Folks,
Greetings from the Burgh, where I just received some exciting news from a funder. We will have more next week, but Payday is making big strides.
$823 Raised to “Summer of Strikes” – Keep Crowdfunding Momentum Going
Major funders are interested in giving us money partly because of our readers’ sustained support over the past seven years. Last year, we raised $92,000 from our readers: enough to pay a part-time editor, prohibitive travel costs, and my salary as a senior labor reporter.
This week, we raised $823 to cover the “:Summer of Strikes,” as 500,000 workers in Hollywood, UPS, and elsewhere will likely be on strike in 10 days.
Donate to help us cover the “Summer of Strikes.” if you can, sign up as one of our 751 recurring donors today.
Hotel Workers Kick Off 3rd Strike Wave as the Hollywood Strikes Roll On.
As 171,000 Film & TV Industry Workers continue to strike, hotel workers in LA are entering their third wave of strikes. The strikes, which have been getting heavy support from top movie stars and striking Hollywood workers, have involved tens of thousands of workers, and there is no end in sight.
“Our struggle for a living wage is the same for all working people in Los Angeles, from teachers and adjunct professors to hotel workers to actors and writers,” wrote the union in a letter this week. “We believe that unless the hotel industry shares its historic profits, we may soon have no option but to call a boycott of the city of Los Angeles.”
For more, check out the LA Times.
Biden Meets Privately with UAW leader ahead of potential strike at the “Big Three:
UAW spokesperson Jonah Furman told POLITICO that Fain asked for Biden’sBiden’s support in contract talks with GM, Ford, and Stellantis. Furman said Fain asked Biden to use his “bully pulpit” and pushed him to attach stronger labor provisions to federal grants and loans funded by the Inflation Reduction Act.
UAW’sUAW’s contract with the car companies ends Sept. 14.
A White House official said that UAW asked to set up a meeting with Biden’sBiden’s senior staff so that they could present their position on the labor negotiations with the automakers. When Biden heard about the meeting, the official said, he asked if he could speak with Fain privately. The two had a short discussion.
The meeting with top aides and UAW included Gene Sperling, who Biden has tapped as a point person on talks between UAW and the Big Three.
Sara Innamorato Resigns – Lindsay Powell Considered Frontrunner to Replace Her
In May, socialist State Representative Sara Innamorato won the Democratic to be the County Executive of Allegheny County (Pittsburgh area). With the county being heavily Democratic, it’s widely expected that she will win the general election in the fall.
This week, Innamorato resigned so that a new representative could be in Harrisburg full-time, where the Democratic party only has a one-seat majority in the State.
By resigning before the fall general election for County Executive, Sara Innamorato is allowing a special election to be scheduled for Sept. 18. there are no primaries for special elections in Pennsylvania. Special party nomination conventions elect special election candidates. The delegates are the elected party committee members of the district.
In multiple interviews with party leaders around town, Payday Report has learned that Lindsay Powell is the early frontrunner to secure the delegate conv
The 32-year-old Powell, a Black graduate of Carnegie Mellon University, served as assistant chief of staff to former Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto and now works as Director of Workplace Strategies at Innovate PGH. She is also a member of the Urban Redevelopment Authority, which gives out $16 million in grants annually.
Powell is the granddaughter of a union bus driver and has been quite supportive of organized labor.
“For most of his life, my grandfather was a proud union bus driver & a shop steward who organized tirelessly for workers. His union gave him access to better wages and health and retirement packages that he wouldn’twouldn’t have gotten in the workforce in the 1970s,” wrote Powell on Twitter. “His union helped him buy the house that he and my grandmother lived in til the day they passed. Protecting the ability for everyone to safely unionize is critical to ensuring generations to come are protected from injustice and are treated with dignity and respect”.”
The special election convention will be held on Jul. 29 – Payday will be there.
Alright, yinz, I gotta run. Donate to help us cover the “Summer of Strikes” Please, if you can, sign up as one of our 754 recurring donors today.
