Posts tagged Boston
7-Eleven, Franchisees Renew Battle Over What Defines a Worker
July 26, 2023 // The franchisees say a lower court wrongly concluded that they don’t perform services for the company and refused to apply Massachusetts’ “ABC test” for determining whether those who run the stores are employees or independent contractors, contradicting a 2022 state high court answer to a certified question earlier in the suit’s judicial odyssey. The c-store chain urges the US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit to leave the lower court’s decision in place. The lawsuit, 7-Eleven’s lawyers said in their appellate brief, is an attempt to turn the state’s independent contractor law “into something it was never intended to be—a tool for business owners, like Plaintiffs, to recover as ‘damages’ three times the value of their business’s operating expenses, including their payroll and the fees they pay for their franchise rights.”
Actors and writers on strike rally in Philadelphia and Chicago as union action spreads
July 24, 2023 // While Los Angeles and New York are the epicenters of strike actions, there are dozens of mid-sized and small locals across the country representing performers and writers. “We have the same issues,” said Nikki Izanec, president of the Philadelphia SAG-AFTRA local, on her way to Thursday’s rally. “Lots of people pay attention to L.A. and New York, but our issues are the same as theirs.”
Changing institutional culture from the inside out: why more and more US museum workers are forming unions
May 19, 2023 // Organising efforts at Storm King, the PMA, the Hispanic Society and elsewhere reflect a trend that has been growing in the US art and heritage sector over the course of the past five years and accelerated with the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. Workers at more than 20 institutions have formed a union since 2020 or are actively in negotiations for their first contract, including the Jewish Museum and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and Mass Moca in Massachusetts. In March, after 16 months of negotiations, workers at the Whitney Museum of American Art, who had formed a union in spring 2021, ratified their first contract. State of the unions: why US museum workers are mobilising against their employers Tom Seymour The issues prompting workers to form unions across the country and across a broad range of industry sectors are remarkably consistent: wages, benefits and working conditions. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, the number of wage and salary workers who belonged to a union in 2022 was 14.3 million, a 1.9% increase on 2021.
Penn Medicine Residents Vote to Unionize
May 11, 2023 // "With 88% of participants voting in favor, the frontline Penn Medicine doctors are the first statewide to gain union representation," according to the Committee of Interns and Residents/Service Employees International Union (CIR/SEIU), which reported Monday that the vote was 892 to 110. Specifically, the residents and fellows at the Philadelphia health system "look forward to advocating for the conditions they need to provide top-quality care without compromising their mental, physical, or financial wellbeing," the union stated.
Ex-Milk Bar Employees Question Whether the Shop Closed Due to Unionization Efforts
February 28, 2023 // Milk Bar’s eight staffers at the Harvard Square shop voted to unionize “after nearly a year of unsavory work conditions, severe pay discrepancies, and a blatant steady decline in investment of its staff and physical space,” the statement on Instagram reads. On January 11th, employees presented the store’s management with a physical letter announcing their intent to unionize with local shop NEJB Unite Here. On the same day, hours after the letter was delivered, Milk Bar president Keith Levy sent an email to staff stating that the store’s lease had been terminated and it was going to shut down, putting the entire staff out of work.
La Colombe baristas at Gold Coast coffee shop vote to unionize in unanimous election
January 25, 2023 // Baristas at La Colombe’s 955 W. Randolph St. location in the West Loop were scheduled to vote on unionization Tuesday, but the election was postponed due to COVID-19, Blado confirmed. The count will be rescheduled as soon as possible, she said. Elections for two more locations, at 858 Armitage Ave. and at 5158 N. Clark St. are scheduled to take place next week. Baristas at the company’s Wicker Park location have not moved to unionize. La Colombe baristas said Monday they were inspired by union efforts at other coffee shops. Workers at about 10 area Starbucks have voted to unionize since last January. Colectivo Coffee and Intelligentsia Coffee workers in Chicago are unionized with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers; Intelligentsia baristas ratified their first collective bargaining agreement at the end of last year.
The State of the Union: Unpacking the Recent Rise in Labor Unionization
January 20, 2023 // Considering unions’ historical role in curbing disproportionate corporate profits and inequality, it makes sense that the NLRB reported a 57% jump in union representation petitions and 14% more complaints of unfair labor practices in the first half of 2022. In the current moment, it seems that workers are turning to unionization as a means of righting the wrongs of corporate inequality. But this push for unions, while having recently enjoyed a burst of momentum, has been a long time coming. Public support for unions stands at 71%, up from 48% in 2010 and at its highest since 1965, according to a recent Gallup poll. Organizers are also being buoyed by a political environment conducive to labor organizing. President Biden has taken decidedly pro-union stances since entering office, replacing Trump’s pro-business and anti-labor NLRB general counsel with former union attorney Jennifer Abruzzo and backing the PRO Act, which would simplify the process of unionizing. It also helps that unions have evaded the extreme partisanship that has swamped most other issues in contemporary politics: While Democrats are twice as likely to view unions favorably compared to Republicans, almost half of Republicans still say that they would approve of unionization in their workplaces.
Blank Street Coffee Is Popping Up Everywhere. Workers Hope A Union Will Follow.
January 11, 2023 // deGraffenreid said the desire for unionism is “definitely in the air” when it comes to coffee shop workers, noting the massive success of Starbucks Workers United, which organized more than 200 shops at the previously non-union chain in less than a year. But interviews with deGraffenreid and three other workers supportive of the UFCW effort suggest Blank Street’s somewhat unique business model also helps explain why workers are interested in unionizing.
ILLINOIS: WHAT’S NEXT FOR AMENDMENT 1?
January 6, 2023 // Now that the Illinois Constitution has been amended to expand government union power, residents can expect to see costly government union demands, increased taxes and litigation to clarify its vague language.
More Activision Blizzard Workers File to Unionize
December 28, 2022 //