Posts tagged election.
‘A slap in the face’: progressive anger as Teamsters union chief meets Trump
January 19, 2024 // The Teamsters have put forward an open invitation to presidential candidates to meet with their members and leadership. But Trump is apparently the first real contender to take them up on their offer – prior engagements included the long-shot candidates Asa Hutchinson, Robert F Kennedy Jr, Marianne Williamson, Cornel West and Dean Phillips. The union vote is coveted and can help decide elections, especially in relatively union-dense swing states like Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. Trump in 2016 found unexpected support from some Teamsters members whose ranks have historically voted Democratic. Kara Deniz, a spokesperson for the Teamsters, said she had not heard from members concerned about the Trump meeting and said candidate meetings represented a good-faith effort to inform members about candidates for office.
Piscataway L’Oreal Employee Says RWDSU Union Boss Threats and Misinformation Undermined Vote to Oust Union
November 7, 2023 // Hoyos Lopez’s objections will now be investigated and a rerun election will occur if the NLRB determines union officials’ actions were objectionable and interfered with employees’ free choice in the election. “If RWDSU union officials truly believed they would win an election among L’Oreal employees, they would not engage in such acts of coercion, including threatening the employees they claim to ‘represent,’ misrepresenting facts prior to the vote, and shamelessly sowing division,” commented National Right to Work Foundation President Mark Mix. “We will continue to fight for Ms. Hoyos Lopez and her coworkers to get a fair opportunity to freely choose whether RWDSU bosses should remain in their workplace.”
Orange County’s Police Unions Are Increasingly Electing, Unseating Their Own Bosses
August 30, 2023 // But in both Anaheim and Santa Ana, the police unions account for some of the largest political spending on citywide elections. And in both cities, the result has been massive raises for police officers, despite concerns from some residents that such raises were fiscally irresponsible – forcing Anaheim residents to dip into their general fund reserves in 2020. At the county, big Sheriff Deputy raises created conditions where critical investments in public health couldn’t be made, an impact largely unnoticed by the public. Until the pandemic arrived.
In Union Votes, 11% Can Make a Majority
June 24, 2023 // Sen. Bill Cassidy raised the issue on June 21 in a Senate committee debate. He proposed an amendment to a labor-backed bill that would require a union to win support from a majority of eligible workers before representing a workplace—not just a majority of those who turn out to vote. (Fittingly, the committee debate lacked a quorum, so a vote on the amendment had to be postponed, under Senate rules.) Sen. Bernie Sanders led the opposition to the proposal. When only a handful of workers vote, it is more likely that the union doesn’t speak for the majority of workers, much less everyone. By contrast, when many workers vote for a union, there is a clearer signal that representation is popular. Once a union wins an election, it often maintains its grip on a workplace for generations. Future workers, who didn’t get a chance to vote for the union, can take comfort knowing that a large share of their predecessors wanted unionization.
Workers at Architecture Firm Snøhetta Announce Their Attempt to Unionize
May 11, 2023 // After a failed unionization attempt occurred at SHoP Architects in 2021, New York firm Bernheimer Architects announced last year that they were being voluntarily recognized, making them the first private sector firm to successfully do so in the United States. "When we started talking about a union, the word was so, so taboo," Jennifer Siqueira, who previously worked at SHoP and left to join Bernheimer, told Dwell last year. "But since then the conversation has totally shifted."
Starbucks Roastery Workers Move to Oust Union after One Year
May 11, 2023 // On May 9, 2023, Starbucks employee Caesar filed the decertification petition to obtain a vote on whether to remove the union, often called Starbucks Workers United (SBWU) from their workplace. After being unionized for just over one year, the workers have had enough of the union and believe they would be better off without it. Under the National Labor Relations Act, which the NLRB is charged with enforcing, workers must wait one year after a unionization vote before they can seek another vote, such as the decertification election Caesar and his coworkers have demanded.
Sega of America workers in Irvine file for union election
May 1, 2023 // 144 employees seeking to unionize want higher wages, improved benefits and increased staffing, among other upgrades
Public Funds Shouldn’t Bankroll Union Coercion
March 29, 2023 // These tactics can be overwhelming. One employee testified, “It wasn’t enough that employees were being harassed at work, but now they are receiving phone calls at home. The union’s organizers refuse to take ‘no’ for an answer. The only way, it seems, to stop the badgering and pressure is to sign the card.” In another instance, an employee was told to sign the card or risk the union coming to “get her children” and “slash her car tires.” Even more galling, taxpayer dollars can be used to perpetuate these tactics. Card check occurs in some Tennessee workplaces that receive taxpayer-funded state economic incentives. Last year, Tennesseans voted overwhelmingly to support a right-to-work constitutional amendment, ensuring that workers can’t be fired for not joining or paying a union.
Union ties could make or break the Chicago mayoral race
March 23, 2023 // Progressive Brandon Johnson and centrist Paul Vallas, both Democrats, fought through a nine-way race that saw the incumbent mayor fail to make the April 4 runoff. The election is “a movement that unions helped to anchor,” CTU President Stacy Davis Gates told Morning Shift. Johnson, a former public school teacher who’s done paid work for the CTU — his opponents call him a lobbyist — has received millions from teachers’ unions, and is set to receive up to $2 million more from a recently-announced plan to apportion $8 from each CTU member’s monthly dues to PACs for him. Vallas, a former CEO of Chicago Public Schools who’s been criticized for relative conservatism in a Democrat-run town, nabbed endorsements from the local Fraternal Order of Police, firefighters and construction unions.
UAW Election Results Delayed to “Challenged” Ballots
March 7, 2023 // The outcome will be decided by 1,608 “challenged ballots.” The court-appointed monitor is determining whether the challenged ballots come from eligible voters. In many cases, the voters never included the number of their Local Union on the ballot. In other cases, the elections officer appointed by the monitor was unable to determine if the voter appeared on a list of a local union’s list of active or retired members, observers said. “The independent monitor is continuing to conduct the vote count process. No outcome has been determined,” the Curry Solidarity Team said in a Facebook post. “This is a process that make take a while,” Members United noted. So far, the elections officer has counted 137,591 votes and Fain, boosted by the fallout from a scandal, is leading by 645 votes, according to the unofficial results compiled by the monitor, who was appointed in the wake of the recent scandal during which a dozen union officials were sent to prison.