Posts tagged CWA

    Commentary: 1,000 health care workers protest take-over of their local. Are union officials listening?

    October 8, 2026 // In 2009, a political disagreement about organizing and bargaining strategy, involving the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and its second largest healthcare local, led to a costly and disastrous trusteeship in California. Tens of millions of dollars were squandered on this bitter internal fight. Thousands of SEIU members angrily protested the removal of their elected leaders, who faced trumped up charges and a multi-million dollar damage suit. In response to their rights being trampled, rank-and-filers, who only wanted to democratize and reform SEIU, instead created the National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW), an organizational rival.

    ‘One flag for each laid off dev:’ Union workers stage unmissable protest for Xbox boss Asha Sharma

    August 13, 2026 // In July, Sharma confirmed plans to eliminate 3,200 jobs across Microsoft's video game division by the end of the current fiscal year—starting with immediate cuts at major studios including Obsidian, id Software, and ZeniMax Online Studios. It marked the fifth round of mass layoffs at Xbox in three years. "We heard that Microsoft leadership was coming to our office this week, and decided to make our presence visible at the office to show how our developers have been impacted by these devastating layoffs," said Hahn. "To show our presence, we put up posters around the office, but we were immediately told by management we couldn't have posters facing the outside of our cubes. Then, we brought in balloons so that they could see we were here, but inside our cubes this time. A separate team of laid off developers planted flags outside, one flag for each laid off dev.

    Op-ed: A GOP Gift to the Cultural Left

    June 15, 2026 // We wonder if Republicans know what they’ve voted for—and not merely on wages or pensions. Unions, allied with Democrats, have long supported a progressive agenda that includes collective bargaining for abortion coverage and transgender healthcare. The model language the AFL-CIO recommends to local chapters says “all health plans offered to bargaining unit members shall cover comprehensive . . . reproductive healthcare services, including contraceptives, abortion services . . . and gender affirming care.” In 2012 the Service Employees International Union unanimously approved a resolution “calling on local unions to bargain for trans-inclusive healthcare.” The NewsGuild of New York/Communications Workers of America said in 2022 it “unequivocally supports access to abortion as a healthcare right.”

    Wyoming Wells Fargo Bank Branch Employees Latest Group to Win Freedom from Unwanted CWA Union Bosses

    June 11, 2026 // CWA officials initially attempted to disenfranchise the employees using the NLRB’s “blocking charge” policy, which allows unions to delay, or even block entirely, worker-demanded decertification votes with unproven allegations against an employer. However, when Foundation staff attorneys pushed back against the blocking charges, the CWA dropped them, likely because the NLRB would have otherwise dismissed them as meritless. At that point, with a decertification vote unavoidable, CWA union bosses simply “disclaimed” representation at the branch rather than face an overwhelming election defeat. Now the NLRB has accepted the disclaimer and formally revoked the union’s certification as the workers “exclusive representative.”

    Ruben Gallego, Flirting With 2028 Bid, Backs Key Demands of Labor Unions

    June 3, 2026 // Sectoral bargaining “stops employers from trying to attract top talent by outbidding their competition,” argued the Institute for the American Worker, a right-leaning think tank, in a paper. “This would be a huge problem as American employees typically see larger raises by switching jobs rather than simply waiting for a salary increase at their current workplace.”

    The Faster Labor Contracts Act Is a Backdoor for Union Leadership’s Political Agenda

    May 28, 2026 // Here's what the FLCA's backers won't say out loud: mandatory arbitration doesn't just remove workers from the ratification process, it removes union leadership from the obligation to bargain in good faith. Why negotiate seriously when running out the clock gets you a government arbitrator who is far more likely to deliver the political contract provisions your members would have voted down? The FLCA doesn't just create a shortcut. It creates an incentive to stall.

    University of California IT Staff Unionize Amid AI Fears

    May 27, 2026 // About 2,100 IT and technical employees across the University of California system voted to join the labor union over concerns about mass layoffs in the tech sector, as well as growing workloads without any added pay.

    Delaware Wells Fargo Branch Employees Latest to Remove CWA Union

    May 19, 2026 // Employees at a Wells Fargo branch in Wilmington, Delaware, have successfully ousted Communications Workers of America (CWA) union bosses from their workplace. The effort to remove the union was initiated when bank employee Nancy Horsky filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), seeking a “decertification” election to remove the CWA as the bargaining representative at her Wells Fargo branch. Horsky filed the petition for her coworkers with free legal aid from the National Right to Work Foundation.

    The Union You’ve Never Heard Of Is Following A Blueprint You Should Know

    May 18, 2026 // In 2021, IATSE members authorized a strike by 98.7%. What followed was four years of increasingly coordinated action across entertainment unions. WGA, SAG-AFTRA, IATSE, and the Teamsters built a solidarity coalition that showed up at each other’s picket lines in 2023, during a 148-day WGA strike and a 118-day counterpart for SAG-AFTRA. During contract negotiations, this coalition has been using pattern bargaining, and “wins” by one union become the baseline for those that follow. Each contract raises the floor for the next negotiation, and whether that method is sustainable for the industry isn’t relevant here. What matters is that other unions are watching, and they love to copycat each other.

    The Union Organizing Boom Has a Number They Don’t Want You to See

    May 14, 2026 // The Faster Labor Contracts Act, championed by union-aligned legislators on Capitol Hill, would impose a 90-day bargaining deadline. If no deal is reached, a government-appointed arbitrator writes the contract — and workers do not get to vote on the result. Critics have pointed out that this structure actually incentivizes union negotiators to stall and run out the clock, betting an arbitrator delivers better terms than good-faith bargaining would. Workers get a contract faster. They just lose the right to approve it. The dues keep coming either way.