In August 30, 2024 for Labor Day, The Op-Ed in Boston Globe Rhode Map highlighted the work and particularities of Labor in our state in 2023 and 2024. Here is the full article:
This Labor Day, as leaders of the Rhode Island AFL-CIO, we are proud to say Rhode Island continues to make tremendous legislative progress on issues affecting union members and all workers. For example, it is now a felony for employers to engage in wage theft by failing to pay workers. Rhode Island is applying strong labor standards in the renewable energy and cannabis markets. We’ve passed common sense gun safety laws, committed to replacing all water pipes that contain lead, and expanded the amount of time workers can access paid time off. We’ve even made enhancements to public service workers’ retirement benefits. All these changes make Rhode Island a better place for working-class people.
Despite this progress, Rhode Island workers still face serious economic challenges. One challenge our members face is an ongoing teacher shortage. Through our affiliated worker education center, the Institute for Labor Studies and Research, we have partnered with Rhode Island College and several school departments in Rhode Island to create a teacher apprenticeship program. When fully implemented, this program will work to create pathways into the classroom for students interested in pursuing a career in teaching as well as for people currently working as teacher assistants. The program will also work to diversify the teaching workforce so it can become more reflective of the student body.
The health care marketplace is another major area of concern for working class Rhode Islanders. Health care is too expensive, and many health care jobs, once a road to the middle class, no longer offer competitive, family sustaining wages. As a result, health care employers are coping with too many job vacancies leading to negative patient outcomes and health care worker burnout. We know there are worker-centered solutions to these issues, so, along with key unions representing health care workers, we’ve partnered with the Hospital Association of Rhode Island to create a new non-profit organization. The Healthcare Workforce Education Center will work to direct workforce planning and development across the state and create not just good jobs but fulfilling careers.
Many working-class Rhode Islanders utilize RIPTA as their main source of transportation to and from work and school. When RIPTA was facing a driver shortage, the labor movement stepped up and began looking for solutions. With the help of many organizations, including the bus operator’s union, the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 618, the Institute for Labor Studies and Research, and RIPTA, we’ve collectively created a new bus operator test preparation program, that, along with improved wages and benefits, is attracting more drivers into service and forestalling the need for service cuts.
There are several things we suggest Rhode Island can do to continue to support working-class people. First, we must continue to raise the minimum wage. This January is the last scheduled increase in the minimum wage, so we are calling on Governor Daniel McKee and the legislature to continue to make forward progress on the minimum wage in this upcoming session.
We must also continue to make progress on our transition to a carbon-free economy. Rhode Island has an opportunity to be the hub of the emerging offshore wind industry for the entire Atlantic seaboard. We call on our state’s leadership to continue to take a worker-centered approach to offshore wind development. Rhode Island is part of an effort with Massachusetts and Connecticut to deploy 6 gigawatts of offshore wind. Let’s be bold and say we should deploy 60 gigawatts by 2050 and use union labor to do it.
While it continues to be important to attract new businesses to the state, we must also work to improve the jobs Rhode Islanders currently hold The most successful way to do that is to expand the number of workers who have access to union membership. The United States Treasury Department recently concluded unions raise the wages of their members by 10 to 15 percent while contributing to robust general economic growth and resilience. Therefore, we are calling on state leaders to extend labor peace agreements found in the renewable energy and cannabis sectors of the economy into other areas, especially in the health care and hospitality sectors.
A strong labor movement is critical to a strong Rhode Island economy. For many years, Rhode Island tried to strengthen the economy focusing on top-down solutions. It didn’t work. Now that we’ve turned the corner on that way of thinking, we need to continue to look for solutions with positive impacts that start with empowering workers and drive forward from there.
George Nee is the president, and Patrick Crowley the secretary-treasurer, of the Rhode Island AFL-CIO.