The Weekly Download

"Amazon’s spending on labor consultants soared to $14.2 million last year amid its effort to quash union drives within the company, according to a Labor Department filing. That’s more than triple the total from the previous year, when Amazon first began to confront organizing efforts at its warehouses."

“Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) could head into the GOP presidential primary against Donald Trump with a shiny new conservative credential: destroyer of public-sector labor unions. Republicans in the Sunshine State are moving ahead with legislation designed to make it harder for government employee unions to collect dues and, well, to exist at all. The bill cleared the GOP-dominated state Senate in Tallahassee last week, despite several Republican lawmakers joining their Democratic colleagues and voting against it.”

“Twitter Inc (TWTR.MX) faced a lawsuit on Tuesday accusing the social media giant of illegally laying off contract workers without notice after Elon Musk bought the company last year, the latest action stemming from its massive job cuts. The proposed class action, filed in San Francisco federal court, claims Twitter in November laid off numerous workers employed by staffing firm TEKsystems Inc without the 60 days of advance notice required by U.S. and California law.”

“A federal appeals court on Friday affirmed a finding that Tesla illegally fired an employee involved in union organizing, and that the company’s chief executive, Elon Musk, had illegally threatened workers’ stock options if they chose to unionize. The opinion, by three judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, allows the National Labor Relations Board to enforce a 2021 order requiring Tesla to reinstate, with back pay, the employee, Richard Ortiz, and Mr. Musk to delete a Twitter post suggesting workers could lose stock options if they unionize.”

“Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.) confronted former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz over the coffee company’s hiring of Littler Mendelson, the country’s largest employment and labor law firm devoted exclusively to representing management. ‘[It’s] one of the largest and most notoriously union-busting firms in the country,’Casey said, noting that the coffee giant can write off as a business expense on its taxes the millions it pays Littler Mendelson to aid Starbucks in its anti-union efforts. ‘Taxpayers are subsidizing union busting,’ Casey said.”

“Rizzo is one of dozens of union organizers that Starbucks has fired since late 2021, according to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), which has accused the company of hundreds of labor law violations. Just last month, an NLRB judge ordered Starbucks to reinstate seven Buffalo-area workers who were illegally fired.”

“In many Minnesota franchises, franchise owners within the same franchise agree not to hire from each other, keeping wages down and profits up. It is already illegal for non-franchise business owners to use this anti-competitive strategy to limit workers’ freedom. Minnesota legislators are moving to close a franchise-owners loophole, via bills (SF2216/HF1831) championed by Rep. Emma Greenman, DFL-Minneapolis, and Sen. Alice Mann, DFL-Edina.”

“Of all the professions, perhaps none is more commonly bound by contracts that define where else an employee can go work than local television news. The restrictions, known as noncompete clauses, have been a condition of the job for reporters, anchors, sportscasters and meteorologists for decades. More recently, they’ve spread to off-air roles like producers and editors — positions that often pay just barely above the poverty line — and they keep employees from moving to other stations in the same market for up to a year after their contract ends. For that reason, there’s probably no industry that could change as much as a result of the Federal Trade Commission’s effort to severely limit noncompete clauses — if the proposed rule is not derailed before being finalized. Business trade associations are lobbying fiercely against it.”

“‘We’re thrilled to see the Department of Justice bring another Section 1 case to protect workers and ensure dominant firms like Activision can’t exploit them,’ said Katherine Van Dyck, Senior Legal Counsel at the American Economic Liberties Project. ‘As the agency’s case alleges, Activision abused its massive market power over the e-sports industry to impose unfair rules that limited players’ wages and benefits. This case demonstrates the Antitrust Division’s clear understanding of the relationship between corporate power and labor abuses, and its willingness to use our antitrust laws to protect employees from attempts to artificially suppress earnings and other employee benefits.’”

“Members of a fledgling union for low-wage workers took to the street Tuesday in three Southeastern cities to protest unsafe conditions and insufficient pay to mark the anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination. In Atlanta, about 50 members of the Union of Southern Service Workers chanted, held posters, listened to speeches and talked about their own complaints in front of the offices of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, a federal agency responsible for workplace safety. Union members also gathered in Durham, N.C. and in Columbia, S.C.”

“No one enters California civil service expecting to get rich. But some state workers say their stagnant wages fail to cover basic living expenses, let alone provide the sense of security and financial stability that many seek from a job in state government.”

“Members of AFSCME Council 57 and SEIU Local 521 demanded that the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors resolve the harsh socioeconomic realities facing extra help workers by ending the county’s two-tiered labor class system — one for permanent staff and another for extra help, or ‘flex’ employees. Members say county administrators have created a second-class labor system that strips front-line extra help workers of basic rights to negotiate their wages, and leaves them with few options for health benefits, retirement or paid vacations. Extra help workers who are part of AFSCME Local 829 (Council 57) and SEIU Local 521 want to overhaul a system that prevents them from accessing basic rights and privileges full-time county workers enjoy — despite delivering identical public services.”

"Today the Services Trades Council Union (STCU) representing 45,000 theme park workers voted to ratify a historic agreement with Walt Disney World. Union members voted by 97% to ratify the contract. Under this agreement, every current theme park worker in the union will receive a raise between $5.50 and $8.60 by the end of the contract, with the first $3 in raises arriving this year.”

"You’ve done it. Your team of rank-and-file members has run for union office and won. In a few short weeks or months you will leave the truck, classroom, or hospital floor behind and join the staff of your local union. You’ve made promises to the members, and you don’t want to let them down.”

“The REI staff include about 70 employees who work at the store selling outdoor gear and apparel, handling inventory and repairing products, including bikes and skis. The workers are seeking representation with the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union.”

"Graduate student advocates at Stanford are publicly launching a campaign to unionize graduate student-workers Monday morning in what is shaping up to be a watershed moment for labor relations at Stanford and across higher education...The potentially transformative move would offer all students who earn money from the University, a group of approximately 5,000 students primarily composed of master’s and Ph.D. students, the right to join the nationally-affiliated SGWU."

"The practice of joining a workplace with the secret aim of organizing it is called ‘salting.’...Through interviews and exclusive visits to undercover training sessions over the past year, Bloomberg Businessweek got an unparalleled look at the revival of American salting, which has been around for a century. Until now, salts have been the mostly secret ingredient in a once-in-a-generation wave of union organizing that’s spread from Starbucks and Amazon.com Inc. to other Fortune 500 companies in the Covid-19 era."

“It is a consequential moment for American labor unions. Over the past decade, public support for labor unions has skyrocketed. Yet even in this moment of renewed public interest, I argue that the American conversation about unions remains constrained by the legacy of past legal decisions.”

“Queer and trans workers have long been at the frontlines of solidarity, bridging identities and social movements. In this moving webinar, held online on March 22, we heard powerful highlights from LGBTQIA+ labor history (some illustrated in comics), and heard from workers organizing unions today at Howard Brown Health and Google about how they're building people power against capitalism—and why organizing your workplace is the best way to make friends in your thirties!”