Posts tagged Arizona
CA Farmworkers’ Right to Unionize by Mail May Change
March 8, 2023 // If a majority voted to unionize, the employer had to recognize the union. Labor advocates say this process poses significant barriers for farmworker unionization, as many workers fear employer retaliation. More than half of California’s farmworkers are undocumented. Also a 2021 Supreme Court decision put limits on union organizers’ access to growers’ property. Farmworkers are not covered by the union protections afforded most other workers under the National Labor Relations Act. California’s agricultural workers didn’t gain the right to unionize until 1975, when Gov. Jerry Brown signed the Agricultural Labor Relations Act, after years of United Farm Workers activism to improve work conditions.
Which States Are Best for Remote Workers?
March 2, 2023 // Remote work has proliferated as a work arrangement since the COVID-19 pandemic began in 2020. While its popularity has declined since its Spring 2020 peak, remote work remains far more common today than it was before the pandemic (see Figure 1). Research from Nicholas Bloom and others found that last month, nearly 13 percent of workers were fully remote, and an additional 28 percent worked in a hybrid arrangement.
Goldwater Institute warns Phoenix and Tempe of potential union dues violations
February 27, 2023 // Phoenix City Code Section 2-214 restricts the time frame to leave the union to only two weeks out of the year. In addition, multiple memoranda of understanding have been made between the city and labor organizations. Among these groups is the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, Local 2960. Arizona’s Right to Work laws contain even more restrictions, forbidding entities from imposing “the requirement that any person participate in any form or design of union membership.”
Smart & Final warehouse workers vote to unionize
February 15, 2023 // Last November, the Teamsters union said its members ratified a new contract covering 1,500 warehouse workers and truck drivers at The Kroger Co., providing improvements in wages, benefits, and working conditions. A report from Bloomberg law, meanwhile, found that the United Food and Commercial Workers union, which represents 835,000 grocery workers in the U.S. and Canada, more than doubled its victory count in 2022, winning 111 of its 158 elections. That compares with 51 victories in 74 elections in 2021.
‘It’s about damn time’: College workers organize amid nationwide labor unrest
February 8, 2023 // A historic strike at the University of California kicked things off in November. And the six-week standoff among 48,000 campus workers, a broader surge in labor strikes across industries, a depleted pandemic workforce and a friendlier atmosphere in Washington has culminated in a wave of uprisings.+
Perspective: National teachers’ unions aren’t on your side
January 17, 2023 //
AZ University Workers Ask for Better Pay, Working Conditions
January 3, 2023 // The United Campus Workers of Arizona group says contingent faculty make up the majority of all faculty appointments at both schools. Reed said that means being hired on short-term contracts with no guarantee of renewal. "There is a lot of precarity in these teaching positions," said Reed, "and that, of course, influences students' learning, so that students can't really count on having instructors teaching particular courses. There's just a lot of uncertainty." The union members want more job stability in the form of multi-year contracts, as well as paths to promotion. UCW Arizona is collecting signatures before presenting the petitions to each university's respective president and the Arizona Board of Regents
19 Republican governors oppose proposed Project Labor Agreement rule
October 31, 2022 // Nineteen Republican governors wrote a letter to President Joe Biden (D) on October 17, 2022, opposing a proposed federal rule to mandate the use of Project Labor Agreements (PLAs) for federal construction projects. The letter was signed by governors from Arkansas, Alabama, Arizona, Georgia, Iowa, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, and Wyoming. The proposed rule follows an executive order that was signed by Biden in February 2022 that aimed to require PLAs for large-scale construction projects. A group of Republican governors wrote a letter in April 2022 opposing the executive order, arguing that it granted a monopoly to unions and discouraged competition. The proposed rule would amend the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) to implement the executive order and mandate the use of PLAs for federal construction contracts exceeding $35 million.
Strike ends as Teamsters vote 215-2 for new deal with Sysco Boston
October 21, 2022 // “Corporations will fear the Teamsters,” Teamsters General President Sean M. O’Brien said in the statement. “Their ability to hold down our members is over. The Teamsters are ending it. Any company that bullies workers will be met with the full firepower of this union. Our momentum cannot be stopped. We still have open contracts around the country, and we will strike again and again to protect our members.” “As a result, and as part of the Sysco Boston agreement, the company agreed to withdraw all of its lawsuits and [National Labor Relations Board] charges,” the statement continued.
Why Teachers Are Going on Strike This Fall—and What Could Come Next
September 21, 2022 //