Posts tagged IBEW
Southern IL Aluminum Worker Forces IBEW Union Bosses to Abandon Illegal Dues Demands, Termination Threat
March 2, 2023 // Penn Aluminum International employee Mary Beck has successfully forced International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 702 union officials to stop illegally demanding money from her paycheck. National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys represented her for free before the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). Beck hit both the IBEW union and her employer with federal charges in June 2022, maintaining that union dues were coming out of her paycheck under a defective contract, and that union officials had ignored her resignation of union membership and her request to pay only the amount of dues necessary to keep her job under federal law. She added additional charges in August 2022, stating that union officials had acknowledged her demand, but threatened to get her fired if she didn’t pay an unspecified amount of money to the union. Beck filed charges to defend her rights under the Foundation-won CWA v. Beck Supreme Court decision, which forbids union officials from having employees in non-Right to Work states like Illinois fired for refusal to pay for union politics and other expenses outside the union’s “representation” functions.
As Federal Cash Flows to Unions, Democrats Hope to Reap the Rewards
February 13, 2023 // In places like West Virginia, money from three major laws passed by Congress is pouring into the alternative energy industry and other projects. “I think it’s a renaissance for the labor movement,” said one union official. Beyond the inflation act, Democrats, with help from a few Republicans, were able to add prevailing wage requirements to the semiconductor bill. And both the Energy and Transportation Departments are making clear that access to unions, payment of prevailing wages and commitments to local hiring will be big advantages for competitive bidders seeking infrastructure and highway electrification projects, though Republican governors like Joe Lombardo in Nevada are trying to block some of those requirements.
La Colombe baristas at Gold Coast coffee shop vote to unionize in unanimous election
January 25, 2023 // Baristas at La Colombe’s 955 W. Randolph St. location in the West Loop were scheduled to vote on unionization Tuesday, but the election was postponed due to COVID-19, Blado confirmed. The count will be rescheduled as soon as possible, she said. Elections for two more locations, at 858 Armitage Ave. and at 5158 N. Clark St. are scheduled to take place next week. Baristas at the company’s Wicker Park location have not moved to unionize. La Colombe baristas said Monday they were inspired by union efforts at other coffee shops. Workers at about 10 area Starbucks have voted to unionize since last January. Colectivo Coffee and Intelligentsia Coffee workers in Chicago are unionized with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers; Intelligentsia baristas ratified their first collective bargaining agreement at the end of last year.
From Starbucks to Marijuana Dispensaries, 2022 Marked a Year of Gains for Labor Organizers in Chicago, US
December 28, 2022 // Election day also brought a win for union backers, when voters supported the so-called Workers’ Rights Amendment broadening rights in the Illinois constitution for collective bargaining. “This is a major win for workers rights that will outlast any single politicians’ term and enshrine a key right for Illinoisans for generations to come,” Governor J.B. Pritzker said in a December proclamation announcing the amendment had passed. Organizers and their supporters are also hopeful the National Labor Relations Board is about to get a financial boost in a new federal spending plan. The $25 million budget increase will be the agency’s first in nine years, according to the NLRB union. Union supporters say the agency has been chronically underfunded, weakening its ability to enforce labor laws.
UNIONS MAKE NEW INROADS INTO CHAINS
June 2, 2022 // Workers at more than 100 Starbucks units have now voted to organize, and employees of other coffee chains have taken steps to do likewise.
Another Union Boss, IBEW’s Connie Deal, Pleads Guilty
May 28, 2022 //
NLRB stretches its wings under Biden’s appointees
May 10, 2022 // What Biden may ultimately hang his hat on are his appointments to the National Labor Relations Board, where, in addition to swinging the board back to a Democratic-appointed majority, Biden booted GOP General Counsel Peter Robb and put in Jennifer Abruzzo.
IBEW’s Five-Year Strike In New York City Is Over As Union Walks Away
April 27, 2022 // A nearly five-year strike against Charter Communications/Spectrum Cable in New York City is now over, and the union—the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW)—has disclaimed interest in representing the workers, according to documents filed with the National Labor Relations Board.
MORE THAN 38,000 WORKERS HAVE LEFT GOVERNMENT UNIONS IN ILLINOIS
April 15, 2022 // The unions’ own federal reports show 9% of workers have chosen to break away from unions since the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Janus v. AFSCME. More than 38,000 state and local government workers across Illinois have chosen not to join or pay a government union since the U.S. Supreme Court restored that right in 2018 in Janus v. AFSCME.
Dry Fork Station Workers File Petition to Remove IBEW Union from Their Workplace
March 23, 2022 // Decertification election will allow plant workers to vote to free themselves from unwanted union “representation”