“The labor movement was built for moments like this.”

– President Patrick Crowley

🚨 Workers are joining with our allies and community members across the country to tell President Trump and Elon Musk: Hands Off Our Unions! 🚨

Last week the Trump administration took its most blatantly anti-worker, anti-union action yet: an executive order stripping the right to organize from hundreds of thousands of federal workers.

This is union-busting, plain and simple, and we won’t stand for it.

TOMORROW, America’s unions are coming together with allies of labor at hundreds of events all across the country to send a message: Hands off our Social Security. Hands of four public schools. Hands off our Medicare. Hands off our jobs. And hands off our unions and our contracts!

Will you join us TOMORROW in for the Hands Off Rally in Providence?

It’s clear that Trump’s executive order is punishment for unions that are leading the fight against the administration’s illegal actions in court and in the streets—and a blatant attempt to silence us.  

Register Here: https://www.mobilize.us/mobilize/event/764710/

So now is the time to be even louder.

• When: Saturday, April 5th @ 12pm
• Where: Start’s at Hope High School, 324 Hope St., Providence — March to Kennedy Plaza

~~~~

Labor at the State House

This week, labor leaders have been actively testifying on critical legislation that impacts workers, the environment, and public safety. In a major win, the Captive Audience Ban (SB126) has passed out of committee. We continue to advocate for the house version (HB5506) along with arbitration rights for police, fire, and municipal workers. Additionally, the we provided testimony supporting expanded strike benefits through unemployment insurance (SB587) —a crucial step in protecting workers exercising their right to stand for fair wages and conditions.  

Renewable Energy and Public Utilities have also been a key focus, with several important bills under consideration in the House Corporations Committee. We are fighting to ensure that policies promoting sustainability and corporate accountability move forward. Our presence at the Rhode Island State House ensures that the voices of working families are heard loud and clear. We remain committed to advancing fairness, safety, and economic security for all Rhode Islanders.

IN THE NEWS

Hundreds of state workers still await merit raises. McKee’s cabinet heads don’t face the same delay.

Frustration mounts as massive upgrade to software payroll, finance system runs over initial time and budget

Denise Robinson’s role at the Rhode Island Department of Transportation (RIDOT) has changed dramatically since she started 36 years ago. New technology and updated government regulations require constant expansion of her job as a record keeper on state construction projects.

But her job classification, “engineering technician IV,” has never been upgraded to reflect her growing workload — a problem faced by many of her coworkers and fellow members of the RI IFPTE Local 400, she said.

“They constantly create new things for us to learn; just expect us to adjust with no compensation,” said Robinson, president of the union representing about 300 engineers at RIDOT and the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management. “And because our pay grades are so off from surrounding states, we can’t attract people to open positions.”

The union began negotiating in January 2024 with the Rhode Island Department of Administration to reclassify some of its members at higher pay grades based on seniority, performance and expanded duties. But the required public hearing needed to make merit-based changes for classified state workers — separate from annual cost-of-living adjustments —- has been on hold for nearly as long.

The state administration puts the blame on a major state software transition that includes its payroll system as reason why it can’t hold the hearings, and in turn, grant raises. The planned upgrade to a cloud-based system does not reflect any serious technical problems with the existing payroll software.

It has also not prevented 11 state department heads from receiving proposed raises within a month (barring formal action from the Rhode Island General Assembly to stop it). Among the cabinet members Gov. Dan McKee wants to give a raise to is RIDOT’s Peter Alviti Jr., whose 2% increase would put his annual base salary at $192,000. That’s more than double the $93,000 Robinson earns, according to the state’s payroll database.

A March 26 public hearing on cabinet raises drew opposition from local union leaders who represent state workers, including Robinson.

“I am not against anybody getting a pay raise, I just want it to be fair and equitable,” Robinson said in a later interview. “Why do my members have to keep suffering because you people don’t have your sh*t together.”

READ FULL STORY HERE.

~~~~

The Providence Journal: Which issue seems to be uniting the political right and left in RI? Public housing.

One of the state’s top Republicans wants public housing built in his rural town, though he’s not exactly calling it that.

House Minority Leader Michael Chippendale says Foster badly needs subsidized housing for elderly residents. And since the market isn’t providing that, he’s proposing that the town build the units itself.

Some might label that socialism. But Chippendale sees it as a small town “taking control of its own destiny, rather than being at the whim of a private entity.”

“Right now there’s a lot of labels being assigned to just about every aspect of political and social life,” he said. “I find that to be a negative detraction from the common goals that we have.”

Across Rhode Island, the housing crisis isn’t letting up. And the idea that the government should create affordable housing – rather than funding it in roundabout ways while outsourcing responsibility to private developers – is gaining traction in some unexpected places.

Reclaim RI, which successfully worked to elect left-wing candidates in past election cycles and now mainly focuses on organizing tenants’ unions and advocating for protections such as rent control, first began pushing to reboot public housing three years ago.

Read more here.

LOCAL AND ORGANIZING UPDATE

Supporting Worker Power

At our last Executive Board meeting on March 24, held at the Fuerza Laboral offices in Central Falls, we had the privilege of presenting Fuerza Laboral and IUPAT with a significant contribution to support their ongoing efforts in strengthening the labor movement and protecting vulnerable workers.

Their work is essential in fighting for fair wages, safe working conditions, and justice for all workers. We are proud to stand in solidarity with them and invest in the future of worker power across Rhode Island!

~~~~

See Post Here.

FROM AFL-CIO

Click Here to watch full story.

Press Release

AFL-CIO President Condemns Gutting of Core Worker Health and Safety Agency

April 1, 2025

AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler released the following statement in response to the Trump administration’s cuts, including terminating nearly 900 workers from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH):

Every worker should be able to go home safe and healthy at the end of their shift—but the Trump administration is gutting NIOSH, which will have devastating and irreversible effects on workers’ lives. Each year, more than 5,000 workers die from injuries on the job and 135,000 workers die from occupational disease, and millions more are injured. These numbers will only increase now that the government is firing the federal workers who make workplaces safer.

NIOSH is a highly skilled and efficient agency that delivers critical health and safety expertise for both workers and employers—protecting workers in some of the most dangerous industries, like coal mining, firefighting, construction, and health care—and is responsible for providing medical monitoring and services to 9/11 responders and survivors. Firing the NIOSH workforce sets up a domino effect of serious and dangerous consequences: the government will no longer research emerging health hazards, methods to prevent mine explosions, or certify the safety of respirators and other critical personal protective equipment.

This action is a gift to corporations that want to slash worker protections to create more profits. It’s an insult to the workers who put their lives on the line at work every day and their families who wait for them to come home. The Trump administration must reverse this anti-worker, anti-health and safety action. We will fight until the work of this critical agency is restored.

Contact: Prerna Jagadeesh, 202-637-5018

~~~~

Act Now. Click Here.

SOLIDARITY REQUESTS

STAMP OUT HUNGER FOOD DRIVE

The AFL-CIO is proud to again partner with the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) for the annual Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive campaign. The deadline for registration is Friday, March 21. The Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive will be held on Saturday, May 10.

Working in partnership with labor unions, AFL-CIO central bodies, the network of AFL-CIO/United Way labor liaisons, United Way Worldwide and our nation’s food security advocates, NALC gets food into the cupboards of those in need. Working people may assist in this need by placing a bag of unopened, nonperishable food next to their mailbox before the letter carrier delivers their mail on Saturday, May 10, and the letter carrier will do the rest.

You can find more information on how to support these incredible efforts at NALC’s Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive.

UPCOMING EVENTS

~~~~

REGISTER HERE.

~~~~

Donald Trump and Elon Musk think this country belongs to them. Rhode Island is fighting back!

This event is being organized by Indivisible RI and several other RI based organizations. Contact indivisibleri2024@gmail.com with questions.

They’re taking everything they can get their hands on—our health care, our data, our jobs, our services—and daring the world to stop them. This is a crisis, and the time to act is now.

🚨 On Saturday, April 5th, we’re taking to the streets to fight back with a clear message: Hands off! 🚨

📍 Where: Hope High School – Providence RI 📅 When: 12:00 PM (Noon) April 5, 2025

REGISTER HERE.

~~~~

~~~~