Labor


Standing With Healthcare Professionals

After three calendar years on the frontlines of the pandemic and over 8 months of bargaining in good faith with Aspirus Health, healthcare workers are joining together with their neighbors to demand a fair contract from Aspirus, who received millions in federal relief money while the frontlines remain in a staffing crisis. Together, we can win better wages and working conditions and create a better environment for our patients! A fair contract can keep nurses at the bedside where patients need them, but unfortunately, Aspirus refuses to listen. On Monday, June 27 we ...

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Poor People’s Campaign rallies to Washington D.C.

We will have a full story in our next edition of Middle Wisconsin.  In 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. organized low-income Americans of different backgrounds in a march on Washington known as the "Poor People's Campaign." Over fifty-years later, thousands of protesters gathered Saturday to deliver that same message at the Poor People's and Low-Wage Workers' Assembly and Moral March on Washington and to the Polls. The rally urged low-income voters to participate in the upcoming midterm elections and featured religious organizations, pro-democracy groups, labor ...

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Union Busting is Disgusting

Union busting is not only disgusting, but also illegal. You have the right to organize in your workplace. Today several of us from the Marathon County Central Labor Council found ourselves at Starbucks in Plover. What brought us there was the illegal dismissal of a 21-year-old employee, Kolton. The reason for his termination was that he’d broken company rules by being in the back of the store while he was off the clock and being present in April after the store closed when he was off the clock. Kolton admits to this but also states the store policies are selecti...

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Workers’ Memorial Day

Workers Memorial Day April 28 Mourn for the Dead and Fight for the Living On April 28, Unions of the AFL-CIO observe Workers Memorial Day to remember those who have suffered and died on the job, and to organize the fight for safer workplaces. We all come together to call for action on hazards that cause unnecessary injury, illness, and death. We stand United to strengthen workers’ rights and protections, and demand resources and actions needed for job safety enforcement. We fight for the fundamental right of every worker to a safe job until that promise is ...

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AFL-CIO Workers Memorial Day

On April 28, Wisconsin workers will join together with communities across the globe to pay tribute to workers killed on the job. In cities, towns, union halls, at worksites and memorials, in community after community, workers will commemorate those we lost and press forward for stronger protections for safer workplaces. Each year, thousands of workers are killed and millions more injured or diseased because of their jobs. Many job hazards are unregulated and uncontrolled. Some employers cut corners and violate the law, putting workers in serious danger and costing ...

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The power of a general strike

Happy Labor Day! This is actually a happy day for labor.

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Labor Day is a time to reflect on the struggles workers still face

The last decade has shown a major upheaval in collective bargaining, attacking unions, and in reducing worker’s compensation in Wisconsin.

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Our working class heroes deserve financial stability

We lived in the community built by Mr. D.C. Everest. I saw first hand how great jobs with good health and retirement benefits can raise families out of poverty. But life wasn’t always so easy.

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Ruminations of a former wage slave

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 1.6 million workers – or 1.9% of all hourly wage, non-self-employed workers – earned wages at or below the federal minimum wage in 2019.

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Paid family leave offers many benefits to society

For parents in the workforce who do not receive paid family leave, the important first months with baby can be cut short due to financial hardship.

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