Posts tagged Pittsburgh
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.”
Wabtec sues union, seeks injunction aimed at conduct of striking workers on picket line
August 3, 2023 // Since the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America went on strike on June 22, according to Wabtec's motion, the striking workers have, among other things, used racist and homophobic slurs against non-striking employees entering and leaving the plant, damaged employees' personal vehicles, blocked the plant's gates and subjected the plant to two phoned-in bomb threats. Wabtec sued the UE in asking for the injunction. "Wabtec has made consistent efforts to address the Union's unlawful and dangerous picket activity with the Union and its counsel, but the activity has persisted and most recently escalated, amounting to an unlawful seizure of the Wabtec facility," according to Wabtec's motion.
Pittsburgh Starbucks Workers Seek Vote to Remove Unwanted SBWU Union
July 14, 2023 // A contributing factor to the growing worker dissatisfaction with SBWU union officials may be the controversial practice of “salting,” which according to news reports is a tactic the SBWU union employed to install union power at New York Starbucks locations. “Salting” involves union officials surreptitiously paying union agents to obtain jobs at non-union workplaces to agitate for union control. “Salts” generally hide their union-allied status from both managers and their coworkers, and may quickly depart the workplace once a union has been installed. The New York Post reported that one SBWU union agent was paid nearly $50,000 to “salt” a Buffalo Starbucks location, and concealed her affiliation from both her coworkers and Congress.
Hunter Tower: Is Pittsburgh a blueprint for other union-dominated blue cities?
May 1, 2023 // SEIU leaders now hold key posts in Gainey’s administration. Silas Russell, SEIU Healthcare executive vice president and political director, co-chaired Gainey’s transition team. Maria Montano, former SEIU Healthcare communications director, is now Gainey’s press secretary. And Lisa Frank, former SEIU vice president and director of strategic communications, is now the city of Pittsburgh’s chief operating officer. Emails uncovered through right-to-know requests by CBS Pittsburgh reveal that Russell provided the mayor with union-generated talking points ahead of a meeting last year with UPMC officials.
PNC Park ushers, ticket takers, ticket sellers go on strike, announce plans to picket outside Pirates’ next home game
April 19, 2023 // The Pittsburgh Stadium Independent Employees Union, or PSIEU, announced on Sunday that the Pirates' latest contract offer was rejected and that a strike vote was accepted. The union represents ushers, ticket takers, and ticket sellers at PNC Park. PSIEU says that workers will picket outside the Pirates' next home game on Thursday when the team takes on the Cincinnati Reds.
2/3rd of Post-Gazette Union Crossed Picket Line or Quit
January 30, 2023 // However, as the strike stretches into its fourth month with no end-in-sight, the union has struggled to prevent reporters from crossing the picket line. According to an analysis done by Payday Report of bylines and interviews with Post-Gazette reporters, nearly ⅔ of the union has crossed the picket line (with almost half of all reporters doing so). Many reporters, particularly younger reporters, have found jobs at other publications as the strike’s likelihood of success looks small and moved away from Pittsburgh./ Currently, the union can only maintain pickets for 2 hours a day as approximately two dozen reporters remain on strike from about 85 reporters who were members of the union at the beginning of the strike. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette union chair Andrew Goldstein has privately acknowledged to local labor supporters that the strike is a “disaster.”
Pittsburgh-Area Teen Hits UFCW Union and Giant Eagle with Religious Discrimination and Unfair Labor Practice Charges
January 18, 2023 // North Huntingdon Giant Eagle employee Josiah Leonatti – a high school student – has filed federal discrimination charges against the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 1776KS union. He maintains that union officials refused to consider his religious beliefs after he expressed religious objections to joining and paying dues to the union. Union officials, according to his charges, subjected him to an illegal “religion test” to determine whether his religious beliefs count.
In a nearly unanimous vote, WESA and WYEP workers choose to unionize
November 21, 2022 // “This is really exciting. We’ve been working on this for many months,” said Marylee Williams, a producer and editor on WESA’s The Confluence. “It just feels like a real validation for the fact that Pittsburgh is a union city. Our media are union shops. And that people that are part of this bargaining unit [...] all want to have more of a hand in the future of our organizations and the longevity of them.”
Newsroom workers at Pittsburgh Post-Gazette go on strike
October 21, 2022 // The Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh, which represents 101 workers, said its members began picketing Tuesday outside the newsroom on the city's North Shore and planned to continue the action Wednesday. Guild members have been working without a contract since 2017 and Monday voted to authorize an unfair labor practice strike against the company. On Oct. 6, workers from unions that are responsible for production, distribution and advertising at the Post-Gazette walked off the job.