AFL-CIO Blog

  • Service & Solidarity Spotlight: Child Care Providers United Secure New Tentative Agreement with California
    Service & Solidarity Spotlight: Child Care Providers United Secure New Tentative Agreement with California 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 Child Care Providers United (CCPU)—which represents approximately 60,000 home-based child care providers in California—have reached a tentative agreement with the state. The union is a partnership between Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 99, SEIU Local 521 and United Domestic Workers of America, UDW/AFSCME Local 3930. Child care workers are among the lowest-paid workers in the country—and because home-based providers in California are classified as small business owners, they also don’t have access to employer-provided benefits. After CCPU won the right to collectively bargain in 2019, it secured the establishment of a retirement fund and other major wins. The new agreement covering CCPU members ensures the retention of those retirement, health care and training benefits, a cost-of-living adjustment, and stabilization payments that will help prevent child care provider closures. “In these times in which healthcare is under attack by the federal government in the form of Medicaid cuts, which of course is Medi-Cal for us, it’s significant to have a benefit like that so they can take care of themselves and their families as they continue to do this work,” said Max Arias, CCPU chairperson and chief negotiator. Kenneth Quinnell Thu, 08/14/2025 - 09:56 — Aug 14
  • AFL-CIO Bus Tour: Harrisburg Workers Demand Accountability from Rep. Scott Perry for Selling Out Working Class
    AFL-CIO Bus Tour: Harrisburg Workers Demand Accountability from Rep. Scott Perry for Selling Out Working Class The AFL-CIO’s “It’s Better In a Union” tour bus joined AFSCME members and state Sen. Patty Kim for a press conference in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, on Tuesday to hold Rep. Scott Perry accountable for his vote on President Trump’s disastrous budget bill. Federal funding cuts in the budget threaten the health and safety of all working people in the state, all so the administration can give the ultrawealthy even more tax breaks. Attendees decried Perry’s affirmative vote on the legislation as a betrayal of his constituents. “While we watch the President of the United States celebrate his megabill, which will have a massive and unprecedented transfer of wealth from everyday people to billionaires, we see the writing on the wall and the call to action is louder than ever,” Pennsylvania AFL-CIO President Angela Ferritto said. “I think about what we are fighting for here in Pennsylvania. A state budget which is 43 days past due; OSHA protections for public sector workers; the legislative promise of the Inflation Reduction Act; a minimum wage increase that’s long overdue; safe patient to nurse ratios; public education funding to support the success of all children; public transit funding to keep Pennsylvania moving...our fight is the same as the entire working class.” “I worked for the Department of Aging, and I have a good understanding of long-term care services,” added AFSCME Council 13 retiree Glen Dunbar. “Do you know that almost two-thirds of the elderly who receive long-term care depend on Medicaid to help pay their bills? What are they supposed to do? What are their families supposed to do? Scott Perry must be held accountable for selling out middle-class people for the interests of billionaires.” Kenneth Quinnell Wed, 08/13/2025 - 14:45 Tags: Better in a Union Bus Tour — Aug 13
  • Safe Staffing Saves Lives: What Working People Are Doing This Week
    Safe Staffing Saves Lives: What Working People Are Doing This Week Welcome to our regular feature, a look at what the various AFL-CIO unions and other working family organizations are doing across the country and beyond. The labor movement is big and active—here's a look at the broad range of activities we're engaged in this week. AFGE: AFSCME: Alliance for Retired Americans: Amalgamated Transit Union: American Federation of Musicians: American Federation of Teachers: American Postal Workers Union: Association of Flight Attendants-CWA: Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers: Boilermakers: Bricklayers: Communications Workers of America: Department for Professional Employees: Electrical Workers: Fire Fighters: Heat and Frost Insulators: International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers: International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers: Labor Council for Latin American Advancement: Laborers: Machinists: Major League Baseball Players Association: National Air Traffic Controllers Association: National Association of Letter Carriers: National Domestic Workers Alliance: National Hockey League Players’ Association: National Nurses United: NFL Players Association: North America's Building Trades Unions: Painters and Allied Trades: Professional Hockey Players’ Association: Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union: Roofers and Waterproofers: SAG-AFTRA: Service Employees International Union: Solidarity Center: The NewsGuild-CWA: Theatrical Stage Employees: Transportation Trades Department: UAW: Union Label and Service Trades Department: UNITE HERE: United Food and Commercial Workers: United Steelworkers: Working America: Kenneth Quinnell Wed, 08/13/2025 - 10:41 — Aug 13
  • Service & Solidarity Spotlight: Workers at Chicago’s City Bureau Win Union Recognition
    Service & Solidarity Spotlight: Workers at Chicago’s City Bureau Win Union 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. After going public in July with their campaign to join The Chicago News Guild, The NewsGuild-CWA (TNG-CWA) Local 34071, staff at City Bureau are now celebrating securing voluntary recognition from their employer. All eligible workers at the Chicago-based nonprofit newsroom—across every department that plays a role in editorial work, programming and operations—unanimously signed union authorization cards when they sought recognition. Members of City Bureau Workers Guild now are shifting their attention toward negotiating a collective bargaining agreement with provisions that will help strengthen the newsroom and build a sustainable, fair and equitable workplace. “We look forward to beginning the bargaining process and co-creating an equitable contract that serves workers and the organization we all love,” the City Bureau Workers Guild organizing committee said in a social media statement. “Building a strong, unionized workplace is a journey, and we’ve just taken a major step to bolster our collective power.” Kenneth Quinnell Wed, 08/13/2025 - 09:40 — Aug 13
  • Dropkick Murphys Headline Bus Tour Rally for Union Rights in Cleveland
    Dropkick Murphys Headline Bus Tour Rally for Union Rights in Cleveland The Dropkick Murphys joined the AFL-CIO “It’s Better In a Union” bus tour stop in Cleveland on Sunday to play for the crowd gathered to rally for union rights. UAW President Shawn Fain, Bricklayers (BAC) President Tim Driscoll and Utility Workers (UWUA) National President James Slevin fired up the crowd of attendees and Brute Squad—a quintet punk rock band composed of American Federation of Musicians (AFM) Local 4 members—opened the show. In addition to speeches from the union leaders, a pair of doctors who were recently fired from their jobs for trying to organize a union in their workplace also addressed the crowd. “We have been organizing our fellow physicians into a union in order to strengthen the voice of frontline health care workers, including doctors, so that we can stand up for our patients rights to the best quality care—and we were just fired for doing so,” said Dr. Lauren Beene. “We are honored to be here, shoulder to shoulder with all of our union brothers and sisters because we are all fighting the same fight—for safety, for our patients, safety for our co-workers working in the hospitals and for their dignity and justice—we will not be silenced.” Kenneth Quinnell Tue, 08/12/2025 - 13:02 Tags: Better in a Union Bus Tour — Aug 12