Posts tagged unionizing
Labor’s Militant Minority How a new class of “salts”—radicals who take jobs to help unionization—is boosting the organizing efforts of long-term workers.
June 16, 2022 // On May 1 organizers from the Amazon Labor Union (ALU) joined the New York City Central Labor Council and community organizations to march from Washington Square Park to Foley Park. After a long afternoon of marching and chanting in the sun, about a third of the core organizing committee made their way to a May Day party at the Communist Party headquarters in Chelsea. In the Party’s spacious office, adorned with pictures of William Z. Foster and Lenin, a racially diverse group of twenty-somethings—ALU organizers, members of the Young Communist League (YLC), and fellow travelers—drank Modelos and Bud Lights, ate pizza, and danced to the Backstreet Boys. They were celebrating May Day and the first successful union election at Amazon—the ALU’s April 22 victory at the JFK8 warehouse on Staten Island. Mie Inouye, Boston Review, May Day, Young Communist League, post-Occupy, post-Bernie, Organizing Methods in the Steel Industry, militant minority, Jaz Brisack, New Communist Movement,
Starbucks union: Company threatens that unionizing could jeopardize gender-affirming health care
June 15, 2022 // trans health-care benefit, veiled threat, gender reassignment surgery, hair transplants, breast reduction, same-sex domestic partnerships, employees with terminal illnesses,
Apple VP kindly reminds retail workers that they can say no to unions
May 27, 2022 // So far, no Apple retail stores have gained formal union recognition, but in February, the Washington Post reported that at least two stores were backed by major national unions and were prepared to file paperwork with the NLRB, while at least six more stores were in earlier stages of attempting to unionize. Around the same time, Apple doubled paid sick days for both full-time and part-time workers following reports from The Verge about the struggles of frontline Apple workers.
The push to unionize Philly’s food scene
May 9, 2022 // Workers used both carrot and stick to give employers an incentive to join the union. They applied pressure with “sip-ins,” in which pro-union customers would monopolize tables while lingering over coffee. The union oversaw training and discipline for its members, and also encouraged forming restaurant associations to defray costs for small business owners.
Psaki sidesteps questions about White House meeting with Amazon, Starbucks union leaders
May 4, 2022 // “The choice to join a union belongs to workers alone … and by the way Amazon, here we come,” Mr. Biden said to thunderous applause at the North America’s Building Trade Unions conference in Washington, D.C.
Unions are on the rise. Guess why.
May 2, 2022 // For one thing, these companies aren’t exactly from your grandfather’s day when activists organized the steel, coal and auto industries. There isn’t much of that unionizing left to do in this country (excepting some foreign auto assembly plants in the South — and that has been tough going). The new surge is going after flagships of the tech and service economy.
A surge in retail union organizing is the surest sign yet that workers are fed up
March 29, 2022 // It's a trend born from pandemic-fueled discontent. Once hailed as "essential" and given "hero pay," workers have seen their wages flatline as company profits rise and CEO pay soars. They've worked through COVID waves, had coworkers die, and experienced harassment at the hands of customers who don't want to wear masks.