Posts tagged discrimination
How did 50K dockworkers strike at US ports with only 25K jobs?
October 7, 2024 // There’s a massive gulf in the numbers between those who show up for work and total membership in the powerful International Longshoremen’s Association, which won a deal late Thursday for a 62% wage increase over the next six years. That’s because half of the dockworkers at the East and Gulf coast ports are allowed to sit at home collecting “container royalties” negotiated decades ago to protect against job losses that result from innovation, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Apple accused by US labor board of imposing illegal workplace rules
October 1, 2024 // The National Labor Relations Board in the complaint announced late on Monday claims Apple required employees nationwide to sign illegal confidentiality, non-disclosure, and non-compete agreements and imposed overly broad misconduct and social media policies.
Puerto Rico Police Bureau Employees Win at District Court; Beat Union Scheme That Swiped Health Benefit from Dissenting Employees
September 27, 2024 // The plaintiffs, Vanessa Carbonell, Roberto Whatts Osorio, Elba Colon Nery, Billy Nieves Hernandez, Nelida Alvarez Febus, Linda Dumont Guzman, Sandra Quinones Pinto, Yomarys Ortiz Gonzalez, Janet Cruz Berrios, Carmen Berlingeri Pabon, and Merab Ortiz Rivera, filed their lawsuit at the U.S. District Court of Puerto Rico in 2022. They invoked their rights under the 2018 Foundation-won Janus v. AFSCME Supreme Court decision, in which the Justices held that compelling public employees to join or fund a union violates the First Amendment. Janus also established that union officials can only take union dues from a public employee who has waived his or her First Amendment right not to pay.
New Biden Executive Order Gives Unions Leg Up on Federally Funded Projects, Imposes New Disclosure Requirements
September 14, 2024 // On September 6, 2024, President Biden announced his new Executive Order on Investing in America and Investing in Americans (“EO” or “Order”), which requires certain federal agencies to consider criteria related to labor standards when prioritizing which projects will receive federal financial assistance. The criteria includes not only traditional labor standards, such as wages, paid leave, and workplace safety, but controversial provisions as well that clearly favor unions, such as project labor agreements and neutrality and card check agreements. The EO will also effectively require agencies to collect information related to labor practices from companies that work on or bid on federally funded projects. The administration claims the Order “supports the creation of well-paying jobs, especially union jobs.” Business groups and Republicans, however, claim the EO is less about setting standards and more about using federal funds to favor unions at the expense of nonunion companies and employees.
Southern Poverty Law Center workers vote to remove CEO after ‘inhumane’ layoffs
September 12, 2024 // Staffers claim June mass layoffs at civil rights non-profit was a union-busting tactic that ‘destroyed lives’
Lawmakers Should Not Let a Lame Duck Pack the NLRB
July 28, 2024 // For instance, on her watch, Chair McFerran has allowed workplace discrimination to be weaponized for pro-union activities. This decision has subjected workers to traumatizing harassment, while simultaneously barring employers from intervening. According to a report by the Institute for the American Worker, McFerran’s NLRB has used Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) to excuse “racist rhetoric, sexist harassment, and vulgarity in the workplace, as long as it takes place in the context of ‘union activity.’”
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.
The NLRB Harassment Carve-Out
May 30, 2024 // The NLRB may be fine with racism and sexism, but the Senate should oppose it. Ms. McFerran’s term expires in December, and regardless of what happens in November’s presidential election, Republicans and Democrats alike should demand a nominee who will stand against discrimination.
Latinas, the lowest-paid group in the U.S., turn to unions for better wages, report says
May 28, 2024 // Latinas are the lowest paid demographic in the United States, one of the reasons union membership among them is increasing, bucking the national downward trend of at least four decades, according to a report released this week by the National Women's Law Center (NWLC). The document, a fact sheet on union membership analyzing relevant trends among workers from all demographics in the United States, highlights that through 2023 women made up almost half of union members (45.6%).
WAWU begins striking
May 23, 2024 // Some picket lines are designed to stop delivery trucks and other vehicles from crossing their lines. When stopped, participants hand the drivers a flyer explaining their cause and why they should not enter campus if avoidable, according to strike participant Parker Hopkins. Construction workers working on Kaiser Borsari Hall aren’t working Tuesday, according to a worker from Seattle who stepped out of his car on Bill McDonald Parkway and offered to buy coffee for the picketing student employees. Because of his own union involvement, the worker said he’s getting paid to sit in his hotel room for the day. Whatcom Transit Authority is also not running buses through Western’s campus on High Street, but rerouting them to pick up and drop off on Garden Street beneath the Viking Union, according to a post on X from Whatcom Transport Authority.