Posts tagged union organizer
NLRB’s Acting General Counsel Provides Employers with Sweet Guidance About Union “Salts”
August 16, 2025 // The AGC’s guidance is helpful for employers considering strategies to mitigate the risk of union organizing. For example, a relevant fact to whether an applicant has a genuine interest in being hired includes whether the applicant “followed the employer’s established procedures when applying.” If an employer has a policy prohibiting the hiring of applicants with multiple jobs or unsolicited applications, then it may help the employer avoid discrimination claims from salts. However, the time to implement these policies is before organizing begins. Salting rarely occurs independent of a larger campaign by a union to organize employees. Once that campaign begins, efforts to institute new policies to deter salting may violate the NLRA.
Longtime Union Leader Steps Fully Into Hollywood’s Spotlight
October 2, 2023 // The dual strikes have been devastating financially, with more than 100,000 behind-the-scenes workers like location scouts, makeup artists and lighting technicians out of work. The California economy has lost an estimated $5 billion. Major studios like Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount Global have seen their stock prices drop. Analysts have estimated that the global box office will lose as much as $1.6 billion in ticket sales because of movies whose releases were pushed back to next year. Mr. Crabtree-Ireland joined SAG-AFTRA in 2000, a Georgetown graduate with a law degree from the University of California, Davis, who spent the first two years of his career in the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office. He rose quickly at the union, first to general counsel, then adding chief operating officer to his title. In 2021, he was named national executive director and chief negotiator, a job that pays $989,700 annually.
House GOP probes union over Starbucks barista who kept labor ties from Congress
July 17, 2023 // Eisen, who represented herself to lawmakers only as a Starbucks worker, disclosed in a labor organization form that she was paid $49,734 by the Service Employees International Union affiliate in 2022, The Post exclusively revealed in May. “On her Truth in Testimony form, Ms. Eisen represented herself exclusively as a Starbucks barista,” Foxx wrote to Workers United International President Lynne Fox. “Members of the Committee and public observers would have benefitted from knowing whether Workers United was paying Ms. Eisen as an organizer at the time of the hearing.”
Fired Amazon union organizer in Alabama reinstated after filing a complaint, union says
June 16, 2023 // An Amazon spokesperson said during the appeals review, the company determined Bates had failed to be responsive to multiple requests for information regarding her leave. But the spokesperson said there were things the company could have done better to ensure Bates had clarity around what was needed — which is why she’s being reinstated. The company said it also encouraged her to file an appeal. “After a full review of her case, the decision was made to reinstate her,” said Amazon spokesperson Mary Kate Paradis. “We’re pleased that our appeal process continues to work as designed.” The RWDSU has long been a foe of Amazon, which is attempting to fend off organized labor from its vast network of warehouses. The company and the union are still contesting the results of a union election held last year in Bessemer, Alabama, which remains too close to call with 416 challenged ballots still waiting for adjudication.
A former Illinois State Senator convicted in corruption scheme gets a new job — state lobbyist
May 10, 2023 // State records show Stragetia’s state government clients in the current legislative session are the city of Oakbrook Terrace, the village of Itasca, Americans for Fair Energy Prices, the Justice Grown cannabis dispensaries and SoundThinking — the recently rebranded company behind gunshot-detection software used by the Chicago Police Department. But in 2019, Cullerton was charged in a 41-count federal embezzlement and conspiracy indictment related to an alleged scam where he received payments from a Chicago labor union for little to no work. Cullerton was accused of receiving more than $274,000 in payments and benefits from Teamsters Joint Council 25 for being a purported union organizer. The indictment alleged Cullerton routinely did not show up for work with the union after he landed the lucrative gig from former Teamsters Joint Council 25 President John Coli Sr., who pleaded guilty to federal extortion and tax fraud charges in 2019.
Mayoral candidate still on union payroll
March 27, 2023 // Brandon Johnson, a mayoral candidate in the upcoming Chicago run-off election, continues to sidestep allegations of conflict-of-interest while he remains on the payroll of the city’s powerful teachers’ union, the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU). Johnson currently works as the Cook County Commissioner and is paid a salary of $93,500. But, one report said that Johnson earns an additional $103,000 from CTU as a union organizer focusing on legislative affairs.
Chicago Mayor Lightfoot ousted; Vallas, Johnson in runoff
March 1, 2023 //
She made history as Chicago mayor. Reelection may be harder
January 24, 2023 // Elected as a reform-minded outsider who would rid the city of pay-to-play politics, Lightfoot was criticized when a campaign staffer sent out an email to public school teachers seeking students to volunteer for the campaign in exchange for class credit. Lightfoot apologized, calling it a mistake. Inspectors general are reviewing for possible policy violations. Some of Lightfoot’s biggest battles have been with the Chicago Teachers Union, which backed her opponent in Lightfoot's first run for mayor. The two sides butted heads during an 11-day teachers strike in 2019 and bickered over returning to in-school instruction during the pandemic. This year, the teachers union has endorsed Lightfoot rival Brandon Johnson, a Cook County commissioner and former Chicago teacher and union organizer.
St. Paul Starbucks union organizer on the fight to organize in Minnesota — and across the country
July 7, 2022 // I've been thinking a lot about this question, too. I was reading some research through the Pew Research Center that was talking about how millennials and Gen Z, I consider myself a millennial at work, I'm one of the oldest people my store just turned 26 and I work with a lot of people who are still in college, there's a lot of natural generational agreement on social issues. with a lot of non-white workers and queer workers. I think we're living in a moment where we can see our rights and the past wins that past generations have made eroding in real time. Roe v. Wade is one. I know there was a ruling in Alabama that allowed for separation to disenfranchise Black voters and we're really seeing what can happen if we don't stick our necks out and you know, bargain for our rights. I think there's a very urgent and existential need to bargain with our employers for protections that we might not have legally otherwise Eden Prairie, Mall of America, Gracie Nira, millennials, Gen Z, social issues, non-white workers, queer workers, East Side freedom library,
Judge sentences former Illinois state lawmaker Thomas Cullerton to a year in prison for embezzlement
June 22, 2022 // Prosecutors said that within weeks of being sworn in as a state senator, Cullerton was added to the payroll of the Teamsters union as an organizer. As a union organizer, Cullerton was expected to work 40 hours a week to attract new members, support union picket lines and attend union events. During his three years with the union, Cullerton collected $248,828 in payments and benefits. "Indeed, he was a ghost payroller who invariably did little to nothing over this three-year period," prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memo. "The defendant’s immediate supervisors tried to get Cullerton to work, but he was, in the words of one supervisor, 'never available.' ... So rare was the defendant present for work that the union did not even bother to keep track of his use of vacation time – because he was effectively on a permanent vacation." Brett Rowland, Judge Robert Gettleman, John Lausch Jr., Amarjeet Bhachu, Erika Csicsila,