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union busting

What Starbucks Taught Me About Union-Busting

May 5, 2026 Jaz Brisack, Portside. , , ,
Howdy, y’all, I’m Steve Buckley, I work at the REI storedown in Soho, New York, and in 2022, me and my coworkers formed the first union in the history of REI.” A cheer erupted throughout the hall. I was among a large crowd of labor organizers and activists assembled in a New York City venue for the launch of a nonprofit called “Union Now,” spearheaded by union leaders Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants, and Faye Guenther, who heads UFCW Local 3000. Buckley was one of many worker-organizers—from campaigns ranging from Delta to Amazon to Microsoft—speaking to the urgent need for a union and the challenge of getting one

Faculty Fight Anti-Union Tactics At St. John’s University In New York

April 4, 2026 Eleanor J. Bader, Truthout. , , ,
Sixty-two years ago, St. John’s University (SJU) in New York City became the site of the first major faculty strike in U.S. history — a year-long conflict that followed the firing of 33 teachers, including three priests, without due process. Now, the struggle over labor conditions has forced the faculty to once again mobilize, a move precipitated by the current college administration’s abrupt announcement that it will no longer recognize two faculty unions or continue negotiations to hash out a new contract. St. John’s president, Rev. Brian J. Shanley, and Provost and Senior Vice President Simon Geir Møller, told the National Catholic Reporter (NCR) that the move was necessary to give the college “the flexibility required to innovate … and deliver on our promise to our students.”

Nurses In Ithaca Fight Union-Busting Ahead Of NLRB Election

January 13, 2026 Jason Villarruel, People's World. , , , ,
Ithaca, NY -On a frigid December morning a week before Christmas, Cayuga United—a nurses’ union at Cayuga Medical Center—held a rally on the front steps of the Ithaca Town Hall. Angela Grupe, a nurse at CMC, spoke to the crowd of community supporters gathered around. “So, we’ve all seen it before: The abusive relationship where one person has all the control. One person gets to make all the decisions; one person takes advantage of the other to benefit themselves. And when the abused finally tries to advocate for themselves, the abuser uses threats, lies, and manipulation to get their way. Today, the abuser we speak of is the management at Cayuga Medical Center….”

As Tenants Organize, Landlords Embrace Old-School Union-Busting

December 14, 2025 Rebecca Burns and Thomas Birmingham, In These Times. , , , ,
When a group of renters at New Haven, Connecticut’s Sunset Ridge apartments gathered last month to announce they had formed a tenants union, they were interrupted by some uninvited guests. Since September, Sunset Ridge tenant organizers had been going door-to-door speaking with neighbors about their living conditions, including persistent mold that’s the likely culprit behind a spate of respiratory illnesses in the 312-unit building. With the help of the Connecticut Tenants Union (CTTU), a statewide union of renters, the group collected signatures from more than 160 residents — enough to file for certification with the city

LEGO Tears Down Unionization Effort At Downtown Disney Store

December 10, 2025 Chauncey K. Robinson, People's World. , , , ,
Buena Park, CA — Usually, LEGO is associated with physically building things up, but in this case, workers are accusing the company of tearing down their chances of getting union representation. Employees at the Downtown Disney LEGO store are claiming that the company is using illegal union-busting tactics and violating their rights.  United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 324, the union supporting LEGO Store workers’ unionization efforts in Downtown Disney, announced on Friday, Dec. 5, that it has filed an unfair labor practice charge against LEGO.

Why Walmart Wants To See The Starbucks Barista Strike Fail

December 9, 2025 Derek Seidman, Truthout. , , , , ,
Thousands of Starbucks workers across a hundred cities are nearly one month into an expanding, nationwide unfair labor practice strike in protest of the coffee giant’s “historic union busting and failure to finalize a fair union contract,” according to Starbucks Workers United, the barista union that has spread to over 650 stores since its birth in Buffalo four years ago. The strike comes after years of illegal anti-union antics by Starbucks and follows a historic $39 million settlement announced on December 1 for more than 500,000 labor violations committed by Starbucks management in New York City since 2021.

Tenants Confront Landlord Disruption

December 2, 2025 Peter Fousek and Cameron Harrison, People's World. , , ,
The struggle over who controls the roof over a worker’s head erupted into open confrontation on the steps of New Haven City Hall last Thursday, as a newly formed public tenants union at Sunset Ridge Apartments faced down a landlord-backed “counter-demonstration.” The response by the landlord, Capital Reality, which included counter-protestors, police presence, and a union-busting law firm, highlights the growing battle between private equity and working-class renters in a national tenant organizing drive.

Our Siemens Union Drive Lost

October 15, 2025 Kyle Loewen, Labor Notes. , , ,
Workers at the Siemens Mobility manufacturing plant in Sacramento, where I worked, lost a unionization election in March, 838 to 538. While the result was disappointing, the joint campaign by Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 1245 and the Boilermakers represents the kind of organizing that the labor movement should double down on to reverse the tide of declining density in the private sector. Since 2019, elections covering units of more than 1,000 workers have accounted for less than 1 percent of those carried out through the National Labor Relations Board, and most of these have been in health care and higher education.

What’s At Stake: USC And LMU Push Back Against Untenured Faculty Unions

October 1, 2025 Julia Barajas, Portside. , , , ,
Last summer, after nearly two years of organizing, hundreds of untenured faculty at Loyola Marymount University celebrated the certification of their newly formed union. In a message to the campus community, Thomas Poon, who served as LMU’s executive vice president and provost, wrote: “We honor the will of our [non-tenure track] faculty and the perspectives they expressed throughout the election campaign.” The university, he added, “will continue to engage the union in good faith and with transparency.” Poon is now president of LMU and, earlier this month, he changed his tune. Poon announced Sept. 12 that the university’s board of directors decided to invoke a religious exemption to the National Labor Relations Act.

Kawasaki Workers On Strike In The Philippines, And Need Your Solidarity

September 5, 2025 Richard Balberan, Labor Notes. , , , ,
Kawasaki is trying to bust our union. Before negotiations stalled over wage demands in 2024, the Kawasaki United Labor Union (KULU) had represented workers at the Japanese motorcycle manufacturer’s Filipino operations for 57 years, winning good contracts for members, which kept wages strong and working conditions safe. But for the last year, management has refused to bargain seriously, forcing us out on strike for the first time in our union’s history. We’ve now been on strike for over 100 days. Management is now moving backwards in bargaining as part of their effort to break our union once and for all. They are threatening us with lawsuits and filing charges against union leadership for an “illegal strike” in an effort to intimidate us and to stop us from exercising our rights.

EBay Aims To Bust Trading Card Union With 200 Layoffs

June 4, 2025 Dan DiMaggio, Labor Notes. , , , ,
More than two years after voting in a union, the 220 workers at TCGplayer, the eBay-owned online marketplace for trading cards, hoped they might be getting close to securing a first contract. Instead, they’re fighting to save their jobs. On May 22, the company abruptly announced that it was shuttering its Syracuse, New York, authentication center and moving operations to Louisville, Kentucky. Spurred by unfair discipline and low pay, workers at TCGplayer became the first U.S. eBay workers to organize a union, joining Communications Workers Local 1123 in a March 2023 vote.

Buffalo Is A Union Town; For Hotel Workers Union-Busting Runs Rampant

April 28, 2025 Derek Seidman, Truthout. , , , ,
“They just look at you like you’re nothing,” said a housekeeper from the Hyatt Regency hotel in downtown Buffalo, New York. Sitting with me for a conversation in her East Side apartment, the housekeeper, who requested not to be named due to fear of retaliation, spoke of slashed hours and stagnant pay, arduous and unfair workloads, and racist treatment and verbal abuse from managers so severe that it has sent her running to the bathroom in tears. But when she spoke about the belittling gaze of her employers — the feeling that immigrant workers like herself are seen as “nothing” by the hotel’s management – her words seemed to capture the deep nature of her grievances.

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.
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