Posts tagged Unionization
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.
SUNY Albany TPUSA chapter to host ‘Unionized Hot Dog Stand’ exploring effects of labor regulations
November 10, 2025 // Students will get to enjoy free hot dogs while taking part in a hands-on demonstration about the effects of labor regulations and unionization on small businesses. To make the lesson interactive, student organizers will “unionize” their own stand by implementing mock workplace rules, hosting collective bargaining sessions, and requiring symbolic dues payments. The goal is to show how increased labor regulations can drive up costs, reduce efficiency, and limit opportunities for workers and consumers alike.
LACMA Declines to Voluntarily Recognize Union Formed by Hundreds of Workers
November 8, 2025 // The AFSCME Cultural Workers United District Council 36, a division of the national AFSCME Cultural Workers United, has helped workers unionize at other leading LA museums, including the Museum of Contemporary Art, the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures and Foundation, and the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County and La Brea Tar Pits. At the national level, AFSCME Cultural Workers United represents employees at museums including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Philadelphia Art Museum, and the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. Earlier this week, employees at the Detroit Institute of Arts announced plans to join AFSCME Michigan. In its new statement, LACMA United said that the museum’s status as a county museum makes management’s position “particularly troubling,” noting that, unlike mutual-benefit nonprofits, LACMA was established by Los Angeles County as a public-benefit corporation and receives more than $30 million in public funding each year.
California Just Blew Past Last Year’s Record — And We’re Still Climbing
November 7, 2025 // California public employees are opting out of their unions in record numbers thanks to the work of the Freedom Foundation. Last year, 16,500 chose freedom over union control, while this year we’ve already eclipsed that mark by more than 20 percent with a few months of the year left – at over 20,000 opt outs! This has cost the unions an estimated $17,100,00 in one year alone and will only compound moving forward.
Declining union membership could be making working-class Americans less happy and more susceptible to drug overdoses
November 6, 2025 // We are continuing to research the connections between union membership and public health. The next question we are working on is whether a decline in union membership can have a multigenerational impact, going beyond the workers employed today and affecting the lives of their children and grandchildren.