The Weekly Download

“In this blogcast, Burnes Center for Social Change Senior Fellow Seth Harris is joined by the hosts of two fascinating labor radio shows to discuss why labor podcasting is important and a few current labor issues. Tune into his conversation with Lynn Fields, host of the Resolved Labor Podcast, and Mark Gevaart, host of My Labor Radio, about what inspired their shows, the UAW's recent loss in Alabama, and why so many cultural workers are organizing at this moment.”

“Will the collective bargaining that takes place in 2024 be as important and influential as the negotiations that occurred in 2023? That’s a high bar. Consider this partial list of contracts settled in 2023: Teamsters and UPS, UAW and the Big 3 automakers (and, separately, Caterpillar), SAG-AFTRA and the Writers Guild of America with the Hollywood studios, the International Longshore Workers Union (ILWU) and West Coast port terminal operators, the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions and Kaiser Permanente, SEIU and the Los Angeles school district, Major League Baseball and the MLBPA, the National Basketball Association and the NBPA, and the AAUP-AFT and Rutgers University. That’s a prodigious list.”

“Transport Workers Union (TWU) of America members at Local 2001 working for NJ Transit recently voted to ratify a new three-year contract that includes pay raises and additional time off. The new contract, which will go into effect on July 1, the day after the current agreement expires, was ratified with 80% of votes in favor for the unit representing 180 car inspectors, car mechanics and coach cleaners.” 

“Members of Academy Foundation Workers Union (AFWU) have approved a three-year contract with their employer that secures significant gains for workers, including a minimum of 3% annual wage increases.The contract reached with the Academy Foundation on May 22 includes wage increases between 11% and 27% over the next three years, as well as regular step increases. The workers, who are part of AFSCME Local 126 (Council 36), will also have access to an additional four weeks of paid parental leave and an extended medical leave option.”

“Members of the Trumbull Police Union AFSCME Local 1745 (Council 4) accomplished a rare feat. After losing their defined benefit pension plan in 2014, they won their pensions back 10 years later. Since the Great Recession, municipalities have been cutting pensions, especially for police officers. The town of Trumbull, in southwest Connecticut, was no exception. When members of Local 1745 started contract negotiations in 2011, the town had already begun its campaign to eliminate their pensions.”

“American Airlines Group Inc. has offered flight attendants an immediate 17% pay raise and increased profit sharing, an unusual move amid contentious contract talks. The offer was delivered to flight attendants Wednesday, according to the company. It’s separate from pay increases being discussed during contract negotiations, and the union would have to agree to the change, American said. The Association of Professional Flight Attendants said its board would discuss the offer.”

“Boeing Fire Fighters Local I-66 members will return to work after voting to ratify a four-year contract with the Boeing Company that offers better pay and an improved seniority scale. The lockout drew national attention from the media and lawmakers, including Washington State Governor Jay Inslee and President Joe Biden, who urged Boeing to return to the bargaining table and give fire fighters “the pay and benefits they deserve.” Boeing, facing federal investigations over numerous safety violations, returned to talks and finally agreed on May 30 to a contract acceptable to I-66 membership.”

“C.A. felt something was wrong when he was assigned to pick apples in fields without enough ripe crops to meet the required five boxes per day. The 40-year-old seasonal worker from Jamaica joined several other workers to complain to the manager that it would be impossible to meet their required minimum. The manager told them that he knew the fields did not have enough apples for workers to meet the quota, but he would not hold that against them, according to C.A., who asked to be referred to by his initials due to the fear of reprisal from potential future employers. Meanwhile, workers from Mexico, who were not perceived to be with the union, were assigned to fields with enough apples to pick.”

“Ferras Hamad, who used to be an engineer working with Meta's machine learning team, has accused the company of firing him over his handling of Palestine-related Instagram posts in a lawsuit. According to Reuters, he is accusing the company of discrimination, wrongful termination and showing a pattern of bias against Palestinians. Hamad said he noted procedural irregularities on how the company handled restrictions on content from Palestinian Instagram personalities, which prevented them from appearing in feeds and searches. One particular case that involved a short video showing a destroyed building in Gaza seemingly led to his dismissal in February.”

“Workers in Towson, Maryland, have earned the distinction of becoming the first Apple retail workers in the nation to vote to strike over failed union negotiations with their employer. The approximately 100 Apple workers were also the first in the nation to successfully form a union. They did so in 2022, as the Coalition of Organized Retail Employees (CORE), joining the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM). Two-thirds of the store’s workers voted to join the union, a resounding success at a company that has long staved off union activity. Apple could have embraced the Towson store union, respecting the legal right of its workers to bargain collectively for their rights. Instead, the company chose a depressingly familiar path of using its economic power to resist the union at all costs.”

“Farm workers at Windmill Mushroom traveled to Seattle on Wednesday to shed light on their years-long struggle for dignity and respect – and to urge lawmakers to pass legislation to ensure farmworker labor rights. Accompanied by United Farm Workers President Teresa Romero and joined by state legislators, farm workers spoke passionately about their fight to unionize and the need for labor laws that protect all farm workers, organized or not.  The workers have been organizing together for more than two years at Windmill Farms – formerly Ostrom – fighting back against intense pressure and retaliation from the boss. But because farm workers are excluded from many federal and state labor laws, farm workers in Washington currently cannot organize a union and collectively bargain like most workers.”

“Media workers across the world are facing unprecedented levels of retaliation for speaking out for Palestinian liberation. Reports from the U.S., Europe, and beyond highlight a disturbing trend of censorship and punishment aimed at those who dare to confront Israel’s occupation of Palestine. In response, the Freelance Solidarity Project, the digital media division of the National Writers Union, created a report documenting the retaliation workers in the media industry have faced since Oct. 7. The report, titled “Red Lines: Retaliation in the media industry during the war on Gaza,” was released on May 6 after World Press Freedom Day and recorded 44 cases of retaliation affecting more than 100 media professionals between Oct. 7, 2023, and Feb. 1 in North America and Europe. The report centered on media workers of Middle Eastern or North African descent and those identifying as Muslim.”

“Journalists at Defense News, Military Times, Federal Times, and C4SRNet this week voted to form a union the Sightline Media Union with the Washington-Baltimore News Guild Local 32035. The Sightline Media Union announced its campaign to form a union in early April. After management failed to voluntarily recognize the union, workers voted overwhelmingly in favor of unionization on June 3, bringing journalists one step closer to protecting their colleagues and better serving their readers.”

“On May 17, baristas, trainers, and shift supervisors at Better Buzz Coffee’s Hillcrest location in San Diego voted to join UFCW Local 135 for the better wages and benefits that come with a union contract. This organizing win marks the first Better Buzz Coffee shop to join UFCW Local 135. This victory marks the culmination of a determined effort by the employees, who organized under the name “Better Buzz United.” The workers cited concerns about wages, benefits, scheduling, and overall workplace safety as primary reasons for seeking union representation.”

“Early one February morning, Chris Pagel, a retired U.S. Army combat engineer and physical education teacher, begins his three-and-a-half drive from Nassau County to the Florida Capitol in Tallahassee. He’s opposing a bill designed to build on S.B. 256 — an anti-union law passed last year that has, so far, already caused more than 50,000 public employees to lose their union representation…More than a decade in the making, S.B. 256 essentially requires unions to have a lot of dues-paying members while simultaneously making it harder for them to do so. While the law bans public sector unions from deducting dues directly from members’ paychecks, it also requires at least 60% of a bargaining unit to pay dues or risk losing their union status.” 

“President Biden has vetoed a Congressional Review Act measure that sought to overturn the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) rule preventing corporations from hiding behind a subcontractor or staffing agency when workers want to collectively bargain. The NLRB’s joint employer rule expands bargaining obligations and liability for labor violations for employers that have power over working conditions, even if workers are hired through a third party or by franchisees of a larger franchise.”

“With another scorching summer on the horizon — and states either trying and failing to pass heat protections for workers or outright banning them — the Biden Administration is reportedly looking to establish federal rules to protect people from extreme temperatures at both outdoor and indoor jobs. According to The New York Times, a proposed change to Occupational Safety and Health Act rules could help keep up to 50 million workers  — many of whom are Black and Latinx —.safer on the job. Those two demographic groups comprise 45 percent of the outdoor workforce in particular, while the boom in warehouse jobs and other indoor logistics positions for online retailers like Amazon have hired heavily from Black communities. According to its own data, more than  a quarter of Amazon’s overall workforce in 2022 was Black, for example, yet just shy of 9 percent of its white-collar workforce  the same year was Black.”

“Employers are hiring at exactly the same rate as they were in March, 3.6%. That’s down a touch from this time last year, according to the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey for April that was released Tuesday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The layoffs and quits rates remained the same month over month too, and were also down a tick from last April. This steadiness comes after a couple years where employers ingested a large number of workers, and it could be a sign they’re returning to a more regular diet.”  

“When it comes to labor relations in the private sector, Congress long ago enacted the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), which declares “the policy of the United States to … encourage[e] the practice and procedure of collective bargaining.” So, why was it okay for six Southern Governors to issue a statement threatening auto workers that unionizing would put their jobs in jeopardy – the kind of statement that would clearly be illegal if made directly by an employer? For years, states across the South have been trying to lure businesses to locate there by referring to themselves by the misleading term “right-to-work” states. These so-called “right-to-work” laws, which now exist in twenty-six states, prohibit unions and employers from entering into agreements that require workers represented by unions from paying fair share fees to cover the cost of representation. The laws by themselves do not make it harder to organize, and the workers in these states enjoy the same federally protected right to organize and bargain collectively as workers in other states. Nevertheless, Southern politicians have long pointed to these laws as a signal that unions are not welcome in their State.”

“Morale and staffing at a Commerce Department agency focused on local economic development are in dire straits over telework policies and recent layoffs, which have strained a workforce that is already challenged by calls from Congress to return to offices, according to a federal union.The union, representing workers at the Economic Development Administration, sent a letter to Assistant Secretary Alejandra Castillo on May 28 calling attention to the “rapidly deteriorating” relationship between officials and agency employees who have alleged that any further return-to-work plans will exacerbate turnover and understaffing. In general, workers report onsite twice per biweekly pay period.”

“A union representing thousands of Environmental Protection Agency workers raised alarm Tuesday over former President Donald Trump's pledge to slash key federal climate departments if he's reelected in November and condemned his attempt to downplay concerns about the planetary emergency, which is fueling destructive extreme weather and pushing global temperatures to record highs. ‘Donald Trump has made it clear that a second Trump term would look worse than his first—with broader attacks on science and the environment driving the day,’ Marie Owens Powell, president of American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) Council 238, said in a statement.”

“Outdoor and farmworker advocates continue the call for federal labor protections against extreme weather as parts of the U.S. brace for a ‘dangerous’ and early heatwave.Global warming trends are expected to continue as the impacts of climate change become more pronounced, with scorching temperatures expected as summer approaches. Only a few states like California, Oregon, Minnesota and Washington have mandated heat safety measures, according to the United Farm Workers (UFW).”

“Illinois union leaders are celebrating the passage of legislation that will stop employers from requiring employees to attend sponsored captive audience meetings on religious or political matters. The Worker Freedom of Speech Act bars employers from penalizing employees who do not attend meetings that express the employer’s opinions on religious or political matters. Illinois Senate Bill 3649 was backed by the Illinois AFL-CIO, Illinois Federation of Teachers and at least 30 other Illinois Labor groups. Illinois AFL-CIO President Tim Drea said the potentially uncomfortable meetings force workers to be a ‘captive audience’ for their employers’ beliefs.”

“A group of current and former employees from leading AI companies like OpenAI, Google DeepMind and Anthropic has signed an open letter asking for greater transparency and protection from retaliation for those who speak out about the potential concerns of AI. ‘So long as there is no effective government oversight of these corporations, current and former employees are among the few people who can hold them accountable to the public,’ the letter, which was published on Tuesday, says. ‘Yet broad confidentiality agreements block us from voicing our concerns, except to the very companies that may be failing to address these issues.’”

“The recent violence against Palestine encampments across the University of California system has led to an unprecedented labor response: a strike by UAW Local 4811 over alleged violation of rights to free speech and peaceful protest.”

“Members of the limited energy construction unit of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 46 in Seattle will be voting June 6 on the latest offer from the contractors’ association, after nearly eight weeks on an unprecedented strike. The current offer includes wages far below the union’s original demand, nothing on paid holidays except an exploratory committee that might not meet until September—and giving up the right to go on strike ever again. The 1,023 members of the limited energy unit—mostly specialty electricians, and a few installers—have been on strike since April 11, in an unexpected shake-up of standard-practice contract negotiations.”

“In today’s News & Commentary, unions report ‘panic mode’ in Boeing plant tied to anti-union policies and American Airlines flight attendants prepare to strike.In the wake of the company’s highly-publicized safety crisis, workers and union officials in Boeing’s largest plant have reported a campaign by managers pressuring workers to cover up quality concerns. The Everett, Washington plant is responsible for manufacturing several planes and for making repairs to the 787 dreamliner—the plane at the center of many of the safety concerns. “ 

“The Amazon Labor Union and the Teamsters have signed an affiliation agreement. ‘Today is an historical day for labor in America as we now combine forces with one of the most powerful unions to take on Amazon together,’ wrote ALU President Chris Smalls on Twitter, now called X. ‘We’re putting Amazon on notice that we are coming!’ Smalls and Teamsters President Sean O’Brien signed the agreement on June 3, according to a copy obtained by Labor Notes. The affiliation agreement charters a new local known as Amazon Labor Union No. 1, International Brotherhood of Teamsters (ALU-IBT Local 1) for the five boroughs of New York City. That may signal that Amazon workers will not be integrated into existing locals with other Teamster crafts.”

“Across the US, labor unions are starting to ally with tenant organizers around affordable housing and tenant protection campaigns. The efforts reflect a growing sense of shared interests — and shared corporate enemies.”