AFL-CIO Daily Briefs: Shuler; Video Game Workers; UMWA; IUOE; Union Yes Utah and Texas AFl-CIO

Message from President Liz Shuler

• We have all been operating in uncharted territory through this global pandemic. And that's led a lot of people to rethink their relationship to work and to re-evaluate what employers and employees owe to each other.
• In industries and workplaces across the country and around the world, working people are saying enough is enough. We are demanding more collective action, more organizing, more union power.
• We need to learn from each other, from each campaign, from workers who are rising up. We are developing new ways to organize, sharing our message of collection action and showing the value of unions in new ways and new places. As one movement, we will innovate, organize and win.

Video Game Workers Win Historic Union Election at Raven Software

The quality assurance team at Activision Blizzard subsidiary Raven Software overwhelmingly won their union vote on Monday. The group, known as the Game Workers Alliance, have joined the Communications Workers of America (CWA), and the election is a harbinger of growing worker power in a growing industry where workers need a strong voice on the job. These workers have made history by forming the first union at a leading video game company in the United States.

"The outcome of this election, the voice of the people coming together to vote yes for this union, is further validation that even a small group of folks in Madison, Wisconsin, standing together in solidarity can face up against a AAA studio giant like Activision, and come out the other side victorious," Becka Aigner, a quality assurance tester at Raven Software, told The Washington Post. "Now that the fight for recognition is through, we can focus our efforts on negotiations."

Mine Workers, Next-Gen Battery Maker Sparkz Ink Labor-Management Agreement

The Mine Workers (UMWA) announced today that the union has secured a labor-management agreement with Sparkz, the next-generation battery manufacturer re-engineering the battery supply chain, that would mark one of the largest climate-tech union workforce partnerships in the United States. Sparkz announced in March it will begin construction of a Gigafactory in West Virginia this year to commercialize their zero-cobalt battery, which will employ up to 3,000 workers, and it will partner with the union to recruit and train dislocated miners to be the first group of production workers to be hired.

"This agreement is a win-win for the laid-off coal miners who will work in this facility, their families and their communities," UMWA International President Cecil Roberts said. "This is a first step to putting some of those people back to work in good, well-paying, family-sustaining jobs."

Nurses and Techs in Newark Strike Against Management's Demands for Givebacks

Citing management's unwillingness to negotiate in good faith and its blatant disregard for the safety of nurses, technologists and patients, 350 members of the Jersey Nurses Economic Security Organization (JNESO) went on strike Monday at St. Michael's Medical Center in Newark, New Jersey. The union, which is affiliated with the Operating Engineers (IUOE), said management is demanding givebacks from nurses and technologists at the bargaining table that "defy 42 years of contract history with the hospital."

"They want to eliminate the float block language we bargained for years ago that keeps nurses in areas they are competent and trained to serve," JNESO President Elfrieda Johnson (not pictured) explained. "JNESO fought hard alongside members of the community to save St. Michael's from closing in 2014, we have a vested interest in seeing it succeed, but not at the expense of the nurses and techs who care for the patients and community every day."

New Poll Reveals Union Approval High in Utah

Across the country, the labor movement is gaining new popularity and support-even in "right to work" states. According to a new poll from Deseret News/Hinckley Institute of Politics, 54% of Utahns approve of labor unions, while only 35% disapprove. The 19% lead in approval comes at a time when more workers are organizing and our message of fairness at work is taking hold.

Jordy Lundin (not pictured), a barista who's helping to organize a Starbucks store in Cottonwood Heights, Utah, said he's gotten a lot of support from his customers. "They're pro-union because they come in every day and see us working super hard," he told the Deseret News. "Our regulars change their online order names for mobile order to things like 'Pro-union John' or 'Pro-union Susan' because they know that we actually care and we put in the extra work for them."

Texas Climate Jobs Project's Report Shows the Right Way to Build Fast, Reliable Fiber Broadband

The Texas labor movement is fighting to ensure that jobs in emerging industries are good union jobs. A new report from the Texas Climate Jobs Project, a project of Fair Shot Texas and Fair Shot Texas Action Fund in partnership with the Texas AFL-CIO, demonstrates that fiber broadband work is best performed by union members who are ready, safe and well-trained to get the job done right. The report, What Lies Beneath, also found that eight individual contractors associated with Google Fiber projects in Texas are named in 29 separate Occupational Safety and Health Administration enforcement records, and were fined at least $227,375.

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