The Weekly Download

“Corporations spend millions of dollars on union busting firms; experts at dividing workers, annihilating hope, and overwhelming organizers. But an equally ruthless organizer supported by dedicated local leaders can defeat them at their own game. Fear is a sword that cuts both ways.”

“Rashaad Pritchett and Teresa Miles of SEIU United Healthcare Workers West (SEIU-UHW) join hosts Bianca Cunningham and Jamala Rogers for this episode of Black Work Talk. They delve into the challenges faced by Black healthcare support workers, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. They also discuss SEIU-UHW’s monumental healthcare strike in October 2023, which saw participation from 75,000 Kaiser Permanente workers across four states."

“The United Auto Workers pressed forward in its effort to unionize auto factories in the South by announcing that 30 percent of Mercedes workers at an Alabama factory have signed cards endorsing unionization. The 30-year-old Tuscaloosa plant is the second to reach that milestone in recent weeks, joining a Volkswagen factory in Chattanooga, Tenn., that the union is also attempting to organize. The UAW is targeting U.S. factories of a dozen companies, including Tesla, Honda and Toyota.”

“Fresh off its victories over the US’s three biggest domestic automakers, the United Auto Workers (UAW) is going all out to unionize Volkswagen’s flagship plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The UAW led a successful strike for significant increases in pay and benefits for workers at Detroit’s “Big Three” auto manufacturers – Ford, General Motors and Stellantis – last year.”

“Nonprofit unionization has become increasingly common, but the most prominent organizations whose workers have organized—such as the Southern Poverty Law Center, the American Civil Liberties Union, and the Art Institute of Chicago—are ones with hundreds of employees and that bring in millions of dollars in revenue. At the same time, there is an increasing trend of nonprofits with smaller budgets and fewer staff also trying to use collective bargaining to improve working conditions, overcoming some of the unique challenges that arise when small nonprofits unionize.”

“After more than 50 years, the Hawaiʻi Labor Relations Board on Thursday ruled unanimously that graduate assistants at the University of Hawaiʻi can now be recognized as public employees. The ruling creates a clear pathway for graduate students to have the right to collectively bargain for benefits, such as a living wage, a grievance process, health insurance and other working conditions.”

“Nearly 1,000 full-time non-tenure track New York University faculty members will vote in a union election later this year free from interference by university management, according to an agreement between the United Auto Workers and NYU officials signed Wednesday. If the professors succeed, their union would become the largest of its kind at any private university in the country, according to a union official.”

“Janitors at the Anheuser-Busch (A-B) Brewery and Corporate Center who’ve been fighting for union recognition since early October received notice recently that Clean-Tech, a union contractor, will assume control of day-to-day operations beginning Jan. 8, 2024.”

“On Jan. 9, staff at High Country News, a 54-year-old nonprofit magazine that covers lands and communities in the Western U.S., announced their intent to unionize. The High Country News Union has organized with the Communications Workers of America Local 37074, Denver News Guild, joining peers such as the Denver Post and Casper-Star Tribune. On a national scale, High Country News staff joins the ranks of an increasing number of nonprofit newsrooms to unionize, from Grist to CalMatters to ProPublica.”

“Alicia Modestino, Associate Professor at Northeastern University, hosts this month's Workers by the Numbers Blogcast. Listen to her in conversation with Kate Bahn and Harry Holzer as they discuss the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ jobs, wages, and unemployment report for December 2023. This conversation was aired live on the homepage of the blog at 12:00 PM ET on Friday, January 5. You don't want to miss this Numbers Day blogcast!”

“Fast food workers in California will soon attain a higher baseline: $20 an hour. The fresh standard could hold significant implications for workers nationwide, experts told ABC News….The new minimum wage for fast food workers could deliver a boost for low-wage workers nationwide, meanwhile, if it adds momentum to similar campaigns in other states or helps unionizing workers demand $20 an hour in collective bargaining, economists and advocates said.”

“Nannies, housecleaners and caregivers in New Jersey, an estimated 50,000 workers, will soon gain new protections in their workplaces. The New Jersey Domestic Worker Bill of Rights passed in the state’s General Assembly on Monday, and is now awaiting Gov. Phil Murphy’s signature. Under the new law, domestic workers would no longer be excluded from New Jersey’s Law Against Discrimination and the state’s wage and hour law.”

“President Joe Biden will veto an attempt to repeal a U.S. labor board rule requiring companies to bargain with unions representing some franchise and contract workers if it passes Congress, the White House said on Monday. The resolution, which is slated for a vote in the U.S. House of Representatives later this week, would interfere with workers' rights to bargain for better working conditions, the White House Office of Management and Budget said in a statement.”

“‘In 2023, workers made history by joining together and winning higher pay, improved benefits, safer working conditions and better jobs all around,’ said Rebecca Dixon, president and CEO of the National Employment Law Project. ‘The victorious strikes by auto workers, health care workers, Hollywood writers and actors revealed what’s possible when workers join together and use their power. Substantial new contracts for hospitality workers in Las Vegas and UPS workers nationwide show that even the threat of a strike can be powerful. At the same time, workers made their voices heard in states, cities, and counties, securing minimum wage increases that will take effect in 85 different jurisdictions from coast to coast in the new year. Workers have built tremendous momentum for 2024.’”

“A weakening of labor protection policies is often invoked as one cause of observed monopsony power and the decline in labor's share of income, but little evidence exists on the causal impact of labor policies on wage markdowns. Using confidential Mexican economic census data from 1994 to 2019, we document a rising trend over this period in on-site outsourcing.”

“We study how labor market conditions affect unionization decisions. Tight labor markets might spur unionization, e.g., by reducing the threat of unemployment after management opposition or employer retaliation in response to a unionization attempt. Tightness might also weaken unionization by providing attractive outside alternatives to engaging in costly unionization. Drawing on a large-scale, representative survey experiment among U.S. workers, we show that an increase in worker beliefs about labor market tightness moderately raises support for union activity.”

“Is it possible to buy American in an age of offshoring? And is that the right goal — for workers, consumers or the planet? The journalist Rachel Slade explores these questions in “Making It in America,” which takes as a case study one small clothing manufacturer in Maine. Slade follows Ben and Whitney Waxman, who in 2015 founded American Roots with the goal of not only manufacturing in the United States, but also operating with an entirely domestic supply chain.”

“A bipartisan group of U.S. senators asked Amazon on Wednesday to provide them with information regarding the company’s delivery network and its response to union organizing — the latest instance of lawmakers putting heat on the retail giant over its labor practices. In a letter, the lawmakers accused Amazon of using a subcontracting arrangement to ‘avoid legal liability’ regarding drivers’ pay and working conditions, and said they planned to carry out a ‘distinct oversight inquiry’ into the matter.”

“More than two years into a campaign that has unionized more than 350 Starbucks stores, the company is facing mounting pressure from union officials and activists who say it has illegally retaliated against workers and resisted contract negotiations. Starbucks, which denies violating labor laws, has responded with mixed signals about its willingness to engage with the union. The company announced early last month that it was seeking to restart negotiations at unionized stores, only one of which has held bargaining sessions over the past six months. Yet the company continues to resist a union demand that some workers be allowed to take part in bargaining sessions remotely to enable more to participate. Starbucks has taken steps to address workers’ complaints about being overstretched in stores. But it and the union have sued each other in a dispute arising from social media postings about the war in Gaza."

“New York is the national leader in community solar installation, and it’s ahead of its own schedule to build rooftop solar. But the workers driving that progress face low wages, unpredictable hours, and frequent layoffs. Until last month, the residential rooftop sector was entirely non-union. On Saturday morning, a couple dozen people with signs and a giant inflatable rat stood on the busy corner of Bethpage that hosts EmPower, the leading Long Island rooftop solar installation firm that furloughed 40 percent of its workforce two weeks ago — just after employees voted to unionize with the United Auto Workers.”

“Alphabet Inc.’s Google illegally refused to bargain with a union representing YouTube contract staff, the NLRB held, allowing the technology giant to mount a court challenge to the finding that it jointly employs the staffing agency workers. Google admitted its refusal to bargain while disputing the validity of a Communications Workers of America affiliate’s certification as the Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp. workers’ representative, the National Labor Relations Board said in its ruling late Wednesday.”

“From algorithms firing staff without human intervention to software keeping tabs on bathroom breaks, technologies including artificial intelligence are already upsetting workers and unsettling workplaces. At call centers, AI systems record and grade how workers handle calls, often giving failing grades for not sticking to the script. Some corporate software spies on workers to see whether they ever write the word “union” in their emails.”

“The California Faculty Association (CFA), representing 29 thousand faculty at the 23 campuses of the California State University (CSU), held a series of rolling strikes against the largest public university system in the United States in December. The union has been engaged in contract reopener talks in advance of a full contract battle later this year.”

“In the rain and cold, nurses at SSM St. Louis University Hospital, represented by National Nurses Organizing Committee/National Nurses United (NNOC/NNU)  launched a two-day strike Wednesday, Dec. 27, outside the hospital on South Grand Boulevard. The two-day walkout marked the second strike the union nurses have called in four months, calling out the hospital’s union-busting, unsafe staffing, outsourcing of jobs and stagnant wages as negotiations drag on.”

“University of Washington students rallied in Lakeview Park on Jan. 7 to demand that UW President Ana Marie Cauce end the university’s contract with Starbucks. Flanked by larger-than-life coffee cups reading “Cut the Contract, President Cauce” and “Wake up and smell the union,” students amplified Starbucks workers’ bargaining demands and shared stories about what unions mean to the next generation of workers: college students.”

“Governor Kathy Hochul today announced a tentative labor agreement lasting over five years between The City University of New York and District Council 37, Teamsters Local 237, and SEIU Local 300 covering over 10,000 employees, including custodial staff, college assistants, IT and public safety officers. The proposed retroactive contract is subject to approval by the CUNY Board of Trustees and ratification by the union membership.”

“Recording new voice-overs without speaking a word: For a busy voice actor, it might sound like a dream — unless that actor is worried about artificial intelligence being used to devalue her work and make hiring her unnecessary. But under a new deal with an artificial intelligence company, members of the Screen Actors Guild will be able to create and license digital simulations of their voices for video games and other projects while enjoying safeguards against their potential misuse, the Hollywood labor union announced Tuesday.”

“The United Auto Workers (UAW) union has reached agreement with auto parts maker Allison Transmission Holdings Inc (ALSN.N) on a tentative deal covering 1,500 workers in Indianapolis, the labor group said on Friday. The four-year contract guarantees a starting wage of $20 an hour for UAW employees and retroactive pay hikes until Nov. 15 last year, and two categories of bonus that amount to $7,000, the union said.”

“IATSE international president Matthew Loeb did not rule out a potential 2024 crew strike when several of his union’s contracts come due this year in an appearance on Tuesday.”

“We’re in a moment of profound uncertainty and disillusionment across this country. Americans are fed up with politicians, institutions and the status quo. Approval ratings for Congress and most major institutions have plummeted to well below 50%. The labor movement is the one exception. Polling shows 71% of Americans believe in unions — more than two-thirds of people in this country, the highest number in the past 60 years. Unions are where people seem to have increasingly placed their hopes, their dreams and their aspirations for a better future.”

“The labor movement is rightfully celebrating recent contract victories by the United Auto Workers, Teamsters, SAG-AFTRA and the Writers Guild of America, which together cover nearly 650,000 workers. An essential thread uniting the campaigns is that the top union officers were all directly elected by the members, a basic democratic right denied to many union members in the United States. As other unions seek to learn lessons from these historic contract fights, a key takeaway is that a vibrant democratic process—“one member, one vote”—is crucial to a revitalized labor movement.”

“Last year the Teamsters and the UAW both won historic contract victories. Those wins were made possible by government anti-corruption efforts and, more importantly, by decades of organizing by members to make their unions more militant and democratic.”