Posts tagged Manhattan
REI SoHo workers unionized in 2022, but still don’t have a contract. This play tells their story
February 21, 2024 // Neill first put on the play, called Foot Wears House, for her coworkers and fellow union members, through a reading at RWDSU’s office. Now, it will be open to the public with a reading at Hudson Park Library on February 24, once again starring members of the REI Soho union. The reading is supported by Working Theater, which is focused on stories for and about working people, and is free to the public, with the option for donations to the REI Union Hardship Fund.
UFT Lawsuit Against MTA over Congestion Pricing Opens Discussions over Membership-wide Voting
January 30, 2024 // This is not the first time that the union has made unilateral decisions outside of membership input. In March of 2023, Mulgrew faced significant membership backlash over a controversial switch to a privately run Medicare Advantage plan for retirees, now managed by Aetna. Mulgrew played a key role in negotiating the health plan change, which members challenged by circulating a petition, demanding a membership-wide vote prior to “significant changes to active and/or retired members’ healthcare.” “We call for a membership-wide vote for any significant changes to active and/or retired members’ healthcare. These include any significant changes of our healthcare carriers, limits to our choice of healthcare carriers, or institutions of or raises to premiums, deductibles or copayments, etc.,” read the petition by UFT activist group Educators of NYC.
NLRB seeks to force Trader Joe’s to reopen New York wine store
January 25, 2024 // The NLRB said its general counsel is seeking remedies including compelling Trader Joe’s to reopen the store, which was located in New York City’s Union Square neighborhood and closed in 2022, and “make-whole relief” for its workers. The NLRB intends to encourage the union and Trader Joe’s to reach a settlement and has scheduled a hearing before an administrative law judge starting on May 7. Either party could appeal the judge’s decision to the board and ultimately to a federal appeals court. The UFCW hailed the NLRB’s decision to file the complaint as a victory for Trader Joe’s workers in their effort to gain leverage against Trader Joe’s.
Drama in the Teachers’ Lounge
January 12, 2024 // Ed Calamia, an English teacher at a Bronx school, says he doesn’t support congestion pricing, but he still doesn’t think the leadership should be filing lawsuits on behalf of its members without consulting them first. The move by Mulgrew, he says, is not the first time UFT top brass has acted unilaterally. “Some people think the rank-and-file membership should be involved with decisions, and some people think once they’ve been elected, it’s a dictatorship,”
Teacher’s Union Sues to Stop New York Congestion Pricing Plan
January 7, 2024 // The United Federation of Teachers argues that the near-5,000 page environmental report on New York's congestion pricing plan isn't thorough enough.
Unionised employees at Barnes & Noble flagship store stage walk out over economic concerns
January 4, 2024 // According to the union, the employees were protesting "the company’s failure to return on economic portions of the contract amid their highest sales season". They were joined by other union and community members, who supported their walkout "demanding the company bargain in good faith". The majority (97%) of workers at the flagship store voted to join the union on 7th June 2023, and there are now five unionised Barnes & Noble stores across the US, as well as one Barnes & Noble College Booksellers store.
‘Barbenheimer’ was a boon to movie theaters and a headache for many workers. So they’re unionizing
October 16, 2023 // Alamo held meetings in Manhattan and Brooklyn in the weeks leading up to union votes. In each gathering, management officials acknowledged discontent among staff members, while reiterating that any issues were better worked out entirely within the company. In Brooklyn, per the recordings, League reflected on the company's history, dating back to its origins in the 1990s. He spoke of his dedication to Alamo and of his own progressive affinities, including his “passionate” support for Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont. Both League and his wife and Alamo co-founder Karrie League have contributed to various Democratic Party candidates. Tim League has publicly praised the pro-labor senator's 2016 presidential run, telling a CNBC interviewer in 2016 that “Bernie is going to be good for America." League emphasized that he "understood" why Hollywood actors and writers were striking, and why auto workers went on strike. But for Alamo, he said, unions would be a step back, a "communication block." “I fully recognize my own personal bias here,” he said. “I don’t think that forming a union is the right solution for Alamo, that is my personal opinion. I’m concerned that a union is going to drive a wedge between us."
REI SoHo Workers Claim ‘Retaliatory’ Pay Cuts, Walk Out In Protest
September 12, 2023 // “They would give us the money if we stopped participating in our legally protected actions, like handing out fliers outside the store or talking to customers about what’s happening with the union,” Buckley said. “They’re ratcheting up the punishment on SoHo right now because they think that’s the best way to discourage other organizations.”
Greenville, SC Starbucks Employees Latest to Demand Vote to Remove SBWU Union from Workplace
August 15, 2023 // Bory and her coworkers’ effort is the latest in a chain of SBWU decertification pushes across the country. In just the past few months, Starbucks employees in Manhattan, NY, Buffalo, NY, Pittsburgh, PA, Bloomington, MN, and Salt Lake City, UT, have all sought free Foundation legal aid in pursuing their decertification petitions at the NLRB. The flurry of decertification attempts is occurring roughly one year after SBWU union agents engaged in an aggressive unionization campaign against the coffee chain’s employees. Federal labor law forbids workers from decertifying a union for a year after a union’s installation, meaning many workers are seizing on the earliest possible opportunity to rid themselves of the SBWU union’s “representation.”
Salt Lake City-Area Starbucks Workers Latest Seeking Vote to Remove SBWU
July 28, 2023 // Employees at the Cottonwood Heights Starbucks in Utah have just submitted a petition to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), asking the federal agency to hold a vote to end the Chicago and Midwest Joint Regional Board Workers United/SEIU, also known as Starbucks Workers United (SBWU), officials’ monopoly “representation” powers at their workplace. Indya Fiessinger, who filed the petition on behalf of a group of her coworkers, is receiving free legal representation from National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys. With the petition filed, the NLRB should now promptly schedule a secret ballot election to determine whether a majority of workers want to end union officials’ power to impose a contract on the workers.