Labor News — 1/28/2022
The Texas Gulf Coast Area Labor Federation Weekly Report comes out (nearly) every Thursday with news and updates relevant to the Gulf Coast labor movement. To subscribe, click here.
Aldine AFT Wins Days Off to Combat Burnout
Thanks to advocacy by Aldine AFT, the Aldine ISD Board of Trustees voted this week to cancel Friday classes for three weeks to combat teacher burnout as a result of the Omicron wave. Aldine AFT members spoke in support of the measure at the Aldine ISD school board meeting earlier this week.
CWA Local 6171 Workers Win First Contract after 12 Year Fight
Last week, after a long organizing battle and bargaining that spanned over a decade, workers at Dish Network (CWA Local 6171) ratified their first contract, becoming the first group of workers in the country to successfully negotiate a contract at Dish. This is a major victory for CWA and other Dish workers around the country who are fighting for a voice on the job.
Gulf Coast Labor Movement Mourns Passing of Ceole and Calvin Speight
This month, the Gulf Coast labor movement lost two titans — former Texas Gulf Coast Area Labor Federation President and Plumbers Local 68 Business Manager Calvin Speight and long-time Harris County AFL-CIO volunteer and program coordinator and UFCW Local 455 member Ceole Speight.
Calvin was the first president of the Texas Gulf Coast Labor Federation. Described by current Executive Director Hany Khalil as a “a quiet visionary.” he strongly backed the merger of Houston-area central labor councils into our regional federation and the development of a more powerful Gulf Coast labor movement.
Ceole worked for decades as the volunteer and program coordinator for the Harris County AFL-CIO Council, mentoring hundreds of labor leaders, activits, and elected officials. She leaves an incredible family legacy that will extend far into the future.
Gulf Coast AFL-CIO Announces Final Endorsements in March Primary Elections
After screening over 250 candidates running for office in 13 Gulf Coast counties, the 92 unions of the Texas Gulf Coast Area Labor Federation, AFL-CIO announced their final endorsements for the March 1st primary election last week.
“Far too many of our neighbors are struggling right now due to unchecked corporate greed, said Texas Gulf Coast Area Labor Federation President Lacy Wolf. We need leaders in office who will fight to empower working people to take back what what’s ours, and after an extensive, months-long vetting process, the Gulf Coast labor movement is proud to have so many allies in the fight.”
Rail Workers Fight Back Against Dangerous Working Conditions
After failing to come to an agreement with management, unions representing rail workers this week announced their intention to file for arbitration with the National Mediation Board.
In order to maximize profits, rail companies have increasingly taken steps that threaten the safety of workers, surrounding communities, and the entire supply chain. These include regularly assigning a single conductor to trains and extending the length of trains to up to 5 miles, which many have argued has led to increased derailments and long wait times for cars at interchanges.
New proposals put forth by management threaten to worsen conditions, with a new attendance policy from one rail company requiring 24, 42 or even 56 days straight without a day off.
17,000 union workers with BLET and SMART-TD were planning to strike over this brutal new attendance policy, but a Texas judge issued an injunction in support of the company and against the unions this week to block the collective action.
President Biden has taken steps to support rail workers in his first year in office, recently nominating Teamster Deirdre Hamilton to serve on the National Mediation Board.
Austin EMS Association Continues Push for Better Wages and Safe Staffing in Collective Bargaining Talks
The Austin EMS Association continues to bargain for better conditions and compensation as bargaining with the City of Austin continues.
“One of the concerns that we have in the department is that we are getting fewer and fewer applicants and fewer and fewer cadets,” Association President Selena Xie said. She said the current cadet class has only 15 people, about half the desired number needed to adequately staff the department. An increasing number of people are also opting for retirement or leaving the department for other reasons, Xie said.
State law unfortunately prevents most public employees in Texas, but not all, from collectively bargaining, limiting the ability of workers to advocate for themselves and the communities they serve.
Biden Increases Minimum Wage for Federal Workers to $15/Hour in Response to AFGE Advocacy
The Biden administration has directed all federal agencies to increase the minimum wage for federal employees to $15 an hour.
The new policy, which takes effect Jan. 30, 2022, will give a pay boost to about 70,000 workers, including an estimated 7,000 Texans, most of whom work at the Department of Defense, Department of Veterans Affairs, and Department of Agriculture.
The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) represents 700,000 federal employees, including thousands in the Gulf Coast region.
New GOP Vote-by-mail Rules Create Chaos as Deadline to Apply Nears
With less than a month left to request a mail-in ballot, Texas voters and local election officials face errors, delays and miscommunication in navigating new rules for voting by mail.
Under the new GOP-backed voting suppression law, a top priority of Governor Greg Abbott, absentee voters are now required to include a state identification number, like a driver’s license number, on their applications for a mail-in ballot that must match the information in a voter’s record. So far, hundreds of applications from eligible voters have been rejected as a result.
The deadline to apply for a mail ballot to vote in the upcoming March 1st primary election is February 18th. Click here to apply
Historic Partnership Spearheaded by Harris County Treasurer Dylan Osborne Received Bipartisan Praise
Earlier this month, Harris County announced the details of a historic partnership with Unity Bank. Unity is one of the few Black-owned banks in the country.
The partnership, spearheaded by Harris County Treasurer Dylan Osborne, will facilitate a $5 million investment through a CD program. Harris County has generally ignored minority owned businesses in the past, and county leadership is taking proactive steps to change that.
Extremist Majority on US Supreme Court Put Millions of Workers at Risk by Blocking OSHA Safety Standard
Last year, the Biden administration issued a vaccine-or-test requirement to protect millions of Americans from the omnipresent risk of contracting, transmitting, and/or dying from COVID-19. Earlier this month, the Supreme Court’s conservative justices blocked this rule from taking effect, reasoning that any workplace safety rule they determine to be “too big a deal” is illegal as a result.
The federal Occupational Health and Safety Administration has the power — granted by legislation passed by Congress — to issue “emergency temporary standards” to protect employees from a “grave danger” posed by exposure to “physically harmful” “new hazards.” The Biden administration, cognizant of the fact that many people have jobs and go to workplaces, invoked this power to write a rule that would require large employers to ensure that their employees either get vaccinated against COVID-19 or are tested weekly.
This authority was granted by Congress through the Occupational Safety and Health Act because legislators at the time recognized that during a crisis it is unlikely that Congress would be able to act quickly to keep people safe. Instead, they wrote laws that clearly empowered experts in the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to take action by issuing temporary standards to keep people safe at work.
Instead of reading the law, the six conservative judges on the Supreme Court decided that they knew better than the experts, as part of their ongoing political project to undermine the ability of federal agencies to keep workers safe.
Harris County Commissioners Pass Fair Chance Policy Supported by Labor Movement
The labor movement is founded on the belief that everyone deserves a fair shot at a good life, and earlier this month, Harris County took a big step toward making that happen for thousands of residents by approving a new fair chance hiring policy.
Fair chance hiring, or ban-the-box, removes initial barriers one might face from a conviction and enables applicants to be judged on all their merits. This policy will prohibit county departments from including a criminal history question on the application, except for law enforcement.
The new Fair Chance policy was spearheaded by Harris County Attorney Christian Menefee, with support from Judge Lina Hidalgo and Commissioners Adrian Garcia and Rodney Ellis.
Our USW brothers and sisters at local 13–243 in Beaumont have been locked out for over 7 months now. They’re coming together to support each other, but they still need our help.
