AFL-CIO Announces It Is Hiring, Even As Staff Blasts Leadership For Ignoring 'Basic Needs'
The AFL-CIO has a history of acrimonious labor relations with its staff unions that seems to continue to this day.
“No one, not even a federation of unions, gives workers what they deserve out of kindness.” — Joel Gratz and Alfonso Nevarez
The American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organization (AFL-CIO)—the nation’s largest federation of unions—has announced that ii is hiring for multiple positions, even as its existing staff complains that their “basic needs are being ignored,” and of “paltry salary raises, pension cuts and rising costs of living that threaten our livelihoods and endanger the AFL-CIO’s dwindling capacity.”
On a LinkedIn post on Monday, the labor federation announced it is offering a one-year legal fellowship in 2024, as well as hiring an Internal Communications Specialist for its public affairs department, with commensurate annual salaries of $80K and $96,323.05, respectively.
The post links to the AFL-CIO’s Careers page, which contains this video featuring ALF-CIO President Liz Shuler and Secretary-Treasurer Fred Redmond, as well as multiple other job openings.
“AFL-CIO staff haven’t received a raise in nine years.”
In an op-ed written and posted last week by Joel Gratz and Alfonso Nevarez, both long-time employees of the AFL-CIO who are leading the AFL-CIO internal staff union’s negotiations with management after their contract expired five months ago, they claim that the nation’s labor federation is ignoring its employees’ “basic needs.”
“Like our allies on the picket line,” Gratz and Nevarez write, “our basic needs are being ignored. We face paltry salary raises, pension cuts and rising costs of living that threaten our livelihoods and endanger the AFL-CIO’s dwindling capacity.”
AFL-CIO staff haven’t received a raise in nine years. Our lack of competitive pay fails to attract new talent while causing the departure of irreplaceable expertise. Seven years ago, our staff union had 160 members. Today, we have 90. Most of the people who leave cite stagnant pay and low morale, and job postings are staying empty for months or longer….
Many of us have stuck through demoralizing losses and passed on opportunities to earn more elsewhere because we believe in what we do. But some co-workers are now considering leaving.
In 2014, the last time we got a raise, the purchasing power of our salaries was almost a third higher. Yet we’re being offered a 2.4% per year raise that doesn't keep up with inflation. We’ve worked to ensure millions of others can retire with peace of mind. Yet management wants to gut our pension benefits. Meanwhile, the AFL-CIO recently started receiving $10 million a year in additional dues, just a fraction of which would cover the wage raises and pension benefits we’re fighting for. This is why our unit just rejected the AFL-CIO's "last, best, final offer," with 97% of the members voting no.
Last week, the AFL-CIO staff union protested outside AFL-CIO’s Washington, DC headquarters, picketing for what it describes as a “fair contract.”
In mid-September, the AFL-CIO’s union protested the labor federation, accusing the union federation’s management of using “corporate tricks.”
An online petition calls for the public to stand in solidarity with the union federation’s workers, stating:
“Members are concerned with the priorities management is pushing at the table, including:
Drastic reductions in retirement benefits,
Increased use of temporary employees,
Changes to our comp time system that would make uncompensated many additional hours of work that we regularly do outside of our contract hours
Wage increases that do not meet the rising cost of living, let alone make up for nearly a decade without a contractual raise.”
The AFL-CIO has a history of acrimonious labor relations with its staff unions that seems to continue to this day.
In 2019, one of its unions filed three unfair labor practice charges against the AFL-CIO with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) for allegedly:
Unilaterally changed wages, terms and conditions of the bargaining unit employees participating on the Local 2 bargaining committee without notice and bargaining with OPEIU Local 2.
Refused to schedule and canceled scheduled bargaining meetings with the Local 2 bargaining committee.
Failed and refused to provide relevant collective bargaining information requested by OPEIU Local 2.
The AFL-CIO and its union may agree to a contract at some point. If they do not, however, it is possible for the labor federation to impose the terms of its contract on its workers, as it did in 2019.