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Collective bargaining

News, Not Slop

December 5, 2025 The Stand. , , ,
Politico and E&E News journalists announced a major victory in arbitration this week, successfully arguing that Politico management violated the workers’ collective bargaining agreement by unilaterally introducing two artificial intelligence tools for news coverage without providing notice or bargaining over their implementation. Per the workers’ union–the PEN Guild, part of the Washington-Baltimore NewsGuild-CWA–it’s one of the first major arbitration cases concerning AI practices in journalism, setting a powerful precedent.

The Biggest Bargaining Mistake Unions Are Making In 2025

October 7, 2025 Richard De Vries, Labor Notes. , , , ,
When unions get ready for bargaining, we tend to look at the wage scale in our existing contract and think something like, “Let’s open with a proposal for a 5 percent raise every year, and maybe eventually we’ll settle at 3.75 percent.” This type of proposal was made out of habit when inflation was around 2 percent. While that may seem like a logical way to approach negotiations, you’re making a big mistake if you don’t take a closer look at the numbers. The error that many bargaining teams make is not reviewing the cost of living each of the previous five years. Because of extreme inflation during the last five years, minimum increases of as much as 10 percent may be needed to restore purchasing power.

River Valley Co-Op Workers Opened Up Bargaining And Won Big

October 3, 2025 Katrina Jagelski, Labor Notes. , , , , ,
River Valley Co-op is a consumer-owned cooperative grocery store with two locations in Western Massachusetts. We have been unionized with Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 1459 for the last decade with 175 workers in our bargaining unit. This year, beginning in January and ending in June, we held thirteen bargaining sessions with RVC management and their attorneys in a process that was transformative for our union. Negotiations were tense and at times, adversarial. Workers took a stand in ways they never had before, strengthening our relationships and faith in our ability to fight and win. We made significant strides in the contract, including $2 an hour raises across the board, union orientation for new hires, and protections for our immigrant co-workers. Our contract was ratified with 77 percent of workers turning out for a nearly unanimous ‘yes’ vote.

Union-Busting In The Guise Of ‘National Security’

August 12, 2025 Steve Wishnia, Work Bites. , , , , ,
In a ruling the American Federation of Government Employees [AFGE] denounced as “a setback for fundamental rights in America,” a federal appeals court in California on August 1 lifted an injunction preventing the Trump regime from terminating collective-bargaining rights for an estimated two-thirds of the federal workforce. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals held that the argument by six federal workers unions against Trump’s March 27 executive order nullifying their contracts—that it was retaliation for their exercising their right to dispute policies such as massive layoffs—was irrelevant, because “the President would have taken the same action even in the absence of the protected conduct.” 

Labor Coalition Puts Bargaining Ban On Hold With Historic Referendum

July 8, 2025 Caroleine James, In These Times. , , ,
Salt Lake City — On a cloudy mid-April day, a large white box truck pulled up outside the Salt Lake County clerk’s office. Inside was a pallet of bankers boxes, each filled to the brim with paper packets. Since 6 a.m., at clerks’ offices across Utah, teachers, firefighters and other public sector union workers had been lugging in cartloads of referendum petition signatures. After Scot Baskett, a Salt Lake City firefighter, helped deliver a final load, he and his fellow organizers gathered to sing ​“Solidarity Forever.” Some raised signs that read ​“Protect Utah Workers,” the name of their 20-union coalition. Others raised their fists.

Wisconsin Unions Score Major Win With Court Ruling

December 3, 2024 Scott Bauer, Portside. , , , , ,
Madison, Wisconsin — Wisconsin public worker and teachers unions scored a major legal victory Monday with a ruling that restores collective bargaining rights they lost under a 2011 state law that sparked weeks of protests and made the state the center of the national battle over union rights. That law, known as Act 10, effectively ended the ability of most public employees to bargain for wage increases and other issues, and forced them to pay more for health insurance and retirement benefits. Under the ruling by Dane County Circuit Judge Jacob Frost, all public sector workers who lost their collective bargaining power would have it restored to what was in place prior to 2011.

Letter Carriers Convention Shapes Up To Be Open Bargaining Showdown

July 30, 2024 Tim Bash, Labor Notes. , , ,
City letter carriers have been working without a contract for more than 400 days, and leaders of the Letter Carriers (NALC) still refuse to provide any substantive updates from bargaining. As rank-and-file anger boils over, a new group called Build a Fighting NALC (BFN) is building momentum to demand a stronger and more transparent contract fight next time. We’re bringing an “Open Bargaining” resolution to the national convention, August 5-9 in Boston. As of this writing, two NALC state associations and 44 branches across the country have passed the resolution to show their support. There was a time when the NALC, under the leadership of President Vince Sombrotto (1978-2002), used to engage in contract campaigns, hold rallies, make its demands public, and keep members informed of contract progress.

How Workers Brought Starbucks To The Bargaining Table

March 1, 2024 Natascha Elena Uhlmann, In These Times. , , ,
After a grueling and innovative organizing campaign characterized by stonewalling, fear mongering and retaliation, Starbucks workers are closer than ever to a first contract. Days after Starbucks Workers United announced the largest single-day union drive in the company’s history, the union declared it had reached ​“a constructive path forward … on the future of organizing and collective bargaining at Starbucks.” According to the statement, Starbucks will no longer deny benefits and credit card tipping to union members, and will work towards a ​“foundational framework” for collective bargaining agreements.

Starbucks’ Offer To Resume Contract Talks Comes With Serious Fine Print

December 13, 2023 Steven Greenhouse, In These Times. , , ,
Starbucks received lots of favorable press when it told its workers’ union that it wanted to resume contract talks. The move was a much-needed PR boost for a company whose recent battles with the union have stirred bad press and contributed to sinking stock prices. A top Starbucks official wrote to the union’s president on Friday saying the company wanted to end the bargaining impasse — one caused by the coffee chain’s refusal to hold any negotiating sessions for more than six months. As a result of that refusal, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has repeatedly accused Starbucks of failing to bargain in good faith.

The Enormous Impact Of Eroded Collective Bargaining On Wages

April 9, 2021 Lawrence Mishal, Economic Policy Institute. , , ,
A major factor depressing wage growth for middle earners and driving the growth of wage inequality over the last four decades has been the erosion of collective bargaining.1 Indeed, the only factor more responsible for weak wage growth for the typical worker is the excessive unemployment perpetrated by central bank policymakers’ high interest rate policies and fiscal austerity.2 The share of workers covered by a collective bargaining agreement fell from 27.0% in 1979 to just 11.6% in 2019 (Hirsch and Macpherson 2020). The erosion of collective bargaining has been especially harmful to men’s wages because men were far more likely than women to be unionized in 1979 (when 31.5% of men were covered by collective bargaining versus 18.8% of women).

City Workers Push For Collective Bargaining Rights

November 19, 2020 Brett Hall and Jane Alvarez-Wertz, WAVY. , , ,
Virginia Beach, VA - While local government employees are not legally allowed to engage in collective bargaining in the commonwealth until May 1, a group of workers from public utilities and public works making known their desire to have “a seat at the table” as soon as possible. On Tuesday evening, ahead of City Council’s formal session at the convention center, roughly 30 members of the city workforce chanted about the desire for hazard pay and fair wages before delivering a petition to the city manager’s office that lists four demands.

Police Unions: It’s Time To Change The Law And End The Abuse

June 6, 2020 Benjamin Sachs, On Labor. , , ,
Collective action is the source of working people’s power. It is the source of the labor movement’s power. It is the source of power that has enabled workers to secure – through unionization and collective bargaining – fairness and dignity at work, living wages, protection against discrimination and harassment, and safe and healthy working conditions. It is the source of power that has allowed working people to demand progressive legislation, to push the nation forward on questions of civil rights, political rights and economic rights. In recent years, it has enabled teachers to win funding for their classrooms, fast food workers to increase the minimum wage, and nurses to negotiate staffing ratios to ensure adequate care for COVID patients.

Why Labor Day Matters

September 2, 2018 Ralph Nader, www.blog.nader.org , , ,
By Ralph Nader for The Nader Page, Labor Day is a time to celebrate America’s tradespeople―the plumbers, electricians, carpenters, painters, tailors, retail clerks and home health assistants. Celebrate the meat and poultry inspectors, building code inspectors, OSHA and Customs inspectors, sanitation inspectors of supermarkets and restaurants, nuclear, chemical and aircraft inspectors, inspectors of laboratories, hospitals and clinics. Celebrate the bus drivers, miners, and nurses. Celebrate the janitors who often thanklessly clean our office buildings, schools, airports, and more. The list goes on. In addition, Labor Day should be used to reflect on the historic victories of American workers such as establishing the minimum wage and overtime pay, the five-day work week and banning of the use of child labor.

Thousand Protest In Iowa Against Restrictions On Collective Bargaining

February 14, 2017 Joey Aguirre, www.desmoinesregister.com , ,
By Joey Aguirre for The Des Moines Register - More than a thousand people supporting teachers and other public employees gathered in front of the Iowa Capitol Sunday afternoon urging legislators to not rewrite Iowa's collective bargaining law. The theme of the March for Iowa's Teachers was simple: resist and persist. "This is an attack on every educator, every student and really, every member of the state of Iowa," Iowa State Education Association President Tammy Wawro said. Iowa public employees and union leaders have implored legislators to reject a Republican-sponsored collective bargaining bill that would restrict public-sector workers' ability to negotiate contracts with state and local governments and school districts.

Who Benefits From Univ.Of California’s New ‘Global Campus?’

April 11, 2015 Steve Early, www.PopularResistance.org , , ,
AFSCME rank-and-filers are campaigning, with student and community allies, for a different kind of “CBA.” At meetings on campus, in local churches, and other venues, they are pressuring the university to sign a “community benefits agreement” that would apply to the “Berkeley Global Campus at Richmond Bay” (BGC) that UC-plans to build in partnership with private developers and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories (LBNL). The new mayor Tom Butt, urged “UCB to reach a legally-binding agreement with community stakeholders” that would commit the BGC to local hiring, job training, and “living wage” standards; use of unionized construction labor; respect for collective bargaining rights of campus workers; use of local businesses as vendors; and creation of an “anti-displacement fund to subsidize the development of affordable housing units and protect low income tenants” from gentrification of adjoining neighborhoods.
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