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Urgent Union Update Bargaining a good contract is a union’s top priority.Based on our research of candidate proposals and positions, we’ve identified significant differences between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump that would strongly impact unions. We hope that you will share this important information from the AFL-CIO—America’s largest federation of labor unions—with your co-workers, friends, family and neighbors:Kamala Harris stands with union members and says that America’s union workers are the best in the world. She has stood on picket lines with us even before she was vice president. Her policies have helped bring new workers into unions, saved union members’ pensions, created training programs that give young people opportunities for good union jobs and increased wages, and provided better benefits in union contracts. Donald Trump, on the other hand, is pushing proposals that big corporations want like cuts to wages, overtime pay, retirement, health and safety, and more. The labor chapter in Trump’s Project 2025 Agenda, written by the chief counsel of Trump’s transition team and the head of Trump’s policy team at the Department of Labor, would eliminate public sector unions, make it illegal for companies to voluntarily recognize unions, let corporations union-bust in secret and take away unions mid-contract, eliminate the Biden–Harris rules requiring project labor agreements and Davis–Bacon prevailing wages on federally funded construction projects, and more.If Donald Trump takes office, we’re deeply concerned about pro-corporate policies that will make it harder to win gains in our next contracts, and stack the deck in favor of the CEOs.Trump and some politicians are already thinking about how to make it more difficult for workers to join a union and put our wages, pensions, health care and retirement security at risk. And just this week, he insulted UAW members by saying that making cars is so easy, a child could do it.The bottom line is this—there’s a big difference between the presidential candidates on these issues and the result of this year’s election could have major consequences for our unions. Audrey Edmonds Fri, 10/18/2024 - 10:12Continue reading→

Service & Solidarity Spotlight: St. Charles Bend Techs Ratify New 3-Year 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. Nearly 200 employees from the technical bargaining unit at St. Charles Bend ratified a union contract with 100% of workers voting in favor of the deal. These health care workers are members of the Oregon Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals (AFT Local 5017). The contract includes raises, cost of living adjustments, a predictable pay scale that determines raises according to years of tenure and experience, improved language governing time off, reformed disciplinary procedures, and language to protect workers if St. Charles is ever sold to a new hospital system.“The ratification of our new contract is a positive step forward, one that will serve our community through better recruitment and retention of highly skilled health providers,” said Tyler Ecklund, a nuclear medicine technologist and member of the union’s bargaining team. Kenneth Quinnell Thu, 10/17/2024 - 11:38Continue reading→