Posts tagged walkouts
Starbucks union workers strike over dress code changes
May 16, 2025 // The company restricted its dress code to solid black long and short-sleeved shirts, company branded t-shirts and black, khaki or blue denim pants — a significant restriction of its dress rules. The union also filed an amendment to unfair labor practice charges stating the dress code changes “materially differed from both the status quo and what the parties had tentatively agreed to at the bargaining table, thus undermining the Union’s representational status.”
Southern California Amazon workers strike at one of company’s major West Coast air hubs
July 24, 2024 // The warehouse where the strike took place – the KSBD warehouse in San Bernardino – is Amazon’s largest air facility on the West Coast. The walkout comes on the heels of Prime Day, the marketplace’s incredibly popular 48-hour shopping event.
Hotel Maya and union workers reach agreement after months of strikes, walkouts
April 25, 2024 // Employees at the Maya and dozens of other Southern California hotels have staged strikes and boycotts since July as part of a campaign by their union, Unite Here Local 11, which represents 32,000 hospitality workers in the region. The dispute at the Maya has involved dueling complaints that the union was bargaining in bad faith and that workers were subjected to violence on the picket line, including allegations that a striking worker was grabbed and yelled at by a hotel investor, something the investor denied. In August, an altercation also resulted in a striking Maya worker being punched in the head by an unknown man, according to video of the incident.
REI SoHo workers unionized in 2022, but still don’t have a contract. This play tells their story
February 21, 2024 // Neill first put on the play, called Foot Wears House, for her coworkers and fellow union members, through a reading at RWDSU’s office. Now, it will be open to the public with a reading at Hudson Park Library on February 24, once again starring members of the REI Soho union. The reading is supported by Working Theater, which is focused on stories for and about working people, and is free to the public, with the option for donations to the REI Union Hardship Fund.
The number of striking U.S. workers more than doubled in 2023
February 15, 2024 // While the overall number of strikes only ticked up a bit in 2023, many more workers were involved in stoppages.
Unions’ power ebbs and flows
November 6, 2023 // Unionization efforts have expanded but many are taking place where there is little history of organized labor, creating a higher bar for workers. Colvin points to Starbucks workers who have seen union drives clipped in the last year. Starbucks has been accused of chilling organization by closing unionized stores and firing pro-union workers. There are also limits for organizers under current labor law. That means that what worked in the auto workers' labor campaign, for example, may not be possible for other industries.
‘I don’t think it’s too much’: Waffle House workers push for $25 an hour
October 16, 2023 // John Schuessler, a Waffle House worker in South Carolina, explained that due to the low wages, he struggles to afford groceries, clothes for his child, are behind on mortgage payments Pauletta Dillard, a Waffle House server in South Carolina, said the $3 an hour pay plus tips has been roughly the same pay for the past two decades, while more work is put on workers. Workers also explained the security issues they face working the third shift, where customers are often intoxicated and violence in the restaurant between customers or directed at workers has occurred and fights at the chain have often gone viral.
Ford says it is ‘at the limit’ with UAW contract offer
October 13, 2023 // Ford officials said on Thursday that cutting a deal that does not allow the company to survive makes no sense and that striking the Kentucky truck plant would also hurt the UAW's profit-sharing checks. In a sign of the strike's expanding impact, Delta Air Lines (DAL.N) said on Thursday it is feeling a pinch from the automotive and entertainment labor strikes. Delta President Glen Hauenstein said the UAW strike has curtailed a "significant" amount of business in Detroit. Automakers have more than doubled initial wage hike offers, agreed to raise wages along with inflation and improved pay for temporary workers, but the union wants higher wages still, the abolishment of a two-tier wage system and the expansion of unions to battery plants. The UAW has room to expand its walkouts and increase the pressure on the Detroit Three to offer bigger wage gains, richer retirement packages and more assurances that new electric vehicle battery plants will be unionized.
Walgreens pharmacy employees launch scattered walkout
October 9, 2023 // “The last few years have required an unprecedented effort from our team members, and we share their pride in this work — while recognizing it has been a very challenging time,” Walgreens said. A spokesperson for the United Food and Commercial Workers union, which represents more than 4,400 workers at Walgreens stores in markets around the country, could not be reached for comment on the walkouts. Last month, workers at three Walgreens stores in Northeast Ohio voted to form their own union, called Pharmacy Workers United, according to a report from Axios Cleveland.
Jeep maker Stellantis makes a new contract offer as auto workers prepare to expand their strike
September 21, 2023 // GM said that the UAW strike at its assembly plant near St. Louis caused it to idle a plant in Kansas with about 2,000 workers because “there is no work available” — the plant depends on parts stamped in the St. Louis-area facility. GM said it does not expect to restart the Kansas plant until the strike ends, and it won’t provide supplemental pay to the workers. The company said the layoffs demonstrated “that nobody wins in a strike.” Stellantis, which makes Jeep, Chrysler and Dodge vehicles, said it expects to lay off more than 300 workers in Ohio and Indiana because “storage constraints” caused by the UAW strike at its assembly plant in Toledo, Ohio.