Posts tagged Maine
Dockworkers Cancel Bargaining, Threaten Strike at U.S. Seaports
June 11, 2024 // Automation has been a flashpoint for longshore labor talks on both coasts. Daggett has vowed to stem the tide of automated machinery being used to lift, carry and stack containers on docks around the world. In a speech last year he accused the Biden administration of standing by while foreign-owned carriers use the machinery “to eliminate good paying American jobs.” People familiar with the negotiations say most issues specific to local ports have been resolved, but some issues, such as automation, are unresolved.
Republican legislative staff move first to unionize under new WA law
May 3, 2024 // Legislative assistants for GOP members of the state House and Senate want the recently formed Legislative Professionals Association to represent them. Petitions on behalf of workers in each chamber were filed with the Public Employment Relations Commission, which will certify the bargaining unit and conduct an election. Legislative assistants want to ensure their concerns are heard in a workplace where they are in the minority, Lund said. The workers don’t want to risk living with a contract they disagree with and have no say in negotiating. Nor do they want to be pulled into a union and see their dues funneled outside the state to a national group.
MAINE: Mills vetoes farm worker minimum wage hike
April 28, 2024 // "Small family farms will no longer be independent businesses, but will be subsidiaries of large producers contracting out production processes or out of business completely," Julie Ann Smith, the bureau's executive director, said in recent testimony. "You do not have masses of agricultural workers clamoring for unionization. But you have farmers pleading with you not to destroy their livelihoods." Lawmakers could vote to override Mills' objections when they reconvene in August, but the slim margin by which the package of bills was passed will make it difficult to garner the two-thirds majority needed to reverse the governor's decision. In 2022, lawmakers failed to muster enough votes to override Mills' veto of a similar farm worker package that had called for closing loopholes in state and federal labor laws for farm workers, who are not covered by Maine’s minimum wage and overtime regulations.
MAINE: Fort Kent hospital nurses voting on unionizing Wednesday
January 22, 2024 // The NMMC nurses’ platform, according to a bulletin from the Maine State Nurses Association and National Nurses United, is for safer staffing and scheduling practices, retention-focused benefits, job protections, and fair and transparent wages that reward years of experience and longevity. They are also seeking an RN-elected committee to give them an equal say in patient care standards, nurse-led workplace violence prevention, adequate supplies and equipment, and improved differentials for floating shifts, charge, and precepting.
Brunswick Staples workers vote against unionizing
January 9, 2024 // Had a majority voted to unionize, the store would have been the first Staples to unionize in the U.S. The company, founded in 1986, has 997 retail stores in the U.S., including 10 in Maine, and more than 34,000 workers, according to its website.
Maine’s labor movement sees big shift from small unions
December 7, 2023 // While overall union membership rates have fallen with closures of big unionized companies, the heart of Maine’s union movement is still beating, in part thanks to employees at small workplaces organizing at higher rates. These new unionized workers still face risks without the support of large collective action, but there are some advantages, too. And workers like Blackstock are coming to believe that the pros offset any cons. Unions formed at textile factories, paper mills, aircraft manufacturer Pratt & Whitney, Bath Iron Works and Portsmouth Naval Shipyard – “the biggest blue-collar sectors” at the time, Hillard said. Many still exist today. That trend lasted through the 1950s, when union membership rates peaked nationwide at 35%.
Unions accept contract offer, ending strike at Northern Maine pulp manufacturer
November 27, 2023 // Other terms of the contract, according to the unions, are general wage increases of 4% in the first year and 3% in each of the second and third years; an end to a tiered vacation system, allowing all employees to cap out with a fifth week of vacation; an immediate "equity adjustment" of 30 cents to $1 an hour for employees in the bottom five water and steam plant classifications; and a contract ratification bonus of $750. The mill, which employs approximately 300 workers in total, is owned by St. Croix Tissue Co., based in Canada, whose parent company, The International Grand Investment Corp., is a U.S.-based company held by a Chinese investment firm.
Max Finkelstein Workers Across East Coast Force RWDSU Union to Abandon 500+ Employee Unit
October 31, 2023 // “We warehouse workers and drivers at Max Finkelstein may be from many different facilities in many different states, but we are in agreement about one thing: RWDSU union officials don’t represent our interests,” commented Dorney. “It’s our right under federal law to challenge RWDSU’s forced representation power.” The RWDSU union has recently tried several high-profile unionization campaigns at Amazon warehouses across the country, most notably at the large Bessemer, AL, facility, where employees voted against the union by substantial margins in both 2021 and 2022. Gallup polling shows that 58 percent of nonunion workers are “not interested at all” in joining a union.
Staples accused of firing Brunswick worker for backing union drive
September 11, 2023 // The Staples union drive is the latest in a string of organization efforts springing up across Maine. Since 2021, there have been successful union drives among workers at the Orono Town Office, Biddeford Starbucks, the Portland Museum of Art, Maine Medical Center in Portland and the Bangor Daily News. Despite those wins, efforts have petered out or failed at the Chipotle in Augusta, Little Dog Coffee Shop in Brunswick, Shalom House in Portland, the Starbucks on Middle Street in Portland and Bates College in Lewiston.
Popular Union-Busting Tactic Banned in New York in ‘Major Victory’
September 7, 2023 // New York has banned captive audience meetings, a popular union-busting tactic used by companies during organizing periods to disseminate anti-union information. Governor Kathy Hochul signed the bill on Wednesday morning, making the state the fifth in the U.S. to make such meetings illegal. “This legislation will help to ensure that all New Yorkers receive the benefits and protections that allow them to work with dignity,” Hochul said in a statement on Wednesday. “My administration is committed to making our state the most worker-friendly state in the nation, and I thank the bill sponsors for their partnership in our mission to establish the strongest and most robust protections right here in New York.”