Posts tagged CWA
Secret ballot vital in union elections
February 17, 2023 // Consider one example from the public sector. In 2018, the US Supreme Court ruled in Janus v. American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees that public employees can’t be forced to join unions or pay union dues. The Commonwealth responded by passing legislation that allows public employee unions to agree to different terms for union members and non-members, giving unions the sole right to negotiate lesser pay and reduced benefits on behalf of the non-members. The law also promotes tried and true intimidation tactics by giving unions access to employees’ personal information, including home addresses; work, home, and personal cellphone numbers; along with work and personal email addresses. Anyone in Massachusetts public policy circles knows the Commonwealth’s unions aren’t interested in using that information to augment their holiday card lists.
‘Hypocritical’: environmental groups blocking union efforts, US workers say
February 3, 2023 // Workers at some of the top environmental organizations in the US are calling out their managers as “incredibly hypocritical” as they argue the progressive non-profits are fighting workers’ efforts to unionize. A wave of unionization efforts has swept the non-profit sector as part of a renewed national enthusiasm for unionization. Shortly into the Covid-19 pandemic, workers at 350.org, Sunrise Movement, the National Audubon Society, Defenders of Wildlife, Greenpeace USA, the Public Interest Network and the Center for Biological Diversity unionized.
St. Louis Public Radio workers to unionize
January 19, 2023 // St. Louis Public Radio (STLPR) is licensed to the University of Missouri System and operated by UMSL. STLPR broadcasts as NPR affiliate KWMU 90.7 FM, as well as KMST 88.5 FM in Rolla and WQUB 90.3 FM in Quincy, Illinois, and streaming channels KWMU-2 jazz and KWMU-3 classical, as well as producing web and podcast content. STLPR has 60 full- and part-time employees, according to an UMSL spokesman. The STLPR Guild intends to represent nonsupervisory employees among the station's newsroom, events, marketing, development and support staff, totaling about 42 people, according to Rachel Lippmann, a guild organizer and the station's justice correspondent. "We expect the exact shape of the unit to be a topic of conversation and discussion," she told the Business Journal in an email. More than 75% of the proposed bargaining unit signed the statement of interest, Lippmann said.
Tech Layoffs Threaten Unions’ Plan to Draw White-Collar Workers
January 18, 2023 // Some 500 technology companies have axed nearly 100,000 workers since last October, according to Layoffs.fyi, a public database of tech layoffs. Amazon this month announced it would cut 18,000 jobs, and on the same day, cloud computing company Salesforce and the online video-sharing service Vimeo said they would slash 10% and 11% of their staffs, respectively. Meta, formerly known as Facebook, said in November it would eliminate 11,000 jobs—about 13% of its staff. Those reductions in force don’t bode well for unions that have increasingly funneled resources into tech organizing, which was, until recently, seen as an ever-growing pool of potential members. The AFL-CIO, the nation’s largest labor federation, last year raised membership fees for the first time in two decades, hoping to raise $10 million a year for new organizing. Union leaders this month flocked to Las Vegas for the CES technology conference, set on understanding how the latest innovations in artificial intelligence could disrupt their industries.
Union: NM calling state employees back to in-person work without much of a plan
January 17, 2023 //
Kaleida Health workers to vote on giving union strike authority
August 31, 2022 // Voting is scheduled for Sept. 13-15 by 6,300 Kaleida Health workers seeking a swift resolution to negotiations that have gone on for more than five months. The unions conducted Informational picketing earlier this month. Affected workers include registered nurses, nurse practitioners, dietary workers, patient care assistants, professionals, technicians, service and maintenance workers and clerical workers. Kaleida Health has more than 10,000 employees, according to an Aug. 23 union news release.
Labor of Love: EWOC is Pioneering a New Model for Empowering Workers
May 26, 2022 // EWOC is most strongly concentrated in California, Illinois, Texas and New York. In New York City, the group has over 500 people — workers, volunteers and trainees — involved in its network. Its volunteer organizers have successfully organized workers at Sara Lawrence College and at Bright Horizons, the nation’s largest provider of employer-sponsored child care. Some of the REI-Soho worker-organizers who would eventually see through a successful union drive with the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union went through EWOC’s training program. EWOC volunteers also help to funnel Starbucks workers who reach out to them to Starbucks Workers United, the newly-formed, independent Starbucks union.
Unionization Is Starting to Spread Across the Retail Sector
May 19, 2022 //
President Biden says Amazon union organizer Christian Smalls is his ‘kind of trouble’ and ‘let’s not stop’
May 12, 2022 // The White House visit came as a swell of organizing sweeps across retail stores from Starbucks to REI to Apple. Biden has repeatedly declared that he intends to be "most pro-union President leading the most pro-union administration in American history.
Northern PA Metal Worker Slams CWA Union with Federal Charges for Illegally Seizing Union PAC Money from Wages
May 5, 2022 // CWA officials also refused worker’s membership resignation, case comes as former CWA official Jennifer Abruzzo is top labor board prosecutor