The Weekly Download

“In this blogcast, Burnes Center for Social Change Senior Fellow Seth Harris is joined by Rev. Terrence L. Melvin, President of the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists and Secretary-Treasurer of New York AFL-CIO to discuss the significance of Juneteenth to the labor movement, why Juneteenth can be considered a workers' holiday, and the work that needs to be done to fully liberate black workers. Watch now to hear more about the history of Juneteenth, a pending lawsuit against Alabama's forced prison labor program, and how labor can step up to support black workers.”

“In this breaking news blogcast, Burnes Center for Social Change Senior Fellow Seth Harris is joined by Aviva Aron-Dine, Acting Assistant Secretary on Tax Policy in the Treasury Department, and Alex Jacquez, Special Assistant to the President for Economic Development and Industrial Strategy, to discuss how the Department of the Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service's new regulation implementing two labor provisions requiring prevailing wages and apprenticeship programs in President Biden's Inflation Reduction Act will impact worker power. Watch now for an expert breakdown of the new regulations, including the importance of requiring a prevailing wage, why expanding apprenticeship programs will help to build unions, and how these regulations will expand the use of project labor agreements.”

“Strictly from a numbers perspective, the UAW’s defeat at Alabama’s Mercedes plants in mid-May should have been unexpected. When the UAW petitioned the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB or Board) in early April requesting an election, a supermajority of Mercedes workers said they wanted a union. Yet, by the time the NLRB conducted the election just six weeks later, things had changed drastically. Fifty-six percent of those same workers voted against unionizing. For the time being, the Alabama Mercedes plants will remain the only nonunion Mercedes plants in the entire world. Unfortunately, the result in Alabama is not an anomaly. It seems like what happened at Mercedes—that so many workers could change their minds so quickly – should be extraordinary, but it is not. Far too many union representation elections are lost in exactly the way Mercedes was lost.”

“On Thursday, the Supreme Court handed down a decision in a case involving Starbucks and its union, seeing all justices side with the company against workers. The decision will make it easier for employers to get away with firing workers for unionizing.”

“Donald Trump has been making a big promise to the nation’s service workers at his recent campaign rallies: If they send him back to the White House for another term, he’ll see to it that restaurant servers and other tipped workers no longer pay taxes on their gratuities. ‘No more taxes on tips,’ the former president declared in Detroit on Saturday, reiterating a pledge he first made in Nevada earlier this month.”

“California’s largest business and labor groups agreed to change a landmark law that has helped workers sue companies such as Walmart Inc., Uber Technologies Inc. and Google for workplace violations. The deal caps years of efforts by the state’s employers to rein in the Private Attorneys General Act, which they blame for mounting lawsuits that according to one study have cost businesses $10 billion during the past decade. Advocates say the law, known as PAGA, is a model of worker protection that has given employees a measure of recourse against powerful companies.”

“‘If you don’t have a union and you want one, the door’s open,’ invites Tracey Blasenheim, a University of Minnesota (UMN) lecturer and instructor in political science, after a successful organizing drive to reform a decades-old state law that predefines bargaining units for public employees. The reform effectively enables over 23,000 workers to form unions across the University of Minnesota’s five campuses. The reforms will go into effect on July 1.’”

“Education unions just won a massive victory in the fight to bring collective bargaining rights to Virginia’s public sector. Workers at the Fairfax County Public Schools voted this week to unionize, creating a wall-to-wall union of 27,500 teachers, custodians, teaching assistants, bus drivers, and more. The new bargaining unit is one of the largest K-12 unions on the East Coast, according to the National Education Association.”

“Today, AFT President Randi Weingarten announced the launch of a brand-new doctors’ organizing initiative and division: Union Physicians of AFT. Doctors across the country are faced with crippling burnout from administrative overload, frustration over financial barriers affecting their patients’ capacity to pay, and lack of respect from corporate owners who put profits over patients—and now they’re organizing with the AFT to fight back.”

“Cannapunch cannabis workers in Las Vegas recently voted to join the UFCW Local 711 for a better life. This 32-person unit is the first cannabis processor in the state of Nevada to unionize with UFCW Local 711. These workers joined our union family because they wanted a voice in the workplace and the better wages and benefits that a union contract provides.”

“California’s labor commissioner has fined Amazon $5.9 million for allegedly violating the state’s new warehouse safety law. Officials announced Tuesday that they had issued citations to the online retail giant for failing to disclose productivity quotas to employees at two distribution centers in Southern California.”

“Tesla shareholders on Thursday approved a pay package for CEO Elon Musk worth more than $45 billion while rejecting a pro-union measure that sought to prevent the company from interfering with worker organizing. The shareholder vote on Musk's pay package, the exact value of which fluctuates with the company's share price, was a response to a January court ruling that voided the package because the Tesla board that had issued it had too many personal and financial ties to Musk. The CEO's supporters expect the vote to strengthen his legal case for the money.”

“About 6,000 grocery store workers are set to vote on strike action after the expiration of their union contract with the Kroger-owned Food 4 Less chain. The contract with United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) expired on Saturday. Members are voting on whether to authorize an unfair labor practice strike if a new deal is not reached, and results expected late on Friday. Food 4 Less is already advertising for strike replacement workers in anticipation of a work stoppage.”

“Teamsters Local 610 members overwhelmingly approved a new contract with Schnucks Wednesday, June 19, averting a possible strike. Local 610 Principal Officer Dan Thacker said drivers overwhelmingly approved the new contract, which includes better healthcare benefits and wages, by 81 percent. ‘We got a drastically better healthcare plan out of it, which was the main sticking point,’ Thacker said. Local 610 represents 129 drivers at Schnucks.”

“In contract talks, the teachers’ union wants the city to approve an agenda that would transform the district into one of the most environmentally friendly in the nation — and address climate injustice in the process.”

“UAW Local 1112 members voted overwhelmingly to ratify their historic contract at Ultium Cells, which builds battery cells for GM electric vehicles. The local contract, approved by 98% over the weekend, sets a new standard for the EV industry with strong wages and benefits and historic health and safety protections. The Ultium workers speak about the contract victory in a new video launched today by the UAW. The video can be accessed here, and the media is invited to use the footage. ”

“After Gov. Ron DeSantis rammed extreme union-busting legislation through the Florida Legislature last year, the members of Local 871 (AFSCME Florida) resolved to fight to retain their union. They jumped through every hoop, signed and re-signed every new card and were one of the first locals to pass the law’s 60% membership threshold. Today, nearly 85% of the workers in Local 871’s bargaining unit are AFSCME members. Now, these determined workers have a contract to show what keeping a strong union can do. The workers — who all work for Miami’s solid waste department — recently ratified a new three-year contract with the city. Retroactive to October 2023, it holds the line on their pension and health care costs, strengthens their voice on the job and delivers real wage increases.”

“Unionized journalists at the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle and Canandaigua Daily Messenger unanimously ratified a tentative agreement on a two-year collective bargaining contract today, after two and a half years of bargaining and a 19-day strike that forced Gannett to scramble to find coverage for a series of major news events, including the total solar eclipse in the Rochester area. The strike ended on April 24th, but the parties continued discussions over the past several weeks after journalists filed an Unfair Labor Practice charge with the National Labor Relations Board over allegations of bad-faith bargaining and retaliation for union activity.”

“After a victory in Tennessee and a loss in Alabama, the UAW is pressing onward in its fight to organize the notoriously anti-union South. The fate of Southern workers — and all workers — depends on the movement’s willingness to think big.”

“As we gear up for another hellish election cycle, replete with the breathless horse-race commentary already well covered in this issue, your friendly neighborhood labor reporters are bracing for the resurgence of a particular kind of bad journalism: the (white) working-class “safari” piece. Reporters travel to far-flung corners of so-called swing states looking for voters who both epitomize—and at the same time confound—their stereotypes of who votes Democrat and who votes Republican. They find what they seek, inevitably, and what they seek is a tribune of the working man (and it is, so often, a man). I have amply critiqued this process elsewhere, so I don’t want to spend much time on it other than to note that it is a symptom of the problem I’m actually here to address: the lack of respect and support for the labor beat.”

“If there is a chicken-or-the-egg question as it regards working class politics in the year 2024 and beyond, some of the boldest labor leaders in the United States have a very unified response: organized workers come first and then—and only then—can the progressive vision of a healthier democracy and more equal nation that meets the material needs of all its people finally come to pass.”

“The gray-haired woman in the broad purple-bedecked bonnet raised her fist in the street of Mt. Olive, Ill. ‘Who among ya is brave enough to stand in solidarity with me?’ she shouted in a broad Irish accent. ‘Ya want a living wage, and health insurance and a pension? How ya gonna get it? The union!’ Mother Jones is portrayed at local events by re-enactor Loretta Williams, who always stays in character as she portrays the 19th century Labor leader memorialized by the Mother Jones Museum and the festival in her honor every May.”

“After years of organizing Amazon workers and pressuring the company to bargain over wages and working conditions, two prominent unions are teaming up to challenge the online retailer. The partnership was made final after members of the Amazon Labor Union, the only union formally representing Amazon warehouse workers in the United States, overwhelmingly chose to affiliate with the 1.3-million-member International Brotherhood of Teamsters in voting that ended Monday. The vote was overseen by the Amazon union.”

“Nearly 1,000 union members and their supporters— including Queens Congresswoman Grace Meng—rallied Wednesday in front of Trump Tower in Midtown Manhattan. They made clear that they are ready to do whatever it takes to defeat Donald Trump, on the grounds that Trump’s poor business- and political track records make him the wrong choice in the 2024 Presidential Election.”

“Members of the Oxford University Press USA Guild (a unit of the News Guild-CWA Local 31222) will stage a one-day strike after filing several Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) charges against the employer. This strike follows nearly three years of contract negotiations with Oxford University Press. Speakers will include members of the Guild, News Media Guild President Vin Cherwoo, IAPE 1096 representative Marissa Dadiw, OUP author and labor historian Shannan Clark, and others.”