Posts tagged Boston
Right to strike among teachers union priorities
December 14, 2022 // Despite state law, educators in Malden, Brookline and Haverhill went on strike this year. In Malden, workers were asking for a contract that included higher pay, smaller class sizes and safer school environments, according to WCVB. “We had to take an illegal action because that illegal action is what was right,” she said. “The right to strike is a human right and the continued prohibition on the right to strike is a continued prohibition on every single blessed public sector worker’s right to free speech, we shouldn’t have less rights than any other worker in the Commonwealth.”
BC Graduate Employees Union Rallies For Better Working Conditions
November 8, 2022 // Graduate employee unions from neighboring schools joined BCGEU for the rally right before the Friday BC football game against Duke. Crowds of drunken students and gamewatchers passed as protestors demanded BC recognize their union and negotiate a contract to guarantee better working conditions.
Hundreds of Teamsters on strike against food distribution company Sysco Boston
October 3, 2022 // In a statement, Sysco said they did offer a wage increase of 25% over the life of the contract and more health care options at lower costs. The company said the union declared a strike without allowing workers to vote on the offer. "The work stoppage at Sysco Boston is unnecessary and union leaders have taken this action with little regard for the damage it will cause to our associates and our customers. Sysco Boston is willing to continue to bargain to reach a resolution," a company spokesperson wrote.
Union drives are spiking, but it’s still a ‘drop in the bucket,’ annual report finds
September 6, 2022 // New union drives are spiking, but the overall number of workers represented by unions hasn’t budged in New York City or nationwide, according to an annual report released by the CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies ahead of Labor Day. New union elections surged nationwide during the second quarter of 2022, up to 685 drives, a 49% increase from the previous quarter, and nearly three times as many as the second quarter of 2020 — the depths of COVID-19 when union elections unsurprisingly came to a grinding halt. The number of recent drives, however, was on par with levels seen in 2016 and lower than many years before that. Ruth Milkman,
TSA Union Local Leader Gets House Arrest for Misappropriating Funds
September 1, 2022 // LeClair was charged with one count of wire fraud in U.S. District Court in April, and she pleaded guilty in June. On Monday, U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani sentenced her to six months of home confinement, followed by three years of probation, and ordered her to pay restitution in the amount she stole from AFGE. The maximum penalty for a federal wire fraud conviction is 20 years in prison.
Massachusetts: Defying Spilka, senate staffers vow to continue union fight
August 3, 2022 // Spilka invited staff members to meet with Senate counsel Friday afternoon to discuss a legal review that she said found no path forward for union recognition because of the unique structure of the senate. Two staffers who attended the closed-door meeting, Morgan Simko and Evan Berry, said afterwards the lawyers identified which state laws create hurdles to union recognition. They said changing those laws is a question of legislators' willpower. "Ball's in their court," Berry said. "If they really want to say to the unions that have supported them election cycle after election cycle that they are pro-labor, they will show up and say, regardless of where you are in Massachusetts, you deserve a union and Beacon Hill is no exception." Sen. Becca Rausch, Senate President Pro Tempore Will Brownsberger,
MFA union ratifies its first contract
June 30, 2022 // The MFA Union represents all non-managerial employees who are not already represented by another collective bargaining agreement, and includes hourly front-of-house staff and part-time educators as well as members of administrative, technical, curatorial and conservation departments. Union leaders said the salary minimums will improve pay equity across departments and raise salaries up to industry standards. Curators and conservators, who are typically paid less than salaried professionals in other departments, will see the biggest gains. “There is room for improvement in museum compensation as an industry, but this is a step in that direction … so hopefully we don’t get so behind industry standards in the future,” said Eve Mayberger, a member of the bargaining committee and an assistant objects conservator at the museum. “It is a huge improvement for many of our unit members.” Matthew Teitelbaum, Maida Rosenstein
Starbucks union creates $1 million fund to cover lost pay for striking baristas
June 3, 2022 // The union backing organizing efforts at Starbucks is creating a $1 million fund to cover lost pay for baristas who go on strike, giving workers more firepower in their fight to unionize.
UNIONS MAKE NEW INROADS INTO CHAINS
June 2, 2022 // Workers at more than 100 Starbucks units have now voted to organize, and employees of other coffee chains have taken steps to do likewise.