Posts tagged collectively bargain
Vermont Senate unanimously passes amendment ensuring workers’ right to unionize
April 4, 2024 // Senate President Pro Tem Phil Baruth, A Democrat/Progressive from Chittenden, told his colleagues that it's critical to "enshrine" the authority of labor unions in Vermont at a time when they are under siege in several other states. "When I look at this particular amendment, I look on it very much as I did the amendment we made to the constitution in terms of reproductive rights. We are strengthening what we have, and we're protecting it from going away, which can happen in the legislative blink of an eye."
Michigan Senate bills would revive dues skim for home health workers
March 19, 2024 // Senate Bill 790, which was submitted Thursday by Sen. Kevin Hertel, D-St. Clair Shores. Officially, the 15-page bill says it would create the Home Health Caregiver Council, a seven-member board that would oversee issues involving those workers. The council would set compensation rates and issue checks for home health workers. It would also be authorized to deduct union fees. Under the previous iteration of dues skim, the Service Employees International Union pulled in about $34 million between November 2006 and February 2013.
How Dartmouth College’s unionization case could impact athletes at University of Arizona, ASU
February 28, 2024 // In the event Sacks’ ruling is upheld and Dartmouth men’s basketball players are allowed to unionize, the players could collectively bargain for a number of issues. “They could organize, they could form their unions, they could strike if they don’t like working conditions,” said Aaron Hernandez, assistant dean and executive director of Allan “Bud” Selig sports law and business program. “They could collectively bargain if the university is earning a check based off of some TV deal, as part of the greater conference.
Opinion: NLRB says ‘common law’ — and common sense — defines joint employers
December 5, 2023 // The mandate, to take effect Dec. 26, says when two employers — think a local McDonald’s franchise and McDonald’s headquarters in Chicago — control a worker’s toil, from wages and hours to duties and work rules to hiring and firing to uniforms and training, then both are responsible for obeying or breaking Labor law. And that means it should be easier for workers to organize and bargain without being bounced from pillar to post when it comes to whom to bargain with. Using that same “basic common sense” explanation, AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler called the new rule “an important win” for workers.
California lawmakers to let legislative staffers unionize
September 22, 2023 // “Unionizing staffers in legislative offices makes no sense because it creates more problems than it solves,” says Brigette Herbst, senior organizing director for AFFT and a former state legislative staffer. “How does unionization work with the long and unpredictable hours during a legislative session? How will elected officials handle untrustworthy staffers? Union organizers haven’t answered these important questions.” Herbst also raised concerns about unions’ connection to lobbying. Legislative staff often meet with lobbyists (including union lobbyists) on behalf of the lawmakers they work for, and Herbst believes that could result in an unfair allocation of state resources.
FLORIDA: Graduate student union could lose recognition under new law
September 12, 2023 // If a union doesn’t meet the membership requirements, its employer is no longer obligated to legally recognize and honor union contracts, according to the bill. Failure to meet the quota triggers an application process for the union. It is unclear whether the union is able to collectively bargain while in the application stage. GAU and its parent unions: United Faculty of Florida, Florida Education Association, National Education Association and American Federation of Teachers also have negotiated thousands of discounts for members, ranging from local restaurants to phone and insurance plans.
Pritzker weighs in on statehouse staffers attempting to unionize
September 8, 2023 // The staffers have been hoping to meet with Welch, D-Hillside, to discuss terms for unionization but have been unsuccessful up to this point. "For the last 9 months, we have asked in good faith for Speaker Welch to meet with us. Despite his outspoken pro-labor rhetoric and vocal support for the right of all employees in Illinois to unionize, he is apparently intent on denying this right to his own staff," the Illinois Legislative Staff Association said in a statement posted to social media. “It should not be controversial in 2023 for a group of workers in a blue state with a strong union tradition to form a union, especially when the right to organize is enshrined in the state constitution."
Virginia Tech graduate students and staff are launching labor unions
September 7, 2023 // It’s an effort that has been in the works for three years, as the groups have quietly recruited members while, across the country, campus labor unions have gained attention. On Tuesday, members of the United Campus Workers of Virginia Tech (UCW-VT) and the Virginia Tech Graduate Labor Union (VT GLU) will team up in a rally on the Blacksburg campus. They hope going public will attract new members and draw attention to their efforts to press university administrators for improvements for campus workers at all levels. Together, the unions have a potential membership of about 20,000 people affiliated with Tech.
Will Starbucks’ union-busting stifle a union rebirth in the US?
August 28, 2023 // Many baristas say one Starbucks strategy in particular has discouraged workers from unionizing. In May 2022, Schultz announced that Starbucks would give certain raises and benefits to workers at its more than 9,000 non-union stores, but not offer those raises and benefits to its unionized workers. Starbucks insists it would be illegal to impose any raises or benefits on its unionized stores without first negotiating about them, but the NLRB’s general counsel asserts that this policy constitutes unlawful discrimination against Starbucks’ unionized workers. Under this policy, Starbucks has given its non-union workers, but not its unionized ones, a more relaxed dress code, increased training, faster sick leave accrual and, most important, credit card tipping. (Workers at the first few Starbucks stores to unionize had asked early on for credit card tipping.)
Papa John’s employee trying to unionize Houston store suspended for stealing by franchisee
August 7, 2023 // Martin, who said he began working about six weeks ago as a cook at the Papa John's location at 2620 S. Shepherd Dr., admitted to Houston Public Media that he violated company policy by making pizza and chicken nuggets for himself on multiple occasions. But he said it's a policy that is "utterly unenforced," adding that he's seen other employees and managers make in-store food for themselves and others. "They claim that they reported this before the union (petition was submitted), but I find that hard to believe," Martin said. "I think this is just them finding a way to fire me without breaking the law."