Contract Negotiations

Bring Member Power To The Table By Opening Up Bargaining

June 3, 2026 Dan DiMaggio, Labor Notes. Organize! Contract Negotiations, Rank and File, Transparency, Unions

Since electing new leadership in 2022, Teamsters Local 135 in Indiana has completely changed the way it conducts negotiations. It’s using open bargaining to revitalize the local. Under the previous leadership, a small bargaining team negotiated behind closed doors. Gag orders ensured that members would know nothing about negotiations until an agreement was presented for a vote. “It would be the business agent and a couple of stewards,” says business agent Robert Doolin, who started out in 1998 at a warehouse that supplies Kroger. “I always hated this. The company would always try to put a gag order on negotiations.”

Auto Parts Workers Say ‘No Axles, No Trucks!’

May 22, 2026 Luis Feliz Leon, Labor Notes. Resist! Auto Workers, Contract Negotiations, Unions, Worker Rights

Axles are to vehicles what joints are to human bodies: the mechanism that facilitates movement. For parts worker Rosie Dodge, who has worked on a paint line for American Axle & Manufacturing for 10 years, the metaphor is embodied in the work environment. “They just do not treat us like people,” Dodge said. “We are often referred to as bodies, like they don’t even want to give us credit for having a pulse. They do what they call ‘manpower moves,’ and they say, ‘We just need bodies over here.’” United Auto Workers Local 2093 members at American Axle, a parts supplier for the Big 3 automakers, in Three Rivers, Michigan, are in gear after authorizing a strike in a 98 percent vote ahead of their May 31 contract expiration.

Starbucks Is Bargaining Backwards, Baristas Say

April 16, 2026 Jenny Brown, Labor Notes. Resist! Contract Negotiations, Starbucks, Starbucks Workers, Unions

Union baristas are finally back to the negotiating table with Starbucks, but the workers charge that rather than progressing, the company is reopening already agreed-upon issues. “They're trying to move backwards on issues we've already settled instead of settling the few that we have left,” said Mina Leon, a barista in downtown Manhattan who struck for two months to get the company back to the table. “These were not small details, these were things that we had already fought for and won after months in bargaining in 2024,” said Jasmine Leli, a Buffalo, New York, barista and member of the Starbucks Workers United bargaining team.

Rural Kentucky Tenants Win Unprecedented Lease Agreement

April 16, 2026 Thomas Birmingham, In These Times. Strategize! Contract Negotiations, Kentucky, Renter Rights, Tenant Union

When yet another air conditioner in her apartment building broke down in early March, Heather Myatt braced herself and began her usual beeline for the property manager’s office. For more than a year, Myatt and her neighbors have been waging a war to secure long-overdue repairs at Maple Grove Apartments, an income-restricted building in Brandenburg, Ky. Being ignored had become routine for the tenants of Maple Grove; last summer, an elderly resident whose AC had been broken for two years, despite regular complaints to the building’s landlord, reportedly collapsed from the heat.

Letter Carriers Are Gearing Up For Another Contract Fight

March 5, 2026 Derek Dolbeare, Labor Notes. Organize! Contract Negotiations, Postal Workers, Unions, US Postal Service

Members of the Letter Carriers (NALC) have kicked off their next contract fight. Negotiations began February 25, and their current agreement expires in May. On Sunday, February 22, letter carriers held rallies across the U.S. as part of their “Fight Like Hell” campaign. By calling the national day of action, union leaders are responding to a simmering ground-up effort by members demanding a real contract campaign and more transparent bargaining. In past years members didn’t play much role, or get much information, until it was time to vote on a tentative agreement. But the success of a grassroots “vote no” movement last time made the union take notice.

Tennessee Volkswagen Workers Get Their First Union Contract

February 26, 2026 Stephen Bisaha, Portside. Resist! Contract Negotiations, Tennessee, The South, UAW, Unions, Worker Rights

It's been a long road to this contract. Workers initially voted twice against joining the union before casting ballots in favor in 2024, making this VW plant one of the few to unionize in the South, and the rare one that's not a member of the "Big 3" auto companies: Ford, General Motors and Stellantis. That was nearly two years ago and negotiations have dragged on since, with workers at one point granting the union the ability to call a strike if necessary. But contract talks were resolved in early February when the UAW and Volkswagen struck a tentative agreement, which the workers have now voted to approve, with 96% of them voting yes.

Forcing The Boss To Bargain—Even When They Don’t Have To

February 17, 2026 Carlos Perez and Allison Swaim, Labor Notes. Strategize! Collective bargaining, Contract Negotiations, Labor Movement, Worker Rights

North Carolina is one of six states that prohibit collective bargaining for public school staff. But unionized workers in two school districts have built enough bottom-up power to force their employers to “meet and confer,” a non-binding form of negotiation. Labor Notes’ Ellen David Friedman talked with Carlos Perez and Allison Swaim of the Durham Association of Educators, representing 5,000 teachers and classified staff. Ellen David Friedman: Durham is one of two districts in North Carolina that have achieved “meet-and-confer” status. How did you do it?

Portland Grocery Workers Score Big First Contract Win

January 23, 2026 Johanna Brenner, Labor Notes. Organize! Contract Negotiations, Grocery Workers, Oregon, Unions

Workers at the upscale grocery chain New Seasons have won a first contract, after more than three years of organizing. The contract covers 850 workers at the 10 stores in Portland, Oregon, that have joined the New Seasons Labor Union. The chain has 22 stores in Portland and Vancouver, Washington. The union won major raises. The lowest-paid members will see an immediate raise of 16.5 percent. More than 95 percent of members will make more than $20 an hour, with the median wage rising to $23.37. New hires will start at a minimum of $19, which will rise with annual cost-of-living adjustments.

Privatize USPS? Mail Carriers Have A Better Idea

December 18, 2025 Mel Buer, In These Times. Strategize! Contract Negotiations, Privatization, Unions, US Postal Workers

This week, we’re taking a more national focus, and checking in with the National Association of Letter Carriers, who have been embroiled in a years-long contract negotiation with the U.S. Postal Service. In our episode today, I’m sitting down with Melissa Rakestraw, member of the National Association of Letter Carriers, Branch 825 in Chicago, IL, to discuss the state of negotiations with our nation’s letter carriers, the unprecedented rejection of the recent tentative agreement and what happens next, and what would happen if the U.S. Postal Service was privatized.

One Battle After Another: The Big Contract Fights Coming In 2026

December 17, 2025 Keith Brower Brown and Natascha Elena Uhlmann, Labor Notes. Educate! Contract Negotiations, Strikes, Unions, Worker Rights

The coming year could keep the strikes rolling through steel mills, state offices, telephone lines, axle plants, baseball diamonds, and hospitals from coast to coast. Union contracts expiring in 2026 could open up major fights by manufacturing, education, entertainment, and government workers. The contract covering 20,000 Verizon workers in the Northeast and mid-Atlantic expires on August 1. Since their seven-week strike in 2016, the Communications Workers and Electrical Workers (IBEW) have agreed with the company on two contract extensions—but not this year.

‘Starbucks Is On The Ropes,’ Says SBWU President Lynne Fox

September 16, 2025 Lynne Fox, In These Times. Resist! Contract Negotiations, Starbucks, Strikes, Unions, Worker Rights and Jobs

Starbucks’ logo, the green siren, is ubiquitous, and its 40,000 stores occupy an estimated 80 million square feet of real estate globally. But that doesn’t make the company too big to fail. The next three months will determine the future of this iconic U.S. company. Chief Executive Officer Brian Niccol crossed his first anniversary in the position this week, on September 9. He was chosen to replace the previous CEO based on his reputation as a fixer amid declining sales and brand damage. At the time, he wrote this about union baristas: “If our partners choose to be represented, I am committed to making sure we engage constructively and in good faith with the union and the partners it represents.”

REI Union Members Win A Major Victory

August 16, 2025 Marie Kelly, Workers World. Strategize! Contract Negotiations, REI, Unions, Worker Rights

Union members at REI won a major victory when REI Co-op, the outdoor recreational gear specialty store, agreed to the demand to establish a national bargaining structure for the 11 unionized REI stores. The REI bargaining committee hailed the agreement as “a tremendous step forward in negotiating a first contract.” Workers at the 11 REI stores are represented by United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Locals 5, 663, 700, 1208, 1445 and 3000 and the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU) Locals 379 and 1102. First to unionize was the Soho store in New York City, followed by the store in Berkeley, California, in 2022.

Help Union Members Know Their Contract

August 6, 2025 John Green, Labor Notes. Organize! Contract Negotiations, Labor Movement, Unions, Worker Rights

Union contracts can be dense, legalistic, and shaped by unwritten past practices. Sometimes they’re not even in the first language of most employees. Yet if union members don’t know what their contract says, employers can rob workers of rights that the union won at the bargaining table. Here’s one way to ensure that workers really know what’s in their contract: Write a short, clear summary of the contract’s highlights—call it “Know Your Contract”—and use it to engage your co-workers. To generate a list of topics for your “Know Your Contract” quick reference guide, you might hold a short discussion at your next executive board or steward’s meeting. Ask participants: “What grievances keep popping up? What do we wish every member knew?” You’ll quickly generate a list of the issues most affecting people on the job right now.

8,000 Indiana Kroger Workers Vote Down Contract A Second Time

July 22, 2025 Caitlyn Clark, Labor Notes. Resist! Contract Negotiations, Grocery Workers, Krogers, Unions, Worker Rights

Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 700 members across Indiana voted on July 10 and 11 to reject a tentative agreement covering 8,000 Kroger retail workers. This is the second contract Kroger workers have rejected, after 74 percent voted down the first offer in May. Local 700 has not announced the vote percentage on the second tentative agreement. Kroger’s offer included a wage increase of just $0.90 over 3 years for starting pay, along with a $200 Kroger gift card that members called “insulting.” “That $200 gift card felt like a huge joke,” said Andrea Reynolds, a 27-year Kroger worker in Kokomo. “I couldn’t tell you how many contracts I’ve been through, and that is the lowest ratification ‘bonus’ we’ve ever had.”

Philly’s DC 33 Union To Vote On Agreement To End Historic Strike

July 21, 2025 R. Martin, Unicorn Riot. Strategize! Contract Negotiations, Philadelphia, Sanitation Workers, Strikes, Unions, Worker Rights and Jobs

Philadelphia, PA — American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) District Council 33 (DC 33), the city’s largest blue-collar union, launched a historic strike earlier this month, halting sanitation services on a scale not seen since 1986. Despite the pro-union image Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker wishes to project, legal injunctions were used to force many city employees back to work – creating pressure to end the strike. “The city was trying to pick us apart with injunctions all over the place,” requiring water department employees, 911 dispatchers, and city medical examiners to return to work immediately, DC 33 President Greg Boulware explained in a recent interview.

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