Posts tagged Unionization
Year in Review: Wave of campus labor organizing gains momentum, brings one new union to Penn
December 12, 2025 // From graduate student workers to research associates and postdoctoral scholars, 2025 marked an unprecedented surge in labor organizing at Penn. The past 12 months saw the formation of a new union on campus, alongside a strike authorization vote amid ongoing negotiations. The Daily Pennsylvanian compiled a timeline of unionization efforts on and around campus over the last year.
Cayuga Medical Center nurses are unionizing, pushing for hospital recognition
December 11, 2025 // The union is asking hospital management for voluntary recognition, which would mean the nurses wouldn’t need to hold an election to finish establishing the union and start bargaining their first contract. However, when reached for comment, a hospital representative did not say that Cayuga Medical Center would provide that recognition. Instead, they said Cayuga Medical Center respected nurses' rights to hold a vote on unionization. “We fully respect their right to pursue a secret ballot vote following National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) rules,” the hospital said in a statement.
Op-ed: Faculty leaders fear St. John’s University in NY could lose its union
December 9, 2025 // Institutions that have claimed the religious exemption include Boston College, Duquesne University, St. Leo University, Marquette University, and most recently, Loyola Marymount University. And now, faculty union leaders at St. John's University in Queens, New York, are sounding the alarm that they believe the 155-year-old Vincentian institution is laying the groundwork to follow the same path as other Catholic colleges.
Op-ed: About Right to Work, Will the Real Abigail Spanberger Please Stand Up
December 4, 2025 // Reforms that weaken Right to Work laws will make Virginia less attractive to employers—reducing job growth and increasing Virginians' cost of living. Governor-elect Spanberger should reassure Virginians that she opposes any legislation weakening her citizens' Right to Work because she understands that protecting worker freedom is central to her abundance agenda.
Workers at Some of the World’s Largest Museums Are Demanding Fairer Pay
December 2, 2025 // The potential new union chapter at the Met is with the Technical, Office, and Professional Union, Local 2110, part of the United Automobile Workers (UAW) union. The museum does have union chapters for projectionists and audio/visual technicians with Local 306 IATSE, and for about 700 security guards with Local 1503, part of DC 37, and there has previously been an attempt to establish a wall-to-wall union bringing all staff together in one chapter.
Union members like me need these reforms from Congress
December 2, 2025 // Three years ago, I was forced into a union against my will. While my coworkers and I tried to free ourselves, we were stifled every step of the way. We needed better federal labor laws — such as the bills introduced in both the House and Senate in recent days. Leaders such as Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) and Reps. Virginia Foxx (R-NC) and Randy Fine (R-FL) have recently written some of the most pro-worker legislation in decades. My own experience with unionization shows how necessary these reforms are.
California court drops Wonderful Co. lawsuit against farmworker unionization efforts
December 1, 2025 // Craig Cooper, general counsel of The Wonderful Company, said in a statement on Tuesday the court ruling doesn’t prevent the Superior Court from finding the card check law to be unconstitutional, which is a decision that Wonderful “(looks) forward to.” “The decision explicitly does not address the merits of Wonderful Nurseries’ constitutional challenge, which a lower court has already concluded has merit, and does not in any way interfere with the lawsuit that two dozen Wonderful Nurseries employees have brought challenging the legality of this forced unionization scheme,” Cooper said in the statement.
Congress Can Empower Workers Through Choice—Not Coercion
November 24, 2025 // A case in point is the legislative package that Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) introduced on Nov. 10, joined by others including Sens. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) and Tim Scott (R-S.C). They’d protect workers’ paychecks by requiring unions to get approval before spending dues money on politics. They’d also protect workers’ privacy by letting them choose what contact information unions get during the organizing process. And they’d protect workplace democracy by requiring that at least two-thirds of workers participate in union elections — preventing a minority of people from determining the fate of every employee. Another praiseworthy reform is the Employee Rights Act, which Scott introduced in the shutdown’s early days after Rep. Rick Allen (R-Ga.) previously introduced it in the House. Among its many good ideas, the Employee Rights Act guarantees the secret ballot and protects workers from intimidation and harassment. It also gives unionized workers in the 26 right-to-work states the freedom to negotiate their own contract with their employer, so they can better address their individual needs. And the Employee Rights Act guarantees that self-employed workers have maximum flexibility to design their jobs to fit their lives.
Get on the Job and Organize with Inside Organizer School
November 23, 2025 // On November 6, a panel of labor organizers local to the Twin Cities gathered with the IOS at the East Side Freedom Library in St. Paul, Minn. The conversation centered on Brisack’s book, Get on the Job and Organize: Standing up for a Better Workplace and a Better World, which was released in April. Packed with labor history, the book is about Brisack’s experience salting at Starbucks, but also about their experience as an external organizer for union campaigns at Nissan and Tesla. The conversation was not limited to salting. During the event, panelists connected wisdom from the book to their own experiences organizing different industries in Minnesota, and shared tips and stories with audience members about organizing in general.
Operator To Pay CT Highway Service Plaza Workers $1.5M, Allow Unionization, Lamont Says
November 18, 2025 // In addition, through an agreement facilitated by the Office of Attorney General William Tong and the Connecticut Department of Labor (CTDOL), Project Service, the operator of the service plazas, has agreed to pay $1.5 million to resolve allegations that its food service subcontractors underpaid workers in violation of standard wage laws. The settlement requires that Project Service certify food service subcontractor operators pay standard wages going forward.