Hispanic Heritage Month Profiles: Aleta Chavez
Hispanic Heritage Month Profiles: Aleta Chavez
Throughout Hispanic Heritage Month, the AFL-CIO will be profiling leaders and activists to spotlight the diverse contributions Hispanics and Latinos have made to the labor movement. Today’s profile features Aleta Chavez of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA (AFA-CWA).
In addition to being active in her local union, Aleta Chavez has been very active in her community. She participated in mission work in Guatemala and volunteered with the Dallas Police Department and Habitat for Humanity. She has been a member of the League of United Latin American Citizens and numerous student organizations while enrolled in Cedar Valley College’s veterinary technology program.
Kenneth Quinnell
Tue, 10/01/2024 – 09:29
Service & Solidarity Spotlight: Omni Providence Hotel Workers Ratify New Contract
Service & Solidarity Spotlight: Omni Providence Hotel Workers Ratify New Contract
Working people across the United States regularly step up to help out our friends, neighbors and communities during these trying times. In our Service & Solidarity Spotlight series, we’ll showcase one of these stories every day. Here’s today’s story.
UNITE HERE Local 26 members who work at the Omni Providence in Rhode Island ratified a new four-year contract last week that secures higher wages and better benefits.This victory came seven weeks after workers at the downtown Providence hotel voted to authorize a strike over management’s refusal to bargain a fair contract. Their previous agreement expired last January, and members were laser-focused on winning a deal that would address rising costs of living. To show the Omni Providence they meant business, members began wearing lanyards to work to signal that they’d signed up for strike benefits and were ready and willing to walk out.“My co-workers and I put a lot of work into this fight,” said George Cook, a banquet attendant at the Omni. “We were ready to do whatever it took to win. I’m happy that we’re able to get the best contract we ever had, with wage increases that will help us pay our rent and take care of our families.”
Kenneth Quinnell
Tue, 10/01/2024 – 09:24
Postal Workers Hold Nationwide “Day of Action” Oct. 1 in 90 Cities to Promote Vote-by-Mail, Demand First-Class Service Year-Round
October 1, 2024WASHINGTON – On Tues., Oct. 1 postal workers who are members of the American Postal Workers Union (APWU) will be rallying with the public in front of postal facilities across the country to sound the alarm about the United States Postal Service’s substandard performance and service to communities. Rallies are planned in 90 cities including Atlanta, New York, Detroit, Denver, Seattle, and Honolulu.
A Grand AllianceBetter Postal Staffing
WASHINGTON – On Tues., Oct. 1 postal workers who are members of the American Postal Workers Union (APWU) will be rallying with the public in front of postal facilities across the country to sound the alarm about the United States Postal Service’s substandard performance and service to communities. Rallies are planned in 90 cities including Atlanta, New York, Detroit, Denver, Seattle, and Honolulu.
“The postal service is doing an excellent job ensuring that ballots and election related mail are delivered in a timely manner. But efficient and timely service also should apply all year to the delivery of prescription drugs, Social Security checks, financial documents, personal correspondence, and other mail and packages,” said APWU President Mark Dimondstein.
With the exception of the special provisions being applied to election mail, mail service has been noticeably slower for millions of customers due to postal management’s poor implementation of its plan to modernize mail facilities and its move to ship much of the nation’s mail and packages to distant processing centers. Pressure from members of Congress and the collective efforts of postal workers has caused a rethinking of elements of Postmaster General Louis DeJoy’s “Delivering for America” plan. But it isn’t just postal management that is at fault; the Postal Board of Governors has limited public comments in its meetings and has made many of its decisions that slow service behind closed doors, including a recent decision that will further slow rural mail beginning in 2025 if allowed to take effect. The APWU is demanding greater transparency.
This week, APWU members, joined by community and labor allies, are calling for the public’s help in demanding improved staffing for postal workers and improved customer service along with more opportunity for public input. While some elements of the Delivering for America plan are necessary for the postal service to modernize, it makes little sense to take mail being sent within the same city, county or Zip Code to locations sometimes hundreds of miles away by truck and then transported back.
The APWU is advocating for the USPS to invest more in its workforce. Recruiting and retaining a dedicated workforce is key to reliable service. While the USPS has converted thousands of temporary, non-career positions to career track over the past couple years, it has not proven sufficient to address turnover problems and short staffing.
“Staffing is an issue that needs to be addressed. It’s not just new hires and retention. We need more staff. The public sees the long lines at postal counters, where we handle more packages today than ever before, but while the number of packages handled has dramatically increased, the number of clerks has declined over the past two decades by over 10,000,” said Dimondstein.
In 2006 the USPS handled 1.2 billion packages. In 2024 that number of packages processed has risen to more than 8.5 billion annually, 23.5 million packages every day.
The public is not blind to the problems. While a majority of Americans maintain a favorable impression of the USPS, according to polling released by the Pew Research Center in March 2023, the number of Americans viewing the USPS favorably dropped from 91 percent in 2020 to 77 percent in the latest poll.
This decline in confidence has likely dropped further this year due to false claims made by former President Trump and others about the reliability of election mail. Postmaster General DeJoy in a recent news conference debunked those claims. The USPS is taking “extraordinary measures” to deliver mail-in ballots. In postal facilities, election monitors are working to ensure election mail has been sorted and moved out for transportation or delivery. Ballots and other election mail is moved ahead of other mail. The USPS also authorized extra deliveries, collections, transportation, and overtime for this purpose.
USPS took a similar approach to election mail in the 2020 and 2022 elections and in the state primaries earlier this year, it worked extraordinarily well. In 2020, 97.9 percent of ballots were delivered to election officials within three days. In 2022, 99 percent of ballots were delivered to election officials within three days.
The American Postal Workers Union represents 200,000 employees of the United States Postal Service and is affiliated with the AFL-CIO. For more information on APWU, visit www.apwu.org
# # #
WASHINGTON – On Tues., Oct. 1 postal workers who are members of the American Postal Workers Union (APWU) will be rallying with the public in front of postal facilities across the country to sound the alarm about the United States Postal Service’s substandard performance and service to communities. Rallies are planned in 90 cities including Atlanta, New York, Detroit, Denver, Seattle, and Honolulu.The public has a right to the prompt, reliable service that ballots and election mail receive, says the American Postal Workers Union0
Read More....Postal Workers Hold Nationwide ‘Day of Action’ Oct. 1 in 90 Cities to Promote Vote-by-Mail, Demand First-Class Service Year-Round
October 1, 2024WASHINGTON – On Tues., Oct. 1 postal workers who are members of the American Postal Workers Union (APWU) will be rallying with the public in front of postal facilities across the country to sound the alarm about the United States Postal Service’s substandard performance and service to communities. Rallies are planned in 90 cities including Atlanta, New York, Detroit, Denver, Seattle, and Honolulu.
A Grand AllianceBetter Postal Staffing
WASHINGTON – On Tues., Oct. 1 postal workers who are members of the American Postal Workers Union (APWU) will be rallying with the public in front of postal facilities across the country to sound the alarm about the United States Postal Service’s substandard performance and service to communities. Rallies are planned in 90 cities including Atlanta, New York, Detroit, Denver, Seattle, and Honolulu.
“The postal service is doing an excellent job ensuring that ballots and election related mail are delivered in a timely manner. But efficient and timely service also should apply all year to the delivery of prescription drugs, Social Security checks, financial documents, personal correspondence, and other mail and packages,” said APWU President Mark Dimondstein.
With the exception of the special provisions being applied to election mail, mail service has been noticeably slower for millions of customers due to postal management’s poor implementation of its plan to modernize mail facilities and its move to ship much of the nation’s mail and packages to distant processing centers. Pressure from members of Congress and the collective efforts of postal workers has caused a rethinking of elements of Postmaster General Louis DeJoy’s “Delivering for America” plan. But it isn’t just postal management that is at fault; the Postal Board of Governors has limited public comments in its meetings and has made many of its decisions that slow service behind closed doors, including a recent decision that will further slow rural mail beginning in 2025 if allowed to take effect. The APWU is demanding greater transparency.
This week, APWU members, joined by community and labor allies, are calling for the public’s help in demanding improved staffing for postal workers and improved customer service along with more opportunity for public input. While some elements of the Delivering for America plan are necessary for the postal service to modernize, it makes little sense to take mail being sent within the same city, county or Zip Code to locations sometimes hundreds of miles away by truck and then transported back.
The APWU is advocating for the USPS to invest more in its workforce. Recruiting and retaining a dedicated workforce is key to reliable service. While the USPS has converted thousands of temporary, non-career positions to career track over the past couple years, it has not proven sufficient to address turnover problems and short staffing.
“Staffing is an issue that needs to be addressed. It’s not just new hires and retention. We need more staff. The public sees the long lines at postal counters, where we handle more packages today than ever before, but while the number of packages handled has dramatically increased, the number of clerks has declined over the past two decades by over 10,000,” said Dimondstein.
In 2006 the USPS handled 1.2 billion packages. In 2024 that number of packages processed has risen to more than 8.5 billion annually, 23.5 million packages every day.
The public is not blind to the problems. While a majority of Americans maintain a favorable impression of the USPS, according to polling released by the Pew Research Center in March 2023, the number of Americans viewing the USPS favorably dropped from 91 percent in 2020 to 77 percent in the latest poll.
This decline in confidence has likely dropped further this year due to false claims made by former President Trump and others about the reliability of election mail. Postmaster General DeJoy in a recent news conference debunked those claims. The USPS is taking “extraordinary measures” to deliver mail-in ballots. In postal facilities, election monitors are working to ensure election mail has been sorted and moved out for transportation or delivery. Ballots and other election mail is moved ahead of other mail. The USPS also authorized extra deliveries, collections, transportation, and overtime for this purpose.
USPS took a similar approach to election mail in the 2020 and 2022 elections and in the state primaries earlier this year, it worked extraordinarily well. In 2020, 97.9 percent of ballots were delivered to election officials within three days. In 2022, 99 percent of ballots were delivered to election officials within three days.
The American Postal Workers Union represents 200,000 employees of the United States Postal Service and is affiliated with the AFL-CIO. For more information on APWU, visit www.apwu.org
# # #
WASHINGTON – On Tues., Oct. 1 postal workers who are members of the American Postal Workers Union (APWU) will be rallying with the public in front of postal facilities across the country to sound the alarm about the United States Postal Service’s substandard performance and service to communities. Rallies are planned in 90 cities including Atlanta, New York, Detroit, Denver, Seattle, and Honolulu.The public has a right to the prompt, reliable service that ballots and election mail receive, says the American Postal Workers Union0
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IAM Union Celebrates Hispanic and Latinx Heritage Month
In observance of Hispanic and Latinx Heritage Month, we are reminded of the vibrant contributions and the indelible impact of the Latino community within our industries, the labor movement, and our nation. As advocates for workers’ rights, we take immense pride in representing a diverse array of Latinos and Latinas across various sectors. Their hard
The post IAM Union Celebrates Hispanic and Latinx Heritage Month appeared first on IAMAW.
Teamsters Stand With The International Longshoremen’s Association
(WASHINGTON) – The following is a statement from Teamsters General President Sean M. O’Brien on the failure of the United States Maritime Alliance (USMX) to present an acceptable contract offer to the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA): “The International Brotherhood of Teamsters, including our members in the freight industry, stand in full solidarity with the International […]
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IAFF responding to Hurricane Helene across the Southeast
Hurricane Helene’s landfall as a Category 4 storm brought widespread devastation across several states, severely impacting IAFF members and their communities. Homes were destroyed, power is out for more than […]
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IAM Local 774 Members Demand More for Families, Wichita Community as Textron Aviation Strike Enters Second Week
WICHITA, Kan. Sept. 30, 2024 – Approximately 5,000 workers represented by the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) at Textron Aviation in Wichita, Kan., are standing strong on the picket lines for a fair contract as a strike of the general aviation company enters a second week. The IAM Union released the following
The post IAM Local 774 Members Demand More for Families, Wichita Community as Textron Aviation Strike Enters Second Week appeared first on IAMAW.
All-Star Transportation Bus Workers Vote to Join Teamsters
(WATERBURY, Conn.) – Bus drivers at All-Star Transportation, a subsidiary of Student Transportation of America, in Waterbury have voted overwhelmingly to join Teamsters Local 671. The 145 new Teamsters provide student transportation for Waterbury Public Schools. “These new Teamsters are trusted with making sure students in Waterbury get to and from school safely,” said Tony […]
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First Student Drivers in Los Angeles Organize to Join Teamsters
(LOS ANGELES, Calif.) – Bus drivers at First Student finalized a successful card check organizing effort to join Teamsters Local 572. “Our newest members are essential to countless students and families and are more than deserving of strong union protections,” said Lourdes Garcia, Secretary-Treasurer of Local 572. “We are proud to represent such a committed […]
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