Black and Latina women are driving labor union growth in the U.S. amid a decades-long decline in membership. In 2023, Black women’s union membership rate notched a slight bump from 10.3% to 10.5%, while Latinas went up from 8.5% to 8.8%.
“A lot of AI is coming into this world," said Roman Alejo, 34, a barista at the Sahara hotel-casino on the Las Vegas Strip. "It is very scary and very eye-opening to see how humans can think of replacing other humans."
The deal boosts some wages to $31 an hour. It reflects pressure hotels face to raise pay amid inflation and labor shortages. The hike is closing the gap between the 7,000 covered suburban workers and their union counterparts in New York City.
After facing 98% unemployment in the depths of the pandemic, the strongest union in Las Vegas has risen again.
In an echo of national worker's rights movements such as Fight for $15 and OUR Walmart, New Orleans hospitality workers are coming together in an attempt to rearrange the building blocks of their industry. Both on their own and with the support of a union, workers are becoming their own advocates, in an effort to — as Marlene Patrick-Cooper, the local organizing director for the UNITE HERE union, often says — "turn poverty jobs into middle-class jobs."
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