Greetings from the Burgh, where I am getting back in the swing of things after taking time off to recover from a respiratory infection brought on by bad air.
Help Cover Health Insurance Costs
A key to staying healthy is covering the $600-$700 monthly health insurance cost, including co-pays and premiums that I pay every month. This is an enormous cost and eats up most of my reporting budget.
UAW Backs El-Sayed As Steelworkers Back Stevens
With the Michigan Senate primary race set for next week, the race is getting national attention. However, unions are on different sides of the race.
Last week, the United Steelworkers announced that they were endorsing Congresswoman Haley Stevens, an ally of AIPAC, who has drawn criticism for racist attacks on Abdul El-Sayed, who is running to be the first Muslim in the United States Senate.
Meanwhile, the UAW has backed El-Sayed.
“UAW members in Michigan want a fighter in Washington, D.C. who isn’t afraid to push forward a strong working-class agenda with moral clarity,” the UAW said in a statement in June. “Having never taken a dime from corporate PACs, Dr. Abdul El-Sayed is someone we can trust to have our backs, including when we need it most – like come May Day 2028. From Medicare for All to banning stock buybacks, Dr. Abdul El-Sayed is ready, eager, and well-equipped to move our core issues in the U.S. Senate.”
For more, check out the Michigan Advance.
Lula Bans Trump Operatives from Brasil
On Saturday, Brasil announced that it was denying visas to U.S. Assistant Secretary Riley M. Barnes of the State Department's Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor; and Deputy Assistant Secretary Samuel Samson.
The Trump Administration announced that it wanted to send the two officials to meet with Flavio Bolsonaro to investigate conspiracy theories that Lula intends to steal this fall’s presidential election. The Lula Administration denied them visas, saying that the Trump Administration was attempting to interfere in this fall’s Brazilian presidential election.
“It is a ploy that is completely incompatible with Brazilian democracy,” one Brazilian official told The Washington Post.
For more, check out The Washington Post.
Send Payday as Election Observers to this Fall’s Presidential Election in Brasil
At a time when the corporate media and even most left-wing outlets are reporting very little on Brasil, Payday has distinguished itself by regularly taking reader-funded trips to report on vital issues in Brasil.
The Lula Administration is so important that Payday should cover it, since no one else on the left is covering it.
This fall, I intend to travel to Rio de Janeiro again (where I will stay for free (again) with my old host father Claudio Roberto Castilho). I need your help to cover airfare, food, and more on this trip.
950 Central PA Hospital Workers Strike
At Mount Nittany Medical Center in Central Pennsylvania, approximately 950 hospital workers, members of SEIU Healthcare PA, are on strike. It's the first strike at the medical center since 2004.
The union is striking as hospital management attempts to divide nurses against other medical workers by offering nurses a 5% raise while offering everyone else a 3% raise.
However, SEIU didn’t fall for the divide-and-conquer tactics as nurses and other hospital staff decided to walk out together in solidarity.
“As a nurse, I can’t do my job alone,” Fawn Guignet, a nurse, told the Centre Daily Times. “I need the people who are fixing the toilet for me. I need the people who are cleaning the room for me. I need the people who are making meals for the patients.”
For more, check out the Centre Daily Times.
Delaware Unions Target State Democratic Party
In Delaware, construction union leaders plan to target incumbent State House Democratic leaders after they refused to bring up to a vote a measure that would require pro-union Project Labor Agreements on all school construction projects, a measure that they had been fighting for more than a decade.
“This bill not getting to the floor for even a vote was kind of the wake-up call,” Delaware Building Trades Council President James Maravelias told WHYY. “This was an important piece of legislation that would have been trajectory-altering for construction in Delaware, not just for union members but for nonunion members.”
Pittsburgh Progress Launched as Workers Co-op
Earlier today, Pittsburgh Progress launched its attempt to bring a worker news cooperative to Pittsburgh. The effort is backed by former striking members of the Pittsburgh NewsGuild and some community members, who would like to see a shakeup in Pittsburgh’s right-wing news scene.
“The Pittsburgh Progress stands as a worker and community response to the actions of Post-Gazette owners and managers before, during, and after the strike,” said founding member Steve Mellon in a statement. “The Pittsburgh Progress belongs to its workers and its community. It’s yet another example that we can accomplish extraordinary things when we work together.”
Previously, Payday won a lawsuit over violent threats from former Pittsburgh NewsGuild member Zack Tanner after I blew the whistle on sexual misconduct within the NewsGuild. Fortunately, since winning the lawsuit, Tanner stepped down from union leadership and is not among the group of former strikers invited to participate in this project.
Since losing in my lawsuit against him, Tanner has been unable to find a job in journalism, and it's good that the Pittsburgh Progress isn’t giving him a way to revive his career.
Hopefully, this is a new chapter for unionized journalists in Pittsburgh, and we wish them the best of luck.
Check out the Pittsburgh Progress for more on their plans.
News & Headlines Elsewhere
- Washington public employees plan statewide walkouts
- Immigration agents have been stalking workers at a tomato plant near Rochester
- Top editors at Reuters have repeatedly stolen work from unionized staff, NewsGuild of New York says
- Social Workers’ strike in Minnesota sets new local record as it enters month three.
- ICE plans to target Haitians as Temporary Protected Status is set to end, sources say
- 500 Lawrence Hospital Healthcare Workers Join 1199 SEIU Union
- Finally, African health workers strike as Ebola cases in Congo near 3,000, including over 1,300 deaths
Alright folks, that’s all for today. Keep sending tips, comments, complaints and cooking recipes to melk@paydayreport.com
