Folks,
Greetings from the Burgh, where our new website is finally live. Check it out here.
Kamala is Coming Back to Pittsburgh on Thursday for 2nd Time.
Kamala Harris was here on Monday and is now returning to Pittsburgh. It's the 3rd Time in 2 weeks that Harris has visited Western PA. The highlight underscores how much importance the campaign is putting on Western PA.
Western PA is the critical swing region in the country's key swing state, and we will have a hectic next 62 days till the election.
Donate to help us cover the battle for Western PA.
10,000 Hilton Workers Strike Nationwide
Nationwide, over 10,000 Hilton hotel workers are going on strike. It's one of the largest hotel workers' strikes in a decade and a sign of growing power.
"We won't accept a 'new normal' where hotel companies profit by cutting their offerings to guests and abandoning their commitments to workers," said Unite Here President Gwen Mills in a statement.
Nashville Uber Drivers Strike
Striking over the weekend were also Nashville Uber and Lyft drivers. They shut down the parking lot of the Nashville airport.
"Drivers are central to key sectors of Tennessee's economy and yet are compensated less and less each year," TDU said in a statement. "Uber and Lyft steal 60-80% of the fare of any given ride. Drivers are fighting for this to change. Tennessee Drivers Union is the largest effort of its kind to happen in the South."
For more, check out the Tennessee Lookout
Nationwide Strikes Cripple Israel
Across Israel, tens of thousands of workers are striking, demanding that the government accept a ceasefire deal that would release hostages being held by Hamas.
Netanyahu has blasted the strike, saying it helped Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar has inflamed the Israeli labor movement.
"The inciting claim that calling for the return of the hostages who are rotting in Gaza helps Sinwar was aimed at getting the Israeli public to forget who it was who transferred billions of dollars to Hamas in suitcases," said Histadrut federation chairman Arnon Bar-David in a statement. "A prime minister on whose watch the Jewish people [suffered] the greatest disaster since the Holocaust would do better investing his efforts in the return of our sons and daughters alive and not in black bags."
For more, check out the Guardian.
Production Assistant Launch Union Drive
Finally, production assistants have worked as gophers on TV and film sets, performing a variety of often very taxing, complex jobs. Frequently, they performed their duties without union support.
Now, they are launching their own union. From the Hollywood Reporter:
The Hollywood branch of Laborers' International Union of North America (LiUNA), Local 724, is partnering with the grassroots group Production Assistants United to organize one of the last non-union crew positions on entertainment sets, Local 724 business manager Alex Aguilar Jr. announced on Monday. The goal is to bring roles where, classically, early-career creatives — set production assistants, office production assistants, art production assistants, assistants, and production secretaries — pay their dues into the union fold across the country.
With around 1,800 active and retired members, LiUNA currently represents utility workers in film and television — including electricians, plumbers, carpenters, and sheet metal workers — in various roles at Universal Studios Hollywood and billboard workers with Outfront Media. The production assistants' push represents a bold play from the Local that could potentially augment its membership by thousands.
"They're a lot like us," Aguilar told The Hollywood Reporter at a union coalition-organized Labor Day parade in the Wilmington neighborhood of Los Angeles, where he announced the partnership. "At LiUNA, we do a lot of the stuff that no one wants to do. And that's what they do — a lot of the work that folks just frankly don't want to do."
For more, check out the Hollywood Reporter.
News & Headlines Elsewhere
- More than 63,000 Florida workers have lost union representation due to new law
- University at Buffalo Resident Physicians Four-Day Strike Begins Tuesday, 09/03
- Majority of Aramark workers vote to authorize strike against operations at Citizen's Bank Park
- UAW Delegation To Germany To Confront Union-Busting At Webasto
- A year after 'hot labor summer,' California Legislature chills on union demands amid budget concerns
- Top Nigerian union leader faces terrorism charges
- Finally, the Catholic diocese sued US government, worried some foreign-born priests might be forced to leave
Alright folks, that's all for today, keep sending emails, story ideas, comments, and cooking recipes to melk@paydayreport.com
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Love & Solidarity,
Melk
