Posts tagged Olympia
Bill would authorize two pensions for WA state employees
March 19, 2025 // Union-backed legislation under consideration by state lawmakers in Olympia could open the door for the state to fund union-run pensions for state workers in addition to the existing state-run pension system. If adopted, HB 1069 would allow unions representing state employees to collectively bargain over “supplemental” retirement benefits. Depending on the result of these negotiations, such supplemental benefits could be funded by the state/taxpayers, deductions from state employees’ wages, or some combination of the two.
COMMENTARY: GIVING CREDIT WHERE IT’S DUE: PRIVATE SECTOR UNION TAKES STAND AGAINST THEFT
December 5, 2023 // One union, the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 3000, is actually instructing its members to go on strike and protest the reality that store managers are permitting criminality. This past weekend, in fact, hundreds of Macy’s employees walked off the job in several stores in western Washington to raise awareness about shoplifting and lack of security.
Efforts to unionize agricultural workers in WA face long-standing hurdles
May 9, 2023 // With Ostrom — and, now, Windmill Farms — workers, labor organizers and community members have held rallies outside the mushroom farm and at several locations where the mushrooms are sold. UFW has asked people to look for the mushrooms in their local grocery stores and help track their distribution. “We have also reached out directly to retailers that carry Ostrom products, asking them to also put pressure on Ostrom to recognize the union,” De Loera said in an email in February. “Consumers can help us do this work by helping to identify Ostrom products in their local stores.” Workers from Sunnyside, community members and UFW staff rallied outside an upscale Seattle grocery store in December 2022 to raise awareness among consumers. Students at the University of Washington successfully lobbied that the school stop using mushrooms from Windmill Farms. The students organized into a group called Students for Farmworkers (SFFW) at UW.
STARBUCKS WARNS EMPLOYEES OF A DOWNSIDE TO UNIONIZING
April 19, 2022 // After the staff of the Buffalo unit aired its intentions to unionize last August, members of Johnson’s team traveled to stores whose baristas professed an interest in organizing. Pro-union employees said they were banding together to ensure their voices would be heard by Starbucks’ leadership. But instead of viewing the visits by executives as opportunities to be heard, workers blasted the drop-ins as espionage missions aimed at derailing the movement.