Posts tagged bargaining unit
Harvard Grad Union Agrees To Bargain Without Ground Rules
April 2, 2025 // Without formal policies, the Harvard Graduate Students Union-United Auto Workers has not ruled out bringing rank-and-file members to sessions. But the decision to forgo basic bargaining policies also sets the stage for an even more contentious set of negotiations than for the union’s two previous contracts, which were both negotiated with ground rules and both resulted in a strike. “We are planning on having our bargaining team present at the sessions,” bargaining committee member Alexis R. Miranda said. “Anything else beyond that, we’re not sure at this point.”
Liberty Justice Center Files Three New Lawsuits to Protect the Rights of Government Employees Against Public-Sector Unions
March 13, 2025 // "Public-sector unions continue to place barriers for government employees who wish to stop being union members and stop paying union dues in ways that violate the Supreme Court’s Janus decision.” said Jeffrey Schwab, Senior Counsel at the Liberty Justice Center. “And although those unions are supposed to only collect dues from members, these unions often refuse to be held accountable by their own members for how they spend those dues.”
Bus Driver Asks National Labor Relations Board to Overturn “Merger Doctrine” Used by Union Bosses to Block Worker-Requested Votes
February 19, 2025 // Because employees are suddenly part of a much larger and frequently geographically-dispersed “bargaining unit” with workers they have never met and likely don’t even know the names of, once “merged” it becomes effectively impossible for employees to ever reach the 30% threshold of signatures needed to trigger decertificiation or deauthorization elections
Opinion: Help! We’re Trapped in a Trader Joe’s Union
October 28, 2024 // But the union hasn’t been what many of our co-workers expected. The officers basically selected themselves. They then delayed negotiations with Trader Joe’s while forfeiting our annual bonus retirement contribution. Amid growing discontent in the store, the two of us attended a bargaining session in February 2023, which the union president invited all crew members to join. We were shocked at what we saw. We thought the union would focus on things that matter, like wages and benefits. Instead, union representatives negotiated over things like “pronoun pins,” which the company already provides. They demanded that Trader Joe’s cover abortion and “gender-affirming care.” The company’s response: The health plan already covers that.
The Union Members Who Never Voted for Their Union
September 10, 2024 // Reform federal labor law to require a secret-ballot election for unionization, as the Employee Rights Act would do. A 2022 survey showed that 70 percent of Americans — and 76 percent of union households — support this concept. At present, unions can succeed without support from a majority of its workforce when only a tiny portion of eligible employees vote in the election. For example, the NLRB is considering certifying an election in California in which just three employees out of 24 voted to unionize. A fourth voted against the union, and the rest did not vote. Federal labor law should require a quorum — such as two-thirds of all eligible voters — in order for an election result to be upheld. Such a requirement is popular: Eighty-four percent of Americans support this idea.
Parity in Labor Transparency
April 24, 2024 // The institutional left has sought to reward Big Labor by making union organizing campaigns shorter, or bypassing them with “card check.” Big Labor knows that the dynamics of union organizing rely on labor unions being able to make their pitches to workers from trusted positions without skeptical responses from other workers or employer representatives. And they only need to win the vote once to start collecting dues and engaging in compulsory bargaining. As long as government-recognized and government-empowered compulsory union bargaining exists, the government require workers be given all the information before deciding whether to form a union and bargain collectively. The SALT Act would accomplish this needed reform.
Circuit Court Keeps CUNY Professors Trapped in ‘Anti-Semitic’ Union; Appeal Promised
March 20, 2024 // Six profs, five of whom are Jewish, are suing for the right to reject the representation of a union they view as anti-Jewish and anti-Israel. The Supreme Court could decide their case.
Pennsylvania state court rules against union in worker dispute
February 27, 2024 // “AFSCME officials thought they could get away with sabotaging Penny’s grievance and openly discriminating against her, but the Commonwealth Court has ensured her complaint will be heard,” he said. “Union officials didn’t want to represent our client because she wasn’t a union member, but Pennsylvania law says public-sector unions have a duty to fairly represent everyone in a bargaining union – members and nonmembers alike."
Florida Teachers’ Union Fights Re-certification Vote
January 29, 2024 // The Florida State Legislature last summer addressed this upside-down arrangement by passing a law requiring government employee unions whose paid membership drops below 60 percent to ask the workers for a vote of confidence. When UTD’s membership rate - even after a furious last-minute recruiting drive – was found during a December audit to hover at around 56 percent, the recertification apparatus kicked in automatically.
NYC profs see Supreme Court as ‘only hope’ in fight with ‘antisemitic’ teachers union
January 26, 2024 // In 2021, one such teachers union, Professional Staff Congress/CUNY (PSC), adopted a "Resolution in Support of the Palestinian People" which the group of six professors viewed as antisemitic, anti-Jewish and anti-Israel. These professors chose to then resign from the union, but under state law are still required to affiliate with and be represented in bargaining by that same union. "My family and I suffered severe anti-Semitic harassment and persecution at the hands of the Soviet Union for over fifteen years," professor of mathematics Avraham Goldstein said in a statement. "I hoped it was all in my past. But now I am forced to associate with a union that makes anti-Semitic political statements in my name without my permission or consent."