Posts tagged voluntarily recognize
Workers At Beloved D.C. Sandwich Shop Compliments Only Seek To Unionize
July 19, 2023 // Employees of beloved D.C. sandwich shop Compliments Only are trying to form a union and seeking a $21 per hour wage. In late June, a majority of the workers — eight out of an estimated ten employees — first asked owners Pete Sitcov and Emily Cipes to recognize their union, but they declined, according to multiple workers. They went public with their union drive this past weekend, when employees, including several who walked off mid-shift, demonstrated at the Dupont Circle sandwich shop.
Workers at The Trevor Project Unionize
July 13, 2023 // The Trevor Project has grown exponentially over the past few years, leading to what one union organizer describes as difficult workloads for crisis counselors dealing with increasing numbers of distress calls. Amy Solar-Greco, an organizer with Communications Workers of America — the union representing Friends of Trevor United — says Trevor’s rapid growth was “unsustainable and burdensome” for employees who are tasked with “performing intense, highly stressful and lifesaving work.” The unionized workers include crisis counselors, policy advocates and curriculum developers, among others. Several of them interviewed for this article say that unionizing will not only help them support each other in the workplace but also better support the LGBTQ youth they serve.
Storm King Art Center Recognizes Workers’ Union Following an Overwhelming Vote in Favor of Organizing by Staff
June 30, 2023 // “We are thrilled to welcome the workers of Storm King Art Center into our CSEA family,” CSEA southern region president Anthony M. Adamo said in a statement. “Not only do these workers have the support of their fellow CSEA members in the Hudson Valley and across New York State, they are also part of a strong coalition within our international union AFSCME known as Cultural Workers United, which allows them to connect and collaborate with other cultural workers organizing their workplaces.” Other museums with AFSCME units include the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Museum, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art, where a wall-to-wall union, formed in 2020, reached a contract agreement in October following a 19-day strike. The nation’s ranks of unionized museums and arts institutions have swelled in recent years, especially since 2020. Storm King workers began organizing last August, following the announcement of a $45 campus revamp, expected to be completed in 2024, the Art Newspaper reported.
Google Contract Staff That Helped Train AI Seek To Unionize
June 9, 2023 // The group is organizing with the Alphabet Workers Union, and said it has signed up the vast majority of its proposed bargaining unit, which includes about 120 writers, graphic designers and launch coordinators who create internal and external Google content, including all of the materials for Google Help support pages. They’ve also recently helped to review AI-generated content. The workers said they hope to bargain for changes including increased paid time off, control over accepting assignments outside the scope of their usual work and competitive pay that reflects their skill sets. The employees are asking management to voluntarily recognize and negotiate with the union. The workers contend Alphabet is a “joint employer” — a company with enough control over a group of employees to be liable for their treatment and obligated to negotiate if they unionize, even if it doesn’t sign their paychecks.
BEN & JERRY’S AGREES TO VOLUNTARILY RECOGNIZE SCOOPERS UNITED UNION!
June 2, 2023 // "We are taught from the beginning of our employment that equality and justice are integral rights of ours as people. But what happens when Vermont's Finest are continuously left out of these conversations?" the scoopers wrote in a letter at the time. Ben & Jerry's responded to the announcement saying it supported workers' organizing efforts. The company followed up Tuesday's card check by voluntarily recognizing the result.
Why baseball’s next unionization effort could come from MLB front offices: ‘We’re not protected at all’
May 8, 2023 // The lawsuit invoked the Curt Flood Act, a 1998 piece of antitrust reform named after the player who sued MLB to end the reserve clause. Judge Gardephe did not find the case convincing enough to transform the Wyckoff and Cox suit into the front-office employee equivalent of Flood's historic triumph; instead, he reinforced that teams were behaving within their rights set forth by MLB's antitrust exemption. "Because scouts' work has a direct and critical effect on the selection of players who will participate in the games that the public will watch," Gardephe opined, "their role cannot be characterized as 'wholly collateral' or 'incidental' to the business of professional baseball."
New York: Workers at Union Square Barnes & Noble push for unionization
May 1, 2023 // Employees at the Union Square store filed for a union election with the National Labor Relations Board on Friday, hoping to be represented by the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union. RWDSU also represents other booksellers in New York City such as McNally Jackson and Greenlight Bookstore. According to workers, the petition came hours after management at Barnes & Noble chose not to voluntarily recognize the union. A Barnes & Noble spokesperson declined to comment. . “We’re stretched thin, and with a union we’d win the pay, needed benefits and long-overdue training and safety resources we need to attract more co-workers and adequately staff the store so our customers have a safer and better experience shopping with us,” said Desiree Nelson, a lead bookseller at the Union Square store.
GLIDE, the Tenderloin-based social justice institution, is being accused of union busting
April 11, 2023 // GLIDE, one of San Francisco’s most prestigious social justice institutions dedicated to helping the homeless and low-income, is being accused of using union busting tactics by multiple former and current employees ahead of union contract negotiations that happened earlier today.
Teachers and staff at Living School form union. 6th New Orleans public school to unionize.
April 4, 2023 // Living School joins Rooted School, International High School, Bricolage Academy, Morris Jeff Community School and Ben Franklin High School as organized collective bargaining units. Teachers in New Orleans who do not work at a unionized school can join United Teachers of New Orleans. A small percentage of New Orleans' 71 charter schools are unionized. After Hurricane Katrina, thousands of public school teachers were fired and schools were taken over by the Recovery School District or transformed into charters, ending the contract between the city and the union. Rooted School, International High School, Bricolage Academy, Morris Jeff Community School, Ben Franklin High School
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.