Over 100 Uber and Lyft drivers formed a caravan on August 25, embarking on a three day trip to Sacramento in support of AB5, a bill that would redefine independent contractor status in California. Members of two unions, the Mobile Workers Alliance and Gig Workers Rising, joined the drivers; the group also stopping to rally at Uber headquarters in San Francisco and returning home on August 28.
For Black unionists, labor reforms, like those in education, law enforcement and politics, are more rhetoric than reality.
The members of SEIU (Service Employees International Union) Local 2015, the nation’s largest long-term care union representing over 385,000 home care and nursing home workers throughout California, are celebrating the new year with the start of April Verrett as their President.
The members of SEIU (Service Employees International Union) Local 2015, the nation’s largest long term care union representing over 385,000 home care and nursing home workers throughout California, are celebrating the new year with the start of April Verrett as their President.
In her first news conference as a Senate-confirmed Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), Kathleen Kraninger’s remarks sounded a lot like Mick Mulvaney, her former boss at the Office of Budget and Management (OMB).
This week Laphonza Butler, president of Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 2015 and a Vice President of SEIU International, announced she will be leaving the organization at year’s end.
SACRAMENTO, CALIF – .Gov. Jerry Brown appointed the head of California’s largest union and three others Monday to the University of California Board of Regents, which sets tuition and other policy for the university system. Three of Brown’s appointees are Democrats, while the fourth isn’t registered with a party. The position isn’t paid and the state Senate must approve the appointments. One of Brown’s appointees is Laphonza Butler, the president of SEIU Local 2015, which represents 378,000 caregivers and nursing home workers. It is California’s largest union. Several unions representing university employees, although not the SEIU Local 2015, have organized
Today, August 7th, is Black Women’s Equal Pay Day. This means that black women had to work all of 2017 and this far into 2018 to make as much as white men made in 2017 alone. Put another way, black women as a whole earn 38% less than white men. To read full story click here.
Workers at the Watts Health Center have authorized a strike if further negotiations with management fall through.
Organized labor is practically a shell of what it once was and regaining that strength is now a matter of urgent necessity. But Black unionists’ concerns are not a significant part of organized labors’ deliberations on regaining influence or real reform. For Black unionists, labor reform, in the public or private sectors, is mostly rhetoric not reality.
If workers ratify the deal, it would bring to a close contentious negotiations that led to a strike threat and allegations of bad-faith bargaining.
Dr. Shirley Thornton, a retired educator and colonel in the United States Army Reserves, remembers reaching a “glass ceiling” when she tried to advance to a senior level position at the California Department of Education (CDE). “The problems I faced were centered around my being in charge and people accepting that,” said Thornton who lives in the Los Angeles area. She says when the position for Deputy Superintendent, Specialized Programs came open, officials at the CDE told her she would have to apply for it. At the same time, a white colleague, also a woman, was appointed to an equivalent
Attorney General Kamala Harris, candidate for U.S. Senate in California, has received the endorsement of the Congressional Black Caucus Political Action Committee (CBCPAC). CBCPAC works to increase the number of African Americans in the U.S. Congress, support non-black candidates that champion the interests of African Americans, and promote African American participation in the political process-with an emphasis on young voters. The endorsement was announced at a CBCPAC retreat in Southern California. “I am honored to have the support of the Congressional Black Caucus’ Political Action Committee,” said Harris. “I look forward to working closely with its members in Washington as