Posts tagged Service Employees International Union
Oklahoma City Starbucks Employees Latest to Demand Vote to Remove SBWU Union from Workplace
October 11, 2023 // Smith and her coworkers’ effort is the latest in a chain of SBWU decertification pushes across the country. Since May, Starbucks employees in Manhattan, NY; Buffalo, NY; Pittsburgh, PA; Bloomington, MN; Salt Lake City, UT; and Greenville, SC, have all sought free Foundation legal aid in pursuing their decertification petitions at the NLRB. Last month, workers at Good Karma Café, an independent coffee shop in Philadelphia, successfully voted out the SBWU union with Foundation help. The flurry of decertification attempts is occurring roughly one year after SBWU union agents engaged in an aggressive unionization campaign against Starbucks employees. Federal labor law forbids workers from decertifying a union for a year after its installation, meaning many workers are seizing on the earliest possible opportunity to rid themselves of the SBWU union’s “representation.”
Dartmouth Men’s Basketball Makes Employment Case at NLRB
October 6, 2023 // Houston also noted that Dartmouth can recruit a basketball player, provide him need-based financial aid, and then, for one of many reasons, dismiss the player from the team after he enrolls. If the student remains enrolled at Dartmouth as a student, he’ll continue to receive financial aid. That point was designed to show the aid is based on being a student, not a player. Houston also stressed that athletes at Dartmouth are repeatedly told they must prioritize their education and class attendance, including when there are scheduling conflicts with the team. He further said that the athletic department “has no say over admissions,” decisions for which are made by the admissions office, nor does the athletic department have any say over financial aid, and that aid itself has nothing to do with athletic talent.
Gavin Newsom signs law raising minimum wage for California fast food workers. Here’s how much
September 28, 2023 // Future increases will be determined by the new nine-member council consisting of two representatives of the industry, two franchisees or restaurant owners, two employees, two advocates for employees and one neutral member of the public, who will serve as chair. It is set to hold its first meeting by March 1. Newsom pushed back against criticism that Californians will pay more for their Starbucks and McDonalds. He cited the The Fight for $15 movement, which raised the minimum wage to $10 per hour in 2016 and and $15 per hour last year.
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