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Nurses Win Staffing Fight: Members Overwhelmingly Approve Contract to End Strike, Raise Standards at RWJ Hospital Nurses who work at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Jersey voted overwhelmingly in December to ratify a new contract that ended a four-month unfair labor practice strike and established staffing standards to protect workers and patients. Local 4-200 President Judy Danella credited the solidarity of the local union’s 1,700 members, as well as the support of other union members and the New Brunswick community, with helping to bring about the groundbreaking agreement that ended the nurses’ unfair labor practice strike. “This contract would not have been possible if the nurses hadn’t stood together and demanded what our patients deserve,” said Danella. “This campaign has always been about safety and quality care, and we are ready to get back to work doing what we love.” Return to Work Nurses began returning to work in early January under new staffing rules and enforcement mechanisms to help ensure that the hospital maintains safe nurse-to-patient levels, as well as infrastructure to facilitate greater communication between front-line nurses and the hospital administration. “We are very excited to go back to work with those rules,” Danella said. “It’s a start. We are the only contract that I know of in the state of New Jersey with these staffing ratios.” Under the agreement, the hospital also will add 70 registered nurse positions, effective May 1, 2024. Those positions will be a mixture of full-time and part-time employees. “We are particularly proud that this contract includes accountability and communication, which will ensure that staffing will remain a top priority moving forward,” Danella said. International Visit The nurses got a lift in their fight from workers across the world. In late August, USW members who were attending the Congress of UNI Global Union in Philadelphia led a delegation of 38 workers from 16 countries to join the Local 4-200 picket line. In addition, the RWJ nurses received strong support from their fellow USW members across the country as well as workers in their own backyard. Students and unionized faculty members at Rutgers University offered continuous support, as did members of the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA), which includes workers who live just a short drive or train ride from the RWJ New Brunswick facility. “We should not have to strike to win common sense solutions to protect our patients and communities,” said Nancy Hagans NYSNA president. “It is the responsibility of our government to enact policies that will protect us.” New York nurses successfully pushed their state legislators to enact such policies, which went into effect in January 2023. Members of Local 4-200 have long been advocating for New Jersey to adopt similar safe staffing rules. Staffing Fight Last spring, before the strike began, USW members joined hundreds of other health care workers for a large rally in Trenton urging state lawmakers to pass measures similar to the New York law. “Quite simply, safe staffing is good for patients and good for workers,” said International Vice President Kevin Mapp, who oversees the USW’s health care sector, which includes more than 50,000 workers across North America. “Health care workers put themselves on the line every day because they love what they do. Safe staffing improves patient outcomes and reduces burnout and turnover for nurses.” Danella promised that, following the victory at RWJ, the fight would continue for safe staffing across New Jersey and the United States. “Now we’ll take safe staffing to the next level,” she said. “We will continue to try to get the state of New Jersey to pass the safe staffing bill.” As the strike neared the three-month mark in late October, USW members and other health care workers packed a nearby Rutgers University auditorium as U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont led a Senate committee hearing on safe hospital staffing. “Nurses at Robert Wood Johnson and workers all over this country want better wages and better benefits, but that is not the primary reason for the strike,” said Sanders, chair of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. “What nurses have told me, and I’ve had the opportunity on several occasions to sit down and talk with these nurses, is that what this strike has everything to do with is the safety of their patients.” Strong Contract In addition to delivering on the nurses’ safe staffing priorities, the new three-year agreement includes annual wage increases, limits health care costs and boosts retirement benefits. Though the fight was a difficult one for members, it also brought them together like never before, Danella said. “People that you would never know, people you met on the picket line, we formed little families along the way,” she said. “Some days, being on the picket line, it gave people the boost they needed to continue.” Now, Local 4-200 will shift the fight for safe staffing from the picket lines in New Brunswick to the halls of New Jersey government. “It just kind of started a movement,” Danella said. “It has been 20 years in the making, but I’m hopeful that it’s taken to the next level. Every nurse and every patient in the state of New Jersey deserves safe staffing.” — Feb 13
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The Power of Our Union: On the Island of Puerto Rico, USW Members are Stepping up the Fight for Workers’ Rights Miguel Cruz spent 31 years as a union worker with Puerto Rico’s electric power authority. Although he reached an age at which he could retire for good, Cruz still serves as president of his unit and continues to champion the labor movement on the island of 3.3 million citizens, working alongside other USW members and prospective members to build worker power. “This is my passion,” Cruz said of his union work. “It isn’t about money. It’s about representation.” Stronger Together The representation that Cruz fights for – what he calls “the power of our union” – is essential for the 1,000 USW members across Puerto Rico. That’s a number Cruz believes could more than double in the next few years as multiple organizing drives begin to bear fruit on the island, an area about twice the size of the state of Delaware. Sharon Pérez, Local 6135 president and journalist for GFR Media, said that extending the benefits of collective action to more workers in Puerto Rico will benefit everyone. “When you’re at the table, you’re negotiating the future for our families,” Pérez said. “There’s no turning back.” With an amalgamated local that includes workers at Puerto Rico’s largest newspaper as well as more industrial workplaces, Pérez faces the challenge of a diverse membership that is spread out geographically across the island. For pressroom worker Agustín Santiago and many of his 120 USW siblings at GFR, the topics they typically discuss at the bargaining table – wages, benefits, health and safety, work-life balance – are the same as at other bargaining sessions. Other issues, however, are unique to a work force with a growing number of young, tech-savvy communicators in an ever-changing media landscape. “We have to get more young members involved,” Pérez said, “so they know the union work is worth it for them.” Organizing Efforts Helping more workers – of all ages and industries – gain the benefits of unionism has been part of the USW’s mission in Puerto Rico for more than five decades. However, that work has taken on a greater urgency in recent years. Before becoming international secretary-treasurer in 2019, John Shinn served for seven and a half years as director of District 4, which includes Puerto Rico and nine northeastern U.S. states. As director, he began to shift more USW resources toward servicing and organizing members on the island, an effort that continued under his successors, including current Director David Wasiura. “It’s been clear for a long time that more workers in Puerto Rico want and deserve the benefits of unionism,” Shinn said. “With only about three percent of the private sector represented, the situation there offers tremendous opportunities for the labor movement to lift up the voices of working families across all sectors of the economy. Organizing more workers in Puerto Rico is good news for everyone on the island and beyond.” Strengthening Bonds Shinn and Wasiura recently joined International President David McCall, along with International Vice President Luis Mendoza, District 10 Director Bernie Hall and a handful of other USW leaders, on a weeklong trip to Puerto Rico to meet with members, visit workplaces, learn about workers’ issues, and strengthen the bond between members on the island and those on the mainland. As part of that effort, Wasiura said, members in District 4 want to be attentive not just to the needs of workers, but those of people throughout the communities where they live. “If we truly want to make a difference in people’s lives, that work can’t end when we walk out the door at the end of the day,” Wasiura said. “We must be invested in the communities where workers live and focus on their well-being day in and day out.” It was that approach that led Wasiura and other District 4 leaders to become supporters of the GoGo Foundation, an organization named in honor of a childhood cancer patient who passed away. The organization founded a clinic that provides comprehensive pediatric medical care to families in need. Mayra Rivera, president of Local 8198, which represents municipal employees in Ponce, received a 2021 Multiplying Good award for her tireless activism on behalf of Puerto Rico’s workers and families, particularly in the wake of the devastation of Hurricane Maria six years ago, when she created a community alliance to bring supplies, support and hazard education to residents. Rivera chose to donate her $500 Multiplying Good prize to the GoGo Foundation, a decision that caught the attention of other leaders in her district and led them to get involved in the foundation’s fundraising. “It was Mayra’s dedication and generosity that got the ball rolling,” said Wasiura, who joined USW leaders for a tour of the GoGo Pediatric Institute facility last fall. “We hope that the USW’s partnership with the foundation continues for many years to come.” Series of Setbacks Despite the hard work of Rivera and many others across the island, some parts of Puerto Rico still have not fully recovered from the devastating effects of Maria, a Category 5 storm that tore through the area in September 2017. It was the region’s worst storm in more than 100 years, killing 3,000 and inflicting more than $90 billion in damage. Maria destroyed entire neighborhoods and laid waste to much of the island’s electrical grid. A lack of resources and a woefully inadequate federal relief effort only intensified those problems. Five years later, Hurricane Fiona, though not as deadly, brought with it days of massive flooding and more power outages. For much of the time between those two storms, Puerto Ricans faced a series of earthquakes as well as another deadly crisis – the COVID-19 pandemic. While that series of setbacks dealt devastating blows to the people of Puerto Rico, the island’s significant financial and infrastructure problems pre-dated those disasters. More than a decade of debt-related austerity, a 2017 bankruptcy and widespread poverty also made the island’s population vulnerable. So far, the Biden administration’s Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act has earmarked nearly $700 million in funding for projects in Puerto Rico over 10 years, with more to come. “Ensuring a strong future for the people of Puerto Rico depends on modernizing infrastructure, providing more strong, family-supporting jobs, and making sure the island is better prepared the next time a disaster strikes,” said Mendoza, the first USW international vice president of Puerto Rican descent. “These investments also will provide a significant economic boost to Puerto Rico’s working families and ultimately benefit every resident.” Mendoza was one of about 20 USW leaders and activists whose stories were included in a USW-produced Spanish-language book “De Acero” (or “Of Steel”) – United Steelworkers En Puerto Rico.” The publication – meant to be circulated widely to members on the island – was just one part of an effort by USW leaders and activists to educate themselves and other workers in Puerto Rico about the USW’s history and to ensure that the voices of Steelworkers are leading the way in strengthening the union’s presence on the island. Mariel Cruz, who recently became the first woman president of Local 6871, was one member who shared her story in the book. Cruz, also District 4 Women of Steel coordinator, said the most important thing union members can do is learn about their rights and how to fight for them. “You have to educate,” she said. “That is the key to everything, to educate and sow the seed for just causes, if we want to have a broad and powerful trade union movement.” Another story was that of Ernesto Sepulveda Rivera of Local 6588, who produces luxury hand-made carpets for V’Soske Inc. Those USW-made carpets can be found in the White House, the Vatican, and in the homes of some of the wealthiest people on the planet. Before he went to work at V’Soske, Rivera already knew the collective power of the USW through stories from his father and grandfather, both of whom made carpets for V’Soske and were proud USW members. Union Proud USW members who work at Peerless Oil & Chemicals, Inc., outside of Ponce, express similar pride in the work they do, and in their USW connection. The workers there manufacture and distribute Castrol brand lubricants, detergents, and other petrochemical products at a sprawling site on the southern coast of the island. Laborer Vladimir Salcedo, who has been a USW member at Peerless for more than 12 years, said he is thankful the union is there to ensure that he and other workers earn fair wages and benefits that allow them to take care of their families, and that they have the equipment necessary to make them safer at work. “Thanks to the union, we have the PPE we need,” Salcedo said. Knowing that he and his co-workers have a voice on the job is the most important reason to support the union, said mechanic Esteban Acevedo. “We have a stable salary that we can count on,” Acevedo said. “And we have someone to stand up for us.” The USW has a long history of standing up for workers on the island, despite the relatively small number of members there compared to other parts of the United States. That is a situation that members hope they can improve in the coming years as the political climate shifts in favor of unions, and the USW organizes across a number of sectors, including chemicals, pharmaceuticals, paper, and other manufacturing sites. Over the past year, USW members have held training sessions for rank-and-file organizers and launched an effort to reinforce to workers what it means to be a Steelworker by convening focus groups, seminars, meetings and other educational efforts. “The working people of Puerto Rico have such a rich history, and the USW is proud to be a part of that,” said International President David McCall. “As we build on that success and continue to organize, workers will have an even brighter future.” ‘The Fight is Coming’ The fallout from Puerto Rico’s bankruptcy led to a push to privatize utilities such as power generation and distribution. That was part of what led Miguel Cruz’s former union, Unión de Empleados Profesionales Independiente (UEPI), to affiliate with the USW in March 2023. Former UEPI members serve various roles as instrument technicians, construction inspectors and civil engineers. Miguel Cruz said the USW’s effective representation of thousands of workers in energy and municipal government drove the decision to join the USW. “We knew about the work they achieved representing thousands of workers in the energy sector,” he said. He said the USW was attractive to the members of the formerly independent union because workers were able to maintain their identity and autonomy, while also growing their power by seeking out others to join the fight. Puerto Rico’s effort to modernize its electrical grid to make it less vulnerable to weather makes the energy sector a hot spot for union organizing. “As the transition to the private sector happens, the fight is coming,” Cruz said. — Feb 13
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Rapid Response Action Call: It’s Time to Act. Labor Unions in Georgia Are Under Attack Click here to download this Action Call as PDF. Rapid Response Action Call: It’s Time to Act. Labor Unions in Georgia Are Under Attack. Last week, we told you about Senate Bill 362, a bill that violates federal labor laws, discourages economic growth in Georgia, and rewards union busting. Thursday, the bill was voted out of Senate by a vote of 31-23. It will now move to the House for a vote. Why are they doing this? Recently, a State Senator shared that this bill is a "message to the federal government”. As federal dollars are being sent to states as a result of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), the CHIPS Act, and the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), it’s become clear the language in these bills connecting the funding to supporting workers who want to unionize is problematic for corporations. We worked hard during the crafting of these bills to ensure companies who received these funds allow workers who want to organize have the ability to do so without pushback. This bill is clearly a way around that. We know better and we see right through this. The new era of the Georgia labor movement is here and S.B. 362 is evidence that anti-union legislators funded by corporations are scared of workers getting their fair share. Here are two ways you can join the fight! It's time to take action and reach every state representative. A majority of Americans would join a union right now if they could, and working people across all sectors of the economy are organizing like never before. The reason for this was simple: Union contracts are life-changing opportunities for pay raises, better benefits, safer workplace standards, and more. Yet, anti-labor state legislators are working to weaken organized labor and worker power in the state of Georgia. We must stop this legislation!
- Tell your state representative to OPPOSE S.B. 362. Click HERE to send a pre-written email to them.
- Join us for a Labor Lobby Day on February 22 in Atlanta! Click HERE to register.
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All-Hands-On-Deck: Arizona Part 1- Election Connection While both chambers of Arizona’s state legislature have been controlled by an anti-worker majority for more than three decades, significant progress has been made in recent years to elect lawmakers who are committed to advancing an agenda that favors working people. In fact, in 2024, only a handful of seats across both chambers need to be flipped to secure an historic union-friendly trifecta consisting of a pro-union governor, and a majority in both legislative chambers in the state. Statewide elections in Arizona have also become much more competitive in recent years, with labor-backed candidates winning the gubernatorial and presidential elections in 2022 and 2020, respectively, for the first time in numerous election cycles. Momentum Builds to Benefit Hard-Working Arizonans Although her ability to pass labor-friendly laws has been limited because of the current composition of the state legislature, Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs has fought aggressively on workers’ behalf throughout her first year in office. In November, Gov. Hobbs spearheaded an effort to ensure workers have access to quality, affordable child care options, especially those in the state’s growing semiconductor industry. While the effort is new, Hobbs envisions a plan tailored for workers across all industries that will be adaptive to the state’s diverse and growing economy. Unprecedented federal funding from President Joe Biden’s CHIPS and Science Act and Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act have helped spur massive job growth in Arizona’s construction and semiconductor industries. Gov. Hobbs has already committed $4 million to support the Build it Arizona apprenticeship and job training program to ensure a pathway to securing these jobs. Hobbs has collaborated with several unions to improve transparency, oversight and enforcement of workplace health and safety rules in the semiconductor industry. Additionally, Hobbs’ administration has initiated the state’s first-ever comprehensive program to protect workers from excessive heat. Hobbs will not face reelection until 2026. Last year, another labor-backed ally who was first elected statewide in 2022, Attorney General Kris Mayes, received the Arizona AFL-CIO’s Elected Leader of the Year Award. Upon receiving the award, Mayes announced the creation of a new worker protection unit inside the Arizona Attorney General’s office which will focus on issues including misclassification, wage theft, employer tax and payroll fraud, workplace safety, workers’ rights, and more. Arizona Voters Face Consequential Election in 2024 In addition to Arizona’s contentious state and federal elections, we should also pay attention to an effort that was announced in October to give Arizonans the opportunity to decide whether to remove “Right to Work” language from the state constitution. In order to put the decision on voters’ ballots in November, the coalition of lawmakers and worker advocates leading the campaign would need to gather nearly 400,000 signatures. Needless to say, Arizona will be a battleground on all fronts in 2024, and Steelworkers are prepared to work tirelessly to ensure the best possible outcome on Election Day. For more stories like this, click HERE to subscribe to our monthly Election Connection newsletter! — Feb 9
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Mapping Labor’s Top Electoral Priorities in 2024- Election Connection In December’s Election Connection newsletter, we touched upon the critically important 2024 election cycle, and how our efforts to elect union-friendly lawmakers at all levels of government will be vital to lifting all working families for years to come. Union voters will be on the front lines, as we set out to defend those who have stood with us to secure a long list of legislative victories such as protecting worker pensions, investing in American manufacturing, strengthening workers’ rights, and helping forge a path for more workers to win the protection of a union contract. In addition to the presidential election, voters will decide who controls Congress with all 435 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives up for election along with 34 in the U.S. Senate. Voters will also weigh in on who they believe is best suited to control 86 legislative chambers spread across 44 states, 11 of which will be choosing their next governor. With so many important elections happening this year, we are thinking strategically about where we focus our work in an effort to ensure the biggest impact on behalf of our members and families. With consideration for a variety of factors including union membership density, past election outcomes, state and federal legislative goals, and more, the USW plans on coordinating a robust electoral campaign in many states across the country, including the following: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. In the coming months, we will be dedicating a portion of our monthly newsletter to discuss what is at stake. For more stories like this, click HERE to subscribe to our monthly Election Connection newsletter! — Feb 8
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United Steelworkers Press Releases Feed
- Nurses Win Staffing Fight: Members Overwhelmingly Approve Contract to End Strike, Raise Standards at RWJ Hospital
- The Power of Our Union: On the Island of Puerto Rico, USW Members are Stepping up the Fight for Workers’ Rights
- Rapid Response Action Call: It’s Time to Act. Labor Unions in Georgia Are Under Attack
- All-Hands-On-Deck: Arizona Part 1- Election Connection
- Mapping Labor’s Top Electoral Priorities in 2024- Election Connection
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