Posts tagged Union
Op-ed: George F. Will: It’s graduation time for disappointed little Lenins
May 11, 2026 // Disgruntled Starbucks workers embraced the United Auto Workers union, which they soon despised as too tepid about rectifying all injustices everywhere. Scheiber says the UAW now represents “roughly 100,000 higher-education workers” — graduate students and non-tenure-track faculty. Their numbers and grievances are growing faster than those of autoworkers. Many Starbucks workers agitating for unionization were berating the company for an inadequate commitment to LGBTQ rights. Then, on Oct. 7, 2023, they fell in love with Hamas. One organizer wore a sweatshirt emblazoned with a portrait of Karl Marx. An Apple store employee, who blamed her declining mental health on “the job” and “the stress of unionizing,” became, Scheiber writes, so “desperate” she sold her two $150 tickets to a Beyoncé concert. An employee at a Baltimore-area Apple store: “I had to get rid of Hulu” (a subscription-streaming service).
Former Amazon Union Leader Who Was Arrested at Met Gala Has No Regrets
May 11, 2026 // Smalls has become a known figure in the labor movement and the subject of an acclaimed documentary, “Union.” His arrest on Monday, however, resulted in a more complicated reaction from the group he once led — the Amazon Labor Union, which is affiliated with the Teamsters. Local union officials effectively disavowed his actions, saying they “were not coordinated with the rank-and-file worker leaders and movement partners currently building a national campaign to take on Amazon.”
Kennedy Center Ticketing Union Files Labor Charge Over Layoffs
May 8, 2026 // Richard Grenell, the former president of the center appointed under Mr. Trump, had blamed the center’s 19 unions for helping to make it “incredibly expensive” to put on performances. Under Mr. Grenell’s leadership, dozens of staff members were terminated, and a unionization effort was started among administrative employees. Mr. Grenell left the center this spring. Matt Floca, a facilities management professional, stepped into the role of executive director. The center’s most recent publicly available tax documents say that the institution employed more than 2,000 people — many of them part time — in 2023. But that number has been reduced by layoffs and attrition since the beginning of Mr. Trump’s second term.
Op-ed: Unions are acting as a toll booth on the road to unaccountable single-party power
May 8, 2026 // Unions do not write personal checks. They collect dues from membership — teachers, construction workers, public employees — then steer voluntary PAC contributions through ActBlue, the Democrats’ preferred fundraising apparatus. The tilt is so extreme it would embarrass a slot machine. The National Education Association’s PAC raised nearly $27 million in the 2024 election cycle, virtually every dollar aimed at electing Democrats. The four largest government unions — the NEA, the American Federation of Teachers, AFSCME, and the Service Employees International Union — spent more than $700 million on election-related activity in the 2021–22 cycle alone, with 96 percent flowing to Democratic candidates and organizations. That is not grassroots democracy — it is a toll booth on the road to single-party rule.
First-Ever Bargaining Compact Unites Higher Ed Unions Across Northeastern US
May 5, 2026 // Together, they drafted a document called the Amherst Compact. While it is largely aspirational, it commits HELU to working “to coordinate bargaining priorities that raise the floor for workers of all job categories across the most densely-unionized region of the U.S.,” the Northeast. Moreover, the agreement pledges solidarity across job titles, even on campuses where multiple unions represent workers in different employment categories — buildings and grounds; clerical; custodial; food service; research; security; or teaching — and regardless of whether the workers are employed by university hospitals or degree-granting bodies.
OAPSE, We Did it Again!: The Buckeye Institute Takes 2nd OAPSE Union Wage Theft Case to Ohio Supreme Court
May 5, 2026 // The Buckeye Institute filed its brief asking the Ohio Supreme Court to accept jurisdiction in Vanderveer v. Ohio Association of Public School Employees (OAPSE) and either hold it pending the court’s decision in Sheldon v. OAPSE or consolidate it with Sheldon—one of The Buckeye Institute’s other cases seeking to end union wage theft practices that is pending Ohio Supreme Court review.
Despite Five Months of Union Delay Tactics, Ohio Dispensary Employees Win Effort to Kick Teamsters Local 413 Union Bosses Out
May 4, 2026 // Employees of Herbal Wellness Center have officially freed themselves from unwanted Teamsters Local 413 union bosses after the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) Regional Director of Region 9 revoked the Teamsters’ certification as the workers’ exclusive monopoly “representative.” The workers’ effort was spearheaded by dispensary employee Todd Cooper, who filed a petition for his coworkers with the NLRB last November seeking a “decertification” election to end the presence of Local 413 union officials at their workplace.
Racketeering trial starts for former KC-based union leaders accused of $20M theft
May 4, 2026 // “What makes this trial so significant is that it is not only about the individuals who were indicted,” he said. “It is also about the system and the culture that allowed this to ever happen. “Newton Jones and what federal prosecutors have described as the ‘Jones Enterprise’ would not have been able to allegedly racketeer, embezzle, or misuse union resources if the people sworn to uphold their constitutional duties had taken that oath seriously.” The Boilermakers deserve better, Sulivan said. “This trial should be a turning point, not just for accountability for the past, but for rebuilding and restructuring our organization for the future,” he said.
Chisago County union workers go on strike
May 4, 2026 // The strike notice that was submitted at the beginning of April applies to workers in the Health and Human Services Unit and the Government Center Professionals Unit, Local 320 said. The Teamsters Union represents 170 workers. In a press release Thursday, leaders with Chisago County said the Teamsters have rejected all of the county's offers for two-year contracts and that it has prepared detailed contingency plans for the strike. Click here to read the full county statement.
Federal lawsuit challenges New Jersey’s discriminatory hiring mandates and forced union speech requirements
May 3, 2026 // Contractors who do not meet the race- and sex-based hiring goals must either enter a referral agreement with a union—obtaining assurances that the union will supply the required minority workers—or complete 25 separate compliance actions. This structure pressures contractors to work through state-favored unions even though their employees chose Earle precisely because of its open-shop structure. The Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause explicitly forbids race- and sex-based classifications.