Posts tagged REI
New ‘Striketober’ looms as US walkouts increase amid surge in union activity
September 26, 2022 // According to the labor action tracker at Cornell University, strikes in 2022 so far have significantly outpaced strike activity in 2021, with 180 strikes involving 78,000 workers in the first six months of 2022, compared with 102 strikes involving 26,500 workers in the first six months of 2021. The tracker recorded 41 strikes that started between 15 August and 15 September 2022, involving 35,250 workers.
California retail workers vote for union at second REI store
August 29, 2022 // Full-time and part-time employees at the outdoor retailer secured a majority in a mail-in ballot election by voting 56 to 38 in support of joining United Food and Commercial Workers Local 5, a 30,000-member labor union, according to a tally on Thursday by the National Labor Relations Board. John Logan, a San Francisco State University professor who studies anti-union actions, UFCW Local 5,
Sparked by Pandemic Stresses, Unionizing Workers Seek Respect and a Place at the Table
August 18, 2022 // Throughout the pandemic, we were called ‘essential workers,’ yet we weren’t given the wages, benefits or respect that being ‘essential’ would denote.” Nick Kalm, John Logan, Labor and Employment Studies Department at San Francisco State University
Minnesota’s union membership hits 14-year high point
August 15, 2022 // Safety and wage issues brought to the forefront during the pandemic are a big reason, union organizers and experts said. But so is the severe labor shortage and a pro-union Biden administration. "We've seen two years of growth. Minnesota's union density is the highest it has been in a decade," said Minnesota AFL-CIO spokesman Chris Shields. "Barring a recession or economic downturn, it's likely we'll continue to see some modest growth." Younger workers are driving most organizing efforts in Minnesota. Half Price Books, Peace Coffee, Minnesota Historical Society, Abbott Northwestern Hospital, Guthrie Theater Foundation, Minnesota United FC Soccer, Aaron Sojourner, W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, Google Fiber workers,
What happened to the Apple store union campaign?
August 5, 2022 // “This isn’t Starbucks, where you have 10 employees and can make the decision to organize quickly,” says Dave DiMaria, a representative for IAMAW. “Towson took tons of planning and education. We had all our dominos painstakingly set up before we took this thing public.” Now, Towson workers have elected a bargaining committee and are preparing to negotiate a contract. “We’re in that transition period now,” says Kevin Gallagher, a member of the bargaining committee. “But we’ve been getting a lot of reach outs from other stores. So the idea that it’s gone silent is incorrect; it’s just that stores are attempting to organize as quietly as possible to not bring the wrath that we got or that Atlanta got.” Deirdre O’Brien, John Logan, Beth Allen, communications director at CWA,
Employees at Trader Joe’s store in western Massachusetts vote to form chain’s first union
July 29, 2022 // Workers from at least two other Trader Joe’s locations have initiated unionization efforts. Employees at a Minneapolis location have a union vote scheduled for Aug. 11 and 12, while the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 7 on Tuesday filed a union election petition with the National Labor Relations Board on behalf of crew members at a Boulder, Colorado store. Trader Joe's workers are part of a nationwide wave of employees at major companies who have or are attempting to unionize in an effort to secure a bigger say in their work conditions and compensation. Hadley, CEO Dan Bane, pay, benefits, safety, Maeg Yosef, Nakia Rohde,
Maryland Apple store workers face hurdles after their vote to unionize
June 22, 2022 // Ruth Milkman, Michael Duff, Josh Lipton,
Apple workers vote to unionize at Maryland store
June 20, 2022 // Many unionization efforts have been led by young workers in their 20s and even in their teens. A group of Google engineers and other workers formed the Alphabet Workers Union last year, which represents around 800 Google employees and is run by five people who are under 35. Amazon workers at a warehouse in New York City voted to unionize in April, the first successful U.S. organizing effort in the retail giant’s history. However, workers at another Amazon warehouse on Staten Island overwhelmingly rejected a union bid last month. Meanwhile, Starbucks workers at dozens of U.S. stores have voted to unionize in recent months, after two of the coffee chain’s stores in Buffalo, New York, voted to unionize late last year. industrial trade union, TOWSON, Baltimore, Josh Lipton, Robert Martinez Jr.,
Labor of Love: EWOC is Pioneering a New Model for Empowering Workers
May 26, 2022 // EWOC is most strongly concentrated in California, Illinois, Texas and New York. In New York City, the group has over 500 people — workers, volunteers and trainees — involved in its network. Its volunteer organizers have successfully organized workers at Sara Lawrence College and at Bright Horizons, the nation’s largest provider of employer-sponsored child care. Some of the REI-Soho worker-organizers who would eventually see through a successful union drive with the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union went through EWOC’s training program. EWOC volunteers also help to funnel Starbucks workers who reach out to them to Starbucks Workers United, the newly-formed, independent Starbucks union.
Trader Joe’s workers push to unionize amid wave of organizing efforts
May 26, 2022 // It would be the first unionized Trader Joe’s store out of more than 530 locations in the US. Workers are organizing independently, citing the similar framework of the Amazon Labor Union, which is not affiliated with traditional, established labor unions.