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union busting

PATCO’s Lessons For This Crisis

April 10, 2025 Joseph A. McCartin, Labor Notes. , , , ,
Donald Trump’s March 27 executive order revoking the collective bargaining rights of more than 700,000 federal workers is the largest act of union-busting in U.S. history. The closest historical parallel is Ronald Reagan’s busting and decertification of the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization. When 12,000 air traffic controllers initiated an illegal strike on August 3, 1981, and stayed out in defiance of Reagan’s ultimatum, the federal government came down on them with all its might. Many PATCO leaders were arrested, the union was bankrupted and decertified, and the strikers were permanently replaced and banned for life from returning to the Federal Aviation Administration.

Will Federal Workers Rediscover Their Militancy?

April 2, 2025 Joseph A. McCartin, Dissent Magazine. , , , ,
On March 27, President Donald Trump summarily overturned decades of federal labor relations policy and stripped more than 700,000 government workers of their union rights with a stroke of his sharpie. His executive order Exclusions from Federal Labor-Management Relations Programs, which effectively voided union contracts at dozens of departments and agencies, constitutes by far the largest and most aggressive single act of union-busting in U.S. history. The stated rationale for Trump’s order—that the targeted workers are in agencies that affect national security and they therefore are ineligible for union representation—is flimsily transparent.

Florida’s Union-Busting Regime: A Report From The Front Lines

March 20, 2025 Jenn Powell, Labor Notes. , , ,
Organizing in the South has always been challenging, and Florida’s latest union-busting legislation has only made it harder. Public sector unions had successfully fought off these attacks for years, but the tide turned in May 2023. The new law imposed severe restrictions: requiring public sector unions to maintain 60 percent membership, banning payroll dues deductions, and mandating a cumbersome four-page membership form. Notably, police, fire, and corrections unions were exempt. We left the State Capitol before the ink was dry and returned home to start organizing.

DHS Moves To End Collective Bargaining For TSA Officers

March 11, 2025 Justin Doubleday, Federal News Network. , , , , ,
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is moving to end collective bargaining for tens of thousands of Transportation Security Administration airport screeners, less than a year after TSA’s workforce inked a landmark labor agreement. The Department of Homeland Security announced plans “ending collective bargaining” for TSA’s transportation screening officers in a press release today. The DHS public affairs office cast the move as increasing efficiency, safety and “organizational agility.” It charged that a “select few poor performers” are taking advantage of the agreement’s family and sick leave policy.

Amazon Stokes Racial Divides In Lead-Up To Union Vote

February 12, 2025 Natascha Elena Uhlmann, Labor Notes. , , , ,
Four thousand workers at a North Carolina Amazon warehouse are voting February 10-15 on whether to unionize with Carolina Amazonians United for Solidarity & Empowerment. RDU1, in the town of Garner, outside Raleigh, would be the second unionized Amazon warehouse in the United States. It’s an ambitious campaign. The workers are organizing across racial and ethnic divides, through constant turnover, in deeply hostile terrain. At 2.4 percent, North Carolina’s union density is the lowest in the country. They’ll also need to overcome widespread fear of something Amazon is notorious for: retaliation.

Amazon Lays Off 4,500 Workers In Quebec To Bust Their Union

February 8, 2025 François L’Écuyer, Labor Notes. , , , , ,
Faced with the prospect of being forced to sign a labor contract as early as this summer, Amazon has gone to extreme lengths to evade its obligations under Quebec’s labor code. On January 22, it announced it is closing all seven of its warehouses in Quebec and outsourcing their operations. Is Amazon closing shop? Not really. It will continue selling its wares online in Quebec; It’s just that warehousing and delivery will now be handled by third-party contractors. But the 4,700 layoffs are very real: 1,900 Amazon employees across the seven warehouses are losing their jobs, including the 230 workers at DXT4, which became the first Amazon facility in Canada to unionize in May 2024.

From Pickets To Power: Lessons From The Amazon Walk-Outs

December 30, 2024 Luigi Morris, Left Voice. , , ,
On December 18, incoming President Donald Trump hosted Elon Musk and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos for dinner at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida. After years of tension, Bezos was eager to build a closer relationship with Trump. He had just donated $1 million to Trump’s inauguration, praised him for his “energy around reducing regulation,” and also kept the Washington Post from endorsing a presidential candidate, which showed his willingness to deal with Trump on good terms. But as they enjoyed their luxurious dinner, Amazon workers were finalizing plans for the largest worker action across the country in the company’s history, set to begin the following day.

Anti-Union Captive Meetings Are Now Illegal

November 24, 2024 Bob Funk, Portside. , , , ,
On Tuesday of last week, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ruled that mandatory meetings in which employees are forced to listen to employer diatribes concerning their labor rights are unlawful. The mandatory meetings are often referred to as “captive audience meetings.” Designed to halt union organizing momentum and scare workers into voting against unions, such meetings are a key tactic in bosses’ anti-union playbook and devastating for organizing workers trying to better their lives. In 2022, NLRB general counsel Jennifer Abruzzo issued a memo in which she announced that she would ask the NLRB to find captive audience meetings unlawful.

Wall Street Took Over A Vital Sign Language Service

November 24, 2024 Sarah Lazare, In These Times. , , , , , ,
“Do no harm” is the guiding principle of American Sign Language (ASL) interpreters’ professional code of conduct. But when Joe Klug, 28, worked as a Video Relay Service (VRS) interpreter for a Twin Cities metro area office of Purple Communications, he says this principle was routinely violated. The VRS field, which allows Deaf and Hard of Hearing people to make phone calls by video interfacing with interpreters, is difficult and fast-paced work. While some calls are social, others can be serious: medical emergencies, job interviews, jargon-heavy discussions with lawyers or sensitive conversations with doctors.

College Park MOM’s Workers Reject Effort To Oust Union

November 20, 2024 UFCW Local 400. , , , ,
College Park, MD - United Food & Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 400 Union announced workers at the MOM’s Organic Market in College Park, Md. have resoundingly voted down an effort to decertify the union at the store. The attempt to oust the union was backed by the National Right to Work Committee, an anti-union organization based in Northern Virginia. Workers resoundingly rejected the effort and voted 22–9 in favor of remaining unionized with UFCW Local 400. “We know MOM’s can be a better place to work and the best way to make that happen is to stand together and collectively demand the change we need.

Union-Busting New York City Restaurant Faces Day In Court

November 12, 2024 Noah Kenner, Left Voice. , , , ,
Workers at Lodi, the pricey Italian restaurant in Rockefeller Plaza, are continuing their struggle to gain recognition as part of the Restaurant Workers Union. In fall 2022, workers began organizing, leading to an overwhelming 75 percent of the workers signing union cards. In January 2023, organizers went public with a letter to management stating their demands. Their demands look to improve conditions for all workers at Lodi and safeguard their livelihoods. Workers are demanding wage increases to account for past inflation and cost-of-living-adjustments to protect them in the future.

Plant Eligible For $2 Billion In Public Funds Is Union Busting

September 5, 2024 Kalena Thomhave, Portside. , , , ,
When Stan Upshaw got a job at Eos Energy Enterprises Inc. in 2020, he hoped for good pay and benefits, like the ones that went to union workers who decades ago built American manufacturing. After all, Eos’ zinc battery plant in the Pittsburgh suburb of Turtle Creek had already received a nearly $400 million conditional loan guarantee from the Department of Energy, as well as millions in subsidies through the Inflation Reduction Act. At Eos, Upshaw said he didn’t see the “good clean jobs” the act was meant to create. Instead, he saw management ignore seniority — and force workers to train new supervisors rather than promote from within, he said.

A Landmark Federal Ruling Against Union-Busting Has Boosted Organizing

August 27, 2024 Gabriel Thompson, Scheer Post. , , ,
Five years ago, after a majority of workers at Red Rock Resort in Las Vegas signed cards to join the Culinary Workers Union, supervisors marched them into a series of mandatory meetings. The company promised employees free health care and new retirement benefits if they voted down the union, and vowed to drag out negotiations if the union won.

DHL Workers Crush Corporate Union-Busting, Win Historic Victory

August 19, 2024 Fight Back! News. , , , , , ,
Cincinnati, OH – Workers at DHL’s largest air hub in the United States made history on Monday, August 12. DHL, bowing to months of escalating pressure after a two-year organizing campaign, officially recognized the union formed by over 1300 sort workers at the company’s Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport (CVG) hub. Now unionized, the sort workers at CVG have joined Teamsters Local 89. James Lamb, a sort worker at CVG and a new member of Local 89, said in a press statement, “DHL has recognized the strength in our unity and the hard work we put in every day. We‘ve fought hard, and we’re proud to be officially recognized as Teamsters.

UAW Admits Digital Heavy, Organizing Committee Light Approach Failed Them

May 27, 2024 Mike Elk, Payday Report. , , , , , ,
Rather than using traditional organizing committee structures, the UAW relied heavily on digital meetings, a light staff approach from the international union, and getting workers to sign union cards via QR codes. Given the positive media coverage of the UAW in the “Stand Up Strike,” many UAW leaders were confident they could win using this approach. After filing with 70%, the UAW believed they would maintain their margin and win at similar margins to the 73% victory of UAW workers in Chattanooga. However, the UAW lost 44%-56% in Alabama amid charges that the company used backroom manipulation tactics against workers.
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