Posts tagged unionizing
NLRB restores Obama-era rule speeding up union election process
August 25, 2023 // The U.S. National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) on Thursday finalized procedural changes that will speed up the union election process, which have been criticized by business groups for favoring organized labor. The Democrat-led board's rule restores changes to the election process that were adopted during the Obama administration and largely eliminated in 2019 when appointees of Republican former President Donald Trump led the board. Among the key provisions of the new rule are a requirement that elections be held before related litigation is resolved. Under the Trump-era regulation, the board had to rule on issues such as workers' eligibility to vote and alleged unlawful conduct by employers before holding an election.
Snøhetta US: Employees Vote Against Unionizing in Architectural Practice Transformation
July 13, 2023 // Initially reported to be 29 to 28, the final vote count was 35 to 29. The error was caused due to the overlooking of the company’s San Francisco branch. If the vote had passed, a total of 65 employees, made up of both full-time and regular part-time employees, would have been covered by the proposed union. Moreover, the union would have included all designers, architects, project leaders, and operations staff associated with the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers.
Stanford University graduate workers succeed in unionizing
July 11, 2023 //
Op-ed – New York: Lawmakers pass bill banning ‘captive audience’ meetings
June 14, 2023 // “Employers have become much more aggressive in using captive audience meetings to force workers into hearing the employer’s one-sided propaganda on unionization and other issues,” Appelbaum said in a statement following the legislation’s passage. “These meetings often leave workers feeling pressured and intimidated. It is time that the law catches up to the reality of the moment by allowing workers to refuse to attend these meetings without fear of retaliation.” Three states, Connecticut, Oregon and, most recently, Minnesota have banned the meetings. After the Connecticut ban passed, a coalition of U.S companies led by the U.S Chamber of Commerce sued the state in federal court, arguing that the law is preempted by the National Labor Relations Act and that it breached employers First Amendment-protected freedom of speech.
Twitch CEO Dan Clancy has mentions of unionizing banned in his chat
June 13, 2023 // Content creator Carter called out Twitch CEO Dan Clancy for banning any mentions of unions or unionizing in his chat.
Federal labor regulators say Minneapolis Trader Joe’s illegally removed pro-union literature
June 7, 2023 // Workers from the four stores unionized with Trader Joe’s United continue to negotiate with the company over a first labor contract covering wages, benefits and working conditions. Ryther says discussions have been halting. Workers want to negotiate a single contract across all four stores and do so with a virtual option. The company wants to treat workers at each store as separate bargaining entities and has refused to bargain with a virtual hybrid option, Ryther said. Trader Joe’s United has filed a complaint with the NLRB alleging the company has bargained in bad faith for not coming to the table when union representatives tried to bargain with a virtual option.
Konnan Wants To Unionize WWE And AEW, Believes Talent Should Get Pensions Read More: https://www.wrestlinginc.com/1297332/konnan-wwe-aew-unionize/
May 31, 2023 // "I would unionize the two big companies [WWE and AEW] because it's a shame," he began. "And it's f***ing highway robbery that we don't have pensions, that we don't get overtime, that we don't have workman's comp. There's so many things that we get f***ed on." Read More: https://www.wrestlinginc.com/1297332/konnan-wwe-aew-unionize/
Focus organizing drives on workers without college degrees, US unions told
May 8, 2023 // n contrast, unionization hasn’t taken off nearly as rapidly at many blue-collar, lower-paid workplaces. No other Chipotle restaurant has unionized since workers in Lansing, Michigan, voted last August to make theirs the nation’s first unionized Chipotle. Only one Amazon warehouse is unionized in the US, just two Apple stores and four Trader Joe’s. Those companies have mounted fierce anti-union counterattacks to slow and they hope stop the spread. Chris Rosell, the Teamsters’ organizing director, says one reason unionization of blue-collar workers often doesn’t catch fire is that it’s frequently easier for anti-union consultants to scare and deter those workers. “Blue-collar workers often aren’t as educated about this union-busting stuff,” he said. “They could be more susceptible to these kinds of tactics.” Rosell said the Teamsters often run elaborate campaigns that seek to inoculate workers from the pressures and propaganda from anti-union consultants. He said the Teamsters’ president, Sean O’Brien, hopes to double the union’s membership and focus organizing on such area trucking, warehouses and sanitation work. Erica Smiley, executive director of Jobs with Justice, a labor rights group, says it’s often harder to unionize blue-collar workers because they tend to have less economic security than educated workers and have greater fear of what will happen to them if they’re retaliated against, perhaps getting fired, for seeking to unionize.
Street Chaos and Long Hours Push Farmers’ Market Workers to Unionize
April 28, 2023 // Most of the workers at the city’s farmers’ markets are hourly employees who make between $19 and $26 an hour. Some work year-round, but many are part time or work erratic schedules. Few receive benefits or have job security. Now, hoping to improve their wages and benefits and persuade GrowNYC to focus more on their safety, they are forming a union. In interviews, several said they were driven to organize after an especially turbulent period last summer, when market patrons or passers-by spat on them, called them racial slurs or otherwise lashed out.
Syracuse University grad students want to unionize to improve wages, working conditions
January 20, 2023 // SU plans to increase minimum stipends from $16,980 to $20,000 for master’s student workers and from $16,980 to $22,000 for doctoral students. The pay raises will begin in the 2023-2024 academic year. SU said it is also improving health insurance and child care subsidies for graduate student workers. SEIU already represents about 900 SU workers including custodians, housekeepers, maintenance and good service workers and library technicians.