Posts tagged Washington state
WA Supreme Court rules on disclosure of public employees’ work information
August 29, 2023 // The court’s opinion is in response to a litigious dispute between the Freedom Foundation, a conservative think tank based in Olympia, and approximately 50 labor unions representing thousands of public employees across the state. The foundation had made formal requests to numerous state agencies requesting the full names of their workers along with dates of birth, job titles, work email addresses, annual salary, work location stations and addresses, full or part-time work status and names and titles of their union bargaining representatives. The foundation said it wanted to contact the employees to inform them about a 2018 U.S. Supreme Court ruling which banned mandatory union membership and dues in the public workplace. The foundation, in its lawsuit, also asserted that unions had no standing in the case. Justice Barbara Madsen,
White House Urged to Intervene in West Coast Port Labor Talks
March 28, 2023 // A group of more than two hundred importers, exporters, logistics providers, and retailers urged the White House to intervene in West Coast port labor talks that have been underway since last May. In a letter March 24 to President Joe Biden, groups including the National Retail Federation, the American Trucking Associations, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, urged the administration to help speed the agreement on a new labor contract between the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and the Pacific Maritime Association, after the contract governing dockworkers from California to Washington State expired on July 1. “While we appreciate that the parties agreed not to engage in a strike or a lockout, we are aware of several instances of activities that have impacted terminal operations. We need the administration to ensure these activities do not continue or escalate,” the March 24 letter said.
Graduate Unions: Why Student Workers at University of California, Temple, More Are Striking
March 27, 2023 // HELU was founded in 2021 in an effort to fill those shoes. At a digital summit that July, members of 75 unions and labor organizations convened to draft a “vision platform” laying out everything from their legislative commitments (like Sen. Bernie Sanders’s College for All Act) to their support of student debt cancelation. The endgame is a unified academic labor movement capable of securing public investment and reorienting higher ed to “prioritize people and the common good over profit and prestige.” To date, 130 unions and affiliated groups representing over half a million workers have endorsed the platform. The first step in realizing this vision, says Jaime, who attended the 2021 summit, is to build union density. “Transforming academia is not going to happen in one single contract campaign. We have to organize workers in every single university in order to achieve real change,” he says.
Weyerhaeuser worker strike ends after 46 days with ‘not the greatest’ contract
October 31, 2022 // A six-week worker strike at Weyerhaeuser mills across the Pacific Northwest ended Friday after union members narrowly voted to approve a new contract that included wage increases and benefits. The approved contract did not include all the changes unionized workers were hoping for but did secure improvements such as lower healthcare premium costs and 14% wage increases, according to Brandon Bryant, district business representative for International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers.
NLRB Memo Just the Latest in a Long List of Biden Sellouts to Labor
April 14, 2022 // If the name sounds familiar, Abruzzo is the former National Communications Workers operative appointed to the post after Biden abruptly terminated Trump-appointee Peter Robb — whose term hadn’t even expired — within minutes of taking the oath of office.
Amazon Fresh union in Seattle delivers demands, threatens strike
March 4, 2022 // Workers at the local Amazon Fresh are demanding longer paid breaks, more flexible schedules, and wages starting at $25 an hour. They want chairs for cashiers, the right to wear Black Lives Matter pins, and the right to take home expired food.
Accusations fly as concrete worker union claims companies are using ‘ghost trucks’
March 2, 2022 // The accusations ratcheted up over the weekend as well. The union put out an 11-page document suggesting the companies are using unsafe, third-party drivers that are putting the public at risk.
Watching Democrats debate unionization of legislative staff is a popcorn-worthy spectacle
February 25, 2022 // One guaranteed beneficiary would be IUPAT District Council 5, a stridently partisan union looking to organize legislative staff. In addition to representing Democratic Party employees, nearly all 143 candidates the union endorsed in 2020 were Democrats. Using members’ dues, the union and its national affiliate have spent $700,000 influencing Washington elections.
Right to Unionize Given as Reason for Legislative Staffer ‘Sick Out’
February 16, 2022 // Not a single member of the House Republican staff called out sick, spokeswoman Kelley Payne told Newsweek in an email. Washington Senate Democrats did not have numbers on staff who called out sick. Newsweek has reached out to the Washington Senate Republicans.