Posts tagged union organizers
Coalition Letter: Protecting Taxpayers’ Wallets Act
April 16, 2025 // Prior to the recent termination of collective bargaining rights for Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officers, the Department of Homeland Security revealed that nearly 200 TSA officers were working full-time on union matters despite being paid salaries by the government. In FY2019, the most recent year for which the data is available, over 550 employees at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) were paid taxpayer dollars to perform union work. In another case, a union president has been allowed to occupy an executive suite that spans half of a hospital wing at the Salem VA Medical Center at taxpayer expense. Members of Congress recently introduced legislation to rectify this problem and prevent further squandering of tax dollars. The “Protecting Taxpayers’ Wallets Act of 2025,” introduced as H.R. 1210 by Congressman Scott Perry (R-Pa.) and S. 511 by Senator Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), would give agencies the power to charge labor unions for their use of official time and their use of any agency resources such as office space and equipment.
Video Game Union Organizers’ New Tactic for Workers: Don’t Unionize, Technically
March 21, 2025 // On Wednesday the Communications Workers of America announced the launch of a new direct-join organization, United Videogame Workers-CWA, at a labor-organizing panel at the Game Developers Conference. The group — not a certified union, but something more like a large-scale organizing group — is open to a wide range of workers in the field across employers, from full-time employees to contractors to former staffers who have been laid off. The group’s first initiative will be to circulate a petition addressing recent industry workforce cuts, while it is later planning on producing a worker “bill of rights” that will demand specific workplace standards.
The Next Wave Commentary: Kim Kavin
March 4, 2025 // In the wave of freelance busting that started with California’s Assembly Bill 5, the method of attack was the reclassification of independent contractors as employees. That method created massive backlash everywhere it was tried, so now, a new method is being tried. That new method is called sectoral organizing. This strategy of freelance busting in multiple states is usually a setup for a nationwide attack against us all. Independent contractors nationwide just learned this the hard way, with California’s Assembly Bill 5 ultimately leading to the introduction of the federal Protecting the Right to Organize Act. The freelance-busting brigade is, once again, doing a test run of its idea in the states, with bigger ambitions on the horizon.
Commentary: The Big Fear? A Real Rematch
July 6, 2024 // Just a few hours after the court’s ruling dropped late last week, allowing both ballot measures to proceed, the Massachusetts attorney general made an announcement of her own. She agreed to a deal that will let Uber and Lyft drivers in Massachusetts remain independent contractors, with a minimum hourly wage of $32.50 and some benefits. Interestingly, the attorney general’s announcement noted that the deal averts giving the people of Massachusetts a chance to vote on the matter:
OPINION: UAW loses at Mercedes, but are they done with Alabama?
June 18, 2024 // The question for the UAW is where to turn next in their campaign to organize Southern auto plants. Speculation has focused on Georgia, Missouri, South Carolina, or even another crack at other factories in Alabama. But it’s not at all clear that the union has much support in any of these locations. It’s also unlikely that any of the potential target companies will sign a neutrality agreement, but rather will make sure workers have both sides of the story. So, while the UAW puts on a brave face and claims that Southern autoworkers will “Stand Up!” ꟷ it appears that what workers are standing up against is the UAW.
Citing ‘burnout,’ doctors with ChristianaCare file papers to form system’s first labor union
May 15, 2024 // The petition, which only required a 30% vote, was delivered to the NLRB office in Philadelphia late Tuesday. The union would be the first in the 136-year history of ChristianaCare, Delaware’s largest private employer with about 11,600 staff members. Should the doctors elect to form a union, the next step would be collective bargaining on a contract to address duties, wages and other issues.
Commentary: Is the NLRB Unconstitutional? The Courts May Finally Decide.
December 6, 2023 // While many agencies act politically, the Board is a special problem. Unlike other agencies, the Board makes almost all its decisions not through rulemaking, but through one-off panel decisions. That means it can change policy much faster. The “law” can swing wildly from case to case. In fact, according to one study, the Board during the Obama administration reversed a group of decisions that had been on the books for more than a collective 4,500 years. The Board’s constitutional flaws are also different from those of other agencies. For example, in a recent case involving the SEC, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals held that the agency’s structure violated the Seventh Amendment. That was because the SEC can impose civil fines—the kind of claims that must be tried to a jury. The Board has no authority to impose civil fines, so it doesn’t have the same Seventh Amendment problem. Its problem instead comes instead from its unchecked power to decide cases. It controls the outcome in disputes affecting a range of private rights. And those disputes, according to Article III of the Constitution, should be decided only by real judges.
BACKGROUNDER: Polling Results on Union Salting and Union Elections
October 25, 2023 // Between July 24-26, 2023, Institute for the American Worker commissioned the bipartisan research firm Big Village to conduct an online omnibus survey of a demographically representative U.S. sample of 1,010 adults 18 years of age and older. The polling questions gauge the public’s opinion on union organizing efforts involving “salts,” which are paid union organizers who apply for jobs at a workplace to organize an employer. Additionally, the poll asked if respondents felt unions should need a minimum threshold of votes before representing employees.
Popular Union-Busting Tactic Banned in New York in ‘Major Victory’
September 7, 2023 // New York has banned captive audience meetings, a popular union-busting tactic used by companies during organizing periods to disseminate anti-union information. Governor Kathy Hochul signed the bill on Wednesday morning, making the state the fifth in the U.S. to make such meetings illegal. “This legislation will help to ensure that all New Yorkers receive the benefits and protections that allow them to work with dignity,” Hochul said in a statement on Wednesday. “My administration is committed to making our state the most worker-friendly state in the nation, and I thank the bill sponsors for their partnership in our mission to establish the strongest and most robust protections right here in New York.”
CANADA: A New App May Allow Workers To Unionize Anonymously
June 12, 2023 // The app allows workers to anonymously ask their coworkers if they want to form a union, without management interference. If 60 per cent of the workplace responds positively, the app sends digital union cards for workers to sign. Signed cards are then forwarded to the union chosen by the initiators of the campaign, who can file them at the B.C. Labour Relations Board. Crucially, it is up to the union to make connections with the workers interested in organizing. The process sounds straightforward enough, but does raise several concerns. For one, only unions using the app can receive signed cards and connect with workers who are organizing. Without buy-in from a broad cross section of unions, workers in some industries might find themselves without digital access to a union appropriate to represent them.