UE Political Action Updates

Sara Innamorato, a state representative who began her political career in 2018 by unseating an establishment Democrat, won the Democratic primary for county executive of Allegheny County yesterday. Allegheny County, the county in southwestern Pennsylvania which includes Pittsburgh, has a population of over 1.2 million, making it one of the largest counties in the U.S.

Brandon Johnson, a former rank-and-file Chicago teacher and Chicago Teachers Union organizer, has been endorsed in his bid for mayor of Chicago by UE’s Western Region. UE Locals 1118 and 1177, both of which represent members in Chicago, have also endorsed Johnson.

Local 1118 President Delores Phillips, said that her local endorsed Johnson “because of his ability to make things happen … he's been commissioner and he knows what the people of Chicago need.” Phillips also serves on the executive board of the Western Region.

On Tuesday, February 28, U.S. Representatives Bobby Scott (D-VA) and Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) announced the re-introduction of the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act.

The bill would rein in employer lawbreaking when workers are organizing a union and negotiating a first contract, with punitive fines for labor law violations. It would streamline union elections, make it harder for an employer to interfere in the election process, and ban “captive audience meetings,” in which employers force workers to listen to anti-union propaganda on work time.

Railroads are a crucial part of our nation’s infrastructure. Nearly every sector of our economy depends on goods shipped by the railroads ... [and] the greater fuel efficiency of using rail to move both people and freight means that moving more of our transportation onto the railroads will be necessary to address the existential threat of climate change.

Yet the private owners of our nation’s Class 1 railroads have shown themselves utterly incapable of facing the challenge of the climate crisis, dealing fairly with their own workers, or even meeting the most basic needs of their customers. Therefore, we demand that Congress immediately begin a process of bringing our nation’s railroads under public ownership.