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27,000 Virginia Education Workers Win Union Recognition

June 13, 2024 Tn Long, Portside. , , , , ,
Around 14,000 teachers and 13,000 support staff will now be represented by an alliance of the Fairfax County locals of the National Education Association (NEA) and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT). This win increases union density in Virginia by at least 15%, per the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The election victories were for the two bargaining units within the FEU: the Licensed Instructional Unit, covering all workers requiring a license, such as teachers, counselors, social workers, psychologists, librarians, and speech language pathologists; and the Operational Unit for workers such as various kinds of assistants, cafeteria workers, custodians, transportation workers, and front office staff.

Workers At Defense Contractors Navigate Dissent Over Gaza War

June 11, 2024 Taylor Barnes, Inkstick. , , , , ,
When an engineer started a new job last year at Northrop Grumman, America’s third-largest defense contractor, their training included vague guidance about political speech in the workplace. In a section of the online training regarding etiquette, the company instructed employees to not discuss politics at work in order to prevent a “hostile work environment.” The online training went on to present a fictional scenario that the engineer shared with Inkstick: “Jane is involved in a political action group outside of work. She sometimes brings up the goals of the group and current events associated with it at work. Sometimes she asks her colleagues if they want to be involved, which makes some colleagues feel pressured or uneasy around her.”

Threat Of Canadian Rail Strike Looms After Bid For Conciliation Fails

June 11, 2024 Charlotte Goldstone, The Loadstar. , , , ,
Last week’s meetings between the Teamsters union (TCRC) and Canadian National Railway (CN) were abandoned less than halfway through, as the parties refuse to see eye-to-eye. Rail workers at CN and Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPKC) were set to strike on 22 May, but a request from the government for the Canada Industrial Relations Board (CIRB) to “review if a strike could endanger public safety” put this on pause. The CIRB process does not impact continued bargaining, and last week TCRC and CN planned three days of meetings with the participation of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Services.

Museum Workers Win Demand To Shut Down For RNC In Milwaukee

June 9, 2024 Fight Back! News!. , , , ,
Milwaukee, WI – Milwaukee Public Museum (MPM) employees represented by their union, AFSCME Local 526, are celebrating a decisive victory in their campaign for workplace safety during the Republican National Convention. In a statement, the union said it “presented a list of proposals to MPM administration that would prioritize the rights and safety of MPM employees during the RNC, which will be held just blocks away from MPM. The Union asked MPM not to host organizations or individuals whose actions are inconsistent with MPM’s values, and that employees suffer no loss of wages or additional transportation expenses during the RNC, among other workplace-specific issues.”

Bosses Want To Fix The Worker, Unions Want To Fix The Job

June 9, 2024 Jay Herzmark, Labor Notes. , , ,
Unions and bosses have different outlooks on safety. Employers say illnesses and injuries are caused by worker carelessness: he didn’t look where he was going; she wasn’t using correct lifting technique. That’s the way the boss wants you to think, too. But the union realizes that it’s the hazards themselves that cause injuries, and that it’s the boss who sets up the workplace, either designing in hazards or failing to design them out. Blind corners and high shelving make it hard to avoid collisions; overloaded boxes on low shelves forces awkward bending. Emphasize these different outlooks with workers.

We Want A Labor Law That Protects All Farm Workers

June 8, 2024 Sarah Tucker, The Stand. , , ,
Seattle - Farm workers at Windmill Mushroom traveled to Seattle on Wednesday to shed light on their years-long struggle for dignity and respect – and to urge lawmakers to pass legislation to ensure farmworker labor rights. Accompanied by United Farm Workers President Teresa Romero and joined by state legislators, farm workers spoke passionately about their fight to unionize and the need for labor laws that protect all farm workers, organized or not. The workers have been organizing together for more than two years at Windmill Farms – formerly Ostrom – fighting back against intense pressure and retaliation from the boss.

Teamsters And Amazon Labor Union Announce Affiliation

June 6, 2024 Luis Feliz Leon, Labor Notes. , , , ,
The Amazon Labor Union and the Teamsters have signed an affiliation agreement. “Today is an historical day for labor in America as we now combine forces with one of the most powerful unions to take on Amazon together,” wrote ALU President Chris Smalls on Twitter, now called X. “We’re putting Amazon on notice that we are coming!” Smalls and Teamsters President Sean O’Brien signed the agreement on June 3, according to a copy obtained by Labor Notes. The affiliation agreement charters a new local known as Amazon Labor Union No. 1, International Brotherhood of Teamsters (ALU-IBT Local 1) for the five boroughs of New York City.

Low Voltage Electricians Strike For The First Time In Unit’s History

June 5, 2024 Jorge Torres, Labor Notes. , , ,
Members of the limited energy construction unit of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 46 in Seattle will be voting June 6 on the latest offer from the contractors’ association, after nearly eight weeks on an unprecedented strike. The current offer includes wages far below the union’s original demand, nothing on paid holidays except an exploratory committee that might not meet until September—and giving up the right to go on strike ever again. The 1,023 members of the limited energy unit—mostly specialty electricians, and a few installers—have been on strike since April 11, in an unexpected shake-up of standard-practice contract negotiations.

Starbucks Resumes Bargaining Amid Fresh Wave Of Unionized Stores

June 3, 2024 Michael Sainato, The Guardian. , , , ,
Starbucks has resumed bargaining with union leaders amid a fresh wave of organized stores after the world’s largest coffee chain agreed to open talks over labor agreements. After a long, embittered campaign, the Seattle-based coffee giant jointly announced a new framework with Workers United in February to reach contracts with unionized stores. Bargaining got under way on Wednesday, and is due to continue on Thursday. Since baristas in Buffalo successfully formed the first unionized US Starbucks store in December 2021, an organizing drive by Starbucks Workers United has spread nationwide, to more than 425 Starbucks stores in 43 states, representing over 10,500 workers.

UAW Local 4811’s Stand-Up Strike Grows By 12,000

June 1, 2024 Hannah Bowlus, In These Times. , , , , , ,
Twelve thousand academic workers at UCLA and UC Davis are poised to walk off the job Tuesday morning as part of an historic strike in solidarity with Palestine. The workers — 6,400 at the University of California, Los Angeles and 5,700 at the University of California, Davis — are members of United Auto Workers Local 4811, which represents 48,000 academic workers across the University of California (UC) system. “We’re taking this … unprecedented action because of the university’s serious, unfair labor practices (ULP), which really go to the heart of our rights for freedom of speech and protest, and the ability to take collective action,” Local 4811 President Rafael Jaime told In These Times ahead of Tuesday’s walkout.

European Farmers Shun Anti-Green Deal Protest In Brussels

June 1, 2024 Katharina Wecker, DeSmog. , , , , , ,
Europe’s largest farming unions representing millions of agricultural workers have rejected calls to join next week’s protest against EU green reforms, DeSmog can reveal. Smaller groups have also shunned the demo – some wanting to avoid the prospect of violence, others claiming they didn’t know it was happening. Preparations for the June 4 demo have been ramping up ahead of the start of the EU elections next Thursday, with protesters set to gather in Brussels days before European citizens head to the polls. The hardline Dutch group Farmers Defence Force (FDF) has urged farmer “warriors” to attend the demo, with its spokesperson claiming: “we are defending the rights of farmers and the standards of the European Union as it’s supposed to be”.

How Tens Of Thousands Of Graduate Workers Are Organizing

May 30, 2024 Valentina Luketa, Labor Notes. , , , ,
It’s the biggest organizing wave the U.S. labor movement has seen in decades. Graduate workers are unionizing in huge numbers, winning drive after drive with 90 percent support or more. What’s more, the workers are in the driver’s seat of these campaigns, with little help from union staff. Most union organizing these days relies on a staff-heavy approach that’s tough to scale up. But the grad worker upsurge offers a sketch of a worker-led model that could help reverse labor’s decline. The United Electrical Workers (UE) alone has organized close to 30,000 graduate workers over the past year and a half. We’ve won elections at eight major universities, including MIT and the University of Minnesota.

Union Power Can Change Campus Protests Forever

May 29, 2024 Hamilton Nolan, In These Times. , , , , , , ,
Strikes are different from protests. Though protesters frequently say that they are making ​“demands,” it is more accurate to say they are making requests. Protests rely on persuasion. Their persuasion may be gentle, or it may be aggressive. It may rely on moral shaming to get its point across, or it may rely on the elevation of awareness, or it may rely on the pure intimidation of numbers. But protests, for all of their righteous fury and necessity, lack the legal ability to shut things down until change is achieved. Strikers, on the other hand, can truly make demands. Their proposition is simple: No work will get done until a change is made.

Over 400 Physicians From Delaware’s Christiana Care Move To Unionize

May 29, 2024 Jennifer Henderson, MedPage Today. , , , ,
More than 400 physicians from Delaware's Christiana Hospital, Wilmington Hospital, and Middletown Free-standing Emergency Department -- all part of the ChristianaCare health system -- filed to unionize with Doctors Council SEIU Local 10MD. "If successful, this will be the first physician union in Delaware and the first union of any kind at ChristianaCare," Doctors Council SEIU said in an announcement of the filing, which pointed to the ongoing corporatization of medicine as driving the physicians' efforts. Some of the specific concerns that physicians detailed in regard to their filing included understaffing and inadequate resources, corporate influence on medical decision making, limited input in matters affecting patient care and physician safety and autonomy, and moral injury caused by pressure to place profit over patients.

Awful Conditions In New Postal Hubs Create Opening For Resistance

May 29, 2024 Jamie Partridge, Labor Notes. , , , ,
For three years, rank-and-file postal workers and community allies have been fighting Postmaster General Louis DeJoy’s Ten-Year Plan to Amazonify the postal service. DeJoy’s overall goal is eliminating jobs by installing huge new automated parcel sorting machines. For letter carriers, the biggest immediate impact of his multi-pronged plan is relocating many from neighborhood post offices to massive new Sorting and Delivery Centers. Over the next few years 600 of these hubs would be set up, impacting 6,000 post offices and 100,000 routes. Under pressure from Senators, DeJoy announced May 13 that he will pause another part of the plan, the consolidation of mail processing plants, at least until next January—a big win for our side.
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