Working people across the United States have stepped 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.
AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler joined workers on the picket line at MotorCity Casino Hotel on Wednesday night for a rally as they continue their negotiations with management of the three casinos in Detroit. Unions participating in the strike include UNITE HERE Local 24, UAW Local 7777, Operating Engineers (IUOE) Local 324, the Michigan Regional Council of Carpenters and Teamsters Local 1038. The negotiations are reportedly boiling down to core issues, and hundreds of workers joined the rally.
“Union casino workers kept this industry alive during the pandemic,” Shuler told Michigan Advance. “But despite Detroit casino owners making record profits, they are refusing to take care of their workers. This is unjust, unfair and unethical. It is time to pay the workers who keep you in business a living wage, to provide health care that allows workers to care for themselves and their families and to guarantee the job security their employees have earned. We stand in solidarity with our union brothers and sisters on the strike line as they fight for the contract they deserve.”
This was Shuler’s fifth visit to Detroit since Labor Day. Local unions have dubbed the town as “Strike City,” given the number of large strikes that happened concurrently this fall and the collaborative strike actions that have been executed among the various unions.