Posts tagged lawsuit
Newton teachers reach tentative agreement after 11-day strike
February 5, 2024 // In addition to salary losses, a judge fined the teachers association more than $600,000 for violating the state’s ban on strikes by public workers and on Friday threatened to double daily fines to $100,000 if no agreement was reached by Sunday. The school district, meanwhile, was expected to spend an additional $53 million over four years to cover the new agreement, which includes a cost-of-living increase of about 13% over that period for teachers, pay hikes for classroom aides and 40 days of fully paid family leave time. District negotiators said it also had racked up more than $1 million in court and other costs since the walkout began.
‘Gone too far’: Chair of Newton School Committee tears up after classes canceled for 10th day
February 1, 2024 // The teachers’ union insists that Newton Mayor Ruthanne Fuller has the money it’s asking for if she reallocates money to schools. “The offer we proposed would continue to make Newton one of the highest-paying school districts in the state,” Fuller said. Newton School Committee Chair Chris Brezski was visibly emotional in his opening statement on Wednesday night. “There’s really only one kind of progress that matters right now. My kids aren’t going to school again,” he cried. “This has gone too far.”
Teamsters union pays $2.9m to settle racial discrimination lawsuit
January 31, 2024 // The terminations “set back the Organizing Department’s goals of effectively recruiting and organizing non-whites”, it alleged, “in favor of bolstering the majority white membership and leadership of the union. In total, Teamsters terminated 72.73% of the department’s staffers who were people of color, while firing only 28.57% of white staffers. Teamsters then proceeded to hire new staff members who were 73.33% white.” The lawsuit also claimed that O’Brien “publicly humiliated” the plaintiffs in the case, claiming they were fired because they were “bad apples” and were “lazy” in their work. O’Brien has been facing criticism from members of the Teamsters recently over his decision to meet with the former president and Republican presidential primary frontrunner Donald Trump. They cited Trump’s long record of being anti-union and his prejudicial behavior and comments toward women, minorities and the LGBTQ+ community.
Texas Starbucks Employee Challenges Federal Labor Board Structure as Unconstitutional in New Federal Lawsuit
January 24, 2024 // Busler submitted his union decertification petition on November 16, 2023. The petition contained signatures from enough of his coworkers to trigger a vote to remove the union under NLRB rules. However, the NLRB Regional Director still blocked the vote based on unfair labor practice charges SBWU union officials filed against Starbucks, despite there being no proven connection between those allegations and Busler’s decertification petition. The NLRB’s refusal to hold a union decertification vote means that Busler and his coworkers are still trapped under the “representation” of the SBWU union, despite numerous reports of SBWU agents’ combative and abrasive behavior at the store. In other filings in the NLRB case, Busler and his colleagues reported that SBWU officials ordered a divisive strike in which “[union] supporters outside the store were loud, boisterous, and were screaming at customers” and “would sometimes yell at other employees or tell partners that if they did not support Workers United they would be personally ostracized by other partners.” “Moreover, I believe the other employees who signed my decertification petition did not do so because they were coerced or duped by anything Starbucks allegedly did wrong, but because the Union was a divisive force in our store and has now ignored our location for several months,” Busler stated in an NLRB filing.
It’s not a happy holiday at Starbucks, facing boycotts over the Middle East war and unionization
December 21, 2023 // Some of Starbucks' problems have been self-inflicted. It kicked off a wave of anger in October when it sued Workers United — the union organizing its employees — because the union had posted a pro-Palestinian message on social media. Starbucks sued to stop the union from using its name and logo, saying the company had no official stance on the war and the union's post might confuse customers. But protesters saw the company's move as pro-Israel. In mid-November, the company refiled its lawsuit. This time, it included language saying it respected workers' rights to express their views on the war in the Middle East and other political issues, and said the lawsuit was about protecting workers' safety and Starbucks' reputation. But the damage was done.
USPS Won’t Say Whether It Shared Americans’ Contact Information with Labor Unions
December 15, 2023 // But Americans for Fair Treatment (AFFT) uncovered a clause in the online form’s small print, saying USPS can disclose to labor organizations the highly personal information Americans submitted – without their consent. This information includes both where they live and how to contact them directly. USPS’s disclosure raised alarms about why USPS would potentially aggregate vast amounts of Americans’ sensitive data and give it to labor unions. Since then, it appears USPS has added this labor unions language to the fine print for purchases both through USPS.com and in brick-and-mortar stores. It even added the language to its Change of Address form.
NYPD officer sues city, claiming years of sexual abuse by union
November 27, 2023 // In a lawsuit filed Wednesday afternoon, Officer Meaghan Ciotti, 39, said Officer Jamie Angelastro demanded sexual favors from her, threatened her with his gun, strangled her and violently raped her. Ciotti said she has suffered from migraines, neck pain, panic attacks and crippling fear because of the alleged abuse. The suit comes a day before the deadline for the Adult Survivors Act, a state law that provides an extra year for people to file sexual assault lawsuits past the statute of limitations, in civil court.
Ex-employee files charges with labor board against Pleasanton company, union
November 16, 2023 // A Pleasanton-based construction company and the union representing a majority of its employees are each facing charges brought by a former, non-union employee alleging that she had membership dues deducted from her paycheck against her will and was effectively terminated from her position for refusing to join the union. Alexandra Le filed the charges with the National Labor Relations Board on Oct. 4 against Construction Training Services and the International Union of Operating Engineers Local No. 3, with Virginia-based attorney Byron Andrus of the National Right to Work Foundation providing legal counsel.
Buffalo Starbucks Worker Files Groundbreaking Lawsuit Challenging Constitutionality of NLRB Structure
October 4, 2023 // Buffalo “Del-Chip” Starbucks employee Ariana Cortes has hit the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) with a federal lawsuit, arguing that the federal agency’s current structure violates the separation of powers. The lawsuit, filed with the District Court for the District of Columbia, follows Cortes’ challenge to an NLRB Regional Director’s dismissal of her and her coworkers’ petition seeking a vote to remove Starbucks Workers United (SBWU) union officials from their store. Cortes is receiving free legal aid in both proceedings from the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation. The lawsuit contends that, because NLRB Board Members cannot be removed at-will by the President, the NLRB’s structure violates Article II of the Constitution. The National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), the law which established the Board, restricts a president’s ability to remove Board members except for neglect of duty or malfeasance. The complaint argues that “[t]hese restrictions are impermissible limitations on the President’s ability to remove Board members and violates the Constitution’s separation of powers. Thus, the Board, as currently constituted, is unconstitutional.”
Ford announces pause on Marshall EV battery plant
September 26, 2023 // The company has commented that this site was meant to bring in 2,500 hundred jobs. The factory was set to start making batteries in 2026, with an expected output of enough energy cells to supply 400,000 vehicles a year. The state had allocated nearly $1.7 billion in incentives for the project. Following Monday’s announcement, Republican Representative Sarah Lightner, whose district covers parts of Calhoun County, issued a statement: “Gov. Whitmer threw $1.7 billion in taxpayer dollars at Ford to bring its new EV plant to Marshall, but even that wasn’t enough to make the company turn a blind eye toward the anti-business climate the Democrat majority has created. Their far-left policies put more red tape and higher costs on businesses. The extreme energy mandate they’re currently pushing will raise costs even further while leaving large manufacturers like Ford worried about blackouts affecting their bottom line. If this keeps up, Michigan workers will pay the price as industries suffer and opportunities vanish.