UE NEWS Updates

The work performed by the teachers, speech language pathologists, and registered nurses of UE Local 613 at the Western Pennsylvania School for Blind Children requires a high level of technical and social skills. 

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the local has also needed to confront new challenges in maintaining the participatory principles of bottom-up, rank-and-file unionism. Led by the efforts of their executive committee, union representation and meetings have proceeded with minimal interruption. 

UE Local 170, which represents state workers throughout West Virginia, has been working in many different ways to help their members in this time of need. “We just received our first order of 500 cloth masks, gloves, safety glasses and wipes to give out to members at the state hospital,” reports Vice President Leslie Riddle. “Due to back orders this has been a difficult process at times. But we have placed orders for several more.”

The William & Mary Workers’ Union, the newest chapter of UE Local 160, has been organizing workers at the College of William & Mary, a public research university in Williamsburg, Virginia, since 2019. Like their counterparts in North Carolina and West Virginia, public workers in Virginia do not have the right to collective bargaining. Since going public in November, the union has made significant progress in growing and making their demands heard on campus.

UE locals from coast to coast have been taking action to make sure workers’ voices are heard as decisions are being made which impact our health, our jobs, and our ability to provide for our families. The next issue of the UE NEWS will feature extensive coverage of local activities, but in the meantime we have put together a selection of press coverage that UE locals have received over the past month. (Not a UE member? You can still subscribe to the UE NEWS for as little as $5/year.)