Months after imposing an ‘anti-union’ contract on its own unionized workers, the AFL-CIO—the nation’s largest union federation—and its president are still facing criticism.
WASHINGTON, DC—It has been more than a year since the union contract between the nation’s largest union federation, the AFL-CIO, and its unionized staff has expired and the staff’s union, the OPEIU Local 2, is not letting the AFL-CIO’s Richard Trumka off the hook.
Last week, the OPEIU tweeted a reminder to AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka that the union has been without a contract for one year, before the AFL-CIO imposed itcontract on its unionized staff:
“Happy One Year of Contract Bargaining to @RichardTrumka and the @AFLCIO! We’ve been trying to bargain a contract for one year! Then you imposed an anti-union contract on the 50 lowest-paid employees in the building. Have a piece of cake.”
Happy One Year of Contract Bargaining to @RichardTrumka and the @AFLCIO! We’ve been trying to bargain a contract for one year! Then you imposed an anti-union contract on the 50 lowest-paid employees in the building. Have a piece of cake. pic.twitter.com/f5V73Gq4Lb
— OPEIU Local 2 (@OPEIULocal2) May 23, 2019
On its website, the OPEIU explains that the “AFL-CIO has given itself the management right to furlough any of our employees for any number of days.”
“This is added to working more hours with no proportionate compensation and 7 years of wage freezes. And management? They just gave themselves $4,000 bonuses in December,” the union posted. [Emphasis in original.]
““The AFL-CIO officers stood up and rallied for [federal workers] during the government shutdown because of the furloughs (those workers) were forced to take,” Tara Mitchell, an office administrator at the AFL-CIO’s headquarters, told HuffPost earlier this Spring. “But under our current imposed contract, management can furlough any of us at any time, for any number of days ― without justification, without negotiating with the union and in perpetuity.”
In March OPEIU representatives travelled to New Orleans to handbill the AFL-CIO’s meeting of state federations and central labor councils and call attention to their plight at the hands of AFL-CIO bosses.
In an email (below) to the attendees, the OPEIU stated: “Twelve days may not seem a lot, but that’s a 4-5% wage cut per member per year. And that’s on top of a wage freeze and working more hours per week without commensurate pay.”
OPEIU Email to AFL-CIO CLC State Reps on Scribd
Related:
- Here Are The Unfair Labor Practice Charges Filed Against The AFL-CIO
- Watch Union Members March On The ‘Anti-Union’ AFL-CIO
- How ‘Union-Busting’ Union Bosses Are Exploiting Their Own Employees
