AFL-CIO
Pride Month Profiles: Steve Voltz
Pride Month Profiles: Steve Voltz
For Pride Month this year, the AFL-CIO is spotlighting various LGBTQ+ workers who have worked and continue to work at the intersection of civil and labor rights in the United States. Today’s profile is Steve Voltz of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU).
Steve Voltz is chair of SEIU Healthcare’s Lavender Caucus, which advocates for LGBTQIA+ rights in the workplace and bridges the queer community to the broader labor movement. He helped lead contract negotiations for over 40,000 home health aides as a member of the bargaining committee that established a new minimum wage of $18.75 per hour for home care workers in Illinois’ Community Care Program.
Kenneth Quinnell
Mon, 06/15/2026 – 09:02
Tags:
Pride
Service & Solidarity Spotlight: AFSCME Members at SIU School of Medicine Secure Strong Raises and Longevity System
Service & Solidarity Spotlight: AFSCME Members at SIU School of Medicine Secure Strong Raises and Longevity System
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.
Members of AFSCME Local 370 (Council 31) ratified a new contract that includes strong raises and a first-ever longevity system that rewards employees for their years of service.The new contract doubles the amount of money in members’ pockets compared to management’s initial proposal. Some members will see wage increases as high as 14%. “We needed to show them that what makes the [Southern Illinois University School of Medicine (SIU-SOM)] work is not just the six-figure doctors—it’s all of us,” said Local 370 President Gina Darden. “It’s the nurses, the front desk workers, the call center workers. We had to make them understand that keeping this place running as well as it does takes all of us.” They also won their first-ever paid parental leave policy, plus paid time off to vote.
Kenneth Quinnell
Mon, 06/15/2026 – 08:56
Tags:
Organizing
Pride Month Profiles: Saylor Billings
Pride Month Profiles: Saylor Billings
For Pride Month this year, the AFL-CIO is spotlighting various LGBTQ+ workers who have worked and continue to work at the intersection of civil and labor rights in the United States. Today’s profile is Saylor Billings of SAG-AFTRA.
Saylor Billings is an accomplished writer, actor, stand-up comedian and producer. She’s a creative force behind television, podcasts and short films. She petitioned the SAG-AFTRA local board, where she serves as secretary, to start an LGBTQIA+ committee. She has been chairing that committee, actively raising its profile and supporting members, since its inception. Billings is also active in the AFL-CIO, serving as one of SAG-AFTRA’s delegates to the Maricopa Area Labor Federation.
Kenneth Quinnell
Fri, 06/12/2026 – 10:01
Tags:
Pride
Service & Solidarity Spotlight: AFL-CIO to Recruit 50,000 Election Protection Volunteers Across the Country
Service & Solidarity Spotlight: AFL-CIO to Recruit 50,000 Election Protection Volunteers Across the Country
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.
The 30th AFL-CIO Constitutional Convention dug into the AFL-CIO’s Labor 2026 P.O.W.E.R. (Protect. Organize. Win. Engage. Right Now.) program, focusing on the AFL-CIO’s goal of recruiting 50,000 election protection volunteers across the country, particularly in communities of color and those targeted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). These volunteers will staff polling locations and emergency hotlines in the lead-up to and on Election Day in November to ensure that no one is intimidated into not exercising their basic rights and fundamental freedoms.“I stand here united with the House of Labor because we are all that we have,” said Derrick Johnson, president and CEO of the NAACP. “We are all that we need for this fight. In this moment where so many people have lost hope and the ability to fight back and push back, it is our job in the House of Labor and as civil rights communities to rebuild the hope that’s necessary.” “Essential workers at every level of government have withstood the harassment and fought back through our unions,” said Elissa McBride, secretary-treasurer of AFSCME.
Kenneth Quinnell
Fri, 06/12/2026 – 09:55
Pride Month Profiles: Shane James
Pride Month Profiles: Shane James
For Pride Month this year, the AFL-CIO is spotlighting various LGBTQ+ workers who have worked and continue to work at the intersection of civil and labor rights in the United States. Today’s profile is Shane James of the Office and Professional Employees (OPEIU).
Shane James says Pride Month is a time to “be bold in our truth and unashamed in our history.” As an OPEIU Local 30 steward at San Diego Pride, they said being a union member means “being able to have a support system, stability and assuredness in a time where our community is constantly in a state of fear, caution and instability at the hands of systems that do not care for us.”
Kenneth Quinnell
Thu, 06/11/2026 – 10:55
Tags:
Pride
Service & Solidarity Spotlight: Shuler: ‘How Do We…Fight for the Safety and Dignity of Every Worker on the Job?’
Service & Solidarity Spotlight: Shuler: ‘How Do We…Fight for the Safety and Dignity of Every Worker on the Job?’
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.
The third day of AFL-CIO’s 30th Constitutional Convention concluded with a conversation about workplace health and safety featuring AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler and Actors’ Equity Association (Equity) President Brooke Shields. Union members from across sectors shared their fights for health and safety protections and highlighted the ongoing work that unions are doing to address workplace violence, extreme heat and other job-related hazards.“Whoever you are, whatever your job—you deserve to walk into your workplace knowing you’ll be safe and can go back home at night,” Shuler said. “That’s an idea our workers have died for. And it’s one that is under attack at this very moment from the Trump administration. They’re rolling back hard-won protections. They’re gutting agencies. They’re giving corporations free rein—letting companies know they won’t be held accountable. So in that landscape, how do we fight for safety in our own workplaces? How do we use our power to fight for the safety and dignity of every worker on the job?”Read Convention Resolution 8: We Want Healthy Lives and Safe Workplaces
Kenneth Quinnell
Thu, 06/11/2026 – 09:34
Pride Month Profiles: Dennis Delozier
Pride Month Profiles: Dennis Delozier
For Pride Month this year, the AFL-CIO is spotlighting various LGBTQ+ workers who have worked and continue to work at the intersection of civil and labor rights in the United States. Today’s profile is Dennis Delozier of the Laborers (LIUNA).
Dennis Delozier is a 35-year member of LIUNA Local 238. He spent his career working long hours doing industrial concrete, but he always made an effort to attend union meetings. Delozier retired in 2013 and has stayed active with Local 238, consistently volunteering for Laborers Rising events and political door knocking. He has done an excellent job as president of the retirees committee, bringing retirees’ concerns to the union’s attention.
Kenneth Quinnell
Wed, 06/10/2026 – 09:30
Tags:
Pride
Service & Solidarity Spotlight: Working People Affirm Civil Rights are Workers’ Rights; AFL-CIO Launches Labor 2026 P.O.W.E.R.
Service & Solidarity Spotlight: Working People Affirm Civil Rights are Workers’ Rights; AFL-CIO Launches Labor 2026 P.O.W.E.R.
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.
The 30th AFL-CIO Constitutional Convention affirmed that civil rights are workers’ rights and discussed the longstanding connection and partnership between the labor and civil rights movements. Speakers, including Bishop Leah D. Daughtry (founder and co-convenor, Power Rising), Kristen Clarke (general counsel, NAACP), Juan Proaño (CEO, League of United Latin American Citizens), Sophia Lin Lakin (director, ACLU Voting Rights Project) and President Claude Cummings Jr. (Communications Workers of America (CWA)), strategized around how labor can mobilize in the wake of the implications of the Louisiana v. Callais Supreme Court decision that gutted the Voting Rights Act in an attack on the fundamental freedoms of voters of color.The AFL-CIO launched its 2026 midterm political campaign, Labor 2026 P.O.W.E.R (Protect. Organize. Win. Engage. Right Now.), a program to recruit 50,000 election protection “Union Peacekeeper” volunteers and turn out 2 million more union voters in the midterm election, ensure that working people can have their votes counted and voices heard at the ballot box, and put pro-worker candidates into office.Read Convention Resolution 3: We Stand Up For One AnotherRead Convention Resolution 5: We Want Democracy and Government That Works for All of Us
Kenneth Quinnell
Wed, 06/10/2026 – 09:23
Tags:
AFL-CIO Convention
Pride Month Profiles: Rah Cantatore
Pride Month Profiles: Rah Cantatore
For Pride Month this year, the AFL-CIO is spotlighting various LGBTQ+ workers who have worked and continue to work at the intersection of civil and labor rights in the United States. Today’s profile is Rah Cantatore of the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE).
Rah Cantatore has served as vice president for dispute resolution at IFPTE Local 1921 since 2021. Cantatore leads and trains a network of stewards representing employees who find themselves in conflict with management, and they do so with skill, integrity and warmth. At a challenging time for transgender professionals, Cantatore serves as an example of solidarity in action by advocating for others while living openly and fiercely as themselves.
Kenneth Quinnell
Tue, 06/09/2026 – 09:57
Tags:
Pride
Service & Solidarity Spotlight: Shuler, Redmond Unanimously Reelected as President, Secretary-Treasurer
Service & Solidarity Spotlight: Shuler, Redmond Unanimously Reelected as President, Secretary-Treasurer
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.
Delegates at the AFL-CIO’s 30th Constitutional Convention unanimously reelected Liz Shuler as president and Fred Redmond as secretary-treasurer.“Serving as president of the AFL-CIO has been the honor of a lifetime, and I am deeply moved to be reelected for a second term,” Shuler said. “My union story is like so many others, growing up in a working-class family that scraped to get by from paycheck to paycheck until our lives were changed by an IBEW apprenticeship. Our family lived the union difference. Financial stability overnight, a career with skill and dignity for my dad, and a passion for organizing—that turned into a lifelong mission—for me. I am extraordinarily grateful for the trust that this movement has placed in me, and I will continue to lead our federation in delivering that union difference and changing lives for working families across this country just like mine.”“In just two generations, my family went from Mississippi sharecroppers to living in poverty on the South Side of Chicago to me becoming the highest-ranking African American in the history of the American labor movement—and it’s all because my dad got a union job at an aluminum mill and became a member of United Steelworkers Local 3911,” Redmond said. “When I joined my dad at the mill, I also joined a movement and a legacy of trade unionists who sacrificed and fought to make our jobs safer, our workplaces more equitable and our society more just.”Watch President Shuler’s acceptance speech here. Watch Secretary-Treasurer Redmond’s speech here.
Kenneth Quinnell
Tue, 06/09/2026 – 09:41
Tags:
AFL-CIO Convention