Posts tagged Unite Here
Unions’ 2024 maneuvering leaves some feeling conflicted
June 27, 2023 // Organized labor is dear to the president’s political heart and is set to play a major role in next August’s Democratic National Convention, particularly as union considerations were one of the decisive reasons why party leaders chose Chicago to host the event over Atlanta, another finalist. But that rosy depiction, somewhat by design, glosses over the full picture. Not every union — despite what Biden told reporters last Saturday — is behind him. The United Mine Workers of America and United Auto Workers are among the notable holdouts. Their leaders have expressed harsh words about some of the administration’s policy decisions (more on that lower down.) Additionally, the selection of Chicago for the convention reopened old wounds for some union hands, given the heavy involvement of Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, a billionaire heir of the family that controls the Hyatt hotel chain.
Encore Boston Harbor unions voting on whether to authorize strike
June 23, 2023 // Approximately 1,400 workers — room attendants, cocktail servers, bar porters, cooks, dishwashers, public area cleaners, and drivers — who are members of Unite Here Local 26 and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 25 are voting on the issue. If a majority votes in favor of authorizing a strike, union officials said the deadline would be announced on Thursday. Advertisement Union officials said negotiations on a new contract began on March 9, and their contract, the first since the resort's opening, expired on April 19. Both unions are bargaining together.
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.
Sodexo management allegedly orchestrated a ‘no-union’ rally at Rollins College, after workers filed to unionize
May 2, 2023 // Stewart added, quite passionately, that union reps have been harassing employees, following them to their cars, following them after they get off work. “If they don’t stop, I’m going to call the police,” she said. In fact, Sodexo management already has called the police, albeit on student organizers from the University of Central Florida who were issued trespass warnings by Winter Park police for passing out pro-union flyers on the private campus. Union staff have also been kicked off campus by campus security multiple times, according to union staff who Orlando Weekly previously spoke with. Granted, it’s common for union staff and pro-union workers to find time outside of work hours to approach fellow coworkers about unionization during union drives — and that may not always be welcome.
Concessions workers at United Center strike ahead of Big Ten Tournament
March 7, 2023 // Compass-Levy responded to the one-day strike, saying in part that it has introduced a new pension plan, wage increases and a new health care plan.
Disney Worker Hits UNITE HERE Union Bosses with Federal Charge for Illegal Dues Seizures
February 27, 2023 // Labor Board charge: Union violated federal law by ignoring worker’s request to stop dues payments without any explanation Jose Alejandro Class Robles, a Disney Parks and Resorts employee in Orlando, Florida has filed federal charges with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) against UNITE HERE Local 362 for illegally deducting dues from his paycheck. The unfair labor practice charges were filed with the NLRB Region 12 office with free legal aid from the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation. Since 1943, Florida’s Right to Work protections make union membership and financial support strictly voluntary. However, rather than respect workers’ ability to decide individually whether or not to voluntary financially support the union, UNITE HERE union officials are blocking Class from exercising his rights under the law and stonewalling his request for required information regarding the dues deductions.
House cafeteria workers eyeing pickets, walkouts if contract talks sour
February 22, 2023 // The collective bargaining agreement for the House’s 35 caterers expired at the end of the year, while the contract for 120 dining services workers ends in May. While the two sides are talking, the terms of the old contracts will continue to apply. The House workers in Unite Here Local 23 basically want the same deal that their colleagues in the Senate got last year, which boils down to a demand for higher wages. Their current contracts set the lowest starting wage at $13.85 per hour; the union wants that minimum raised to $20. Sodexo runs 10 House dining facilities, including the Capitol Market in the basement, the Longworth and Rayburn office cafeterias, and branded shops like the Au Bon Pain in Cannon. Sodexo’s contract with the Office of the Chief Administrative Officer is up for renewal in 2025, when the CAO could either terminate the deal, renegotiate or exercise a six-year extension option.
Tech Layoffs Threaten Unions’ Plan to Draw White-Collar Workers
January 18, 2023 // Some 500 technology companies have axed nearly 100,000 workers since last October, according to Layoffs.fyi, a public database of tech layoffs. Amazon this month announced it would cut 18,000 jobs, and on the same day, cloud computing company Salesforce and the online video-sharing service Vimeo said they would slash 10% and 11% of their staffs, respectively. Meta, formerly known as Facebook, said in November it would eliminate 11,000 jobs—about 13% of its staff. Those reductions in force don’t bode well for unions that have increasingly funneled resources into tech organizing, which was, until recently, seen as an ever-growing pool of potential members. The AFL-CIO, the nation’s largest labor federation, last year raised membership fees for the first time in two decades, hoping to raise $10 million a year for new organizing. Union leaders this month flocked to Las Vegas for the CES technology conference, set on understanding how the latest innovations in artificial intelligence could disrupt their industries.
Yale grad students vote to unionize after decadeslong push
January 11, 2023 // Graduate students across the U.S., both at public and private institutions, have pushed in recent years to organize and bargain collectively. Columbia University, another Ivy League school, in 2018 agreed to begin contract negotiations with a union representing its graduate student teaching and research assistants, ending a long battle in which the university denied them the right to unionize.