Sara Innamorato, a state representative who began her political career in 2018 by unseating an establishment Democrat, won the Democratic primary for county executive of Allegheny County yesterday. Allegheny County, the county in southwestern Pennsylvania which includes Pittsburgh, has a population of over 1.2 million, making it one of the largest counties in the U.S.
Two candidates endorsed by UE’s Western Region won important elections yesterday. Judge Janet Protasiewicz was elected to the Wisconsin Supreme Court by a 55-45 margin, and Brandon Johnson, a former rank-and-file member and organizer with the Chicago Teachers’ Union, was elected mayor of Chicago.
Brandon Johnson, a former rank-and-file Chicago teacher and Chicago Teachers Union organizer, has been endorsed in his bid for mayor of Chicago by UE’s Western Region. UE Locals 1118 and 1177, both of which represent members in Chicago, have also endorsed Johnson.
Local 1118 President Delores Phillips, said that her local endorsed Johnson “because of his ability to make things happen … he's been commissioner and he knows what the people of Chicago need.” Phillips also serves on the executive board of the Western Region.
UE Local 667, which represents workers at the East End Food Co-op, voted at their membership meeting last night to endorse Sara Innamorato for Allegheny County Executive. Innamorato has also been endorsed by UE Local 610, representing workers at Wabtec facilities in Wilmerding and Greensburg.
On Tuesday, February 28, U.S. Representatives Bobby Scott (D-VA) and Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) announced the re-introduction of the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act.
The bill would rein in employer lawbreaking when workers are organizing a union and negotiating a first contract, with punitive fines for labor law violations. It would streamline union elections, make it harder for an employer to interfere in the election process, and ban “captive audience meetings,” in which employers force workers to listen to anti-union propaganda on work time.
UE Local 610, which represents workers at Wabtec’s production facilities in Wilmerding and Greensburg, has endorsed Sara Innamorato's campaign for County Executive of Allegheny County.
“Sara has been an ally of working people in this area for years now,” said Local 610 President Antwon Gibson. “She has earned the endorsement of UE Local 610 for County Executive of Allegheny County. We are proud to support Sara's campaign.”
Railroads are a crucial part of our nation’s infrastructure. Nearly every sector of our economy depends on goods shipped by the railroads ... [and] the greater fuel efficiency of using rail to move both people and freight means that moving more of our transportation onto the railroads will be necessary to address the existential threat of climate change.
Yet the private owners of our nation’s Class 1 railroads have shown themselves utterly incapable of facing the challenge of the climate crisis, dealing fairly with their own workers, or even meeting the most basic needs of their customers. Therefore, we demand that Congress immediately begin a process of bringing our nation’s railroads under public ownership.
On January 17, long-time UE ally Senator Bernie Sanders, who is now the chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, delivered a major speech in the Senate, which was also broadcast on the Senator’s social media channels.
On January 10, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Glacier Northwest v. International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Local Union 174, a case which will potentially cripple the ability of private-sector unions to strike by opening them up to punitive lawsuits. If the Court, which is currently dominated by a six-person anti-worker majority, decides in favor of the employer, it will open the possibility that any employer, faced with a strike, will be able to sue the union (and, potentially, individual strikers) for economic damages.
The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is the federal agency responsible for running union elections and enforcing labor laws. Since 2014, the funding for the NLRB has been kept at a level dollar amount of $274 million per year (i.e., it has not even been adjusted for inflation). In real terms, this means that there are fewer resources and fewer staff available to run union elections and investigate unfair labor practice claims — the board has been forced to cut its staff by 37 percent since 2017.