Posts tagged Mary Kay Henry
Vice President Kamala Harris speaks in Philadelphia at union leaders’ meeting
June 8, 2023 // Henry and Verrett introduced Harris by highlighting her lived experience as a woman of color and her track record of supporting unions and workers. “She's joined fast food workers on the picket lines, she's joined striking home care workers, and she's been to South Carolina with hospital workers, and the list goes on and on and on,” Verrett said. “Her street cred is real.” Harris, the chair of the White House Task Force on Worker Organizing and Empowerment, highlighted the recent accomplishments of local unions and thanked workers for their efforts.
Unions say Starbucks violates worker rights it claims to uphold — and its membership in U.N. corporate initiative is ‘self-serving’
June 6, 2023 // Trull added that “the complaints and [administrative law judge] rulings against Starbucks involve allegations some of which are disputed by Starbucks, none of which are final, and are not equivalent to findings that violations have occurred under the system of adjudication Congress created.” Elena Bombis, the senior manager of integrity at the U.N. Global Compact and the person to whom the unions’ complaint was addressed, did not immediately return a request for comment. The compact has been known to delist companies that have failed to adhere to the agreement’s principles.
SEIU DOING A LITTLE UNION-BUSTING OF ITS OWN
May 15, 2023 // This week, the Office and Professional Employees International Union (OPEIU) Local 2 went on strike protesting the unfair bargaining conditions and lack of bargaining in good faith of their employer. The employer? SEIU. In this brief video on Twitter, SEIU staffers can be seen hanging a sign from their headquarters building in Washington, D.C., that reads “SEIU: Stop union-busting. Bargain a fair contract!” The description of the video explains, “Unionized staff at SEIU have authorized a strike to win pay that keeps up with the cost of living because Mary Kay Henry and April Verrett continue to utilize corporate tricks and delay tactics instead of bargaining with us in good faith. #UnionsForAll starts at home!”
‘A huge opportunity for the labor movement’: Unions jump on newly won Democratic trifectas
December 1, 2022 // And if Democrats succeed in repealing certain laws in Michigan — and in pushing through other union-backed measures — union officials and campaign operatives hope to rekindle the labor movement’s influence in other states. Democrats are putting their energy toward raising the minimum wage, banning so-called captive audience meetings where employers can warn against unionization, and more. “We’re busy preparing our legislative agenda, because we put everything we had into the ground game for this election,” AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler said in an interview. “How can we go on offense to pass legislation to protect people’s voice and ability to exercise their rights?”
Labor unions are hot, but their moment may not last | Los Angeles Times
August 29, 2022 // About 1 in 10 American workers is in a labor union, down from a peak of more than 1 in 3 in the mid-1950s. Government workers are five times more likely than private-sector employees to be in a union. Yet even as experts acknowledge the newfound excitement around labor, they caution that unions, which have suffered decades of declining membership, are unlikely to turn the tide. Unions’ moment of opportunity could already be slipping away. Republicans are poised to gain seats in the November elections. And a potential recession could wipe away the rare leverage workers have held in the tight labor market that emerged in the wake of the pandemic. Jon Shelton, a labor historian at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay
SEIU Healthcare Michigan is under trusteeship once again
July 7, 2022 // Henry wrote in her letter that the current trusteeship is made necessary by “substantiated allegations of serious financial malpractice.” She said there is strong evidence that the Michigan local lacks internal financial controls and has inadequate accounting systems. The SEIU International president also says it is not clear whether leaders of SEIU Michigan Healthcare formally adopted a budget for the last three years. All the union’s officers, executive board members, trustees and representatives were removed from their positions, according to the letter. financial malpractice
CDC director spoke with several union leaders before tightening masking guidance, internal calendar reveals
June 14, 2022 // Rochelle Walensky, other CDC officials kept in close contact with teachers unions throughout coronavirus pandemic Caitlin Sutherland, Americans for Public Trust, transparency, White House director of labor engagement, Becky Pringle, Jason McDonald, Republican lawmakers,
Right to Work legal group seeks federal probe of Healthcare Michigan
June 9, 2022 // "After someone with knowledge of the local reported potential financial malpractice at Healthcare Michigan, representatives of the International Union conducted a review of the local union's books and records and found information indicating abuse of the local union's loan and paid time off/earned vacation policy," according to the SEIU release quoted by MLive. Sinai-Grace workers’ first attempt to expel HCMI was blocked by the National Labor Review Board, but a second decertification petition has been filed and the NLRB will set dates for a vote “in the very near future.” Sinai-Grace, HCMI representation, emergency trusteeship, MLive, U.S. attorney of Michigan
Workers Are Beating Big Bosses, but Organized Labor Can’t Keep Up
April 27, 2022 // Worker-led unions are transformational, while organized labor has become transactional.