The Weekly Download

“Worker activism and worker organizing have both increased substantially. In a recent post, I chronicled how and why workers in the United States are on strike in larger numbers than in a generation. It is fair to ask, will this greater worker activism and worker militancy continue if the unemployment rate rises? I have discussed that question with both sets of panelists on the Power At Work Blog’s Power Hour blogcasts. This post continues and expands that discussion. It also explains why strikes and worker collective action will continue at higher-than-expected, if not historic, levels even if the unemployment rate climbs and labor markets grow more slack.”

“The United Auto Workers called off its six-week strike on Monday after union leaders reached a tentative labor agreement with General Motors — the last of the Detroit Big 3 car manufacturers to strike a deal with the union…The GM deal features a 25% wage increase across a four-and-a-half year deal with cost of living adjustments, the UAW said. Employees from GM's parts distributors, car care facilities and a plant in Brownstown, Michigan, also will be removed from the two-tier wage system. The deal also brings employees from GM's manufacturing subsidiary, GM Subsystems, and Ultium Cells — a battery joint venture with LG Energy Solution in Ohio — under the UAW national contract.”

“Employees at some of the largest drugstore chains in the United States staged a new series of walkouts across the country Monday to demand the companies fix what employees say are harsh working conditions that make it difficult for them to safely fill prescriptions, and which could put the health of their customers at risk. Walgreens and CVS employees are mostly not unionized, which makes a largescale walkout difficult to execute. Staff and organizers in multiple states confirmed to CNN that the walkouts have begun and will take place through November 1, but it remains unclear how widespread the action is.”

“As more than 3,000 striking actors and supporters united Wednesday at a massive rally in Los Angeles, the performers union, SAG-AFTRA, and the major Hollywood studios appeared to make progress on key issues and inch closer to a deal. SAG-AFTRA and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers have convened frequently over the past couple weeks in an effort to reach an agreement that would end the months-long work stoppage that has ground much of the entertainment industry to a halt.”

“Fifty thousand UAW members are heading back to work after securing tentative agreements that deliver landmark gains. The UAW strike has been a master class in how to flex worker power.”

“The Detroit Casino Council, which represents five unions whose members are on strike against the gaming houses, said in a statement earlier Monday: ‘As sports fans flood into downtown Detroit today for the big Lions’ game, Detroit’s striking casino workers are making a simple request: Please don’t cross our picket lines.’”

“Culinary Union members have continued their negotiations with the top three largest resort companies these last couple of weeks and its members say they are still too far apart. Last week, they met with MGM International Resorts and Caesars Entertainment, and Monday with Wynn Resorts. Secretary/Treasurer Ted Pappageorge said earning a living wage is just one issue.”

“Unionized workers at Scholastic – the children’s publishing powerhouse – are walking out in protest of the billion-dollar company’s refusal to pay its workers fair wages, specifically its rejection of the Scholastic Union’s proposal for annual raises.”

“In this blogcast, Burnes Center Senior Fellow Seth Harris speaks with Amy Livingston and Sarah Lazare, co-authors of the Workday Magazine/In These Times article entitled "5 Things Unions Can Do To Defend Transgender Workers." The article argues that liberation for transgender, non-binary, and gender expansive people is a labor movement issue, and urges unions to do what they do best: fight for workers in the workplace and beyond.”

“It’s official. More than 200 workers for the City of Salisbury, Maryland, now have a union. Workers in the general government unit decided to form a union after the Salisbury City Council amended the city charter in fall 2022 and recently passed a labor code to grant collective bargaining rights to all city employees in three units: police, fire and general government. The Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS) certified majority support within the general government bargaining unit. Workers learned this month that the FMCS has formally recognized their union, which will be the first of its kind in Maryland’s rural Eastern Shore region.”

“Student workers at the University of Oregon have voted to unionize. UO employs around 5,000 students in its dining halls, dormitories and other facilities. Workers are seeking higher wages, along with shorter pay periods and more protection against harassment…In an election this week, 97% of participating student workers voted in favor of forming a union. This follows a two year campaign by supporters of the move.”

“Hospice care was once the work of charities and nonprofits, but it has more recently become big business. More than half of Americans now die in hospice care, which is often paid for by Medicare. Last year, Medicare spent nearly $24 billion on hospice care, a jump of more than 24% from five years earlier. For-profit companies make up more than 72% of the hospice industry, with more than a hundred new for-profit companies entering the field each year. And these companies, though funded at the same daily rate per patient as nonprofits, enjoy more than three times their profit margins…Feeling increased pressure to provide more care for less pay has pushed hospice workers to organize…Capital & Main spoke to workers at three agencies with hospice union campaigns. All described similar pressures to see more patients more quickly, with little regard to the effect on care.”

“The United Auto Workers has reportedly offered to provide organizers with all the resources they need to unionize Tesla's electric car factory in Fremont, California, an effort that would pit an invigorated UAW against a company run by Elon Musk—the world's richest man and an aggressive union-buster. Following news Monday that the UAW reached a tentative contract agreement with General Motors—the final Big Three holdout—after six weeks on strike, Bloomberg reported that ‘Tesla's roughly 20,000-worker plant in Fremont, California currently has a UAW organizing committee whose members are talking to coworkers about the advantages of collective bargaining.’”

“Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin (W.Va.) wants to kill a new progressive labor reform, and he’s teaming up with Republicans to try to do it. Last week, the agency that enforces collective-bargaining law rolled out its new rule on joint employers. The regulation makes it more likely that big companies like McDonald’s will be held responsible for unfair labor practices involving their franchisees or subcontractors, or even forced to bargain with a workers’ union. While labor groups have hailed the change as commonsense and long overdue, Manchin has panned it as government overreach and vowed to stop it from going into effect.”

“In May, Governor Ron DeSantis signed into law SB 256, a measure that endangers the future of public sector unions in Florida. The law prohibits Florida’s public sector unions from collecting dues through automatic paycheck deductions. It also requires a recertification election if less than 60 percent of workers eligible for a union’s representation pay dues to the union. Translation: the law makes it harder for public sector unions to collect dues, while simultaneously conditioning those unions’ security on their ability to collect dues from a supermajority of employees.”

“The US labor movement is having a moment amid some recent big union contract wins, surges in strikes, historic union election wins at aggressively anti-union corporations, and a presidential administration that touts itself as the “most pro-union in history…But labor in the US is still facing significant obstacles and challenges in transforming the popular culture shift into gains against a backdrop of decades of union decline, worsening wealth inequality, and broken labor laws where employers violate labor laws with impunity and try to delay and bust union organizing campaigns.”

“[Burnes Center Senior Fellow Seth Harris] appeared on Bloomberg television with Katie Greifeld and Scarlet Fu on Monday, October 30 to discuss the United Auto Workers' tentative agreements with Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis.”

“The United Auto Workers union reached a tentative agreement on a new contract for 48,000 General Motors workers on Monday, bringing a potential end to the union’s roughly six-week strike against the ‘Big Three’ automakers.”

“Labor experts said the proposals that union negotiators agreed to with Ford, General Motors and Stellantis, the parent of Jeep, Ram and Chrysler, had produced gains that could in fact reverberate well beyond the workers that the union represented. ‘It is a historic and transformative victory by the U.A.W.,’ said Nelson Lichtenstein, a labor historian at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Dr. Lichtenstein said that winning substantial gains through a strike in a critical industry demonstrated the benefits of work stoppages after decades in which workers had been taught to regard strikes warily.”

“Toyota is raising the wages of its factory workers — all of them non-unionized — after the UAW strikes at General Motors, Ford and Stellantis culminated in pay hikes for unionized employees. Why it matters: After reaching tentative deals with the Detroit Three, the UAW is setting its sights on organizing non-unionized automotive plants in the U.S. — with Toyota a possible target. Driving the news: Toyota spokesman Scott Vazin confirmed Tuesday in an email to Axios that the automaker ‘did provide wage increases today’ for workers at all of its U.S. plants.”

“Over the last decade, Minnesota unions have meticulously coordinated their contracts to expire at the same time in order to maximize bargaining power. Now, as these expiration dates are within sight, they're beginning to prepare.”

“Unionized staff of the Brooklyn Museum, members of Local 2110 UAW, have set a strike deadline and will begin picketing the Museum on Wednesday, November 8, if no agreement on a contract is reached before that date…The staff’s union, Local 2110 UAW, has been in negotiations for a first union contract since January of 2022 and has held repeated protests at the Museum over its low wage offer and unfair labor practices. Workers say salaries at the Brooklyn Museum have been stagnant for years and point to an exodus of employees over the last two years.”

“The members represented by Boilermakers Local 92 who are building the U.S. Navy’s latest replenishment oiler ships at General Dynamics NASSCO in San Diego have been in negotiations for over two months and have yet to reach an agreement. After rejecting NASSCO’s latest offer several weeks ago, the members continue working under an extension that expires October 31.”

“Workers in the US are getting record-breaking wage hikes this year thanks to strategic strikes and stunning contract wins. The result is a boost in middle-income wages and a shift in the balance of power between companies and their employees. Even before the United Auto Workers reached historic contract deals with carmakers, unions across the country had already won their members 6.6% raises on average in 2023 — the biggest bump in more than three decades, according to an analysis by Bloomberg Law.”