Workers’ Rights Amendment on Illinois ballot next year. A labor-backed Workers’ Rights Constitutional Amendment passed the House in May on a bipartisan 80-30-3 vote. Having earlier passed the Senate 49-7, the amendment is set to go before voters in the November 2022 election, when it will need 60% of those voting on the amendment or a simple majority of all voters to change the Illinois Constitution.
UAW unionizing two battery plants – and GM agrees. The United Auto Workers will organize 2,300 workers who’ll eventually work at General Motors’ new electric-vehicle battery plants being built in Lordstown, Ohio, and Spring Hill, Tenn. – and GM is welcoming the union.
“As we deliver on our plans to create an all-electric future, GM will build on a long history of supporting unions to promote safety, quality, training and well-paying jobs for American workers,” the company said in a statement.
Both plants will be run by electric-vehicle battery maker, Ultium Cells, a joint venture of the GM and Asian-based LG Energy Solutions.
Workers’ rights part of Poor People’s Campaign ‘Third Reconstruction’ plan. The New Poor People’s Campaign and congressional progressives have unveiled a “Third Reconstruction” measure to make ending poverty a top U.S. goal, and a vital part of that is to guarantee and strengthen the right to join unions. Key anti-poverty measures, the group said, are “raising the minimum wage to a living wage and guaranteeing the right to form and join unions for all workers.” Also, like the original Reconstruction – which began after the defeat of the South in the Civil War and lasting through 1877 – the Third Reconstruction demands the government “expand and protect voting rights and save this democracy,” said NPPC policy director Shailly Gupta Barnes.
Illinois bans permanent replacements in public-sector strikes. Illinois lawmakers on May 30 approved a change to the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Act (IELRA) that prohibits the use of permanent replacements for striking workers and to allow the use of electronic communication to show interest in forming a union. Approved by both Houses, it affects public employers and educational employers.
West-central Illinois lawmakers who voted for the bill were Reps. Lance Yednock and Jehan Gordon-Booth, and Sens. Dave Koehler and Christopher Belt, all Democrats. All area Republicans voted against it: Reps. Dan Brady, Thomas Bennett, Tim Butler, Norrine Hammond, Mark Luft, Keith Sommer, Ryan Spain and Dan Swanson, and Sens. Sue Rezin, Win Stoller, Jil Tracy and Sally Turner.
Victory for Illinois auto technicians. Local 701 of the International Association of Machinists (IAM) achieved a landmark victory at the end of the 2021 Illinois legislative session with the passage of Illinois H.B. 3940. State Rep. Lawrence Walsh, D-Joliet, an IAM member, sponsored the bill calling for fair payment for warranty repairs done by Illinois’ auto technicians. Auto technicians represented by Local 701, headquartered in Burr Ridge, are guaranteed to get the retail rate, reported the AFL-CIO, which added that the Local pledged to organize non-union technicians throughout Illinois so they can obtain the same retail rate as IAM Local 701 members.
SEIU Illinois Healthcare, 169 other groups, ask UN to probe killings of unarmed Blacks. An Illinois labor union is one of 170 groups appealing to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights to investigate the hundreds of cases of unarmed Blacks killed by cops in the last 20 years.
In a joint letter written by the American Civil Liberties Union, SEIU Illinois Healthcare, other organizations, and families of shooting victims all ask the UN to undertake the probe and publish the results.
“Police in the United States kill nearly 1,000 people every year,” the letter said. “The epidemic of police violence has been directly and disproportionately targeted at people of color.”
News Guild: we’ll keep fighting hedge fund Alden. Campaigning to keep local journalism alive nationally, News Guild leadership pledged to keep fighting vulture hedge fund Alden Global Capital’s takeover of the Chicago-based Tribune Company.
“Our fight is a righteous one,” said Guild President Jon Schleuss. “We are fighting for our democracy. Our union and our community coalitions will continue to hold Alden Global Capital accountable for the decisions they make going forward. And we will do whatever it takes to save local news.” Alden has gained a reputation in the last decade as the “destroyer of newspapers,” maximizing profits by swallowing up local newspapers, arbitrarily firing most staffers, selling real estate, cutting coverage to the bone, and then closing the papers.
News briefs courtesy of The Labor Paper.