AFL-CIO Blog

  • Black History Month Profiles: Ralphe Armstrong
    Black History Month Profiles: Ralphe Armstrong For Black History Month, we're taking a look at a group of leaders who are currently actively making Black history across the labor movement. Check back daily for a new profile and meet some of the people working to improve not only their community, but also to improve conditions for working people across the country. Today's profile is Ralphe Armstrong of American Federation of Musicians (AFM). Ralphe Armstrong started playing in Detroit clubs at the age of 13. One of his first gigs was at a now-demolished jazz club called the Latin Quarter Theater. “I had no idea it was a union house,” he said. And that was when his mom stepped in. “Detroit is and always was a union town. My dad was in the UAW. I come from the era when if you wanted to be in the big time, you had to join the AFM....I’ve had so many good things happen to me because I was a union member, especially doing so much TV work and recordings. But the federation looks after my interests just as much as it looks after those who have other jobs and maybe just play music for fun, or gig to make some extra money.”  Kenneth Quinnell Thu, 02/20/2025 - 09:35 Tags: Black History Month — Feb 20
  • Service & Solidarity Spotlight: Ski Patrol Union Reaches Tentative Agreement with Keystone Ski Resort
    Service & Solidarity Spotlight: Ski Patrol Union Reaches Tentative Agreement with Keystone Ski Resort Working people across the United States regularly step up to help out our friends, neighbors and communities during these trying times. In our Service & Solidarity Spotlight series, we’ll showcase one of these stories every day. Here’s today’s story. Members of the United Professional Ski Patrols of America (UPSPA), Communications Workers of America (CWA) Local 7781, who work at Keystone Resort have reached a tentative agreement (TA) on their first contract with Vail Resorts. Organized under the name Keystone Ski Patrol (KSP) Union, workers have been in negotiations with the largest resort operator in North America since September 2024. Over the course of bargaining, patrollers have staged a protest and filed unfair labor practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board. “Keystone Resort and the Keystone Ski Patrol Union are pleased to announce that they have reached a new tentative agreement through May 31, 2027,” the union and management said in a joint statement. “Together, the resort and union are looking forward to a great rest of the season.” Kenneth Quinnell Thu, 02/20/2025 - 09:27 — Feb 20
  • We Proudly Celebrate Black History Month
    We Proudly Celebrate Black History Month February is Black History Month. And while we celebrate Black labor leaders and union members, both past and present, who have advanced real change, we won’t ignore the moment we find ourselves in right now.  It already has been an extraordinarily difficult year for people of color, as the White House rolls back critical initiatives to protect diversity and inclusion, erases hard-fought civil rights protections, and fires Black federal workers who keep our country running. These attacks on our families and communities place an even heavier weight on the ongoing fight to end systemic racism and achieve economic justice. But there is a reason that the civil rights movement and labor movement rose together at the same time a generation ago. Together, we will not despair—we will stand in our power and our agency. As the renowned labor leader Bayard Rustin once said, “To be afraid is to behave as if the truth were not true.” And we know our truth.  This year marks the 100-year anniversary of the founding of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (BSCP), the first Black labor union in America to become part of the American Federation of Labor (AFL). We recall BSCP members’ courage, and use it as we work to build a country that ensures dignity for all working people.  We’re proudly highlighting Black workers this month who continue to stand in the tradition of activism in the labor movement. See our Black History Month profiles we’ve featured on our blog so far.  Together, we will advance the march toward progress. Kenneth Quinnell Wed, 02/19/2025 - 11:04 Tags: Black History Month — Feb 19
  • Black History Month Profiles: Joe Diggs
    Black History Month Profiles: Joe Diggs For Black History Month, we're taking a look at a group of leaders who are currently actively making Black history across the labor movement. Check back daily for a new profile and meet some of the people working to improve not only their community, but also to improve conditions for working people across the country. Today's profile is Joe Diggs of the Communications Workers of America (CWA), and National Treasury Employees Union, AFGE. Joe Diggs joined CWA Local 2300 in 1985 and went on to become a steward at Local 2300 and later CWA Local 2323. During his 12 years of working for the phone company, he earned his bachelor’s degree in labor relations from the University of Maryland. After 12 years, four strikes and two winning organizing campaigns, Diggs left to work for the National Treasury Employees Union. Then he joined AFGE, where he worked for 25 years. During that time, Diggs served CWA Local 2385 as a staff representative and contract negotiator. Diggs volunteered to start a chapter of the A. Philip Randolph Institute in Phoenix. Kenneth Quinnell Wed, 02/19/2025 - 09:34 Tags: Black History Month — Feb 19
  • Service & Solidarity Spotlight: Labor Defeats Right to Work Legislation in New Hampshire
    Service & Solidarity Spotlight: Labor Defeats Right to Work Legislation in New Hampshire Working people across the United States regularly step up to help out our friends, neighbors and communities during these trying times. In our Service & Solidarity Spotlight series, we’ll showcase one of these stories every day. Here’s today’s story. In a win for working people, the latest version of “right to work” legislation introduced in the New Hampshire Legislature last week has been indefinitely postponed, effectively killing the bill. Different iterations of House Bill 238-FN have been introduced dozens of times since the 1980s, all seeking to undermine union negotiating power and make New Hampshire the region’s only right to work state.  “For the fortieth consecutive time, so-called ‘Right-to-Work’ is dead,” said New Hampshire AFL-CIO President Glenn Brackett in a joint statement with other labor leaders. “Once again, today, a bipartisan coalition of legislators did their job, listened to their constituents, and voted to kill House Bill 238-FN, this year’s version of the fraudulently titled ‘Right-to-Work.’ Every new legislature for the last 40 years has seen this attack on workers’ rights and every legislature, regardless of which party is in the majority, has rejected it.” Kenneth Quinnell Wed, 02/19/2025 - 09:28 — Feb 19

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