Posts tagged safety
“Warehouse Worker Protection Act” Reintroduced with Bipartisan Support
October 2, 2024 // The bill imposes restrictions on employers’ use of productivity quotas to measure workers’ performance or output and includes substantial notice requirements to workers on the use of such quotas, discipline for failing to meet the quotas, and workers’ rights under the act, among other things. It mandates breaks for covered workers and recordkeeping obligations for employers. The WWPA also requires the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to issue two new rulemakings and creates a new category of unfair labor practices under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). It also expands the federal bureaucracy by creating a Quota Task Force as well as the Fairness and Transparency Office within the Department of Labor. This legislation is a thinly-veiled attack on large companies like Amazon that the Democratic Party and labor organizations do not support. The original sponsors of the WWPA were Senators Markey, Bob Casey (D-PA), and Tina Smith (D-MN). The cosponsors now include Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Laphonza Butler (D-CA), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Hawley, Alex Padilla (D-CA), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), and Peter Welch (D-VT).
US labor watchdog pressures Trader Joe’s to bargain with New York union
September 26, 2024 // The general counsel of the US’s top labor watchdog is seeking an order demanding that Trader Joe’s recognize and bargain with the union, Trader Joe’s United, amid allegations that employees were threatened and disparaged from unionizing. Under a framework introduced by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) last year, employers can be ordered to bargain with a union if they commit unfair labor practices that would set aside the results of a union ballot.
Nearly 1,200 Boston hotel workers walk off the job in strike’s biggest wave
September 23, 2024 // The first wave of strikes began in Boston and eight other cities during the Labor Day weekend. To date, about 2,500 hotel workers from 12 Boston properties have walked off the job in three waves of three-day strikes. Workers from the first and second strike waves are employees of the Hilton Park Plaza, Hilton Boston Logan Airport, Hampton Inn & Homewood Suites at the Hilton Seaport, Fairmont Copley Plaza, The Dagny Boston, Moxy Boston Downtown, The Newbury Boston and the W Boston.
States are pushing back with anti-labor laws as union popularity grows, policy experts say
September 18, 2024 // Growing union organizing across the country has triggered an anti-labor legislative response in some states, but cities and counties are increasingly pushing back, a new report found. The report, released this month by the New York University Wagner Labor Initiative and Local Progress Impact Lab, a group for local elected officials focused on economic and racial justice issues, cites examples of localities all over the U.S. using commissions to document working conditions, creating roles for protecting workers in the heat and educating workers on their labor rights.
Labor Day: Workers on Their Jobs
August 28, 2024 // *Satisfaction with pay and benefits always trail satisfaction with workplace environments. Today, negative assessments of the economy as a whole may be depressing attitudes on some job characteristics. Still, in Gallup’s latest, only 13 percent were very dissatisfied with what they earned. *Employed Americans are reasonably confident of their own job security. Those numbers dipped to a low point in the Great Recession but have been more positive since.
J. D. Vance’s One-Track Mind for Railroad Regulation
August 17, 2024 // Ohio senator and GOP vice-presidential nominee J. D. Vance has something of a soft spot for unions, as evidenced by his co-sponsorship of the 2023 version of the Railway Safety Act. The legislation would mandate minimum two-member crews on freight trains, a requirement unions have long sought. Such a mandate wouldn’t make trains any safer but would damage the ability of the rail industry to pursue automation.
Walz will address union members in first solo campaign stop
August 13, 2024 // As Minnesota governor, Walz signed a variety of pro-worker laws supported by labor — most significantly paid sick leave and paid family and medical leave. He also supported laws that banned noncompete agreements, prohibited employers from holding mandatory meetings intended to persuade workers against unionizing, raised safety standards in warehouses and meatpacking plants, and expanded unemployment benefits to hourly school employees who do not work during the summer.
University of Illinois nurses authorize strike at UI Health on Chicago’s Near West Side
August 8, 2024 // More than 1,300 University of Illinois nurses cast ballots last week, with nearly 98% voting to authorize a strike, amid a stalemate with management at the bargaining table. The nurses' union, the Illinois Nurses Association, said they've seen a large rise in assaults on staff in the last four years. They are demanding safer working conditions, increased staffing, and higher pay. The union said they have offered a number of proposals in an effort to reach an agreement on a new contract, but management has responded to only a handful, and most of them have been rejected.
A union for Amazon warehouse workers elects a new leader in wake of Teamsters affiliation
August 1, 2024 // Only 5% of the 5,312 workers employed in the warehouse voted by mail-in ballot, said Arthur Schwartz, an attorney who represents the dissident group. Spence received 137 out of 247 votes cast, Schwartz said, defeating a current ALU officer named Claudia Ashterman and another prominent organizer named Michelle Valentin.