Posts tagged Zoom

Starbucks Union Demands Company Bargain A National Contract
May 24, 2023 // The company's insistence on separate contracts for more than 300 organized stores has made the process unworkable, union president says. Fox said Starbucks should agree to a broad contract that sets a national minimum wage, “fair scheduling” procedures, guaranteed minimum hours and an agreement for union elections moving forward, among other provisions. Regions and individual stores could then add supplemental agreements if they choose to. But Starbucks said Workers United should stick to negotiating individual contracts since the union has been organizing stores one by one.

The Undercover Organizers Behind America’s Union Wins
April 5, 2023 // The practice of joining a workplace with the secret aim of organizing it is called “salting.” Westlake was addressing recruits at the Inside Organizer School, a workshop held a couple times a year by a loose confederation of labor organizers. At these meetups, experienced activists train other attendees in the art of going undercover. Speakers lecture and lead discussions on how to pass employer screenings, forge relationships with co-workers and process the complicated feelings that can accompany a double life. Most salts are volunteers, not paid union officials, but unions sometimes fund their housing or, later, tap them for full-time jobs. Workers United, the Service Employees International Union affiliate that’s home to the new Starbucks union, hired Westlake as an organizer around the time the coffee chain fired him last fall.
Scottsboro Starbucks employees shocked by result of voting to unionize
August 30, 2022 // Some Starbucks workers in Scottsboro are shocked after their vote to unionize came out as a tie. "That was not at all what we expected," said Carla Gonzalez, a barista.
Op-ed: The Teachers’ Unions’ Blame Game
August 23, 2022 // AFT’s allocation of 30 percent of its 2020–21 expenditures to politics, totaling $48.4 million in political activities and another $5.9 million in contributions. And they’re only second to the National Education Association (NEA), which devotes nearly 50 percent of its expenses to political endeavors, according to research from Americans for Fair Treatment. Given that the NEA spends twice as much on politics (almost all of which is devoted to Democrats) as on representing its members, the union resembles a political, rather than membership, organization.
Resignations from state employees’ union board highlight divide between leadership and progressives
June 8, 2022 // Board members of Vermont’s state employees union said they have long battled to support racial justice and denounce alleged abuse in the Department of Corrections — but have faced opposition from board leadership and top staff. The divide has prompted multiple board members of the Vermont State Employees’ Association to resign, including Brett Pierce, who stepped down last month. Department of Public Safety, Chittenden Regional Correctional Facility, Woodside Juvenile Rehabilitation Center, Steve Howard, Aimee Towne, Jacklyn Hickerson, Department of taxes, auditor, treasurer, women's prison, Josh Cox, VSEA,