Scholarship Opportunity! Since 1991, the Union Plus Scholarship Program has awarded more than $5.4 million to students of union families. Over 3,800 union families have benefited from our commitment to higher education.

https://www.unionplus.org/.../edu.../union-plus-scholarships

Application deadline: 12:00 PM (Noon, Eastern Standard Time), Wednesday January 31, 2024.

​Award amounts: $500 to $4,000. These one-time cash awards are for study beginning in the Fall of 2024. Students may re-apply each year.
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Award date: May 31, 2024. During the first week of June 2024 award recipients will be notified by postal mail, and all applicants will be sent email notification.

After a year of bargaining, Coalition of City Unions demands fair contractThe following is from the Coalition of City Unions:
SEATTLE (Sept. 20, 2023) — More than 1,000 city workers, community members, and political leaders rallied Tuesday on the steps of Seattle City Hall and then marched along 4th Ave. to Westlake Park to mark one year of difficult and contentious contract negotiations with the City of Seattle.
At the Rally for #RSPCT — organized by the Coalition of City Unions (CCU), a group of 16 unions representing nearly 6,000 city workers — attendees stood in solidarity to demand an equitable contract with provisions to ensure safe workplaces, and wages that keep up with the cost of living.
Relative to inflation, the cost of living adjustment (COLA) for City of Seattle employees has not kept pace, lagging 5.7 percent between 2015 and 2023 — a relative pay cut. Meanwhile, private sector wage growth in the city has nearly matched inflation. The median income for city workers in the CCU is currently $75,000, with half — often women and workers of color — earning far below that rate.

​“To keep up with the cost of living, inflation, and the lack of COLA, I have had to work a second job on the weekends along with my full-time job here at the City,” said Dominique Ingram, who works as an Administrative Specialist at Seattle Municipal Court. “So I’ve worked seven days a week since the pandemic, and the only days off that I’ve had are government holidays.”
City employees have also moved out of the city because they cannot afford to live in Seattle. According to membership data collected by one union in the Coalition, from the period of 2019 to 2023, 8.7 percent of members who work for the City of Seattle moved outside of the city limits, bringing the total percentage to just 42.9 percent who live in the city they serve.
“As an engineer, my salary and my co-workers’ salaries have fallen so far behind that we cannot fill vacancies because people can get better jobs in the private sector or in better paying municipalities,” said Rachael Brooks, an Engineer at Seattle City Light. “I also recently moved to Snohomish County to help my parents, and made the decision to stay because I just can’t afford to spend the majority of my salary on rent in the city I love.”
In August, union negotiators walked out of a contract bargaining session after City negotiators continually refused to budge from their offer of a one percent COLA, first proposed back in March 2023. In the following session, Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell made an unusual appearance and promised to do better, but the Unions and City still remain far apart. The contract expired on Dec. 31, 2022.
“Labor needs to be a priority for the City of Seattle,” said Monte Anderson, President of the Seattle Building Trades. “Union workers are the foundation of this City, and it’s time the City recognizes this fact and compensates accordingly.”

The historical rally is part of the CCU’s campaign for #RSPCT: Racial Equity, Safety, Pay/Affordability, Climate Justice, and Time/Work-Life Balance. Lining the steps and street outside Seattle City Hall, attendees chanted and cheered for a fair contract now, and listened to community and political leaders lend their support to the cause.
“We Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders in the labor movement stand with City of Seattle workers who are standing up to ensure that their families can survive and thrive,” said Ligaya Domingo, President of the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance (APALA). “We stand in solidarity to ensure that City of Seattle workers get a contract that works for all workers, whether we are Black, Brown, Asian, or white and no matter what job workers do. All jobs are critical and we must ensure that we are able to retain all workers in their jobs.”

Teresa Mosqueda, Seattle City Councilmember and candidate for King County Council, also spoke at the rally: “I am proud to stand with city workers in their fight for a fair contract. They are not only fighting for wages and improved working conditions, they’re fighting to ensure the city continues to address our housing crisis, our affordability crisis, our climate crisis. Inflation remains at record highs and middle class families are struggling to make ends meet. They’re fighting to ensure that Seattle works for working people.”
Other speakers at the rally included Cherika Carter, Secretary-Treasurer of the Washington State Labor Council, AFL-CIO, Katie Garrow, Executive Secretary of MLK Labor, and several union executive directors, city workers, and members of the negotiating team.
Short URL: https://www.thestand.org/?p=119878

Auto workers strike for a fair share of record profitsDETROIT, Michigan (Sept. 15, 2023) -- The Stand Up Strike is on.

UAW auto workers walked out on strike in the early hours of September 15 as their contract expired. Workers are standing up strike lines at three locations, deploying a creative strike strategy to keep the companies guessing and build leverage at the bargaining table.

The following is from the United Auto Workers, released at midnight.

UAW family and allies --
A few minutes ago, thousands of UAW members at Ford, GM, and Stellantis walked out, marking the beginning of the Stand Up Strike.

UAW members at GM Wentzville Assembly, Local 2250 in Region 4 are ON STRIKE.
UAW members at Stellantis Toledo Assembly Complex, Local 12 in Region 2B are ON STRIKE.
UAW members at Ford Michigan Assembly Plant – Final Assembly and Paint, Local 900 in Region 1A are ON STRIKE.
This fight is our generation’s defining moment. Not just at the Big Three, but across the entire working class.
We will stand up for ourselves.
We will stand up for our families.
We will stand up for our communities.
Follow @UAW on Twitter for updates.

National Hispanic Heritage Month starts next week and the AFL-CIO is accepting submissions for their series of profiles of union members. 

Please submit your members as soon as possible. AFL-CIO Communications will prioritize by submission date for the first profile submitted. Extra submissions may or may not be used, time and space permitting.
SUBMIT YOUR MEMBER HERE

Please submit a headshot of the member you nominate and provide them with 2-3 sentences about their accomplishments and why they should be featured this month.
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If you have any questions, please send them to Kenneth Quinnell at kquinnell@aflcio.org.

From The Stand
As Project HELP outreach has increased, so have claim inquiriesSEATTLE — If you don’t know help is available, you can’t ask for it. That’s been the thinking at the Washington State Labor Council’s Project HELP, which has stepped up outreach promoting its services. This is the program that educates injured workers on how to navigate the state’s workers’ compensation system and offers workshops explaining this safety net for injured workers and their families. Project HELP Director Jessica Gallardo and Senior Claims Specialist Kathy Petruzzelli and Bilingual Claims Specialist Emmanuel Carrillo are doing more workshops, more presentations, more labor-management events, and generally seizing more opportunities to spread the word about the program. During its 2022-2023 contract period, Project HELP participated in more than 200 such events, a 43 percent increase from the previous year. As outreach has increased, so have the inquiries from people seeking assistance. Read more.

EDITOR'S NOTE -- If you or a loved one have been injured on the job or developed a medical condition from the performance of job duties, you need to be proactive about ensuring your “sure and certain relief” in the workers’ compensation system. Contact Project HELP at 1-800-255-9752 or click here.

​As you may be aware, Eastern Gateway Community College (EGCC) has been in ongoing negotiations for the past year with the U.S. Department of Education about the structure of the Free College Benefit they offered to union members and has fought hard on behalf of all students to continue these benefits. Their ability to gain a preliminary injunction against the Department of Education gained a full year of continued free education for students and members enrolled in the Free College Program.
Unfortunately, given the negotiations to date with the Department of Education, EGCC is no longer able to offer the Free College Benefit for new students beginning in the Fall semester 2023.
As a result of the above situation, we have been working to create an alternative to EGCC’s now discontinued “Free College” member benefit and I am happy to announce that we will be launching the new UFCW’s Discount Union College Benefit ahead of the upcoming school year.
UFCW has ensured that the new program will be sustainable and fully compliant with the Department of Education's guidelines. As a result, we will be able to offer significantly discounted tuition rates to UFCW members and their families. Prospective students will have the opportunity to work directly with school administrators to apply for federal financial assistance, which could cover their remaining tuition costs.
Furthermore, we have broadened the selection of participating colleges and degree programs to offer a wider range of options, spanning from certificates and associate to bachelor's degrees. We will also be introducing master's degrees as a new addition to the program, providing even more opportunities for our participants.
We are confident that the new program will make a meaningful difference in the lives of our members and their families.
In the coming weeks, we will be providing you with additional details and materials about the new Union College Benefit program to share with your members.
Thank you for your ongoing support and dedication to our union family.

Hilary Franz is Bad for Labor Commissioner of Public Lands(CPL) Hilary Franz, runs the Department of Natural Resources(DNR). She is speaking at the Washington State Labor Council Convention (WSLC) on July 19th. She is speaking as 'labor friendly’. Nothing could be further from the truth. 
Under Hilary Franz’s Leadership - What Happened? 

• Safety Issues Ignored 
• Whistleblowers Retaliated Against 
• Wildfire Safety Consultant position unfilled for the last two years 
• Understaffed- dangerously undermining our ability to fight fire 

Your union, WPEA has spent over 100 hours trying to discuss fire specific concerns with the agency in the last year, only to have the agency cancel all future meetings on the topic. 
Your fellow union members need you! Come out and join us to stand in solidarity with the DNR employees at the WSLC on July 19th held in Seatac, Washington. Participants are requested to attend a brief zoom call Friday, July 14th at 5pm to be brought up to speed on what to expect. 

• WPEA will be reimbursing travel expenses for participants. 
• Parking will be paid upfront by participants, but please submit receipt for reimbursement. 
• This must be on personal time, not paid work time. 
• Tee-shirts & signs to carry will be provided 

  
Thank You for considering action to show solidarity! Interested, and want more information? please complete the survey below no later than Friday, July 14th at 6pm. 
Questions? Ask Julia: julia@wpea.org 
WSLC Solidarity Interest Survey 
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