This Week Is....

Bricklayers & Allied Craftworkers Union

National Association of Letter Carriers

 

Powerful Building Trades Unions back Biden for re-election

 From People's World:

WASHINGTON—The North American Building Trades Unions fired a shot heard across the nation this week when they gave a ringing endorsement to the re-election campaign of President Biden. The move was particularly significant because the last time around significant percentages of workers in the various building trades backed Donald Trump, who large numbers of union members now see as having betrayed their vital economic and political interests.

The April 23-24 conference of more than 3,000 people heard from a parade of officeholders, capped off by President Joe Biden, who won the official endorsement of the NABTU. The endorsement could well result in legions of construction workers going out to stump the streets for Biden and to inveigh against the efforts of Trump to get back into the White House this fall.

The laudatory words from NABTU President Sean McGarvey assured the attendees, media, and the nation that precisely that is what will happen now that Biden has their endorsement. A hard-hitting NABTU television ad, shown to the packed house, had tough words for ex-President Trump who, at the time, was sitting in court, on trial for criminal attempts to manipulate election results. An even harder-hitting Joe Biden took the stage after the ad was shown.

McGarvey, the ad’s narrator, often talked straight to the camera. “Donald Trump is incapable of running anything…. And God help us if he gets anywhere near that White House in the future,” he declared.

Biden himself, in many sharp jabs against Trump—by name, for once—sounded the same contrasts. He lauded unions and workers and put what he called his pro-worker record up against Trump’s “failed promises.” The crowd responded with repeated cheers, applause, and laughter at Biden’s taunts.

The president even voiced a class contrast, of the “Scranton values”—Biden’s birthplace—of hard work with Trump’s “Mar-a-Lago values” as “competing visions of America.”

“We all grew up with folks who sort of looked down on us because of what our dads did,” Biden reminisced. “People like Donald Trump learned a different lesson. He learned the best way to get rich is inherit. He learned that paying taxes is something working people did, not him. He learned that telling people ‘You’re fired’ was something to laugh about.

“Not in my household. Not in my neighborhood…Especially being fired, because you had no protection.”

Read more here.

A statement issued by NABTU reads as follows:

Washington, D.C. – April 24, 2024 – Today, at their annual national legislative conference, in front of thousands of building trades members from across the country, North America’s Building Trades Unions (NABTU) will announce its formal endorsement of Joe Biden for President and Kamala Harris for Vice President of the United States. The organization, representing over 3 million union construction professionals, issued the following statement from NABTU President Sean McGarvey:

“North America’s Building Trades Unions can honestly say no elected official has shown our members and their families more respect than President Joe Biden. Through his policies and his personnel, President Biden has demonstrated his laser-like focus on not only rebuilding our nation’s infrastructure and manufacturing sector but rebuilding the American middle class itself.

“His Administration’s accomplishments, specifically the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the Chips and Science Act, and the Inflation Reduction Act have brought life-changing, opportunity-creating, generational change focused on the working men and women of this great country who have for far too long been clamoring for a leader to finally keep their word. His regulatory actions to protect and uplift working families, strengthening Davis-Bacon prevailing wage protections, his independent contractor rule fighting worker misclassification, and repealing the disastrous and misguided IRAPs, are wins for workers, fair and honest contractors, and American taxpayers.

“When Trump was elected, we took him at his word that he would have a worker-centered agenda and deliver on long-stalled issues such as infrastructure investment. Instead of delivering, he aligned himself with his billionaire buddies to enact tax cuts that raised costs for our members. Simply put, he failed to deliver. Given our experience and knowing his track record the choice is clear.

“Joe Biden has proven to be the perfect leader at the perfect time for this country and the working men and women who have built it. NABTU is proud to endorse the clear and only choice for President of the United States, Joe Biden.

“In the coming months, we will continue to engage our membership and their families directly, member to member, door to door, and jobsite to jobsite, with an unprecedented field program in key battleground states, to tell them how important President Biden and his policies have been to them, their economic security, and their freedoms.

“We finally have a President who cares about results, not rhetoric; who cares about jobs, not jokes; who cares about hope, not headlines. We know Joe has our back, and we have his. Now it’s time to get to work.”

###

Media Contact: Betsy Barrett, (202) 997-3266 | bbarrett@nabtu.org

About NABTU: North America’s Building Trades Unions is an alliance of 14 national and international unions in the building and construction industry that collectively represent over 3 million skilled craft professionals in the United States and Canada. Each year, our unions and signatory contractor partners invest almost $2 billion in private-sector money to fund and operate over 1,900 apprenticeship training and education facilities across North America that produce the safest, most highly trained, and productive skilled craft workers found anywhere in the world. NABTU is dedicated to creating economic security and employment opportunities for its construction workers by safeguarding wage and benefits standards, promoting responsible private capital investments, investing in renowned apprenticeship and training, and creating more construction career pathways to the middle class for women, communities of color, indigenous people, veterans, and the justice-involved. For more information, please visit nabtu.org.

A statement from the Metro Washington Labor Council said:

Joe Biden landed a major union endorsement Wednesday from North America’s Building Trades Unions (NABTU), whose leaders say the president has his infrastructure bill largely to thank for it. NABTU leaders are kickstarting efforts to mobilize their 250,000 members in battleground states.

Maryland's Governor Wes Moore and Pennsylvania's Governor Josh Governor were among the speakers at NABTU yesterday. "Governor Shapiro and Governor Moore have faced sudden, tragic infrastructure collapses in Pennsylvania and Maryland," said LiUNA! Mid-Atlantic in a social media post. "They both understand the importance of building with union labor."

Who is on strike, who is bringing home wins, and negotiations we need to be watching

This from the AFL-CIO:

Writers Guild of America East (WGAE) members at Onion Inc., ratified a new contract with parent company G/O Media. The Onion Inc. Union, the 36-member bargaining unit representing the creative staff at The Onion, The A.V. Club, Deadspin and The Takeout, voted to authorize a strike if a new deal could not be reached. The new three-year agreement includes raising the minimum starting salary by $10,000 to $60,000 in the first year of the contract, and up to $64,000 in the final year of the contract, 3% raises in each subsequent year of the contract, a minimum of 12 weeks severance pay with no cap in the event of layoffs, successorship language that allows workers to receive full severance if their employment is terminated in the event of a sale or within 30 days of working with the new entity, the establishment of a policy on the use of generative artificial intelligence (GAI) within 12 months, a gender-neutral increase in parental leave, WPATH standard of care in health benefits, and increased guaranteed holidays. Read more here.

From the Chicago Teachers Union:

It is day three of a strike for the schools students deserve at Instituto del Progreso Latino. Progress at the bargaining table has come at a snail’s pace. This strike was completely avoidable by the charter school operator, but regrettably Instituto’s school leaders and board of directors have failed to put the interests the community they committed to serve first.

Educators took a stand to make sure Instituto del Progreso Latino fulfills its mission to provide immigrant students an education. Currently, the school has 10 vacancies in core subject areas, zero special education teachers, and lacks bilingual education services. It took 2 years for Instituto’s management to reach an agreement with the union on sanctuary protections for students and staff. Management can do the right thing and agree to a staffing and compensation package that will recruit and retain educators, provide needed student services and stabilize our schools. Read more here.

From the Culinary Workers union in Las Vegas:

The union has announced a nuber of impressive victories in Las Vegas and more are coming. Sunday the union annpounced that "The Culinary Union is pleased to announce that a tentative agreement on a new 5-year contract was just reached with the Downtown Grand Hotel & Casino for nearly 200 hospitality workers and we congratulate workers on winning the best contract ever." Follow the union's progress here.

UFCW Local 3000 has more good news. The Local recently announced a "Hard Fought Wins After Historic 9-Day ULP Strike and Consumer Boycott Campaign that followed a historic 3 day ULP strike over Black Friday Weekend" at Macy's. 

IATSE won a great victory in British Columbia and voluntary union recognition at Minneapolis’ Children’s Theatre Company.

Building trades workers in San Diego won a big victory when the City Council there unanimously passed a blanket project labor agreement (PLA) last week.

The Communications Workers of America UPTE-CWA Local 9119 optometrists who work at the University of California (UC) walked off the job this week in response to unfair labor practices by the university and "(O)ver 200 members of the NewsGuild-CWA, working for Tribune Publishing, staged a one-day walkout last week to protest the company’s refusal to pay journalists, designers and editors a fair wage and management’s threat to take away the 401(k) match benefit. Workers from the Chicago Tribune, Orlando Sentinel, Virginian-Pilot, Morning Call, Suburban Chicago Tribune, Design and Production Studios, and Tribune Content Agency participated in the walkout—the single largest coordinated action journalists at the company have taken against Alden Global Capital since the hedge fund purchased Tribune Publishing in 2021." 

Photo from The NewsGuild

And we're watching: The IATSE and the Hollywood Basic Crafts, which includes Teamsters Local 399, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 40 (IBEW), Laborers International Union of North America Local 724 (LiUNA!), United Association Plumbers Local 78 (UA) and Operating Plasterers & Cement Masons International Association (OPCMIA) Local 755, have announced that they will be jointly bargaining their shared Motion Picture Industry Pension and Health Plan proposals in the 2024 bargaining cycle with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Studios (AMPTP). See this. IATSE is following negotians between the American Federation of Musicians and the AMPTP and has declared support for the Musicians.

New York City union sheet metal worker saves coworker's life

International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers (SMART) Local 28 apprentice Shanae Kemp is a hero and deserves recognition, props and honor for saving a life at work. “Whether you're a carpenter, a plumber, we see each other every day—we’re brothers and sisters,” Kemp says. “So we’re the only family that we really have at that moment. So it’s important to build those bonds because you never know, that person could save your life.”