Posts tagged inclusion
Los Angeles museum workers pushing to unionize
March 27, 2025 // Workers at Los Angeles County's Natural History Museum and La Brea Tar Pits Tuesday announced efforts to unionize, citing what they call a need for better wages, safer working conditions and increased diversity. The Natural History Museum & Tar Pits Workers Union would represent almost 300 workers and include performers, engineers, educators, guest relations associates and more, according to the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 36.
Labor Day: Workers on Their Jobs
August 28, 2024 // *Satisfaction with pay and benefits always trail satisfaction with workplace environments. Today, negative assessments of the economy as a whole may be depressing attitudes on some job characteristics. Still, in Gallup’s latest, only 13 percent were very dissatisfied with what they earned. *Employed Americans are reasonably confident of their own job security. Those numbers dipped to a low point in the Great Recession but have been more positive since.
Teamsters social media rips union president in critical, now-deleted post
July 18, 2024 // “The message this sends to Teamsters of color, Teamsters women, and LGBTQ Teamsters is that they are not welcome in the union unless they surrender their identity to a new kind of anti-woke unionism,” the account wrote. “You don’t unite a diverse working class by scoffing at this diversity.” The account also suggested that O’Brien was endorsing what it said was an attempt by Hawley to tie bigotry to a “cynical pro-labor message.” During his speech at the RNC, O’Brien suggested that the union could revert from its historic posture of endorsing Democrats. The Teamsters account later posted that the union wasn’t “beholden to anyone or any party.”
Baltimore Museum of Industry’s new exhibit looks at modern labor movement
June 7, 2024 // A new exhibit examines calls for changes in the workforce that drove workers in non-trade jobs to create collective bargaining agreements across the country. The "Collective Action: Labor Activism in 20th Century Baltimore" exhibit at the Baltimore Museum of Industry, is about workers rallying for unions, and it dives into who wants change and why. Advertisement Workers in several industries are banding together and calling for better pay and conditions. The exhibit reveals professions some may be surprised to learn were involved in the efforts.
Op-ed: Diversity, equity, and exclusion: How the NLRB’s double standard on job-related speech hurts workers
March 22, 2024 // The NLRB in 2020 required Amazon to reinstate a male worker who had used a bullhorn to call a female colleague a “gutter bitch” and “crack ho,” among other misogynistic insults. The bullhorn-wielding worker had been engaged in a one-man union protest when the female co-worker told him to quiet down. The union activist replied with a string of insults that would be clear proof of a hostile workplace under any other circumstances. The NLRB nevertheless sided with the union activist, as it usually has in such situations. The board has long believed that allowances must be made for heated rhetoric when workers are engaged union-related activities. So, you cannot question a workplace diversity policy publicly at work and you cannot criticize the policy outside of work in the private-yet-public world of social media. Either one can get you fired for creating a hostile work environment. But a male worker can be openly hostile and insulting to female co-workers if the man is affiliated with a union.
Opinion: Is The American Labor Movement Ready For Gen Z?
February 12, 2024 // It’s fair to ask what any of this has to do with unions’ supposed goal of bargaining for better wages and conditions for workers. The data is regrettably clear: with this trend towards increased activism, representation for actual union members has suffered. Some of the nation’s largest labor unions routinely spend as much or more on political activities than they do on representing their existing members. For example, in 2022 the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), representing over 1.8 million workers, spent $63.5 million on political activities and lobbying, which is more than double what it spent representing its membership. The American Federation of Teachers spent $46.9 million supporting Left-wing politics in 2023, while the National Education Association spent less on member representation than it did on political causes. Organized labor is already diverting too much time and money away from the well-being of workers and toward unrelated political agendas. As more members of Gen Z join unions and gain leadership positions, we can only expect this trend to increase.
Opinion: Biden to Apprentices: You’re Fired
December 21, 2023 // About half of apprenticeship programs are jointly run by labor and management, typically governed by collective-bargaining agreements. Yet unions accuse non-union employers of using apprenticeships “to find cheap labor,” as DOL puts it. Its proposed rule aims to make it harder and more expensive for employers to use non-union apprenticeships.
ProPublica, lauded journalism nonprofit, is latest newsroom to unionize
July 31, 2023 // Reporters at investigative journalism nonprofit ProPublica announced Wednesday they are unionizing, bringing an industry wave of labor organizing to a somewhat unexpected corner of the media world. The announcement, timed to the 15th anniversary of ProPublica, comes as its corporate peers are grappling with layoffs and cutbacks that have stoked employee discontent. By comparison, ProPublica, a donor-supported nonprofit that counted over $57 million in assets on its most recently available tax forms, has been comparatively insulated from the economic challenges of the industry. In a statement, staffers said a union “is essential to preserving the best parts of working at ProPublica and ensuring our values do not waver regardless of leadership changes or turbulence within the industry.” The campaign could shift labor relations at ProPublica, which is one of few national news outlets of its size and distinction where staffers do not have union representation.
READOUT: At US Department of Labor, Workers’ Voice Summit stresses collaboration in addressing workers’ rights concerns
October 6, 2022 // Event focused on workforce equity, expanding accessibility for underserved workers U.S. Department of Labor officials gathered with workers, union representatives and labor organizers from a range of industries to discuss the value of building relationships and collaborating on ideas to address workers’ concerns at its Workers’ Voice Summit, Sept. 27-29, 2022. Hosted by the department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the three-day summit focused on trends affecting workers and the need to foster open dialogue to identify workplace problems and find solutions. Participants also discussed the benefits of advancing equity and making the department more accessible to underserved workers and their advocates. Officials from the department’s Wage and Hour Division, Office of the Solicitor, Women’s Bureau, Bureau of International Labor Affairs, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Policy, and Office of Public Engagement also joined the event.
New York Times’ Wirecutter writers plan strike around Black Friday
November 8, 2021 // Over 90% of Wirecutter union members have voted to authorize a work stoppage in late November