Latino groups, AFL-CIO hail Supreme Court’s pro-DACA decision. The U.S. Supreme Court in June legalized the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program and rejected GOP President Donald Trump’s long campaign to end DACA and deport its 700,000 recipients – “Dreamers.”
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said the ruling was “a victory for all working people.”
However, the Dreamers didn’t completely win, though the key vote was 5-4 for them.
“Trump’s 2017 decision to end DACA was cruel and wrong, and that injustice now has been undone – but only temporarily,” Trumka said. “We know this is but one step in our long fight to win permanent rights and status for all those whose labor helps our country to prosper.”
Mine Workers, Steelworkers sue Trump agency for anti-coronavirus safety standard. Unions representing workers laboring in U.S. mines in June went to federal court to try to force mine owners to – literally – clean up their act, especially during the pandemic.
Their lawsuit against the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) demands the agency issue an emergency standard for owners to immediately draft and implement protection plans for the miners.
“We have been asking MSHA to step up and do its job to protect America’s miners from the beginning of this pandemic,” Mine Workers President Cecil Roberts said. “But so far, the agency has refused. You would think those who are charged with keeping miners safe would want to actually do so.”
Postal workers deliver 2 million names on “save USPS” petitions. A caravan of cars driven by Postal Workers last month drove from the Washington Navy Yard to the U.S. Senate to deliver petitions with two million names on them demanding lawmakers enact the HEROES Act, which the House passed and includes $25 billion to save the U.S. Postal Service from financial collapse.
The unionists and allies brought the petitions in huge white Express Mail cartons to the foot of Capitol Hill as part of the “Save The Post Office Day Of Action” to pressure Senators to defy Majority Leader Mitch McConnell,R-Ky., and approve the $3 trillion economic aid measure.
Labor appealed for support from Americans at the hashtag #SaveThePostOffice, at https://apwu.org/message, or by calling senators toll free at 844-402-1001.
CWA honor George Floyd with 8-minute-46-second work stoppage. For eight minutes and 46 seconds at noon local time on June 11, Communications Workers from coast to coast – telecom workers, news staffers, public workers and more – didn’t work. Instead, they honored George Floyd, killed May 25 by Minneapolis police.
“The only pathway to a just society for all is deep, structural change,” the union said. “Justice for Black people is inextricably linked to justice for all working people. We will never build enough power as working people if an entire community is living under the threat of death and subject to discrimination based on the color of their skin. We will never build enough power if an entire community has its neck under an oppressor’s knee.”
News briefs courtesy of The Labor Paper