Posts tagged picket
Starbucks union wants to enlist customers to organize pickets
July 10, 2023 // The Workers United union plans to hand out flyers during a 13-city bus tour to customers with a QR code that takes them to a sign-up sheet to organize their own protests during a "national 'Adopt-a-Store' day of action" on Aug. 7, according to copies of the flyers seen by Reuters. "(Employees) voted for bargaining not buses," the company said, adding that stalled negotiations have led workers to be so frustrated that they filed petitions to kick out the union at several stores. The union's tour has two legs: one travels through the Midwest, South and East, while a second leg will run up the Pacific coast, arriving in Seattle around Aug. 7, the union said. The tour will also target Starbucks board members such as Land O'Lakes CEO Beth Ford, whose likeness was carved into a statue made of butter that union members delivered to the creamery's Minneapolis headquarters in April.
What to know about the potential UPS Teamsters strike
July 10, 2023 // UPS is among the largest shipping companies in the U.S. According to Pitney Bowes, UPS shipped 5.2 billion U.S. parcels in 2022, representing nearly a quarter of all parcels shipped in the country. Should the UPS Teamsters go on strike, there's "no doubt" the economy would be impacted, from businesses to individual households, Thomas Goldsby, a professor in logistics at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville's Haslam College of Business, told ABC News. "You just don't take a player the size of UPS out of the market or largely out of the market without people having to take notice," Goldsby said.
Southwest Airlines pilots approach potential strike with request to leave negotiation proceedings
July 6, 2023 // In the transportation labor negotiations process, the National Mediation Board mediates contract discussions between the carrier and its employees. When a party requests a release from mediation, the board must determine whether continuing with the negotiations process would be productive. If the answer is no, the NMB allows "a cooling-off period" of 30 days, after which a strike can happen. SWAPA pilots are planning a nationwide picket on Aug. 31 in five cities: Atlanta, Baltimore, Houston, Chicago and Los Angeles. Earlier this month, Southwest reached agreements in principle with its flight attendants union — whose board later rejected the agreement — and its aircraft mechanics union, which moved forward with a tentative agreement.
WICHITA: Nurses at Ascension Via Christi hit the picket line
June 28, 2023 // While the nurses plan to walk back into the hospital Wednesday morning to resume their work, Ascension Via Christi said nurses who participated in the strike won’t be allowed to work until Saturday, July 1. Watson said, “Ascension locking us out was definitely retaliation, but locking out nursing is locking out your community. I am part of the community, and they’re locking us out of the hospital. We’re still going to try to work tomorrow. We’re going to show us. It’s going to be business as usual. Hopefully, they will do the right thing and let nurses work.”
Sean O’Brien’s summer of the strike
June 26, 2023 // It’s the spark for the combative spirit that permeates Teamsters headquarters, where a whiteboard charts a long-term battle plan on a timeline — “practice picketing,” “CAT trainings” (for “contract action teams”), “identify strike teams” … and finally, on the July 31 spot that marks the end of the current contract: “STRIKE.” Why strike now? As O’Brien himself acknowledged in his Senate testimony, UPS already offers the most plum jobs in the logistics industry, with driver salaries starting at $93,000. But O’Brien argues that the pandemic gave UPS workers the greatest leverage they’ve had in decades. In 2020, union members risked their health to keep packages moving. UPS’s profits surged and have remained high, with customers still hooked on the online shopping habits they adopted during the lockdowns. “Our members are fed up” and remain convinced, he said, that “the only concern that was being addressed was UPS’s bottom line and their balance sheet.” No better time, O’Brien reasons, for workers to go to the mat to demand wages beginning at $20 an hour, tighter safety provisions and an end to the two-tier employment system ushered in by the last contract.
Amazon Drivers in Union Extend Strike to Second Warehouse
June 26, 2023 // Striking Amazon delivery drivers and dispatchers in Palmdale extended their picket lines to a second warehouse in San Bernardino, according to a statement from the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. Workers in the union demand Amazon stop its unfair labor practices Growing strike will continue until Amazon reinstates “unlawfully terminated” employees and addresses low pay and dangerous working conditions
Predawn Picket Lines Help Writers Disrupt Studio Productions
May 30, 2023 // But production shutdowns are affecting not only the studios. Crews and other workers — like drivers, set designers, caterers — lose paychecks. And if the shutdowns accumulate and more people are unable to work, some wonder whether the writers will begin to erode the current good will from other workers. Lindsay Dougherty is the lead organizer of Local 399, the Teamsters’ Los Angeles division, which represents more than 6,000 movie workers, from the truck drivers the writers are trying to turn away to casting directors, location managers and animal trainers. A second-generation Teamster, Ms. Dougherty is one of the union’s few female leaders. Her copious tattoos, including one of the former Teamster leader Jimmy Hoffa, and her frequently profane speech have made her a bit of a celebrity to the writers during the strike. And she said the solidarity with the writers remained strong. “I think collectively, we’re all on the same page in that streaming has dramatically changed the industry,” Ms. Dougherty said in an interview. “And these tech companies that we’re bargaining with, during the last writers’ strike — Amazon, Apple, Netflix — they weren’t even part of the conversation.”
Frank Ricci: CT legislators want unemployment for striking workers
May 25, 2023 // S.B. 938 would upend this balance by forcing businesses to fund striking workers through unemployment. It thereby puts a thumb on the scale in labor’s favor, in a way that no other New England state does — nor do 49 other states, leaving New York as the lone exception. The consequence would be to apply severe financial pressure on employers — both by increasing the duration of strikes and by tapping unemployment, which is a self-contained system paid for by employers and administered by the state. One Stop & Shop worker testified in 2022 that a previous bill with identical requirements was designed to increase employee “leverage” and admitted, “Had we had unemployment benefits to rely on during the 2019 strike, we might’ve been able to stay out longer. The bill places no restriction on union strike funds, however, so striking workers may collect funds from the unions as well. The result? Workers could be paid more to go and stay on strike than they would have made working — this will incentivize labor unrest.
CUNA Mutual workers go on strike as contract negotiations stall
May 22, 2023 // The union is characterizing the walkout as an unfair labor practice strike — a significant distinction because, if upheld by the National Labor Relations Board, it would prevent the company from permanently replacing strikers. Members authorized a five-day strike initially, Bartlett-Mulvihill said. “Could it go longer?” she added. “Absolutely. If we see no movement at the table from the employer, you know, those are options that the members are looking at.” The walkout comes as CUNA Mutual is in the midst of rebranding its business under the name TruStage, reflecting an expansion beyond its original customer base of credit unions. Bartlett-Mulvihill and Joe Evica, the union’s chief steward at CUNA Mutual, told reporters at a picket-line news conference that the principal issues remained job security, wages, pension benefits, health care and a pay equity review for union employees, including stronger efforts to expand the diversity of the workforce. The union has also sought to maintain remote work policies that began during the COVID-19 pandemic. The union has criticized company management for its handling of contract negotiations, which began in February 2022.
Columbia marijuana dispensary employees picket for right to unionize
May 18, 2023 // Employees claim the owners of Shangri-La Dispensaries have denied workers their rights to collectively bargain. The employees also claim at least nine workers have been suspended without pay or terminated under "suspicious circumstances." However, owner Nevil Patel denied this. "If any or all of them feel like they need to conduct a normal union vote, we are happy to do it," Patel said. "In fact, we are working with NLRB [National Labor Relations Board] and providing them information on a daily, weekly basis so they can make proper decisions.