The Weekly Download

“The roughly thirty striking Teamsters work for the Post-Gazette as drivers and in the paper’s circulation department. They, alongside three other unions that walked out in October — the NewsGuild joined the strike a few days later — were moved to do so in response to the Post-Gazette’s refusal to cover those costs. Workers now have not had a contract for nearly six years.”

"...the most recent high-profile battle between Philadelphia workers and their employers did not play out on the docks, in the stockyard, or in a factory. Instead, it saw 750 graduate teaching assistants and research assistants at Temple University, one of the city’s finest institutions of higher education, take on their own school’s administration in a historic six-week strike."

“One year after its surprise victory at a Staten Island warehouse, the only union in the country representing Amazon workers has endured a series of setbacks and conflicts that have caused longtime supporters to question if it will survive. In interviews, a dozen people who have been closely involved with the Amazon Labor Union said the union had made little progress bringing Amazon to the bargaining table, to say nothing of securing a contract. Many cited lopsided losses at two other warehouses, unstable funding and an internal feud that has made it difficult for the union to alter a strategy that they considered flawed.”

“In 2021, President Biden announced a new initiative to establish a national minimum staffing  standard for nursing home workers, improve compensation and make it easier for these workers to join a union. This is surely one of the single biggest ongoing initiatives to address the inequities facing women and workers of color; it is also one of the best solutions for addressing the emotionally difficult and physically dangerous working conditions these workers face.”

“Medical residents and fellows at the state's largest health system are preparing to unionize, frustrated that their salaries have not kept pace with the rising costs of housing and child care. If successful, the effort would create one of the largest unions of medical residents and fellows in the country, part of a wave of such unionizations. More than 2,500 residents and fellows at multiple Mass General Brigham hospitals would join the Committee of Interns and Residents, or CIR, at the Service Employees International Union, including trainees at Massachusetts General Hospital, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Mass Eye and Ear, Newton-Wellesley Hospital, Salem Hospital, and Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital Boston.”

“Last week, President Biden’s Task Force on Worker Organizing and Empowerment, which is led by Vice-President Harris, announced that the number of federal employees who are union members had increased by 80,000 from September 2021 to September 2022.”

“Campus workers are organizing more than anyone else. It's time for them to unify.”

“Scholars investigating the economic and social impacts of a variety of labor and employment issues are launching new labor centers across the University of California. The new centers will provide timely, policy-relevant research, educate the next generation of labor and community leaders, and will grow labor and occupational health programs across UC.”

“As a sophomore at Northeastern University in Boston, I knew little about the labor movement. However, I was passionate about social justice and knew that we could make our world a better place by simply believing we could and doing the work to organize our communities. It wasn’t until I participated in AFSCME’s Union Scholars Program that I developed a fundamental love for and dedication to uplifting workers' rights. The Union Scholars program is an immersive, paid internship for students of color who want to learn about union organizing and become part of the labor movement.”

“Brandon Johnson, a county commissioner who once taught in struggling neighborhoods, soared in the polls after an endorsement and donations from the Chicago Teachers Union.”

“Chipotle Mexican Grill has agreed to pay out $240,000 as part of a settlement for illegally closing its Augusta location to quash a fledgling union.”

“In a federal court case over Starbucks’ alleged anti-union retaliation, the coffee giant is deploying a maneuver that labor experts say could have a chilling effect on workers’ organizing efforts and potentially set a disastrous precedent — hijacking the proceedings to dig up information on employees and intensify retaliation as part of its battle to crush a labor uprising in its stores.”

“The cooks, servers, cashiers, bartenders, dishwashers and other unionized staff at 15 restaurants in the Philadelphia International Airport thought they had finally won a new contract last June, after four years of bargaining with their employer, OTG. The workers waited months to see those changes go into effect. Then, in December, their employer told union representatives that there had been no agreement.”

“Howard Schultz was the star witness, but the hearing revealed almost as much about the party in power as it did about the longtime Starbucks chief executive. When Mr. Schultz appeared Wednesday before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, at a session titled “No Company Is Above the Law: The Need to End Illegal Union Busting at Starbucks,” he encountered a Democratic Party much changed since some of his earlier trips to Washington.”

“Starbucks violated federal labor law when it excluded unionized stores from a new policy that facilitated tipping via credit card, according to a new complaint filed by the NLRB on Monday. In May 2022, then-CEO Howard Schultz announced that the company would begin rolling out credit card tipping in the fall at all of its locations — save for the 200+ stores that were unionized or in the process of unionizing. The ability to collect tips from customers that paid with their credit cards had been a core demand of Starbucks Workers United, and Starbucks speciously argued that contract negotiations rendered it illegal for them to provide additional benefits. When the program rolled out in September, the union filed charges with the NLRB alleging that the exclusion constituted union-busting.”

“The Communications Workers of America (CWA) filed two Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) charges with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) yesterday on behalf of Apple retail workers in Kansas City and Houston who have been fired and have faced intimidation on the job for exercising their right to organize.”

“Employers spend a lot of money trying to derail union organizing campaigns. EPI estimates employers spend $433 million per year on union-avoidance consultants. This work is well compensated—consultants report being paid $350-plus hourly rates or $2,500-plus daily rates for their work to defeat union organizing efforts. This estimate is just a drop in the bucket because there is not enough data to reveal the true scope of what employers spend”

“The Federal Reserve, famously, has a dual mandate: price stability and maximum employment. Typically, economists view those two goals as somewhat opposed: If the Fed raises interest rates to quell rising prices, then employment declines, and vice versa. Right now, though, despite the Fed carrying out rate hike after rate hike, unemployment is staying stubbornly low. So far, the labor market is refusing to loosen up. While that is not what the Fed wants — or expects — to happen, a new book looks at the bigger picture of what low unemployment really means for workers and challenges the need for that classic trade-off. Katherine Newman and Elisabeth Jacobs are the authors of “Moving the Needle: What Tight Labor Markets Do for the Poor.” They joined Marketplace’s Amy Scott to talk about the impact that low unemployment can have on the cohort of workers who are often excluded from the workforce.”

“Companies may not be able to buy the silence of laid-off workers anymore. What's happening: Overly broad non-disparagement clauses — which some companies require workers to sign in order to receive severance benefits — were recently ruled unlawful by the National Labor Relations Board. In a memo last week, the agency's general counsel made clear the ruling was retroactive, applicable to agreements signed before the board's decision in February.

Why it matters: The ruling and guidance could free workers to speak up about what happened inside their companies before they lost their jobs, and help each other navigate the layoff process, among other things.”

“Stepping up their pressure against Starbucks, a multinational company currently worth $113 billion, workers at 113 of its U.S. outlets went on strike March 22. In Seattle, the company was finally forced to the bargaining table in earnest with some workers, a major step forward, according to representatives of Starbucks Workers United (SBWU).”

“As the WGA begins its second week of bargaining for a new contract with the AMPTP today, the guild is prepared for a strike, if it comes to that, though that’s by no means a foregone conclusion. The WGA’s current film and TV contract expires May 1. The WGA West’s most recent annual report shows that as of last March 31, it had amassed a strike fund of nearly $20 million, all of which has been set aside to provide loans or grants to members “adversely affected by a strike.” That’s more than double the $9.2 million it had set aside in a strike fund in advance of the 100-day strike of 2007-08, when more than $3 million in strike loans was distributed to members during and after the walkout.”