Posts tagged food service
40,000 UC workers threaten statewide strike across hospitals, campuses, dining halls
April 17, 2026 // A union representing more than 40,000 workers across the University of California campuses and medical centers announced Wednesday that it would launch an open-ended strike next month unless its contract demands are met, opening up the possibility of postponed medical procedures, limited cleaning at hospitals and campuses and reductions in undergraduate dining services.
With holiday season underway, temporary workers notified they don’t have to join a union
December 7, 2025 // The notice provides information and legal rights about union membership, union fees and union documents. It explains that “Employees have a right not to be members of unions. Employers and unions thus cannot legally require temporary employees to be full union members to get or keep their jobs. However, as discussed below, if you do not work in a Right to Work state, you may be required to pay union fees as a condition of employment.” Even in 24 states that don’t have Right to Work protections, if temporary employees work less than 30 days they are not legally obligated to pay union fees, the foundation explains.
Workers at Milwaukee’s Trade hotel seek union, accuse employer of unfair labor practices
May 24, 2024 // The employer had not filed a request for an election as of Thursday afternoon, and the complaint filed with the NLRB was not available on the agency’s website.
Thousands of hotel workers to rally in 18 cities ahead of contract negotiations
May 1, 2024 // Unionized hotel workers demanding significant pay raises will rally on May Day in 18 U.S. and Canadian cities, as talks are beginning with operators Marriott International (MAR.O), opens new tab, Hilton Worldwide Holdings (HLT.N), opens new tab and Hyatt Hotels Corp (H.N) , opens new tab. Talks will cover about 40,000 workers who look to secure new contracts for the first time since the pandemic. Workers want to reverse pandemic-era staffing and service cuts, as well as duplicate the big pay hikes that organized workers across the nation have been winning in the recent years.
How the New Independent Contractor Rule Could Impact the Senior Care Gig Economy
February 27, 2024 // einer notes that the rule’s implementation follows a general movement throughout the country that is making it much harder for employers or businesses to classify workers as independent contractors. “However, since it’s a rule and not a statute, courts don’t necessarily have to follow it,” he says, although federal courts are inclined to follow guidance and rules issued by USDOL. “When the USDOL conducts an audit, they’re going to follow their own rules and guidance,” Weiner says. “Once you’re under an investigation by USDOL, you’re under their control. But because this rule has yet to go into effect, we don’t know necessarily what the overall real-world implications are.”
A FIRST-OF-ITS-KIND UNION RAMPS UP EFFORTS TO SWEEP THE SOUTH
August 30, 2023 // The Union of Southern Service Workers began making headlines last fall after formally christening themselves during a rally in Columbia, South Carolina. This union holds some familiar attributes, given that it began as an offshoot of Raise Up, the Southern leg of the SEIU’s Fight for $15 initiative. Yet this is no ordinary effort by the SEIU, for the USSW purports to not only be “built by and for low-wage workers” but also stretches across many industries. A key distinction: The union frames itself as a cross-sector organization, designed to retain members even if they job-hop between industries, i.e., fast food, retail, hotel, nursing home, warehouses, etc.
L.A. schools would close if union workers go on massive three-day strike, Supt. Carvalho says
March 14, 2023 // United Teachers Los Angeles, which also is in contract talks, has advised its members that they should walk out in solidarity with Local 99 to ratchet up pressure on the district. Local 99 has described the strike as an unfair labor practice charge walkout in protest of alleged illegal actions by L.A. Unified during the negotiations process. Such strikes typically last for a fixed duration and can be staged without going through all the steps of bargaining that typically precede an open-ended strike, according to the unions. The union bargaining platform is extensive, covering a range of workplace and social-justice issues, including a commitment to extra resources for Black students and affordable housing for low-income families.
A new union is born in the South
December 1, 2022 // USSW workers and staff are bullish on their new union, believing that its fusion of labor and human rights organizing will help them secure livable wages, stronger safety protections, control over their work schedules, and new respect for the African Americans and Latinos who make up the majority of their members. They are encouraged by the growing public approval for labor unions and the increase in worker protest during the COVID-19 pandemic, especially among essential or frontline workers. They are also building off of nine years of organizing through Raise Up — the Southern expression of the Fight for $15 and a Union and an affiliate of the sprawling Service Employees International Union. Raise Up veterans like Gas and Smalls, and the Durham, North Carolina-based Ieisha Franceis and Jamila Allen, will be critical to the USSW's success. Beginning in September 2020 and continuing over the next year, Franceis and Allen led three walkouts that forced their employer, Freddy's Frozen Custard and Steakburgers, to agree to their demands for raises, paid leave for employees in quarantine, and new sanitation procedures. Franceis was initially hesitant about striking, but she trusted the much younger and more soft-spoken Allen, who had been meeting with Raise Up organizers for a year and gently prodding her coworkers to take collective action.
A Persistent Cook Serves Up a Winning Recipe for the First Amendment
July 19, 2022 // An unexpected champion of the First Amendment against public-sector unions may inspire other Janus-curious government workers. Tina Curtis, the lead cook for the New Haven, Conn., Board of Education, may not have figured herself to be a First Amendment warrior. But by prevailing over her government-union bosses in what may prove to be an important Janus-rights case, she has shown herself to be exactly that. Curtis v. Hotel & Restaurant Employees & Bartenders Union, Local 217, AFL-CIO,