Posts tagged Service Employees International Union
California fast food workers to get $20 minimum wage under new deal between labor and the industry
September 12, 2023 // Before the law could take effect, the fast food industry gathered enough signatures to qualify a referendum on the law in the November 2024 election. That meant the law would be on hold until voters could decide whether to overturn it. Furious, labor unions sponsored legislation this year that would have made fast food companies like McDonald’s liable for any misdeeds of their mostly independent franchise operators in the state. Democratic lawmakers also restored funding to the Industrial Welfare Commission, a long-dormant state agency that has the power to set wage and workplace standards for multiple industries.
California’s on the cusp of transforming America’s fast food industry — again
August 16, 2023 // “Because it’s so many stores, and going store to store would be difficult, the path to unionization here is basically through legislation,” said Brandon Dawkins, SEIU 1021 vice president of organizing. “After we get the council together and force the employer to the table, then the unions — we can come in and really sit down and negotiate with the corporations to, number one, create a union and, number two, address issues like safety and wage theft.” A labor council’s purview extends to workplace conditions like predictable scheduling — a longstanding goal for labor — noted California Labor Federation Executive Officer Lorena Gonzalez, a former state lawmaker who carried an earlier version of the bill when she served in the state Assembly. “If you get joint employer liability, it’s more likely McDonald’s would want to talk about a national agreement or strategy because now they’re on the hook for every labor violation,” Gonzalez said. That tactic has angered restaurant operators who have rallied against the legislation. Marisol Sanchez, a second-generation McDonald’s franchise owner, has appeared in advertising opposing the 2023 bill. Sanchez said she believed SEIU was acting on its own political agenda rather than in response to worker demands.
Majority of Mankato Mayo Clinic Support Employees Vote to Remove AFSCME Union Officials
June 20, 2023 // A majority of nursing support staff, clerical staff, and environmental staff at Mankato Mayo Clinic have voted to remove American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Local 1856 union officials from power at the hospital. The effort was spearheaded by Mankato Mayo employee Melody Morris, who submitted a petition on May 9 asking the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to hold a union “decertification vote” at the facility. This petition was also supported by the majority of her coworkers. Morris and her colleagues’ successful union decertification vote comes as a growing number of Minnesota healthcare employees attempt to exercise their right to vote out unwanted union officials. In addition to Mankato Mayo Clinic nurses, nurses from Mayo’s St. James, MN, branch removed the AFSCME Council 65 union from their hospital last August with Foundation aid. Employees from four Cuyuna Regional Medical Center locations across the Brainerd Lakes region of Minnesota also sought Foundation aid in their decertification effort against Service Employees International Union (SEIU) officials last year. Even amid these efforts, Minnesota union officials seem unwilling to examine why growing numbers of workers want them ousted. A Minnesota Reformer profile on MNA President Mary Turner reported that Turner believes “it’s the nurses in Mankato, not the union, who need to change their approach.”
Mass General Brigham physician trainees vote to unionize
June 12, 2023 // A website related to the union drive states that the effort is focused on "working to build collective power to advocate for a just, safe and equitable MGB for all housestaff, workers and patients." Among concerns cited by medical residents and fellows are a need for a living wage, adequate benefits and compensation commensurate with the cost of living in Boston, and financial support or subsidized child care for housestaff with children.
Tourism workers seek $25 minimum wage before Olympics, World Cup in Los Angeles
June 5, 2023 // Curren Price, a Los Angeles City Council member, has proposed upping the hourly minimum wage for airport and hotel workers in the city to $25 an hour, then raising it $1 each year until 2028, bringing it to $30 an hour. He also proposed more affordable options for health care coverage. Representatives for airlines and hotels spoke against the proposed ordinance at the Economic Development Committee meeting. They said the ordinance would force them to raise prices and some small businesses would have to close, making L.A. a less attractive tourist destination.
Mankato Mayo employee demands vote to remove union officials
May 15, 2023 // Employees from four Cuyuna Regional Medical Center locations across the Brainerd Lakes region sought Foundation aid in their 2022 decertification effort against Service Employees International Union officials, the foundation said. Mankato Mayo Clinic hospital registered nurses voted the Minnesota Nurses Association union out of the facility in a July 2022 election, according to board records. “Mayo Clinic Health System is aware of a petition filed by a staff member to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to vote on whether representation by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) should continue,” Mayo Clinic Health System spokeswoman Amanda Dyslin said in a Friday email to The Center Square. “This is a staff-led effort, and we are grateful for the confidence these individuals have in Mayo Clinic Health System.
Oakland teachers union on strike; schools open without them
May 5, 2023 // More than 3,000 teachers and other workers in the Oakland Unified School District are on strike after claiming the district failed to bargain in good faith on a new contract
New Stanford subcontractor threatens union jobs, workers say
April 19, 2023 // In late March, Stanford decided to switch from UG2—a maintenance service company used by the University to subcontract workers—to a new custodial provider, Service by Medallion, at its Redwood City campus. This shift is scheduled to take place this Friday, April 14—a change that the union claims will violate the existing union master contract and may impact the employment of 25 UG2 janitorial workers in Redwood City, with potential implications to all 7,000 union members. On Wednesday, a dozen Stanford students drove to Redwood City at noon to show support for the workers advocating for their employment. Students and around ten workers who were on lunch break at the time also sought to present Executive Director of Operations Laura Di Mario with a petition which received over 500 signatures from Stanford affiliates in 24 hours. The petition demanded that “Stanford honor its contract” by not switching to Medallion and not requiring workers to go through the “rehiring” process.
MGB Housestaff File for Official Union Election After Hospital System Declines to Recognize Union
April 12, 2023 // Committee of Interns and Residents, a local of the Service Employees International Union, is the parent union of MGB Housestaff United. Annie Della Fera, a communications coordinator for CIR, said while organizers had hoped for voluntary recognition, “it’s pretty common for them to reject recognition and instead have residents go through the NLRB election process.” Within hours of the request, MGB Interim Chief Academic Officer Paul J. Anderson wrote in a message that the hospital system would not recognize them, adding that the hospital prefers to “work directly with our trainees as individuals” on resolving workplace issues. “We agree with the NLRB and the federal courts, which have described the NLRB’s secret ballot elections process as the gold standard in determining whether a majority of employees desires union representation,” Anderson wrote.
The Undercover Organizers Behind America’s Union Wins
April 5, 2023 // The practice of joining a workplace with the secret aim of organizing it is called “salting.” Westlake was addressing recruits at the Inside Organizer School, a workshop held a couple times a year by a loose confederation of labor organizers. At these meetups, experienced activists train other attendees in the art of going undercover. Speakers lecture and lead discussions on how to pass employer screenings, forge relationships with co-workers and process the complicated feelings that can accompany a double life. Most salts are volunteers, not paid union officials, but unions sometimes fund their housing or, later, tap them for full-time jobs. Workers United, the Service Employees International Union affiliate that’s home to the new Starbucks union, hired Westlake as an organizer around the time the coffee chain fired him last fall.