The labor committee has been quite busy over the last year. Chair Bowman was able to get Congressperson Jasmine Crockett to speak at the St. Louis County Freedom Fund Dinner.

Members of the committee attended the National NAACP Convention in Las Vegas, including the Labor Luncheon. During the luncheon, we heard from Robin Williams, Chairwoman of the NAACP Labor Committee. She said union leadership has traditionally been a man’s world, but that women are the backbone of policy, economic security and saving our democracy, and it is important to have women leading the workforce development space. President Joe Biden, recognized as one of the strongest labor Presidents in history, spoke during one of the plenary sessions at the National Convention. It was one of his last appearances before Vice President Kamala Harris became the Democratic nominee for President. Also during the National Convention, William ‘Bill’ Lucy (Past International Secretary-Treasurer of AFSCME), Don Cash (Past President of United Food and Commercial Workers Union’s Minority Coalition), Loretta Johnson (Secretary-Treasurer Emeritus of AFT), and Liz Powell (Secretary-Treasurer of the American Postal Workers Union) were honored as Labor Leaders.

The National Delegate Assembly passed resolutions relating to the following:

• Calling for protection of cannabis workers as the market emerges and grows,
• Calling on Units to work to engage with and hold accountable their respective trade unions with regard to exclusion of people of color in their apprenticeship programs and membership, and
• Supporting protections for whistleblowers at the federal, state and local government levels, and the need for more independent oversight to prevent retaliatory behaviors in organizations.

Locally, we are supporting Proposition A on the November ballot, which is a common sense policy for working families. It provides paid time off, increased minimum wage, and other changes that are long past time to make mandatory.

We also sent a support letter standing in solidarity with Amazon workers at STL8 warehouse. The employees are demanding changes to Amazon policy including removing the 36-month cap on step wage increases, making cross-training volunteer-based only, banning computer-generated write-ups, add productivity performance bonuses, and ending the use of working rate as a criteria for discipline.

As was heard on the picket line, it’s Prime Time for a Raise!