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Service & Solidarity Spotlight: Temple, Jefferson Resident Physicians Ratify First Contracts 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. Resident physicians and fellows at the Temple University Health System and Thomas Jefferson University Hospitals—who are represented by the Committee of Interns and Residents-Service Employees International Union (CIR-SEIU)—have overwhelmingly ratified their first union contracts.Participating members at both health systems voted 100% in favor of approving the agreements. The approximately 2,200 Temple and Jefferson physicians provide essential direct patient care at more than 20 hospitals and medical facilities across the greater Philadelphia area.“As physicians, we spend every day advocating for our patients to have the resources and support they need, and many of us are living paycheck-to-paycheck,” said resident physician Linda Li. “Daycare alone took up about 60% of my salary, and I know residents who had to take on more debt just to cover basic living expenses. I’m incredibly proud that we stood together and won a contract that will make a material difference in our lives and for residents who come after us.” Kenneth Quinnell Tue, 08/04/2026 - 10:17Continue reading→

Get to Know AFL-CIO's Allied Groups: Jobs with Justice This is the next post in our series that will take a deeper look at each of our allied groups. The series will run weekly until we’ve covered each of the departments. Next up is Jobs With Justice (JWJ). Name of Organization: Jobs With JusticeMission: Jobs With Justice believes that expanding the ability of workers to collectively bargain is one of the most important ways to make good on the promise of democracy. For nearly 40 years, Jobs With Justice has lived these values by bringing together labor, community, student and faith voices at the national and local levels to win improvements in people’s lives, shape public discourse on workers’ rights and the economy, and build a multiracial and multigendered united front of workers pushing for working people’s shared interests against exploitation and corporate greed. JWJ and its network of 28 local coalitions stand shoulder to shoulder with workers in all wage sectors, centering the fight against White supremacy, systemic racism and patriarchy to expand economic democracy. Jobs With Justice believes that in order to build a functional and healthy democracy, working people must be able to practice governance and democratic decision-making in all aspects of their lives, including finances, housing, education and more.Current Leadership: Erica Smiley serves as executive director. A longtime organizer and movement leader, Smiley has been spearheading strategic organizing and policy interventions for Jobs With Justice for nearly 15 years. Prior to taking up her current position with the organization, Smiley served as organizing director for JWJ, developing campaigns that resulted in transformative changes to how working people organize and are civically engaged at their workplaces and in their communities. During her tenure at JWJ, Smiley has served in numerous leadership capacities, including as campaigns director and as senior field organizer for the southern region. With Sarita Gupta, she co-authored “The Future We Need: Organizing for a Better Democracy in the Twenty-First Century,” a book about collective bargaining and democracy released in April 2022. Prior to joining Jobs With Justice, Smiley organized with community groups and unions such as the Tenants and Workers Support Committee (now Tenants and Workers United) in Virginia and Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 500 in Baltimore. Her career in social and economic justice began in the reproductive justice field; she served as national field director for Choice USA (now URGE: Unite for Reproductive and Gender Equity), where she received the Young Women of Achievement Award in 2004.Mackenzie Baris serves as deputy director of program and base building. Candace Johnson serves as deputy director for organizational strength.Allied Unions: AFL-CIO; AFGE; AFSCME; AFT; American Postal Workers Union; Association of Flight Attendants-CWA; Communications Workers of America; Electrical Workers; International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers; Ironworkers; Laborers; National Education Association; North America’s Building Trades Unions; SEIU; UAW; UNITE HERE; United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America; United Food and Commercial Workers; and United Steelworkers.History: Since its founding in 1987, Jobs With Justice has been winning campaigns that build power for working people; advancing a sustainable and powerful network of grassroots coalitions; supporting the growth and leadership of local leaders and activists; and developing strategic alliances nationally and globally that strengthen the movement for workers’ rights, economic justice and democracy. On July 29, 1987, more than 11,000 individuals participated in the first Jobs With Justice convening in Miami and together recited the JWJ pledge. Pledge takers commit to showing up at least five times a year for someone else’s fight so that together working people can challenge corporate greed from all angles; protect the vital public services that communities need and the jobs of the people who deliver those services; defend institutions that work to improve working conditions, wages and dignified retirement; protect immigrant workers from unjust workplace raids and inhumane deportation; and support workers demanding jobs with justice, the right to organize and the freedom to collectively bargain for fair contracts.Throughout its history, Jobs With Justice has been a strategic hub for the labor movement by bridging the gap between traditional labor unions and new worker organizations, and creating coalitions of diverse partners who understand the interconnectedness of worker issues to broader social justice movements such as health care, public education, immigrants’ rights, globalization and trade issues. Jobs With Justice has launched and co-anchored national campaigns such as Caring Across Generations; Change Walmart, Change the Economy; United Workers Congress; Debt-Free Future; Protecting Our Workers from Exploitation and Retaliation; and Always Essential. Across the country, JWJ has anchored successful minimum wage, wage theft, paid leave and “ban the box” policy victories in states and local communities. In 2020, Jobs With Justice launched the Advancing Black Strategists Initiative with a vision to create a cohort of Black economic justice- and labor-focused strategists committed to leading, developing and advancing policies and campaigns that support the collective power-building of working people, particularly in the South. In 2024, JWJ partnered with the W.E.B. Du Bois Southern Center for Studies in Public Policy at Clark Atlanta University to co-found the Labor Institute for the Advancement of Black Strategists, the first-ever labor institute at a historically Black college or university in the U.S. South.Current Campaigns/Policy Agenda: Jobs With Justice is powered by a grassroots network of local affiliates and 350,000 committed supporters. JWJ projects include the Labor Research and Action Network, the Advancing Black Strategists Initiative, and the Worker Solidarity Fund. JWJ provides leadership development and training for its affiliates and partners and is building Strike Ready Committees to support workers taking bold action together. Jobs With Justice also develops and advances worker-first policies toward a 21st-century reconstruction for multiracial democracy. Current campaigns include fighting for pregnancy justice at Amazon by applying public pressure for accountability for Amazon’s cruel and systemic abuse of pregnant and postpartum workers who have been denied accommodations and have faced harassment, miscarriages and firings, violating federal law and putting workers’ health, livelihoods and lives at risk; defending immigrant workers and holding corporations that enable Immigration and Customs Enforcement accountable; and powering the green transition by advancing a union-led, community-rooted climate transition by empowering workers, aligning capital, and enforcing high road labor standards in clean energy and decarbonization projects.Learn More: Website, The Solidarity Hub, newsletter sign-up, Facebook, Instagram, Bluesky Kenneth Quinnell Mon, 08/03/2026 - 12:27Continue reading→

Service & Solidarity Spotlight: Staff at The Maine Monitor Win Voluntary Recognition 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. Newsroom workers at The Maine Monitor have joined The News Guild of Maine, The NewsGuild-CWA (TNG-CWA) Local 31128, after winning voluntary recognition from management.The publication is the nonpartisan, independent news outlet of the Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting. Staff are organizing in order to ensure that they can continue to deliver the critical reporting their readership depends on.“Our union will be a positive step forward for both union members and the overall organization,” Rose Lundy, senior reporter at The Monitor, said. “The Maine Monitor Union will strengthen our newsroom, make The Monitor more attractive to talented candidates and will give staff the ability to speak with one voice.”“We are thrilled to welcome the workers of The Maine Monitor into our union. This step will strengthen a respected news organization and enable these journalists to continue their important mission in our state,” The News Guild of Maine President Megan Gray said. “Media workers and journalists in Maine have sent a clear message in recent years with campaigns to form and expand our unions: We care deeply about our work, and we will be part of the conversation about the future of the news industry in Maine.” Kenneth Quinnell Mon, 08/03/2026 - 09:55 Tags: OrganizingContinue reading→

Justice Delayed Is Justice Denied: The Working People Weekly List Every week, we bring you a roundup of the top news and commentary about issues and events important to working families. Here’s the latest edition of the Working People Weekly List. An Unwritten Federal Policy is Blocking Workers’ Discrimination Claims: “‘Justice delayed is justice denied, and the EEOC’s refusal to act on these class-action complaints is causing direct harm and personal injury to our members,’ AFGE National President Everett Kelley said in a statement.”Temple, Jefferson Resident Physicians Ratify First Contracts Since Voting to Unionize: “About 2,200 resident physicians at Temple University Health System and Thomas Jefferson University Hospitals announced Thursday that they ratified their first contracts since voting to unionize. The residents at the two health systems were the latest in the region to join the Committee of Interns and Residents (CIR), the largest union of resident physicians in the United States.”Mendocino County SEIU Members Ratify Contract: “The vast majority of Mendocino County public servants this week approved a new employment contract, officials with the local Service Employees International Union reported. In a press release, the SEIU 1021 reported that its members in Mendocino County, which include include public health nurses, social workers, employment and family assistance specialists, mental health clinicians, road crews, and others, ‘overwhelmingly ratified their union contract by 96.94%.’”Jake Hummel: Amendment 4 Will Lead to More Anti-Worker Laws: “As president of the Missouri AFL-CIO, I am incredibly proud of our union members and their families who have been hitting the streets to spread the word about Amendments 4 and 5 which will be on the Aug. 4 ballot. Amendment 5 has received plenty of attention, and rightfully so. It would allow politicians to create a new Everything Tax and raise the price of gas, groceries, medicine, and even doctor’s visits. It deserves to fail, and I feel confident we will deliver that defeat on Election Day. But Amendment 4 has received less attention, and for working families it is incredibly dangerous.”AFSCME Local 1343 Signs Two-Year Union Contract with City of Burlington: “Today, Burlington Mayor Emma Mulvaney-Stanak and the local chapter of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) announced the successful negotiation of a new, two-year collective bargaining agreement. The contract was signed this morning at a ceremony at City Hall. The contract extends the longstanding partnership between the union workforce of over 300 staff members and the City of Burlington from July 1, 2026, through June 30, 2028. AFSCME Local 1343 ratified the contract prior to the Burlington City Council’s approval of the agreement at its July 13, 2026, meeting.”On-Set Visual Effects Workers on ‘Star Wars’ Productions Join IATSE: “A group of U.S. visual effects workers engaged directly by ‘Star Wars’ franchise productions has joined the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees for collective bargaining purposes. The new bargaining unit includes U.S. workers who contribute to titles including, but not limited to ‘The Mandalorian & Grogu,’ ‘Ahsoka’ and ‘Starfighter.’ The unit, which overwhelmingly supported joining the union, will now begin good-faith negotiations with the employer for its first contract.”Sales Reps with New Jersey Cannabis Brand Vote to Unionize: “Sales representatives with a cannabis retail brand in New Jersey are the latest workers in the state’s legalized industry to unionize. According to the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 360, The Botanist New Jersey’s sales team recently voted to organize as members of the union. Headquartered in New York City, the Canopy USA-owned brand has retail sites in Williamstown, Collingswood and Egg Harbor Township. It also operates licensed cultivation and manufacturing facilities here.”Case to Be Dropped Against Labor Leader Caught in Los Angeles Immigration Raid: “Federal prosecutors moved on Monday to dismiss their case against David Huerta, a Los Angeles labor leader whose arrest during an immigration raid last year helped spark a wave of demonstrations against the Trump administration’s crackdown in the nation’s second-largest city.”University of Michigan Nurses Sign New Deal, Approve Wage Increases: “University of Michigan nurses approved a new three-year labor contract that features wage increases, improved staffing rations and stronger workplace safety protections. The MNA-University of Michigan Professional Nurse Council—the group representing the Michigan Nurses Association—approved the agreement with a 94% ‘yes’ vote on Friday, July 24. The contract ratification vote took place from July 20 to the 24.”Fred Redmond: Black Women Deserve Equal Pay. Unions Help Make It Happen: “Everywhere you look, people are talking about the rising cost of living. For Black women, this crisis is compounded by a persistent and unjust pay gap. That’s why we observe Black Women’s Equal Pay Day this year on July 21. It brings attention to the fact that among full-time, year-round workers, Black women earned just 65 cents in 2025 for every dollar earned by white men. That wage gap isn’t just a statistic—it means smaller paychecks, fewer opportunities to build wealth, greater financial insecurity and harder choices about providing for their families.”American Federation of Musicians Local 802 Reaches Agreement with Metropolitan Opera: “Local 802 of the American Federation of Musicians has reached a tentative agreement with the Metropolitan Opera for a one-year contract for the Met's more than 130 associate musicians. The deal follows an extensive nine-month period of negotiations during which representatives of the Met's associate musicians pushed to achieve wage parity with their Met Orchestra colleagues. According to AFM Local 802 President Dan Point, the musicians faced ‘a challenging uphill battle" due to budgetary limitations that have affected the Met in recent years.” Kenneth Quinnell Mon, 08/03/2026 - 09:53Continue reading→