Half of organized workers are women

September 26, 2023

And they’re changing labor as we know it ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

September 26, 2023

Hey there, Meteor readers,

Many, many people in my life have inquired and I want to confirm to all of them—and you—that yes, I did see that Taylor Swift was at Sunday’s Kansas City Chiefs game. Allegedly Taylor is dating tight end Travis Kelce, but if you ask me, a certified Swiftologist, I’d say this is all part of a larger riddle connected to the re-release of her next album and not an actual romantic relationship. The signs are there if we just connect the dots…

Today’s newsletter is sunnier than normal: We tick off labor’s recent wins, celebrate Carson Pickett’s history-making moment, and share a little good news.

Yours in Swiftness,

Shannon Melero

WHAT’S GOING ON

Bigger than Hollywood: There’s light at the end of the tunnel for WGA workers! While SAG-AFTRA is still on strike, the writer’s union reached a tentative agreement with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers on Sunday after a 146-day strike. (The WGA’s board and members are set to vote on the terms today.) The agreement comes on the heels of another, less publicized victory: a WGA-backed California law that was recently passed in the state’s senate. The bill would allow striking workers to collect unemployment benefits—a pro-labor law that exists in only two other states: New York and New Jersey.

If you ask us, this is a Big Deal. Gov. Gavin Newson has yet to sign the bill, but its success and timing is just the latest example of labor’s growing power. Organized labor has been flexing its muscle all over the place lately, and not just in Hollywood: President Biden joined the auto worker’s picket line today in Michigan, UPS workers won a favorable five-year contract in August after they threatened a work stoppage, and American Airlines’ flight attendants recently voted to authorize a strike. Even though the share of workers who are unionized continues to shrink, there’s still an unmistakable pro-labor energy sweeping the country. As Sarita Gupta (who oversees the Future of Work(ers) program at the Ford Foundation) remarked last week at the Free Future summit, “We’re just seeing workers across the economy organize in ways that, at least in my lifetime, I have not experienced.” Let’s be real: The president wouldn’t join a strike unless he knows it’s politically popular.

And it’s popular with—and important for—women. When someone mentions “union,” many will think of dudes in hard hats, the kinds of manual laborers that Biden joined today. But that stereotype is inaccurate, both now and throughout history. Nearly half of today’s organized workers are women, and Black workers are more likely to be represented by unions than members of any other racial group. The labor movement is increasingly making headway in industries that are more likely to hire women and people of color, from retail to Amazon warehouses. These are “the exact workers that common wisdom or whatever has told us are not organizable,” labor journalist Kim Kelly told The Meteor last spring. “They are organizing, and they’re winning.”

AND:

Did you know that in America, we actually have five seasons? It’s the four usuals, plus the-government-is-about-to-shut-down season, which we are currently in. Fun! If Congress doesn’t push through the latest spending package in the next four days, a shutdown will go into effect.
Speaking of spending, three U.S. senators have introduced a new bill called the School Lunch Debt Cancellation Act, which would, as you may have guessed, cancel the debts of schoolchildren across the country. Yes, that’s right: Lunch debt exists—an especially appalling fact when you consider the 30 million grade-school kids who rely on school meals as their only source of food during the week. This change is absurdly overdue.
Bet you never thought you’d read video game news in this newsletter, but here we are: Soccer player Carson Pickett of Racing Louisville FC has been added as a playable character in EA Sports FC 24, set to be released on September 29. Why is this big news? Pickett was born without a left forearm and hand, making her the first athlete with a limb difference to be featured in EA’s history.
A Texas family is suing state officials after their teenage son, Darryl George, was suspended from school for more than two weeks because of his hair, despite the fact that a recently passed law—the CROWN Act—actually protects against racial discrimination based on hairstyles. The school argues that George’s dreadlocks simply violated the dress code because his hair fell below his eyebrows and earlobes—which is rich, considering George’s locks had been put into twists by his mother to comply with school rules.

TELL ME SOMETHIN’ GOOD 🎶

Congratulations to runner Tigst Assefa, who broke the women’s world record after finishing the Berlin marathon in two hours and 11 minutes this weekend. It took me longer than that to write this newsletter!
Two California teachers are teaming up to center women in high school history classes, and they’re hoping this new method spreads across the country.
Even better news coming out of the Sunshine State: California just banned book bans. Read freely, my friends! Read like there’s no tomorrow!