Posts tagged CWA
Commentary: What Does a Likely Harris-Trump Matchup Mean for Labor?
July 25, 2024 // Those in organized labor who publicly support Harris see her as likely to advance Biden’s agenda. The Biden-Harris administration also tapped outspoken pro-worker former officials from California to lead the U.S. Department of Labor and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, tasked with protecting workers.
Louisiana ADT Security Services Workers Overwhelmingly Vote to Remove Communication Workers of America Union from Workplace
June 17, 2024 // “This vote is the latest example of workers across the country exercising their right to remove unwanted unions, with the NLRB’s own statistics showing more decertification elections held last year than in any year since 2017,” said Foundation President Mark Mix. “Louisiana’s popular Right to Work law provides fundamental protections for employees in the Pelican State against being forced to fund a union they oppose, but, right now, that law does not override federal law that forces workers under a union’s so-called ‘representation’ against their will.”
Apple Store in New Jersey Votes Against Unionizing
May 13, 2024 // Neither unionized Apple store has yet reached a contract with the company. Employees at the location in Towson, Maryland, who organized with the International Association of Machinists, voted Saturday to authorize a potential strike over what the union alleges has been a refusal by Apple to fairly negotiate. Outstanding issues driving the possible work stoppage include work-life balance, unpredictable scheduling and pay, the IAM said in an emailed statement. A date when workers could walk out “will be determined,” the union said.
Apple’s Maryland store workers vote to authorize strike
May 13, 2024 // Workers at Apple ’s store in Towson, Maryland, have voted in favor of authorizing a strike, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (AIM) said in a statement late on Saturday. The date for work stoppage has yet to be decided, according to the union, which represents Apple’s retail store workers in Maryland.
The Growing Distance Between Unions and Union Workers
April 5, 2024 // In theory, a thriving labor movement aims at deploying such coup-style strategies after winning the favor of the workers that spearhead its success. But this is the direct opposite of what’s happening today. Rather than being buoyed by the wave of employees flooding its ranks, the labor movement is instead hemorrhaging members and attempting to forge ahead by pushing against the current of worker sentiment. Unions’ numbers are dwindling. Grassroots tactics are withering. The workers of the world just aren’t uniting the way that unions would like. The solution, for today’s unions, is to invert their playbook, putting corporate and regulatory capture ahead of the will of the worker. Instead of galvanizing worker sentiment to move policy and manage proxies, major unions have taken to exploiting regulations in order to drag employees along from the comfort of the director’s chair. But by winning a seat on the Starbucks board, each of the SOC’s nominees would have had to confront an ugly choice: Make decisions that favor union density at the expense of worker autonomy and shareholder value; or own up to the damage that coercive organizing tactics have done to the corporation’s and employees’ interests. They were smart to withdraw their bid.
Alabama bill cutting economic incentives to keep unions from ‘strong arming employees’ advances
April 5, 2024 // An Alabama Senate committee Wednesday approved a bill that would withhold economic incentives from companies that voluntarily recognize unions or do not hold secret ballots in union elections. . SB231, sponsored by Sen. Arthur Orr, R-Decatur, passed the Senate Fiscal Responsibility and Economic Development Committee on an 11-3 vote, down party lines.
Bill clawing back incentives from companies who voluntarily recognize unionization approved by Senate committee
April 5, 2024 // According to Orr's bill, no employer would be eligible to receive an economic development incentive for a project if the employer voluntarily grants recognition rights for the employees solely and exclusively based on signed labor organization authorization cards if the selection of a bargaining representative may be conducted through a secret ballot election. “I’m not anti-union. Unions are a lot like good government; they’re a necessary evil. They have their place in the workforce, but there are a lot of companies that can’t afford the labor, the expense, or the unionization and the demands that come with it and the added expense,” State Sen. David Sessions (R-Grand Bay) said during the meeting. “What you’re going to wind up doing is if those companies unionize, you’re putting them out of business. You’re putting them out of business and you’re losing all of those jobs.” An employer who voluntarily discloses an employee's personal contact information to a labor organization or third party acting on behalf of a labor organization without the employee's prior written consent, unless otherwise required by state or federal law, would also be ineligible for economic development incentives under the bill.
Workers in the game industry turn to unions for protection from rampant layoffs
March 21, 2024 // Jessica Gonzalez, a longtime quality assurance (QA) worker in the games industry and a labor organizer with CODE-CWA, said unionizing can also help workers negotiate more “ethical layoffs” if their roles are being cut from the company. This entails negotiating protections such as extended health care coverage and severance pay, benefits she noted are not always honored by companies dealing with non-union employees.
600 Activision QA workers unionize, Microsoft voluntarily recognizes
March 13, 2024 // “Now under Microsoft with the neutrality agreement they signed with CWA, it’s a lot easier,” Fannon said. “We don’t have to be concerned about any form of union-busting tactics. Microsoft made sure all managers were trained on neutrality. We knew that if we encountered union busting, we could bring it up so it’s addressed.” The other positive is that neither Activision’s QA workers nor Microsoft management have to go through the union election process with the National Labor Relations Board, which can sometimes take a while. Instead, Activision QA workers have been voting since Feb. 22 with either a union authorization card (a document, physical or digital, indicating approval of the union) or a confidential vote through an online portal.