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Mapping Labor’s Top Electoral Priorities in 2024- Election Connection In December’s Election Connection newsletter, we touched upon the critically important 2024 election cycle, and how our efforts to elect union-friendly lawmakers at all levels of government will be vital to lifting all working families for years to come. Union voters will be on the front lines, as we set out to defend those who have stood with us to secure a long list of legislative victories such as protecting worker pensions, investing in American manufacturing, strengthening workers’ rights, and helping forge a path for more workers to win the protection of a union contract. In addition to the presidential election, voters will decide who controls Congress with all 435 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives up for election along with 34 in the U.S. Senate. Voters will also weigh in on who they believe is best suited to control 86 legislative chambers spread across 44 states, 11 of which will be choosing their next governor. With so many important elections happening this year, we are thinking strategically about where we focus our work in an effort to ensure the biggest impact on behalf of our members and families. With consideration for a variety of factors including union membership density, past election outcomes, state and federal legislative goals, and more, the USW plans on coordinating a robust electoral campaign in many states across the country, including the following: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. In the coming months, we will be dedicating a portion of our monthly newsletter to discuss what is at stake. For more stories like this, click HERE to subscribe to our monthly Election Connection newsletter! — Feb 8
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February Update from SOAR Director Julie Stein 2024 Election Presents Important Decision for SOAR Members, All Retirees Last year, unions, including the USW, made significant progress toward electing pro-worker, pro-retiree allies in key gubernatorial, legislative and judicial offices nationwide. While we can’t possibly list every victory from the last year, I feel it is necessary to highlight a few of the biggest:
- Union-backed candidates were victorious in four special elections in Pennsylvania, which helped secure a new pro-union, pro-retiree majority in the state’s House of Representatives.
- Michigan’s newly-elected, pro-union governor and legislature – the state’s first in nearly 40 years – acted to restore workers’ collective bargaining rights by repealing the state’s so-called right-to-work law and putting an end to the unfair pension tax.
- Wisconsin voters turned out in droves to secure a 4-3 pro-union state Supreme Court majority.
- Minnesota’s pro-worker, pro-retiree legislature and governor, Tim Walz, passed a state budget (HF3028/SF3035) that was hailed as the “most significant worker protection bill in state history.”
- In Ohio, voters defeated Issue 1, which would have raised the threshold for voters to amend the constitution to a supermajority of 60 percent and enacted stricter requirements for getting amendments on the ballot.
- Labor-backed candidates maintained control of Virginia’s State Senate while reclaiming a pro-worker majority in the general assembly for the first time since 2021.
- Our close friend, Governor Andy Beshear of Kentucky, won reelection; and,
- In Pennsylvania and Indiana, we proudly backed close allies who were victorious in their campaigns for local and state offices.
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February Update from SOAR President Bill Pienta It’s a New Year, and Something To Think About I hope everyone enjoyed a healthy and happy holiday season and is well-rested and ready to begin another year of activism and involvement in your community and your union through SOAR. During the extremely cold weather days we have been experiencing here recently in Western New York, I have spent a lot more time indoors thinking, and I would like to share some of those thoughts with you.
- A recent report revealed how successful members of Congress were, for those of them who were willing to report it, regarding their success or failure in picking winning stocks. The report also reflected how fortunate they were in the timing of selling stocks before the stock took a significant drop. The report seems to reflect that many members of Congress were much more active in buying or selling stock successfully than they were concerned about passing legislation that would help working people.
- Recently, an investment firm sold 264 houses in the Las Vegas area to another company in one day. This sale was part of a larger sale of 1,900 single-family homes in the Sun Belt area. Investment groups have been buying up homes nationwide for a few years now. A recent study showed this could lead to higher rental prices and fewer available homes.
- Exxon Mobile has reported a decline in revenue for the last half of 2023 compared to the same period in 2022. Public records indicate this is true. For those last six months of 2023, Exxon only made around $98,000,000 per day! I wonder why gas prices have not come down.
- General Motors took a strike from the UAW, claiming the demands were too much. Within days of reaching an agreement with the UAW, GM reported to its shareholders that the company would begin to buy back $10,000,000,000, a BILLION worth of stock and would increase its stock dividend by 33%.
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3M Council Plots Strategy at Quarterly Meeting as Company Announces Freezes to Nonunion Pensions Members of the USW 3M Council began their Jan. 25 meeting mapping out a strategy for combating the chemical company’s attempts to change the pension structure they believe may be coming given a recent announcement regarding nonunion workers. 3M announced in early January that it will freeze U.S. pension plans for nonunion employees, effective Dec. 31, 2028. USW International Secretary-Treasurer John Shinn, who oversees bargaining in the chemical sector, said that the situation starkly illustrates the benefits of forming a union and collectively bargaining a contract, namely that that management cannot unilaterally alter or eliminate benefits for USW members. “We expect that 3M will likely try making changes to our members’ pensions in future negotiations, and we are going to have to be organized and have a well-planned campaign,” said Shinn. Facing Down Other Changes The group also addressed strategy around other proposed changes. Members at multiple 3M locations are dealing with the company’s attempts to alter contractual overtime premium payments, with USW now hiring attorneys to handle arbitration at Cottage Grove. The changes primarily impact anyone who works a rotating shift or 12-hour shifts. “We’re going to tell the company they can’t just jam changes down our throat,” said Shinn. “They have to work with us.” Meanwhile, at the Tonawanda facility in New York, contract negotiations were nearing completion when 3M handed over a 150-page benefits book that included massive changes. At the time of the council meeting, the bargaining committee was hard at work reviewing the book and submitting their comments. The Tonawanda team is also hoping to make headway on a health and safety proposal as part of the union’s sector-wide plan to improve conditions at all USW-represented chemical facilities. The 3M Council plans to meet in-person this April. Stay tuned for announcements regarding a date and location. — Feb 5
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Rapid Response Action Call: New Hampshire Steelworkers- We Showed Up in Force in January, We Need You Again Click here to download this Action Call as a PDF New Hampshire Steelworkers:We Showed Up in Force in January, We Need You Again Back in January, we asked you to show up at the statehouse and voice your opposition to House Bill 1377-FN, this year’s House version of so-called Right-to-Work (RTW), and you delivered! Now, we need your help again. Next Wednesday, the House Labor Committee will be holding another public hearing, and they need to hear from us. So-called RTW is deliberately designed to make it harder for unions to help workers negotiate with their employers for better pay and working conditions. It deprives unions of the resources they need to organize and provide basic services to the workers they represent. Backers of these laws claim they protect employees’ freedoms, but we know better. So-called RTW laws are nothing more than an attempt by corporate special interest groups to weaken unions or even go as far to abolish unions altogether—they couldn’t care less about the freedom of New Hampshire’s workers. Here are two ways you can join the fight!
- Come to Concord February 7th! Time: 9:30 AM Location: Legislative Office Building, Room 307 New Hampshire State Capitol 107 N Main St, Concord, NH 03301
- Tell the House Labor Committee that so-called Right to Work is WRONG for New Hampshire.
- After clicking the link, fill in the content boxes with your first and last name, as well as your town, state, and email address.
- Select the date of the hearing on the calendar (2/7), by clicking on the relevant date.
- In the drop box below "Select the Committee," select House Labor, Industrial and Rehabilitative Services
- In the drop box below "Choose the Bill," select 9:30 AM - HB 1377
- Select the appropriate option for the "I am" drop box (likely "Member of the Public")
- Fill in the content box under "I'm Representing" with the business, organization, or group you are representing. If you are representing yourself only, write "myself."
- Under the “Indicate Your Position on this Bill,” check the circle that says "I Oppose this Bill"
- If you wish to speak during the hearing to present your testimony, you will need to attend in person at the State House, but you may upload your testimony if you cannot attend.
- If you wish to submit testimony on the bill, click the “Choose File” button to upload the testimony file from your computer.
- Once you have reviewed that the information that you have entered is accurate, click the “Submit” button at the bottom of the webpage.
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United Steelworkers Press Releases Feed
- Mapping Labor’s Top Electoral Priorities in 2024- Election Connection
- February Update from SOAR Director Julie Stein
- February Update from SOAR President Bill Pienta
- 3M Council Plots Strategy at Quarterly Meeting as Company Announces Freezes to Nonunion Pensions
- Rapid Response Action Call: New Hampshire Steelworkers- We Showed Up in Force in January, We Need You Again
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