Posts tagged job security
Brooklyn Museum Union Pickets VIP Artists Ball as Contract Negotiations Stall
April 28, 2023 // On Wednesday night, as guests of the Brooklyn Museum arrived for the annual, star-studded Artists Ball, members of the museum’s union gathered—once again—along the entryway, to raise their voices in songs and speeches of protest. Many brandished signs (“Solidarity with the Union”) and chanted (“overworked and underpaid” and “Brooklyn is a union town”). In August 2021, some 130 employees of the Brooklyn Museum, including curators, conservators, editors, fundraisers, educators, and members of the visitor services department, voted overwhelmingly to unionize. They affiliated with the Technical, Office, and Professional Union, Local 2110, part of the United Automobile Workers (UAW) union which also represents workers at the Museum of Modern Art, the Bronx Museum, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, among other cultural institutions across the US.
Rutgers faculty suspend strike after reaching tentative deal
April 17, 2023 // Striking faculty at New Jersey's Rutgers University returned to classrooms Monday after reaching a tentative agreement on a new contract to boost wages and provide other benefits. On Saturday, the three striking unions representing more than 9,000 faculty members announced they had reached a "framework" agreement with Rutgers administration on new contracts, allowing more than 67,000 students to return to classes. The unions have been on strike since last Monday. The Rutgers' unions — AAUP-AFT, Rutgers Adjunct Faculty Union and the Rutgers AAUP-Biomedical and Health Sciences of New Jersey — said the tentative deal includes "major victories" but said there are still "open issues" that have to be resolved before they put the contracts before their membership for a vote. "We have only suspended the strike, not canceled it," they said in a joint statement. "If we don’t win what we need on these open issues, we can and will continue with the work stoppage."
Barnes & Noble Education Workers Seek to Unionize, Extending Organizing Wave
April 10, 2023 // Workers say they’ve signed up most of the roughly 70 employees at the store on Rutgers University’s campus. After announcing their organizing campaign to local management, they plan to submit a filing Thursday asking the US National Labor Relations Board to conduct a unionization election. Employees are petitioning to join the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, which currently represents retail workers at Macy’s Inc., H&M Hennes & Mauritz AB and, most recently, Recreational Equipment Inc., where it first secured a foothold last year in New York City. Barnes & Noble Education didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. The company, which retailer Barnes & Noble Inc. spun off in 2015, operates 785 physical bookstores for students and hundreds of online bookstores. It also has exclusive deals with schools and universities to distribute course materials.
Rutgers could face first faculty strike in its history — key union vote Tuesday
February 24, 2023 // The voting will run for a week-and-a-half, and a strike will only be called if an overwhelming majority of the members agree to it, organizers said. A strike wouldn’t automatically be triggered by the vote, the unions said in a letter to members. Instead, their leaders would instead have the option of calling a strike in March or April, if they still haven’t struck a contract deal with the university. “All of us would rather be teaching. None of us want to go out on strike,” said Rebecca Givan, the president of the Rutgers AAUP-AFT and an associate professor in the School of Management. The Rutgers AAUP-AFT represents about 5,000 full-time faculty, graduate workers, postdoctoral associates and Educational Opportunity Fund counselors. The adjunct union represents another 2,700 part-time lecturers.
‘It’s about damn time’: College workers organize amid nationwide labor unrest
February 8, 2023 // A historic strike at the University of California kicked things off in November. And the six-week standoff among 48,000 campus workers, a broader surge in labor strikes across industries, a depleted pandemic workforce and a friendlier atmosphere in Washington has culminated in a wave of uprisings.+
Healthcare Workers, Especially Physicians, Slow to Unionize in Past Decade: Study
January 6, 2023 // Some physicians, however, may oppose unions because of the cost of union dues or fears that union goals might not align with their responsibility to patients. Doctors and other healthcare workers are often concerned about the ethics of unionizing, Onello said. “They see this looming tactic of a strike or work stoppage and think, ‘I could never do that to my patients,’ ” Onello said. “But the process of collective bargaining, when it’s working well, should not lead to a strike if both sides are negotiating in good faith to reach a fair and workable agreement.”
GE workers rally for better pay, job security
October 26, 2022 // Hundreds of General Electric workers from plants around the country held a rally in Schenectady on Tuesday to call for better protection and compensation ahead of contract negotiations in 2023. Workers said the company needs to stop outsourcing jobs to other countries, raise wages in response to rising inflation, and protect retirement benefits. Employees are also concerned about the company’s plan to split into three next year. One will focus on aviation, another on healthcare, and another on energy.
Afraid of Being Fired? Consider Working a ‘Forever Job’ with the Federal Government
September 26, 2022 // The article noted recent data that shows just 4,000 of 1.6 million government workers lost their jobs in recent years — just 1% of the population of people holding these positions. And for those who are dismissed from their gigs, they usually get the job back through the work of an arbitrator. The American First Policy Institute has reported that over 50% resume their roles after being let go, and usually with back pay. “The combination of lengthy delays, followed by high reversal rates and back pay obligations makes attempting to dismiss unionized employees very risky for agencies,” the study from the AFPI pointed out.
Philly art museum workers resume strike in effort to secure better wages, benefits in first union contract
September 26, 2022 // "After two years of negotiations, our membership cannot accept further stalling and union-busting," said Adam Rizzo, a museum educator and president of Local 397. "We had hoped the museum's appointment of a new director and CEO, Sasha Suda, would signal a change in tone and that she would be more involved in helping us reach a fair agreement. Unfortunately, that hasn't happened. If the choice is between accepting the status quo or going on strike, we choose to strike. It's up to museum management to present a better option."
American University staff preparing to strike over wages
August 22, 2022 // Hundreds of staffers at American University plan to go on strike next week if negotiations over wages and health-care benefits with the school in D.C. do not produce a contract. American and a union representing about 550 clerical, technical and academic staff members have been hammering out a labor agreement for more than a year. While they have made progress on issues such as job security, they remain at odds over salary increases, said Sam Sadow, an organizer with Service Employees International Union Local 500, the union representing the staff members. Matthew Bennett, Amanda Kleinman,