics and disrespect any longer.

Join AFA-CWA in solidarity as Flight Attendants picket at over 30 airports worldwide. Help send a message to management that more than 100,000 Flight Attendants are ready to push our careers forward. Don’t miss out on this historic moment. Click here to RSVP for February 13 at the airport closest to you. In Oregon, that will be at the Portland International Airport from 11:00am - 1:00pm at the upper level of the outer roadway of the terminal.

PeaceHealth Sacred Heart Home Care Services Strike Kickoff Rally

Saturday, February 10, 2024 at 10:00am at Sacred Heart Home Care Services, 123 International Way in Springfield

Oregon Nurses Association members at PeaceHealth Sacred Heart Home Care services will begin their strike on February 10 and will hold picket lines Monday - Friday from 7:00am - 7:00pm. Come join ONA and the Lane County labor community to make sure the strike begins with a strong start! Click here for RSVP.

Providence Candlelight Vigil Tuesday, February 13, 2024 at 6:00pm at Providence Milwaukie, 10150 SE 32nd Ave in Milwaukie It’s time to call Providence out on their failures. ONA nurses, health professionals, physicians, and their community and labor allies are holding a candlelight vigil to highlight the ongoing patient care crisis at Providence facilities. Join us to say ‘No More’ to unsafe workloads and added job requirements, chronic staffing shortages, and massive attrition caused by gross inequities in working conditions. We will gather outside Providence Milwaukie Hospital. Everyone is welcome to attend. Click here to RSVP. Support Portland Community College Federation of Classified Employees The PCCFCE has been bargaining for a year and their contract expired in July of 2023. Urgent issues for classified staff are short staffing, wages that haven’t kept pace with inflation, and healthcare affordability. Please join PCCFCE members at a series of escalating actions on PCC campuses this month and keep up the pressure until a fair contract is reached! PCC ROCK CREEK CAMPUS: Tuesday, February 13: 12:30-1:30pm 17705 NW Springville Rd, Portland, OR 97229 Meeting Location: Bus loop in front of building 5 PCC CASCADE CAMPUS: Wednesday, February 14: 12:30-1:30pm 705 N Killingsworth St, Portland, OR 97217 Meeting Location: Between Library and Arts Buildings PCC SYLVANIA CAMPUS: Tuesday, February 20: 12:30-1:30pm 12000 SW 49th Ave, Portland, OR 97219 Meeting Location: Plaza in front of PAC Center PCC SOUTHEAST CAMPUS: Wednesday, February 21: 12:30-1:30pm 2305 SE 82nd Ave, Portland, OR 97216 Meeting Location: Front of Library (on Division St side) This post has been taken from the Oregon AFL-CIO.

Sara Nelson and Hamilton Nolan to speak in Portland on February 18

Hamilton Nolan in Conversation With Sara Nelson

Sunday, February 18 @ 3pm (PT) / Powell’s City of Books

The Hammer: Power, Inequality, and the Struggle for the Soul of Labor (Hachette) is a timely exploration of the American labor movement and its critical place in our society and politics, from  labor reporter Hamilton Nolan. Inequality is America’s biggest problem. Unions are the single strongest tool that working people have to fix it. Organized labor has been in decline for decades. Yet it sits today at a moment of enormous opportunity. The Hammer is an on-the-ground excavation of the past, present, and future of the American labor movement. Nolan will be joined in conversation by Sara Nelson, International President of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA.

Sara Nelson & Hamilton Nolan to speak in Portland on February 18

I am not a fan of writer Hamilton Nolan, but I am probably in a minority in that among left-of-center Labor folks who are familiar with his work. I am a strong supporter of  "Sara Nelson, the fiery and charismatic head of the (CWA) flight attendants’ union" and I want to urge people to attend this event at Powell's Books in Portland on Sunday, February 18 at 3:00 PM. What follows is a media release from Powel's about the event.)

Sunday, February 18 @ 3:00 PM
Powell's City of Books

The Hammer: Power, Inequality, and the Struggle for the Soul of Labor (Hachette) is a timely, in-depth, and vital exploration of the American labor movement and its critical place in our society and politics, from acclaimed labor reporter Hamilton Nolan. Inequality is America’s biggest problem. Unions are the single strongest tool that working people have to fix it. Organized labor has been in decline for decades. Yet it sits today at a moment of enormous opportunity. In the wake of the pandemic, a highly visible wave of strikes and new organizing campaigns have driven the popularity of unions to historic highs. The simmering battle inside of the labor movement over how to tap into its revolutionary potential — or allow it to be squandered — will determine the economic and social course of American life for years to come. In chapters that span the country, Nolan shows readers the actual places where labor and politics meld. He highlights how organized labor can and does wield power effectively: a union that dominates Las Vegas and is trying to scale nationally; a successful decades-long campaign to organize California's child care workers; the human face of a surprising strike of factory workers trying to preserve their pathway to the middle class. Throughout, Nolan follows Sara Nelson, the fiery and charismatic head of the flight attendants’ union, as she struggles with how (and whether) to assert herself as a national leader, to try to fix what is broken.

The Hammer draws the line from forgotten workplaces in rural West Virginia to Washington’s halls of power, and shows how labor solidarity can utterly transform American politics — if it can first transform itself. A labor journalist for more than a decade, Nolan helped unionize his own industry. The Hammer is an urgent on-the-ground excavation of the past, present, and future of the American labor movement. Nolan will be joined in conversation by Sara Nelson, International President of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA.

Please note: Signed preordered books will be shipped to you and are not available for pick-up in the store the night of the event (but if you're planning to attend, don't worry! Signed editions are usually available at the events). Also, we are sorry but we can not accommodate personalized inscriptions, or guarantee the signed books are first editions. Thanks for your understanding.

Two Picket Lines In Portland Coming Up!

Flight Attendants Picket Alaska Air (AFA-CWA)
Red Hot for a Fair Contract ! (wear red)
Tues. Dec. 19, 11am-1pm
Portland Int'l Airport, 7000 NE Airport Way
RSVP: https://actionnetwork.org/events/dec-19-picketing-pdx

Image from AFA-CWA. Visit that link for a post on what this is about.

Zoo Lights Zoolidarity Picket (LIUNA 483)
Joyful Rally for a Fair Contract (wear holiday gear)
Wed. Dec. 20, 4:30-6pm
Oregon Zoo, 4001 SW Canyon Rd.

Image from LIUNA Local 483