Posts tagged Amazon
Teamsters Test the Bounds of the NLRB’s Cemex Decision, Seeking to Unionize Amazon Workers Without an Election
November 13, 2024 // Teamsters allege that Amazon’s failure to voluntarily recognize the union or timely file an RM Petition warrants the issuance of a bargaining order requiring Amazon to bargain with the union. Although the procedure employed by Teamsters permits the union to bypass procedural steps in order to quickly gain recognition and begin bargaining, Amazon’s willingness to litigate in order to prevent the organization of its facilities makes it unlikely that Teamsters will be at the bargaining table anytime soon.
COMMENTARY: US Postal Workers Are Fighting Massive Service Cuts
November 11, 2024 // Thousands of US Postal Service jobs are at stake under Postmaster General Louis DeJoy’s modernization plan, which would close 200 mail processing plants and funnel all mail to 60 mega-plants. Postal workers are organizing to stop the plan.
Amazon ordered to let workers vote on unionizing — for the 3rd time
November 7, 2024 // Amazon says it plans to appeal the ruling. "This decision is wrong on the facts and the law," Spokesperson Mary Kate Paradis said in a statement. She criticized the labor board and the union for "trying to force a third vote instead of accepting the facts and the will of our team members."
A Doc On How Amazon Workers Unionized Drew Critics’ Praise, But No Major Takers to Distribute
October 23, 2024 // The plan the group has put in place is unabashedly pro-union; it’s unclear if it ever would have been greenlit by a major entertainment company. The film will screen once or a few times in cities chosen because of partners on the ground (in Detroit, for instance, the screening is sponsored the Metro-Detroit Coalition of Labor Union Women and several University of Michigan programs) and/or because these cities are in proximity to Amazon warehouses. Several of these screenings include post-film Q&As, such as in Columbia, Missouri, where the discussion will focus on local cannabis workers’ push to unionize. The filmmakers are offering reduced ticket prices to labor partners and union members in most markets. The strategy is “tied to where the impact was strongest,” says Tuckman.
Acting Labor Secretary Julie Su Criticizes Donald Trump’s Labor Record at IOP
October 22, 2024 // Though Su declined to address the former president by name, she argued that “hypothetically,” opposition to overtime pay, sexual harassment, and support for Elon Musk are incompatible with a “pro-worker” position. “I don’t care how many McDonald’s drive-throughs you pretend to work at,” Su said, referencing Trump’s Sunday visit to a Philadelphia McDonald’s where he served fries and answered questions through the drive-through window. Su was joined by Sara Nelson, the president of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, AFL-CIO to discuss the future of the American Labor Movement. Brett Story and Stephen Maing, directors of “UNION”— a documentary film that followed the unionization of Amazon workers in Staten Island, New York — were also on the panel.
Commentary: The NLRB’s “Laboratory Conditions” Are Overdue for Inspection
October 7, 2024 // In several lines of precedent since the passage of the 1947 Taft-Hartley amendments, courts have ignored or glossed over this textual problem and have allowed the NLRB to police campaign misconduct quite closely. Most relevant here is the doctrine first announced in General Shoe Corporation. The Shoe Workers Union objected to its election loss at a plant in Pulaski, Tennessee, and charged the employer with co-extensive unfair labor practices. The employer’s president was shown to have lectured employees personally about their union support. Finding that no unfair labor practice had been proven, the Board nevertheless set aside the Union’s loss,
“Warehouse Worker Protection Act” Reintroduced with Bipartisan Support
October 2, 2024 // The bill imposes restrictions on employers’ use of productivity quotas to measure workers’ performance or output and includes substantial notice requirements to workers on the use of such quotas, discipline for failing to meet the quotas, and workers’ rights under the act, among other things. It mandates breaks for covered workers and recordkeeping obligations for employers. The WWPA also requires the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to issue two new rulemakings and creates a new category of unfair labor practices under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). It also expands the federal bureaucracy by creating a Quota Task Force as well as the Fairness and Transparency Office within the Department of Labor. This legislation is a thinly-veiled attack on large companies like Amazon that the Democratic Party and labor organizations do not support. The original sponsors of the WWPA were Senators Markey, Bob Casey (D-PA), and Tina Smith (D-MN). The cosponsors now include Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Laphonza Butler (D-CA), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Hawley, Alex Padilla (D-CA), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), and Peter Welch (D-VT).
US labor watchdog pressures Trader Joe’s to bargain with New York union
September 26, 2024 // The general counsel of the US’s top labor watchdog is seeking an order demanding that Trader Joe’s recognize and bargain with the union, Trader Joe’s United, amid allegations that employees were threatened and disparaged from unionizing. Under a framework introduced by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) last year, employers can be ordered to bargain with a union if they commit unfair labor practices that would set aside the results of a union ballot.
Why the protests at American Dream? Workers try to unionize, clash with employers
September 19, 2024 // They’re cleaning staff trying to organize and join part of the union 32BJ Service Employees International Union, and they’ve been protesting the treatment of several of their fellow workers at American Dream. Among their grievances, 32BJ alleged that two people working at the mall as cleaning staff — Jose Terán and Luis Verela — were fired because of their union organizing efforts by HSA Cleaning, a company the mall contracted for cleaning services.
Can Distributed Organizing Unionize Millions?
September 17, 2024 // Together with similarly bottom-up union campaigns like Starbucks Workers United (SBWU) and the reformed UAW’s organizing across Southern automakers, EWOC has demonstrated the viability of a new strategy of seeding unionization efforts, rather than passively waiting for workers to reach out (“hot-shopping”) or exclusively organizing pre-chosen workplaces (“strategic targeting”). Along these lines, Svoboda describes EWOC’s proactive efforts to provide organizing tools to as many workers as possible as “planting seeds of worker power.”