The Weekly Download

“Roughly 4,000 Volkswagen workers here will decide this week on whether to form a union at their assembly plant. Their votes will shape more than just the future of their jobs — they could mark a turning point for both the United Auto Workers and the auto industry in the South. The election begins Wednesday and runs through Friday. The union previously lost two factorywide elections at the facility, including a stinging 833 to 776 defeat in 2019. Zachary Costello quietly supported that organizing effort. This time he’s made his feelings known to anyone who will listen, throwing himself into the campaign as a member of the organizing committee. ‘I don’t want to narrowly lose again. This time, I’m not sitting on the sideline,’ said Costello, 34. ‘To me it feels like the most important thing I’ve ever been a part of, to the point where it doesn’t even feel real.’”

“Today, a supermajority of eligible 1199SEIU “In House Staff” employees – from New York to Massachusetts to Florida – filed a Union petition with the National Labor Relations Board and demanded voluntary recognition to join WBNG Newsguild-CWA Local 32035.”

“The workers who play characters like Goofy and Mickey Mouse and cheer and dance at parades at Disneyland have taken a step forward in their push to unionize with Actors’ Equity. The group of organizers, which is seeking to represent 1,700 employees, filed a petition for a union election with the National Labor Relations Board, Actors’ Equity president Kate Shindle announced at a press conference in Anaheim on Wednesday. According to Shindle, a ‘supermajority’ of eligible employees have signed union authorization cards, supporting the move to be represented by Actors’ Equity in collective bargaining. Beyond performers, the group — which calls itself ‘Magic United’ — also includes workers who help facilitate character performers’ interactions with park patrons and trainers who work with them.”

“In fall 2022, more than 60 Newberry employees formed a labor union with the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. Staff members including librarians, conservators, library assistants and program coordinators won their first union contract in November 2023. They’re part of a wave of museums and cultural institution workers forming unions in Chicago and across the country. In addition to the Newberry’s staff, library workers in the suburbs also have unionized. Since 2020, library employees in the Niles-Maine district, Oak Lawn, St. Charles and Waukegan have organized. In contrast, none had joined AFSCME in 2019. AFSCME Council 31, which represents workers in Illinois, added more than 2,200 members from the state’s cultural institutions since 2021, according to spokesperson Anders Lindall.”

“Members of Teamsters Local 186 have ratified a new collective bargaining agreement with E.J. Harrison & Son Inc. The contract covers 120 residential, commercial, and semi-truck drivers who service communities in Ventura County, California. ‘We are grateful to now be working under the protection of a strong Teamsters contract,’ said Ricardo Morales, a seven-year commercial driver and Local 186 shop steward. ‘Our new contract provides great wages, improves our health care benefits, and for the first time offers a defined pension plan.’”

“Baristas at the Greenmount and Interstate 64 Starbucks here have voted to join Starbucks Workers United – joining eight other St. Louis-area stores. By a vote of 10-to-six, partners at the store, located at 1126 Central Park Drive, joined Starbucks Workers United at a key moment, with the coffee giant signaling seriousness in reaching a first contract with unionized baristas in one of the most rapidly growing organizing campaigns in modern history.”

“Another group of St. Louis Public Radio employees has filed to organize, following the newsroom’s historic unionization last year. The St. Louis Public Radio Guild announced it has filed for a second election to add the radio station’s non-supervisory fundraising, events and support staff to its ranks. The St. Louis Public Radio Guild organized the 37 newsroom workers who bring local, national and international news and programs to the airwaves and online, including journalists, producers, on-air talent and marketing professionals. Last year, they made history by becoming the first public media union to file for and win union recognition in the state of Missouri.”

“In this blogcast, Burnes Center Senior Fellow Seth Harris is joined by Terri Gerstein, Director of the NYU Wagner Labor Initiative at the Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service; and Alí Bustamante, deputy director of the Worker Power and Economic Security program at Roosevelt University. Listen to their conversation on sectoral bargaining, the importance of protecting workers and children from exploitation, and the implications of organizing in the South.”

“I was a bit surprised to see a piece on Marketplace radio telling listeners: ‘In 1947, U.S. workers got about two-thirds of the income from their labors. ‘Now, they’re getting something that is just a little bit over half. And so they’re getting less of the pie,’ said Erica Groshen, who used to head the Bureau of Labor Statistics and is now at Cornell.’ I was surprised because it’s not true. There have been ups and downs in the labor share of income over this period, but there is no downward trend. In 1947, it was 67.7 percent of net value-added in the corporate sector. In 2023, it was 67.8 percent of net value in the corporate sector.” 

“The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday made it easier to bring certain workplace discrimination lawsuits in a ruling that gave a boost to a St. Louis police officer who claimed she was transferred to an undesirable new role because of her sex. In a case testing the scope of federal workplace protections, the justices ruled 9-0 to throw out a lower court's decision to dismiss the lawsuit brought by the officer, Jatonya Muldrow, and directed it to reconsider the matter. Muldrow has claimed she was transferred out of a police intelligence unit by a new supervisor who wanted a male officer in the position. The city of St. Louis has said officers are routinely transferred and that Muldrow's supervisor transferred more than 20 officers when he took over the intelligence unit.”

“Florida will become the second state to stop local governments from requiring heat protection for outdoor workers after Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis signed House Bill 433. The law, which DeSantis signed last week, goes into effect on July 1 and establishes multiple restrictions for city and county governments, including the ability to set heat exposure requirements not already required under state or federal law.”

“The 1937 Little Steel strike is often dismissed as a failure and relegated to a footnote. But it was a courageous organizing effort and a crucial moment in US labor history — revealing the limits of the New Deal order and the deepest dynamics of capitalism.”

“The UAW just released “Leftover Money,” a new video detailing Daimler Truck’s record profits and their intentions to reward Wall Street, not the workers, with the spoils. It features testimony from workers reviewing the eyepopping profits and their demands to no longer play ‘second fiddle’ when it comes to getting their fair share and raising standards. ”

“AFSCME members who work for the city of Burlingame showed how persistence and unshakable solidarity reap rewards for working people. Members of AFSCME Local 829 (Council 57) who work for the Northern California city have won the largest contract gains in recent memory, securing cost-of-living allowances of 14% over the next three years and total possible pay raises of approximately 16.5%. The union’s previous one-year contract for 2022 included raises of only 2% — well below inflation in the  surrounding San Francisco Bay area.”

“Fairfax County Fire Chief John Butler recognized Local 2068 and county negotiators earlier this month for successfully bargaining their first contract.  Butler’s remarks and certificate presentation came during the department’s monthly awards and recognition ceremony on April 3. The local is now one of four Virginia affiliates to have a collective bargaining agreement.”

“Registered nurses represented by National Nurses Organizing Committee/National Nurses United (NNOC/NNU) at two Ascension-owned hospitals in Wichita, Kan., voted overwhelmingly in favor of ratifying new two-year contracts, successfully winning protections for patient care. In ratification votes conducted from Sunday, April 14, to Monday, April 15, nurses voted overwhelmingly in favor of the new collective bargaining agreement. At Ascension Via Christi St. Francis, nurses voted 96 percent yes in favor of ratifying their new contract. At Ascension Via Christi St. Joseph, nurses voted 100 percent yes in favor of ratification.”

“Despite a booming U.S. economy and historically low unemployment, the exploitation and abuse of workers remains rampant in low-wage industries where unionization is difficult and regulation is lax. Consider the problem of wage theft. Although 30 states have raised their minimum wages above the federal rate of $7.25, increasing pay for millions of workers, roughly 5 million workers are nevertheless paid below their state’s minimum wage each year. On average, these wage theft victims lose 20% of their income, causing many to fall under the poverty line.”

“Members from 21 different states convened this week in Washington, D.C. in their roles as state legislative directors to sweep Capitol Hill on behalf of the BMWED-IBT and Rail Labor. These 25 Brothers and Sisters visited various Congressional offices Thursday afternoon, flexing collective strength and pressing several of our issues with federal legislators and their staffs, most chiefly the Railroad Employee Equity and Fairness (REEF) Act, which aims to eliminate the unjust sequestration of RRB unemployment and sickness benefits.”