Posts tagged unionize
Strategic sick days and coordinated slowdowns: the case for sabotage in Silicon Valley
July 27, 2025 // Picture a calendar, not a picket line. A product launch, a quarterly-earnings call, a major app update—those are the heartbeats. Miss one and the body panics. The new method maps three layers of the organism: The skeleton: the technical systems that really can't be turned off. The muscles: the org chart that decides who answers to whom. The nerves: the Slack channels, lunch tables, and after-work gaming groups where work actually gets done.
Postdoctoral scholars and research assistants at Penn vote to unionize
July 24, 2025 // Research Associates and Postdocs United at Penn would join the United Auto Workers labor union, which represents over 120,000 academic workers across the country, including 4,000 graduate workers at Penn who voted to unionize last year. Will Drayer, a postdoctoral researcher in materials science and engineering at Penn and a forefront member of the campaign to unionize, said the next steps include democratically electing a bargaining committee and surveying members to establish clear priorities before entering contract negotiations with the university.
Opinion: Democrats Attack Gig-Worker Benefits
July 23, 2025 // In a committee hearing on the bill last week, Sen. Bernie Sanders sidestepped the issue of worker benefits to address his party’s real concern—giving unions more power over individual workers. “These bills are about giving corporations the freedom to deny workers the right to form a union,” he said. Independent contractors can’t unionize under the National Labor Relations Act, so unions and the Democrats they support want to outlaw contract work, or at least deprive it of benefits that could attract workers. Democrats on the committee were united in opposition. This political opposition has deterred several gig companies from offering benefits. Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi has pledged more than $650 million a year to fund health insurance and paid time off if lawmakers would withdraw the threat of reclassifying the company’s drivers.
Commentary: Ivy Leaguers Aren’t Auto Workers
July 21, 2025 // In general, NLRB decisions are fake law made by fake judges who have to interpret a poorly written statute from 90 years ago that is based on assumptions about industrial organization that no longer obtain in the United States. But the NLRB remains powerful nonetheless, and its decisions matter. That’s why Russell Burgett, a doctoral candidate at Cornell University, which is private, is asking the NLRB to overturn the 2016 Columbia ruling. He isn’t a member of the Cornell graduate students’ union, a UE affiliate, and he said in charges filed with the NLRB on Monday that his choice not to join makes it harder for him to complete his education.
Casa Bonita Workers Will Still Face Nasty Gases, Drunk Patrons, But Now As a Part of a Union
July 21, 2025 // The more recent efforts for this small arcade team to unionize started up again in May, when all eight team members signed authorization cards, citing lack of job security, unfair pay and inconsistent shifts. We’ll have to wait and see what the future of Casa Bonita’s larger union holds, but it appears employees may still have to deal with concerning odors, hordes of camera-wielding influencers and rowdy South Park fans.
US court seem poised to lift block on Trump curbing union bargaining for federal workers
July 19, 2025 // Judges on a U.S. appeals court on Thursday said they likely lacked the power to second-guess President Donald Trump's decision to strip hundreds of thousands of federal employees of the ability to unionize and collectively bargain.
Gig Drivers Unionize Without Employee Status Under State Plans
July 17, 2025 // Unlike in California, Lyft and Uber remained publicly neutral on the Massachusetts ballot measure and Uber recently vowed to do the same in Illinois. For the companies, the bargaining schemes have the benefit of keeping drivers classified as independent contractors. “As we’ve said for years, we’re willing to work with state legislators on benefit and protection legislation that prioritizes preserving drivers’ independence and flexibility,” said Uber spokesperson Josh Gold.
Chicago Board of Election workers should not be barred from unionizing, judge finds
July 17, 2025 // Attorneys for the board argued that because election workers are prohibited from engaging in “political activity” by the state’s election code, they should therefore be barred from joining SEIU. In legal filings, hired counsel for the board of election noted that SEIU 73 is politically active, lobbies legislatively and makes endorsements and financial contributions to political candidates. The union, for instance, helped propel Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, who received more than $4 million in contributions from SEIU affiliates during his mayoral campaign, to victory.
‘Reinstate the doctors!’ Hundreds protest firing of 2 UH pediatricians
July 14, 2025 // UH CEO Cliff Megerian said Beene and Fouts-Fowler inappropriately downloaded nearly 5,000 healthcare workers' personal information for reasons other than direct patient care. "It's a violation of at least five of our policies," Megerian said earlier this week. "They denied it. We found out they did, and as you can expect, that's what led to the issue." Neither of the terminated doctors knew what policies they'd broken.
Arcade Workers at ‘South Park’ Creators’ Casa Bonita Restaurant Unionize
July 11, 2025 // The South Park creators have also been in the news for threatening legal action and accusing Paramount president Jeff Shell of meddling in contract negotiations with Warner Bros. Discovery and Netflix.