The United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW) is a labor union representing approximately 1.3 million workers in the United States and Canada in industries including retail; meatpacking, food processing and manufacturing; hospitality; agriculture; cannabis; chemical trades; security; textile, and health care. UFCW is affiliated with the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) and the AFL-CIO; it disaffiliated from the AFL-CIO in 2005 but reaffiliated in 2013. UFCW is also affiliated to UNI Global Union and the IUF.
A living wage is defined as the minimum income necessary for a worker to meet their basic needs. This is not the same as a subsistence wage, which refers to a biological minimum. Needs are defined to include food, housing, and other essential needs such as clothing. The goal of a living wage is to allow a worker to afford a basic but decent standard of living through employment without government subsidies. Due to the flexible nature of the term "needs", there is not one universally accepted measure of what a living wage is and as such it varies by location and household type. A related concept is that of a family wage – one sufficient to not only support oneself, but also to raise a family.
The United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America often simply, the United Brotherhood of Carpenters (UBC) was formed in 1881 by Peter J. McGuire and Gustav Luebkert. It has become one of the largest trade unions in the United States, and through chapters, and locals, there is international cooperation that poises the brotherhood for a global role. For example, the North American Chapter has over 520,000 members throughout the continent.
The Laborers' International Union of North America is an American and Canadian labor union formed in 1903. As of 2017, they had about 500,000 members, about 80,000 of whom are in Canada. The current general president is Terence M. O'Sullivan who was appointed general president in 2000, elected by delegates in 2001, and re-elected in 2006. There are nine regions across North America; these regions are further divided into 500 local unions. One region is in Toronto Canada and is led by Joseph Mancinelli, Local 183, which is the largest construction local union in North America.
William B. Green was an American trade union leader. Green is best remembered as the president of the American Federation of Labor (AFL) from 1924 to 1952. He was a strong supporter for labor-management co-operation and was on the frontline for wage and benefit protections and industrial unionism legislation.
Hector De La Torre is an American politician from Los Angeles County, California who served in the California State Assembly from 2004 to 2010. A Democrat, he represented the largely Latino 50th Assembly district.
Worker centers are non-profit community-based mediating organizations that organize and provide support to communities of low wage workers who are not already members of a collective bargaining organization or have been legally excluded from coverage by U.S. labor laws. Many worker centers in the United States focus on immigrant and low-wage workers in sectors such as restaurant, construction, day labor and agriculture.
The Labor Council for Latin American Advancement (LCLAA) is a nonprofit, nonpartisan Latino organization affiliated with the AFL-CIO and the Change to Win federation. It was formed in 1972 to provide Latino trade union members in the United States with a more effective voice within the AFL-CIO, to encourage Latino participation on the democratic process, and to encourage the organization of Latino workers into labor unions.
Douglas J. McCarron is a labor union activist and, since 1995, president of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America.
Terence M. O'Sullivan is a labor union activist who has been president of the Laborers' International Union of North America (LIUNA) since 1999.
Edward M. Smith is an American labor leader from Marion, Illinois, who now resides in the Washington D.C. metropolitan area.
The Davis–Bacon Act of 1931 is a United States federal law that establishes the requirement for paying the local prevailing wages on public works projects for laborers and mechanics. It applies to "contractors and subcontractors performing on federally funded or assisted contracts in excess of $2,000 for the construction, alteration, or repair of public buildings or public works".
John Francis Henning was a U.S. labor leader, civil servant, and a former U.S. Ambassador to New Zealand (1967–1969) and Under Secretary of Labor (1962–1967). Called "one of organized labor's greatest leaders" and "legendary" for his defense of labor, he is also credited with a positive role in the defense of minimum wage laws and civil rights.
The Agricultural Workers Organization (AWO), an organization of farm workers throughout the United States and Canada, was formed on April 15, 1915, in Kansas City. It was supported by, and a subsidiary organization of, the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). Although the IWW had advocated the abolition of the wage system as an ultimate goal since its own formation ten years earlier, the AWO's founding convention sought rather to address immediate needs, and championed a ten-hour work day, premium pay for overtime, a minimum wage, good food and bedding for workers. In 1917 the organization changed names to the Agricultural Workers Industrial Union (AWIU) as part of a broader reorganization of IWW industrial unions.
Pulte Homes, Inc. v. Laborers' International Union of North America, 648 F.3d 295, is a Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals case that reinstated a Computer Fraud and Abuse Act ("CFAA") claim brought by an employer against a labor union for "bombarding" the company's phone and computer systems with emails and voicemail, making it impossible for the company to communicate with customers. It held that causing a transmission that diminishes a plaintiff's ability to use its systems and data constitutes "causing damage" in violation of the CFAA.
The 1919 Streetcar Strike of Los Angeles was the most violent revolt against the open-shop policies of the Pacific Electric Railway Company in Los Angeles. Labor organizers had fought for over a decade to increase wages, decrease work hours, and legalize unions for streetcar workers of the Los Angeles basin. After having been denied unionization rights and changes in work policies by the National War Labor Board, streetcar workers broke out in massive protest before being subdued by local armed police force.
The Los Angeles County Federation of Labor was started in 1885. Originally, the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor was split into five individual unions of bakers, cigar makers, printers, tailors, and carpenters. Now they represent over 300 unions, about 800,000 people, throughout Los Angeles County, making it the second largest in the country. “A survey published in December 2003 showed that the three largest unions in the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor were SEIU 434B, SEIU 399 with forty-five thousand health care and other employees, and the United Teachers of Los Angeles .” They have helped make Los Angeles a union city. Their mission is to “ promote a voice for workers through organizing themselves into unions, building strong coalitions of labor, community, faith, and responsible businesses, engaging in both organizing and political campaigns, electing pro-union and pro-worker candidates and advancing public policies that support workers, families and local communities.” They also encourage people to help make change by voting. The Los Angeles County Federation of labor is a major focal point for new American labor movement. Recently, the impressive progression of Los Angeles becoming a union city has become a stand out model for other non-union cities because of Los Angeles’ anti-union history. Los Angeles combines the economic development activism and the refined political work of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor.
North America's Building Trades Unions (NABTU) is a labor federation of 14 North American unions in the building trade, founded by the American Federation of Labor in 1907.
The Worker Standards Board or Wage Board or Industry Committee aims to improve wages and working conditions for all workers within a specific industry. When implemented along with other regional labor policies, such as paid family leave, the Worker Standards Board is a useful alternative or supplement to a collective bargaining agreement and a formal labor union, when the situation does not support a union.
Timothy Dale Paulson is a California labor leader, who currently serves as the Secretary-Treasurer of the San Francisco Building and Construction Trades Council after being unanimously elected in July 2018, and sworn in by San Francisco Mayor London Breed.
