Posts tagged labor laws
Starbucks Union: College Students Use Billboards, Leafleting in Solidarity Action
September 18, 2023 // Today, inspired in part by the recent developments at Cornell, 11 university campuses are unveiling solidarity billboards that criticize Starbucks’ union-busting tactics, which are so copious, the NLRB, according to the Guardian, has brought over 100 cases against the company — though it cannot hold the company accountable with fines or other punitive mechanisms. (Starbucks told Bloomberg it plans to appeal the NLRB ruling in Ithaca.) Students on those 11 campuses, including the University of Arizona, the University of Washington, and the University of Chicago, will spend today leafleting outside local Starbucks locations to support workers’ unionization efforts. “Students prefer our coffee union-brewed," reads one of the billboards. "We support Starbucks baristas & demand an end to Starbucks' union-busting.”
Here’s why the US labor movement is so popular but union membership is dwindling.
September 6, 2023 // Labor laws in the US make it more difficult for employees to form unions: Around 27 states have passed "Right to Work" laws, making it more difficult for workers to unionize. These laws provide union representation to nonunion members in union workplaces– without requiring the payment of union dues. It also gives workers the option to join a union or opt out. Workplace sectors that were traditionally union strongholds, now make up less of the workforce, such as manufacturing, transportation, and construction.
Sick leave and family leave priorities for workers heading into new year
December 15, 2022 // The bitter negotiations that nearly brought the country’s freight rail system to a halt last week hinged on one quality of life issue: worker leave. Rail workers nearly went on strike over paid sick leave. They lost their fight, but in the post-pandemic era, the issue of how and when workers can take leave from their jobs is at the core of several major labor negotiations.
Independent Contracting – Proposed Department of Labor Rule
October 19, 2022 // The Biden Department of Labor (DOL) proposed a new independent contractor rule on October 11, 2022 to address what Secretary Walsh deems “misclassification” of workers. This would replace a current DOL rule from the Trump administration that went into effect in March 2021 – a rule which the Biden administration improperly attempted to rescind that provided clarity to the “economic realities” test used to determine the employment status of workers under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).
Opinion, California: State Senate should spike AB 257
August 17, 2022 // You’ve probably seen the self-serve machines at fast-food restaurants. If Assembly Bill 257 passes, there will be a lot more of them. The bill is sponsored by Assemblymember Chris Holden, D-Pasadena, and already has passed the Assembly and two Senate committees. The bill would set up a new state bureaucracy, the Fast Food Sector Council, within the Department of Industrial Relations, with members appointed by the governor, the Assembly speaker and the Senate Rules Committee. In the bill’s language, “The purpose of the council would be to establish sector-wide minimum standards on wages, working hours and other working conditions related to the health, safety and welfare” of fast-food workers.