Posts tagged NLRB election
Georgetown cat cafe owner proud to reopen under unionized status; workers wait at bargaining table
April 7, 2026 // Georgetown cat cafe Crumbs & Whiskers recently reopened its doors following a brief closure under a new status as the first unionized cat cafe in the United States. But employees say their issues have yet to be resolved. Crumbs & Whiskers owner Zari Ruhi, also known as Kanchan Singh, opened the M Street location of her business in 2019. Ruhi also owns a location in Los Angeles and previously owned a location on O Street in D.C.’s Georgetown neighborhood, which has since shut down.
Whitman College Will Not Voluntarily Recognize WCWU
March 8, 2026 // Because of this, eligible employees will be expected to vote through the NLRB’s secret ballot process before WCWU can initiate formal negotiations on campus. According to the announcement, the college has decided not to recognize the voluntary signatures which WCWU collected prior to the rally last month as a legitimate election process. Instead, administrators believe that an organized election through the NLRB will allow employees to vote in “a fair, inclusive and confidential process in which all eligible staff members have the opportunity to participate.”
Union Organizing Plummets in 2025: A Win for Worker Freedom and Choice
January 22, 2026 // For supporters of voluntary association and employee freedom, these numbers highlight a positive reality: fewer workers are being swept into union representation through the NLRB process. This trend aligns with broader patterns showing declining union density in the private sector, where membership hovers around just 6 percent of workers.[viii] Forced unionism—where employees can be compelled to pay dues or join as a condition of employment—continues to lose ground as more Americans exercise their right to opt out or avoid unionization altogether.
Theorist Media Creatives Announce Joint Union Drive With The Motion Picture Editors Guild & The Writers Guild Of America West
December 30, 2025 // The organizing effort includes Workers performing a wide range of work - from editing and writing to sound design to thumbnail creation and digital production. Workers first reached out to the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE), while the Writers Guild of America West (WGAW) joined the campaign to coordinate organizing efforts for Writers. The Motion Picture Editors Guild - IATSE Local 700, is leading the effort for the IATSE-represented classifications.
LACMA Declines to Voluntarily Recognize Union Formed by Hundreds of Workers
November 8, 2025 // The AFSCME Cultural Workers United District Council 36, a division of the national AFSCME Cultural Workers United, has helped workers unionize at other leading LA museums, including the Museum of Contemporary Art, the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures and Foundation, and the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County and La Brea Tar Pits. At the national level, AFSCME Cultural Workers United represents employees at museums including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Philadelphia Art Museum, and the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. Earlier this week, employees at the Detroit Institute of Arts announced plans to join AFSCME Michigan. In its new statement, LACMA United said that the museum’s status as a county museum makes management’s position “particularly troubling,” noting that, unlike mutual-benefit nonprofits, LACMA was established by Los Angeles County as a public-benefit corporation and receives more than $30 million in public funding each year.
Amazon faces legal complaint for refusing to negotiate with unionized S.F. workers
April 24, 2025 // A hearing is scheduled for August before an administrative law judge. If the judge rules against Amazon, the company could be ordered to begin negotiations — a move that may influence similar union efforts at warehouses in New York, Atlanta, Chicago and Southern California. The San Francisco workers were part of a national strike last December, calling for higher wages, improved safety and official union recognition.
YouTube’s in-office mandate is ploy to squash unions, workers claim
January 31, 2023 // An NLRB complaint filed Jan. 24 alleges that Alphabet’s return-to-work mandate is a “response to the union effort.” A spokesperson for Cognizant told HR Dive that the employer had communicated return-to-office policies “repeatedly and consistently” to all of its workers since December 2021 via email, the company’s internal website and team meetings, the spokesperson said. “The employees in Austin were fully aware of the intention to return to the office prior to the filing of a [NLRB] petition. Moreover, all associates working on this project were hired with the understanding that the jobs were based in an Austin office location,” the spokesperson said. “The small number of associates who voluntarily left the Austin area, and are unable or unwilling to return have the opportunity to be considered for assignments on other client projects at Cognizant. There is simply no merit to these claims.”