AFL-CIO Blog

  • Pride Month Profiles: Sandie Carner-Shafran
    Pride Month Profiles: Sandie Carner-Shafran For Pride Month, the AFL-CIO is spotlighting various LGBTQ+ Americans who have worked and continue to work at the intersection of civil and labor rights. Today's Pride Month profile is Sandie Carner-Shafran of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT). Sandie Carner-Shafran is a member of the New York State United Teachers' (NYSUT) board of directors and NYSUT's LGBTQ+ Committee. She is a trainer for a NYSUT Education and Learning Trust workshop on the harassment of LGBTQ+ people. The program allowed Carner-Shafran to provide free books for the educators to take back to their classrooms. When she served as president of the Saratoga Labor Council, they offered implicit bias training to council members and are updating the pronouns in the organization's constitution and by-laws. Kenneth Quinnell Mon, 06/27/2022 - 10:23 Tags: Pride — Jun 27
  • Service + Solidarity Spotlight: IBEW Members Build One of the World’s Largest Solar-Storage Projects
    Service + Solidarity Spotlight: IBEW Members Build One of the World’s Largest Solar-Storage Projects Working people across the United States have stepped up to help out our friends, neighbors and communities during these trying times. In our regular Service + Solidarity Spotlight series, we'll showcase one of these stories every day. Here’s today’s story. The world’s largest expected combined solar and energy storage project is under construction by members of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 428 in Southern California. There are 425 IBEW members on the job, installing more than 110,000 lithium-ion battery modules, which is enough to displace more than 307,000 tons of carbon dioxide annually. “Those batteries are a different beast,” Local 428 Business Manager Brian Holt said. “They are big, heavy and require extensive knowledge and safety procedures.” When finished, the power station will produce enough energy to power 260,000 homes. Click here to read more about how this clean energy project is producing good union jobs. Kenneth Quinnell Mon, 06/27/2022 - 09:30 — Jun 27
  • Pride Month Profiles: Anthony McKeever
    Pride Month Profiles: Anthony McKeever For Pride Month, the AFL-CIO is spotlighting various LGBTQ+ Americans who have worked and continue to work at the intersection of civil and labor rights. Today's Pride Month profile is Anthony McKeever of UNITE HERE. Anthony McKeever has been a union shop steward for more than 15 years and has helped to negotiate every contract at his workplace during that time. He believes that when workers unite as a team, it makes them stronger and helps them win better pay and benefits. McKeever's union pride enables him to open up and be himself without fear of harassment or bullying. Kenneth Quinnell Fri, 06/24/2022 - 10:10 Tags: Pride — Jun 24
  • Pride Month Profiles: Salvador Perez
    Pride Month Profiles: Salvador Perez For Pride Month, the AFL-CIO is spotlighting various LGBTQ+ Americans who have worked and continue to work at the intersection of civil and labor rights. Today's Pride Month profile is Salvador Perez of the Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE). Salvador Perez is an accomplished costume designer working in the entertainment industry who earned an Emmy nomination for his work on "The Mindy Project." He currently serves as Costume Designers Guild/Theatrical Stage Employees Local 892’s president, where he continues his long-standing advocacy for costume design and unionism. Kenneth Quinnell Thu, 06/23/2022 - 10:10 Tags: Pride — Jun 23
  • President of Alliance for Retired Americans Tells Senate Committee Social Security Must Be Expanded
    President of Alliance for Retired Americans Tells Senate Committee Social Security Must Be Expanded Robert Roach Jr., president of the Alliance for Retired Americans, testified on June 9 at a Senate Budget Committee hearing focused on expanding Social Security for all beneficiaries. Entitled “Saving Social Security: Expanding Benefits and Demanding the Wealthy Pay Their Fair Share or Cutting Benefits and Increasing Retirement Anxiety,” the hearing laid out the case for increasing benefits as millions of seniors struggle to make ends meet. Watch the video of the hearing. The testimony came on the same day that Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, chair of the Senate Budget Committee, and other Democratic legislators put forward new Social Security legislation that would increase benefits by $200 per month and extend the system’s solvency past the year 2096 by ensuring that the wealthiest Americans pay their fair share of Social Security taxes. Sanders’ legislation, the Social Security Expansion Act, which the Alliance strongly supports and has formally endorsed, addresses the challenges seniors face by:
    • Expanding Social Security benefits across the board for current and new beneficiaries by $200 per month, or $2,400 per year.    
    • Increasing cost-of-living adjustments by adopting the consumer price index for the elderly.          
    • Updating the special minimum benefit for Social Security recipients by making it easier to qualify, which will help low-income workers stay out of poverty.   
    “We need improvements because older Americans today are hurting,” said Roach at the hearing. “And I have seen examples for myself firsthand. I have observed on many occasions seniors at the supermarket checkout who had to put food back because the grocery bill was more than they had. Seniors are having to make decisions between food and medicine on a daily basis.” In addition, the Alliance has endorsed Rep. John Larson’s (Conn.) legislation in the House of Representatives: Social Security 2100: A Sacred Trust (H.R. 5723). It also strengthens Social Security and repeals the Windfall Elimination Provision and Government Pension Offset, both of which unfairly claw back the Social Security benefits of workers or their spouses or survivors if they worked for a period of time in jobs not covered by Social Security. Kenneth Quinnell Wed, 06/22/2022 - 13:53     — Jun 22