Posts tagged labor actions
Republic Services and Teamsters reach 5-year agreement in Boston
September 25, 2025 // After the Boston-area strike began, other Teamsters locals across the country either went on strike for their own contracts or halted work in solidarity. At the peak of the action in mid-July, more than 2,000 Republic Services workers represented by Teamsters were off the job. Since then, three other local chapters have reached agreements with Republic Services and returned to work. Teamsters Local 728, which represents 32 Republic Services employees in Cumming, Georgia, remains on strike over alleged unfair labor practices, according to a union official. Republic workers represented by the local in Columbus, Ohio, walked out last week in solidarity with members already on strike.
Colorado King Soopers files lawsuit in response to union worker’s strike
February 9, 2025 // King Soopers claims they have proposed a “last, best and final offer” that includes $180 million in additional wages, comprehensive and affordable healthcare benefits, a $4.50 per hour wage increase for top rate associates, and pension stability to protect retirement security. “We’re committed to a fair contract that delivers real wage increases, affordable healthcare, and pension stability—just like we always have," King Soopers president Joe Kelley said. “But we won’t be pressured by illegal actions that hurt our stores, our associates, or the communities that rely on us.”
Multiple DC-area restaurants to close Monday for ‘Day Without Immigrants’
February 2, 2025 // Some of the other establishments participating include but are not limited to Pearl’s Bagels and Hiraya in D.C. and La Casita Pupusería, Tacos El Pariente and Centrado Café Shop in Maryland. “A day without immigrants is a day without bagels,” Pearl’s Bagels said in an Instagram story Sunday. “Our staff will receive a paid day off in order to make their voices heard and stress the importance of immigrants to our community and local economy.”
Disneyland Unionization Shuts Down Attractions: 2,000 Cast Members Gear Up for Major Protests
June 6, 2024 // Nearly 2,000 cast members have voted to unionize at Disneyland Resort in California, sparking concerns from the House of Mouse, so much so that the company is rumored to be looking into closing down experiences and attractions amidst the possibility of protests breaking out.
Strike Looms: Marathon Petroleum Workers in Detroit Vote to Authorize Walkout, Union Reports
February 20, 2024 // There are 273 Teamsters working at the refinery in a variety of roles, the union said, adding that their most recent contract expired last month. "If Marathon won't offer the Teamsters whose labor makes them profitable a fair contract, workers are going to withhold their labor," said Steve Hicks, President of Local 283. The refinery has a crude oil refining capacity of 140,000 barrels per day and processes sweet and heavy sour crude oils into products such as gasoline and distillates.
OPINION: Bidenomics Labor Agenda on the Rise in Time for 2024 Election
February 6, 2024 // This means entrepreneurs will lose the ability to open their franchise stores like a McDonald’s or Meineke auto shop. It also means many small mom-and-pop businesses like plumbing, baking, accounting and cleaning can’t perform mutually beneficial services for other businesses without being slammed by costly new regulations, legal threats and even targeted unionization efforts — not to mention the loss of their American Dream to have an independent business in the first place. In other words, more than 750,000 franchises and even more small businesses serving as contractors and vendors are now under threat, as are tens of millions of workers. The similar 2015 Browning-Ferris joint employer rule was estimated to increase costs by more than $33 billion and lead to 376,000 lost jobs for franchises, meaning the new rule in 2024 will be even more costly. Next, on January 10, the Labor Department published a final independent contractor rule that modifies the subfactors used in Labor’s “economic realities” test to create as many roadblocks toward independent contractor careers as Labor can without legislation.
WWU student workers aim for ‘wall-to-wall’ union protection
January 16, 2024 // More than 2,000 student employees at Western Washington University will be part of a union if students’ efforts come to fruition. That would constitute “wall-to-wall" union protection, as organizers call it, an effort that reflects broader efforts to unionize across industries in recent years. In Whatcom County, labor actions have been frequent: from Starbucks to REI to PeaceHealth, student employees are part of a larger organizing movement in Bellingham and across the country. It's also part of a movement of students organizing across the state and nationwide: Postdoctoral students at Washington State University have organized, and academic student workers are heading for a strike. Central Washington University students are also organizing, said Sarah Tucker of the Washington State Labor Council.
New York’s biggest labor actions of the past year
February 28, 2023 // Only one other state, Hawaii, has a unionization rate higher than New York’s 20.7%. In the public sector, just around two-thirds of New Yorkers are in a union. In 2022 alone, nearly 200 workplaces in the state filed for representation through the National Labor Relations Board. But, despite the hype and a 57-year high in Americans’ approval of labor unions, New York’s union participation (and the country’s as a whole) is still trending downward. In 2012, 23.2% of New York workers were union members, 2.5 points higher than it is today. CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies Labor Department Chair Ruth Milkman said that despite 2022’s historic union victories, many were with small firms. “So all this publicity and media attention to these iconic companies that have had some recent experience of successful unionization, it’s kind of a drop in the bucket in terms of the whole labor market in New York,” she said.
The Future of Unions (Gallup Polling)
May 2, 2022 // In short, views of unions do not significantly divide the rich versus the poor, the highly educated versus the less well educated or women versus men. Views of unions are largely a factor of the individual's underlying political and ideological orientation.
Can the trend of decreasing employee unions be reversed?
March 14, 2022 // A task force established by the Biden administration has issued dozens of recommendations for unionizing federal agencies and contractors. Will it have any effect? After all, the percentage of the workforce that is organized has been falling steadily for years. For analysis, the Federal Drive with Tom Temin turned to the managing partner of the D.C. office of the law firm Tully Rinckey, Dan Meyer.