Posts tagged Arizona
US unions see unusually promising moment amid wave of victories
March 16, 2022 // Gebre said the nation’s unions should send far more organizers and money to back the union drives at Starbucks and Amazon. “The rest of the labor movement should be willing to lend a hand,” even if they don’t get any of the members, said Gebre, who was recently named Greenpeace’s chief program officer. “That’s what solidarity means.”
SEIU DROPS ITS FRONT IN UNIONIZING STARBUCKS
March 7, 2022 // Proponents had insisted that the movement, which now extends to 103 stores, was a homespun phenomenon arising spontaneously throughout the chain’s domestic arm. The narrative held that the baristas-turned-organizers were union neophytes who discovered they shared a desire to have more say on the brand’s direction and store operations, without any choreography from an outside labor force. Few reports even mentioned that the activist employees were receiving advice or financial support from Service Employees International Union (SEIU) through its Workers United affiliate.
‘Just transition’ bill for oil industry workers exposes labor rift
February 27, 2022 // Trades leaders say that beginning to dismantle the industry now will only push workers into lower-paid jobs. Instead, Trades officials say, the state should invest in big-ticket infrastructure projects such as high-speed rail and offshore wind projects that will create comparable jobs to what workers have been doing for decades.
In The Worker Empowerment Movement, Starbucks Employees Are Starting To Embrace Unions
February 27, 2022 // A common, unifying theme is that workers feel that they are being taken advantage of, forced to work long hours for low wages and treated rudely by their unsympathetic managers. These workers are pushing back against poor pay, unpleasant working conditions and a lack of respect from management. Once they’ve left, many take their time to seek out new types of opportunities that offer meaningful work and a path to advance.

Sinema has a golden opportunity to stand with small businesses
February 16, 2022 // The first item on the list, the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act, would upend American labor law to boost cratering union membership. The bill does this by nullifying right-to-work laws nationwide, which prohibit employers from forcing their employees to join a union as a condition of employment. The PRO Act also makes it nearly impossible to work as an independent contractor by codifying California’s ABC test, threatening the 59 million Americans that engage in freelance work.
5 states sue Biden over minimum wage hike for federal contractors
February 10, 2022 // The states — Arizona, Idaho, Indiana, Nebraska and South Carolina — argue President Biden overstepped his authority when he signed an executive order mandating the minimum wage last April. The order went into effect Jan. 30.
Starbucks union push spreads to 54 stores in 19 states
January 31, 2022 // At Starbucks, the pro-union workers have advocated for better staffing, training and pay, seeking a direct line to company management. Buffalo workers have joined Workers United, affiliated with the massive Service Employees International Union.
Will the Starbucks union victories ignite organizing across the country?
January 17, 2022 // All this activism could simply evaporate — just another false dawn for unions — but it's also possible that we're at the dawn of a new era, one in which the working underclass is drawn, like the industrial workers of the 1930s, into the mainstream and the labor movement is empowered. But does being unionized then become just one more attribute of being a barista? Or does union success at Starbucks signal a nationwide organizing wave across the low-wage service sector? 2022 might just be the year we see the beginnings of a new American labor movement.
MORE STARBUCKS UNITS LOOK TO UNIONIZE
December 14, 2021 // the operators of three independent coffee shops in Massachusetts have voluntarily agreed to recognize union representation of their employees.
PRO Act allies hit the road
December 6, 2021 // Our Revolution, the progressive advocacy group Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) launched in 2016, Communications Workers Association, and the Worker Power Coalition, which includes several national unions, kick off a nationwide tour today aimed at rallying lawmakers around the Protecting the Right to Organize Act, Democrats’ wide-reaching bill that would make it easier for workers to join unions.