Posts tagged UE
Graduate students file for union election, marking last Ivy to do so
April 17, 2024 // Gaby Nair GS, an organizer with PGSU, told the ‘Prince’ that a “strong majority” of graduate students had signed union cards. The threshold for an NLRB election is 30 percent. PGSU was unable to provide a specific number of signatories to the ‘Prince.’ “We’re really looking forward to getting [an election] date … hopefully that process goes smoothly. We’ve seen it not go smoothly at some of our peer institutions,” Nair said, referencing unionization efforts at the University of Pennsylvania. There, graduate students initially filed for a union election in October, but were delayed by an NLRB ruling that declared roughly 300 students under certain educational fellowships ineligible. The union at Penn was set to vote this Tuesday and Wednesday, but it was rescheduled to May 1 and 2. Princeton has been slower to unionize than some of its peer institutions. Apart from Penn, all other Ivy League universities have formally recognized graduate student unions.
Jewish MIT students sue union, say they are forced to pay dues to anti-Semitic organization
April 2, 2024 // “Jewish graduate students are a minority at MIT. We can’t remove the GSU or disabuse it of its antisemitism,” Sussman wrote. “But we also can’t support an organization that actively works toward the eradication of the Jewish homeland, where I have family living now.” Sussman and his colleagues initially sought recourse through non-legal channels, sending letters to the union asking for an exemption. UE allegedly denied these requests, however, writing in their reply to Sussman that “no principles, teachings or tenets of Judaism prohibit membership in or the payment of dues or fees to a labor union.” The students reportedly filed their charges through the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), a federal body responsible for enforcing worker laws that “make it illegal to discriminate against a job applicant or an employee because of the person’s race, color, religion, sex … national origin, age (40 or older), disability or genetic information.”
National Right to Work Foundation Issues Legal Notice to Wabtec Locomotive Manufactures Facing Union-Ordered Strike
June 30, 2023 // The Foundation’s notice informs workers who are union members of their right to resign from union membership at any time. The notice also suggests, if employees who are currently union members wish to work during the strike and avoid union discipline such as fines, they should resign their union membership before returning to work. The legal notice informs Wabtec employees they “have the right to revoke [their] dues check-off authorization and stop allowing the union hierarchy to collect money from [their] paycheck every week. [They] can send letters to the union and [their] employer revoking [their] authorization to have union dues deducted from [their] paycheck during periods when there is no collective bargaining agreement in effect.”
One Small Union Is Stoking Much of the Militant New Graduate Worker Organizing
May 30, 2023 // With around 35,000 members, the UE is not a huge union. It was once the third-largest — and arguably the most left-wing and democratic — member of the Congress of Industrial Organizations, with around a half-million members in core industries, until it fell victim to postwar anti-communist purges, raids from other unions and plant shutdowns. But the union revived itself by the 1990s. Famously, UE workers at the Republic Windows & Doors factory in Chicago occupied their plant in 2008, and today the union boasts a range of affiliated locals across sectors and industries from California to Vermont.
Chicago Will ‘Bargain in Good Faith’ After Grad Workers Vote to Unionize
March 20, 2023 // University of Chicago graduate student workers have voted 1,696 to 155 to unionize, the National Labor Relations Board announced Thursday evening. The NLRB said there were 3,200 eligible voters. Lee said in her statement that, “Of the 9,904 graduate students at the university, 3,287 were eligible to vote based on their current or recent appointments under the election petition” the union filed.
MIT Grad Fellows Prohibited From Unionizing, NLRB Official Says
March 15, 2023 // About 1,500 graduate students are prohibited from unionizing at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology because they’re not university employees, a National Labor Relations Board official ruled. NLRB Regional Director Laura Sacks said in a decision issued late Monday that grad students at the university who aren’t currently teaching or research assistants can’t be represented by the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America union.
Graduate students vote to unionize with a 97% majority
February 6, 2023 // Graduate students across three Hopkins campuses voted in a union representation election, facilitated by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), on Jan. 30 and 31. The election was organized by Teachers and Researchers United (TRU), which is affiliated with United Electrical Radio, and Machine Workers (UE). The vote overwhelmingly favored unionization — out of 3,335 NLRB-registered voters, 2,053 voted yes and 67 voted no, resulting in a 97% majority and 64% turnout rate. According to TRU-UE, the majority of graduate students signed cards calling for an election, with over 2,000 cards submitted to the NLRB in total. The two-day election took place in Homewood, East Baltimore and Washington, D.C. campuses. TRU-UE’s platform includes a livable wage, guaranteed on-time payments, improved support and protection for international students, safe and reliable transportation and facilities, fair grievance procedures and a commitment to Baltimore.
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.
Biden in Wilmington for labor talks
March 7, 2022 //
Willy Street Co-Op Worker Negotiations Come To A Close
February 28, 2022 // Yesterday, the union representing workers at Willy Street Co-Op, the United Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers of America, the UE, Local 1186, reached a tentative agreement on a new contract.