Posts tagged Black Lives Matter
One Small Union Is Stoking Much of the Militant New Graduate Worker Organizing
May 30, 2023 // With around 35,000 members, the UE is not a huge union. It was once the third-largest — and arguably the most left-wing and democratic — member of the Congress of Industrial Organizations, with around a half-million members in core industries, until it fell victim to postwar anti-communist purges, raids from other unions and plant shutdowns. But the union revived itself by the 1990s. Famously, UE workers at the Republic Windows & Doors factory in Chicago occupied their plant in 2008, and today the union boasts a range of affiliated locals across sectors and industries from California to Vermont.
2/3rd of Post-Gazette Union Crossed Picket Line or Quit
January 30, 2023 // However, as the strike stretches into its fourth month with no end-in-sight, the union has struggled to prevent reporters from crossing the picket line. According to an analysis done by Payday Report of bylines and interviews with Post-Gazette reporters, nearly ⅔ of the union has crossed the picket line (with almost half of all reporters doing so). Many reporters, particularly younger reporters, have found jobs at other publications as the strike’s likelihood of success looks small and moved away from Pittsburgh./ Currently, the union can only maintain pickets for 2 hours a day as approximately two dozen reporters remain on strike from about 85 reporters who were members of the union at the beginning of the strike. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette union chair Andrew Goldstein has privately acknowledged to local labor supporters that the strike is a “disaster.”
CAHOOTS, HOOTS Unanimously Vote to Unionize
October 13, 2022 // Workers at White Bird’s crisis response programs CAHOOTS and HOOTS are on the same page when it comes to voting on unionizing. The two groups voted unanimously to move forward with unionizing and to join the Teamsters Local 206 chapter. It was a re-energizing election outcome, says CAHOOTS crisis worker Chelsea Swift, that has given workers some momentum as they advocate for better working conditions.
Sparked by Pandemic Stresses, Unionizing Workers Seek Respect and a Place at the Table
August 18, 2022 // Throughout the pandemic, we were called ‘essential workers,’ yet we weren’t given the wages, benefits or respect that being ‘essential’ would denote.” Nick Kalm, John Logan, Labor and Employment Studies Department at San Francisco State University
A Legislative Staff Unionization Wave is Hitting Blue State Capitols
August 8, 2022 // Frustrated by low pay and long hours, state house staffers in Massachusetts, California, New York and Washington state are seeking to organize. They hope to join their counterparts in Oregon, who became the first in the nation to unionize in 2021. The organizing effort in state capitols mirrors a similar push in Congress. In May, the Democratically-controlled U.S. House of Representatives passed a resolution giving congressional staffers the legal right to negotiate over salaries, schedules, pay disparities, promotion policies and other workplace issues without the threat of retaliation. Since then, aides to eight progressive lawmakers have unionized. Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, Ruth Milkman, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 2222, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Rep. Ayanna Pressley, Senate President Karen Spilka,
Resignations from state employees’ union board highlight divide between leadership and progressives
June 8, 2022 // Board members of Vermont’s state employees union said they have long battled to support racial justice and denounce alleged abuse in the Department of Corrections — but have faced opposition from board leadership and top staff. The divide has prompted multiple board members of the Vermont State Employees’ Association to resign, including Brett Pierce, who stepped down last month. Department of Public Safety, Chittenden Regional Correctional Facility, Woodside Juvenile Rehabilitation Center, Steve Howard, Aimee Towne, Jacklyn Hickerson, Department of taxes, auditor, treasurer, women's prison, Josh Cox, VSEA,
Amazon, Starbucks, and beyond? Young workers fuel union drives.
May 19, 2022 // Much of the energy behind these moves is coming from the newest entrants to the labor force: workers in their late 20s at the tail end of the millennial generation, such as Ms. Ross and Ms. Hyatt, and their successors, Generation Z, born between 1997 and 2012, who are beginning to land their first jobs. Many exude an organizing zeal not seen in decades.
Amazon Fresh union in Seattle delivers demands, threatens strike
March 4, 2022 // Workers at the local Amazon Fresh are demanding longer paid breaks, more flexible schedules, and wages starting at $25 an hour. They want chairs for cashiers, the right to wear Black Lives Matter pins, and the right to take home expired food.
What the Amazon union do-over in Alabama means for the future of retail
February 16, 2022 // U.S. consumers, especially younger ones, harbor new expectations about the workplace that businesses may not be able to ignore.
Day after Eric Garner’s death, new deputy mayor Phil Banks partied in L.A. with cop briber and crooked jails union boss
January 17, 2022 // The chief of department and influential union leader were visiting their pal, Jona Rechnitz, who would later testify for federal prosecutors about a sprawling bribery scheme aimed at the highest levels of the NYPD and city power players.