Posts tagged federal labor law

    US House Votes to Repeal Labor Board Rule on Contract, Franchise Workers

    January 16, 2024 // The Republican-led U.S. House of Representatives on Friday voted to repeal a federal labor board rule set to take effect in February that would treat companies as the employers of many contract and franchise workers and require them to bargain with those workers’ unions. The House voted 206-177 to nix the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) rule, which has been heavily criticized by business groups. The vote sends the proposal to the Senate where Democrats hold a one-seat majority but Senator Joe Manchin, a Democrat from West Virginia, has said he opposes the rule.

    Majority of Austin, MN, Mayo Clinic Medical Assistants, Care Specialists Request Vote to Remove Steelworkers Union

    December 12, 2023 // A patient care specialist at the Mayo Clinic location in Austin, MN, has just submitted to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) a petition backed by her colleagues seeking a vote to remove United Steelworkers (USW) Local 11-005 union officials from power at their facility. The patient care specialist, Erin Krulish, filed the petition with free legal aid from the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation.

    Amazon Forces Removal of Pro-Union Display at Major Cargo Hub

    December 3, 2023 // The workers last week filed a charge with the National Labor Relations Board, arguing the threats were designed to chill protected union speech at Amazon facilities. Managers allegedly gave final warnings to about a dozen employees who had refused to remove the display, but the workers ultimately relented to avoid getting fired and to protect their union effort, according to interviews with three people involved as well as audio and video recordings the workers provided to Bloomberg Law in support of their account. Kentucky and most other states allow one person to legally tape record a conversation without informing the other participants.

    Commentary: New Biden ‘Joint Employer’ regulation is a boon for unions

    November 13, 2023 // In short, joint employment is a possible means for unions to organize major corporations all at once, rather than the piecemeal process of organizing workers at one location at a time. Incidentally, two of the board’s three Democrat majority members are David Prouty, former general counsel of the service employee union UNITE HERE, and Gwynne Wilcox, a former lawyer for the Service Employees International Union. Chairwoman Lauren McFerran served as a staffer of former Sen. Tom Harkin, a longtime union ally.

    Opinion: Unions’ deceptive ‘salting’ loophole leaves a bad taste

    November 3, 2023 // Workers United — a Service Employees International Union affiliate — hired labor organizers who got jobs at Starbucks, then pushed for unionization on the coffee company’s dime — while also collecting a union paycheck. These “salts” start by building trust with workers. As one Starbucks salt told a group of fellow organizers, it’s best to do “thankless chores” that gain the appreciation of peers and “make the company less suspicious of you.”

    Oklahoma City Starbucks Employees Latest to Demand Vote to Remove SBWU Union from Workplace

    October 11, 2023 // Smith and her coworkers’ effort is the latest in a chain of SBWU decertification pushes across the country. Since May, Starbucks employees in Manhattan, NY; Buffalo, NY; Pittsburgh, PA; Bloomington, MN; Salt Lake City, UT; and Greenville, SC, have all sought free Foundation legal aid in pursuing their decertification petitions at the NLRB. Last month, workers at Good Karma Café, an independent coffee shop in Philadelphia, successfully voted out the SBWU union with Foundation help. The flurry of decertification attempts is occurring roughly one year after SBWU union agents engaged in an aggressive unionization campaign against Starbucks employees. Federal labor law forbids workers from decertifying a union for a year after its installation, meaning many workers are seizing on the earliest possible opportunity to rid themselves of the SBWU union’s “representation.”

    Judge: Starbucks violated federal labor law by withholding pay hikes from unionized workers

    October 2, 2023 // Starbucks violated federal labor law when it increased wages and offered new perks and benefits only to non-union employees, a National Labor Relations Board judge found Thursday. The decision is the latest in a series of NLRB rulings finding that Starbucks has violated labor law in its efforts to stop unions from forming in its coffee shops.

    UAW union files labor complaint against US Senator Tim Scott

    September 24, 2023 // Shawn Fain, the president of UAW, filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board, claiming Scott's remarks earlier this week violated federal labor law and in making those remarks he was in violation of the right to strike.