As we prepare to launch our Labor 2022 campaign, I wanted to talk to you about the National AFL-CIO’s Workers First Agenda.
Since Arizona’s Labor Movement mobilized to elect President Biden in 2020, his administration has been hard at work for working people. Under President Biden, America has added millions of jobs—the most ever in one year—and the fastest growing economy in decades. Meanwhile, Arizona’s unemployment rate stands at a 45-year low.
In March 2021, Biden signed the American Rescue Plan, which provided critical aid to struggling families, state and local governments, and struggling multiemployer pension plans. He also signed the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act in November 2021, making historic investments in roads, bridges, transit, rail, climate change mitigation, electric vehicles, clean drinking water, high-speed internet, and resilient transmission lines and creating good-paying union jobs.
But America has a long way to go. Millions of working people remain unemployed or stuck in jobs that don’t pay a living wage. The costs of caring for our families continue to eat away at our wages. Addressing the climate crisis and the ongoing need to transition to a clean energy economy threatens to disrupt communities that have relied for decades on fossil energy jobs. Decades of outsourcing and offshoring have left gaps in American manufacturing and supply chains that have gutted our economic security and closed off pathways into family-supporting jobs for working people across America.
President Biden’s plan for building a better America includes reforming our country’s broken labor laws, investing in creating union manufacturing jobs, lowing costs for working families, and much more. Click here to download the National AFL-CIO’s Five Priorities for 2022 fact sheet today to learn more about President Biden’s Bold Plan for working people.
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Fred Yamashita Executive Director Arizona AFL-CIO
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UPCOMING EVENTS & ACTIONS
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The Workers First Agenda
The Building a Better America plan puts working families first by solving problems we face every day. Here's how you can support it:
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Sign up to volunteer for Labor 2022
The Labor 2022 program is where union members contact other union members about the importance of voting for Arizona's Labor's endorsed candidates. We know that when we have these important conversations with voters, we can win elections. By talking to union households about our shared values, we can elect champions for Arizona's workers and in turn, make real progress for working people. Sign up today to join our Labor 2022 program.
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Help Reinstate Fired Union Organizer to Phoenix Starbucks
Starbucks Supervisor and union organizer Laila Dalton a was unjustly fired on April 4th, causing her to lose her Starbucks college tuition benefits. Help support Laila in her fight for reinstatement so she can reclaim her ASU Benefits.
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The Amazon Union Exposes the Emptiness of ‘Woke Capital’
"The Amazon unionization campaign illustrates the two-faced nature of corporate branding. As college-educated Americans have trended Democratic, many corporations have utilized an inclusive sheen to sell their products even as they insist on exploitative conditions for their workers... 'Woke capital' is just a partisan talking point masquerading as structural analysis. It does not truly exist. It is branding. It is superficial. It is merely another means to profit. That profit-motive can be bent to serve the public interest, but not when corporations have few checks on their influence. The egalitarian potential of the labor movement, by contrast, is very real. Unions can unite workers across ethnic, racial, religious, and linguistic barriers with a common interest in decent wages, safe working conditions, and protection from exploitation. Unions do not erase political disagreements among workers, but they model a world where those disagreements can be resolved in the name of the greater good..."
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GOP-controlled Arizona Legislature's latest education plan: School Teaching for Dummies
"If, on the other hand, we had been fortunate enough to be schooled by unqualified nincompoops – or we happened to be a member of the Republican-controlled Arizona Legislature – lowering standards to improve appearances (if not actual academic performance) would make perfect sense. The Arizona Education Association and the Arizona School Administrators Association are opposed to SB 1159. But what do they know about education? Other than a lot. Of course, this is not to suggest that highly skilled individuals with valuable, work-related expertise should not be allowed into Arizona’s classrooms. There is already room for that. What we’re talking about here is something different..."
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Biden, Harris pro-worker actions: Federal neutrality, OSHA to tackle high heat threat
"April 14 was a positive day for workers as Democratic President Joe Biden ordered federal agencies to stay neutral in union organizing among the nation’s two million federal workers, and Vice President Kamala Harris, announced OSHA would tackle the health hazard of high heat. Biden concentrated on making the federal government an example for the private sector, by executive orders mandating agency neutrality during union organizing drives, by telling agencies they must inform their workers of the right to organize and ordering government agency paymasters 'to process payroll dues deductions in a timely manner.' ..."
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Thousands of California grocery workers ratify new contract
"Tens of thousands of California grocery store workers have approved a new contract with major supermarket chains, avoiding a potential strike, it was announced Thursday. Union members in the central and southern areas of the state ratified a tentative deal that was reached last week. It grants some 47,000 employees higher wages, stronger health benefits, increased guaranteed hours for part-time workers, improved store safety and a secured pension, the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union said in a statement. Most workers will receive pay hikes of $4.25 per hour over three years, the union said, with higher raises for some employees..."
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International Solidarity in Action: Lessons From a Path-Breaking US-Mexico Union Alliance
"Several decades ago, I took on an enormous challenge. The United Electrical Workers (UE), one of the most progressive unions in the United States, invited me to accept the newly created position of Director of International Affairs. It was an opportunity to develop a new approach to international work, grounded in the UE’s rank-and-file perspective and centered on organizing. With increasing job loss to Mexico and the debate over the North American Free Trade Agreement in the early 1990s, the UE leadership had become convinced that the union needed to find a labor organization it could work with in Mexico and had entered into an alliance with the Frente Auténtico del Trabajo (FAT)..."
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National labor board issues new complaint against Starbucks after firing 19-year-old union organizer whose videos went viral
"The complaint, filed on Wednesday, alleges the coffee giant engaged in coercive actions, interrogation, retaliation, and threats' against an employee in Phoenix. The letter sent to Starbucks by NLRB is not publicly available, but the Daily Dot has filed a Freedom of Information Act request to obtain it. This is the newest in a series of complaints from the NLRB against Starbucks, and the 8th complaint in the past two months against stores in the Phoenix region..."
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Kyrsten Sinema says she'll be 'the same person' and not switch up her demands if Build Back Better is revived
"'What I can't tell you is if negotiations will start again or what they'll look like,' Sinema said at an Arizona Chamber of Commerce event on Tuesday, first reported by the Arizona Republic newspaper. 'But what I can promise you is that I'll be the same person in negotiations if they start again that I was in negotiations last year.' She emphasized again that she was opposed to raising taxes on large corporations, saying she wouldn't back 'any tax policies that would put a brake on any type of economic growth or forestall business and personal growth for America's industries.' 'You all know, the entire country knows, that I'm opposed to raising the corporate minimum tax rate," she said. A Sinema spokesperson clarified she was referring to raising tax rates on corporations and not backtracking from her past support of a 15% corporate minimum tax...."
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Arizona is reducing the amount of COVID-19 hospital data it reports
"The Arizona Department of Health Services is cutting back on the amount of hospital information it reports on its COVID-19 dashboard. The key data switch is the elimination of data specific to the number and level of COVID-19 patients in Arizona hospitals. The reason behind the change is the end of Arizona's public health emergency, which happened March 30, state health officials say."
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Sen. Kelly hears from Arizonans about how to fix high cost of prescription drugs for seniors
"On Tuesday, Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly heard testimony from aging and medical experts and advocates about the rising cost of prescription drugs. Now, Kelly is proposing a series of solutions to this growing problem that’s keeping some Arizonans from taking potentially life-saving medication..."
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How to prevent the deaths of roadway workers in Arizona
"Around a dozen roadside workers are killed each year by drivers. Here's how you can improve work zone awareness while driving...."
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Download your Workers First Agenda Zoom Backgrounds today!
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