Posts tagged Bernie Sanders
Opinion: Let’s Continue to Fight for Freelancers
February 24, 2023 // New Senate HELP Committee Chairman and avowed socialist Bernie Sanders (I-VT) is eager to reintroduce the PRO Act in the chamber soon. The bill’s most recent version contained the following provisions: an ABC test that deems most workers employees and not independent contractors; a statute to abolish right-to-work; making union membership conditional for employment; and giving unions unfettered access to private worker information.
YouTube Music Workers Strike in Austin Over ‘Anti-Union’ Return-to-Office Mandate
February 24, 2023 // Gossell and Marschner are upset that Google, whom they see as their employer, has deferred to Cognizant. “I’ve gone through Google training. I go through their security training. I go through their ethics training…. [But] if we want to negotiate over pay, they say, ‘Pay is based on the contract we have with Google, so we can’t bargain over that.'” Marschner says. The employees, affiliated with the Alphabet Workers Union, which has never held a strike, are awaiting National Labor Relations Board decisions on their election petition and the two Unfair Labor Practice complaints. “It’s going to be a long labor movement, because we’re not stopping until we have a union,” Gossell says. Referring to recent union activity at Amazon, Disney and Tesla, he adds: “I’m not saying we’re the tip of the spear, but we’re part of something bigger that’s going on in America. All you have to do is pick up a history book to see how this ends.”
Starbucks CEO says things have gone sour for young people
February 24, 2023 // As of mid-February, the National Labor Relations Board has certified 282 stores that voted to unionize, and 56 that voted against. There are about 9,300 US company-operated Starbucks stores, and a relatively small number have voted to unionize. To Schultz, this means that the vast majority of workers at Starbucks stores are happy with how things are. When Schultz re-joined the company last year, he spent months visiting with employees as part of a listening tour that helped him develop a new roadmap for the company, which he said had “lost its way.” “I’ve talked to thousands of our Starbucks partners,” he told Harlow. “I was shocked, stunned to hear the loneliness, the anxiety, the fracturing of trust in government, fracturing of trust in companies, fracturing of trust in families, the lack of hope in terms of opportunity.” American companies are “faced with unionization because [workers are] upset, not so much with the company, but the situation.”
Starbucks workers contend company is busting unions. ‘This will be a priority for me,’ congressman says.
February 21, 2023 // Since then, the congressman’s staff has been in touch with the company, whose representatives have told them that Starbucks is allowing workers to exercise their rights under the National Labor Relations Act. Khanna told the employees on Friday that he has corresponded with new Starbucks CEO Laxman Narasimhan and expects to meet with him after he takes over April 1. “I’m hopeful that between the approach to him and the approach to some of the board members, who I know, that they may see the light — allowing for reasonable unionization and reasonable terms,” Khanna said. He mentioned that Microsoft Corp. MSFT, -2.29% last year came to a neutrality agreement with the Communications Workers of America; Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella is a Starbucks board member.
In new role, Sanders demands answers from Starbucks’ Schultz
February 16, 2023 // Sanders’ demand for testimony from Schultz is an opening act in his new role as chairman of the HELP panel, which has expansive jurisdiction over issues that have been central to his more than four decades in public service. And thanks to Democrats adding a seat to their majority in last year's election, Sanders can fully exercise the oversight powers of the gavel and potentially issue subpoenas without Republican support. Sanders said he’s not done challenging individual corporations, mentioning Amazon as another company he believes has acted illegally against unions. And “if you are a multinational pharmaceutical company that’s been ripping off the American people and charging us outrageously high prices, you should be nervous, because I’m going to hold you accountable,” he said in an interview with The Associated Press on Tuesday. “I’m going to do something about it.”
Unionize the Senate, staffers urge
February 9, 2023 // Labor advocates are pushing the Senate to recognize staff unions, in the hopes of kickstarting progress in the chamber now that their House organizing efforts have stalled under Republican control. The Congressional Workers Union sent a letter Thursday to Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer, Majority Whip Richard J. Durbin, Rules and Administration Chairwoman Amy Klobuchar and Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Chairman Bernie Sanders, demanding a vote by the end of the month on a resolution authorizing Senate offices to unionize.
Racine County’s top stories of 2022, No. 7 | CNH Case strike continues for more than half a year
December 26, 2022 // The strike is still underway more than seven months later. In that time, many people locally and across the nation have been vocal in supporting the strikers. Politicians such as U.S. Senate candidate Tom Nelson during his campaign trail and U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders visited with the Strikers to show their support. As of December, the strike has been going on for 7 months. Many of the younger strikers have either found other work while on the line or have left and never looked back altogether.
The ‘pro-union’ president risks the support of a key constituency to avert a rail strike
December 5, 2022 // Biden faces a backlash from a core of rail workers and allied groups, as some of them see his push for a measure to avoid a strike as a betrayal. He signed the measure, which passed with bipartisan support, at the White House on Friday, giving rail workers a significant raise, but denying them the paid sick leave that had been a sticking point in some of the contract talks. Hours later, he arrived at the John F. Kennedy Library in Boston and was met by scores of protesters objecting to his handling of a labor dispute that threatened to halt rail service at the peak of the holiday season.
Railroad workers aren’t the only Americans without paid sick days
December 2, 2022 // While the vast majority of union members have paid sick days, the freight railroad workers do not. Among other demands, they have been threatening to strike in order to get paid sick days that are not in the current contracts. The railroads say that workers can use personal time if they need a sick day. But the unions argue that with current staffing levels and scheduling rules, it’s difficult for workers to have personal days approved, and they are likely to be penalized or even fired if they call in sick anyway.
Unions bash senators for rejecting paid sick leave for rail workers
December 2, 2022 // Labor leaders lashed out Thursday at senators who voted against a proposal to provide rail workers with seven days of paid sick leave. While the Senate overwhelmingly approved a measure to force through a railroad contract that gives workers a 24 percent raise over five years, a proposal to add paid sick days to the deal failed to reach 60 votes. All but six Republicans voted against the measure.