The Weekly Download

“In this blogcast, Burnes Center for Social Change Senior Fellow Seth Harris is joined by Susan Valentine, the National Political Director of UNITE HERE!, Russ Breckenridge, the Director of Legislative and Political Affairs at the United Association of Plumbers and Pipefitters (UA), and Katrina Mendiola, the National Political Director of the National Education Association (NEA). Watch now to hear their perspectives on the upcoming Presidential election. Also hear their expectations for Senate, House of Representatives, and gubernatorial elections in relation to the predictions of the respondents of Power At Work's Q3 Labor Issues Survey.”

“Power At Work asked labor insiders and knowledgeable outsiders to predict how union members would vote in the 2024 elections and the outcomes of those elections. They told us, and some of their answers delivered real surprises. Our respondents showed a shocking level of enthusiasm for Vice President Kamala Harris’s young campaign for president, and for the idea that union members would support Harris when casting their votes. These labor insiders and knowledgeable outsiders showed a little more equanimity when assessing this year’s congressional and gubernatorial elections.”

“Joe Biden’s presidency has seen a flurry of labor actions from Detroit to Hollywood. What comes next could hinge on who gets to oversee labor relations after the election. The National Labor Relations Board — which polices unfair labor practices and mediates worker-management disputes — has become an aggressive union booster under Biden. While the agency’s policies typically shift depending on who’s in the White House, the change has been pronounced, labor experts and former NLRB staffers say….But the NLRB’s recent efforts haven’t always succeeded, and emerging court battles will affect whether its more muscular approach — whether on behalf of workers or employers — can continue, as former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris vie for union votes.”

“Unions are lining up behind Vice President Kamala Harris following her endorsement from the AFL-CIO as she seeks the Democratic nomination for president. The American Federation of Teachers (AFT), representing 1.8 million members, was the first to endorse Harris on July 22, the same day the AFL-CIO announced its endorsement.”

“The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) has changed the game for clean energy in Wisconsin. The IRA’s labor standards include important prevailing wage, workforce development, and apprenticeship provisions to ensure that a larger, more diverse pool of skilled laborers has access to good jobs and that the workforce has the skills necessary to meet clean energy goals. Renewable energy projects in Wisconsin—which are either under construction, under regulatory review, or announced—could help create at least 18,000 well-paying jobs in the next five to six years.”

“In recent weeks, two different Trump-appointed federal judges have issued injunctions to stop the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) from conducting routine hearings against employers based on the absurd claim that the 90 year-old National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) is unconstitutional.  This is a five-alarm fire and yet these outrageous power grabs have largely been met with a collective shrug.”

“It’s been two years since members of Congress passed the bipartisan CHIPS and Science Act. This industrial investment is one of the Biden-Harris Administration’s landmark achievements. But with the due diligence phase underway, it’s clear that this administration should do more to ensure that its goals to “create good-paying jobs, make more in the United States, and revitalize communities left behind” are met through CHIPS Act investment. The Commerce Department has announced over $30 billion in public subsidies and $25.3 billion in loans to fourteen multinational companies across twenty-four sites in fourteen states. U.S.-based Intel and Micron, South Korea’s Samsung, and Taiwan’s TSMC are among the corporate welfare beneficiaries.”

“History is often viewed as linear – “A” happens and “B” follows, on to its conclusion. The human story is never a straight line, with doubts, diversions and breakthroughs radically altering people’s efforts. This is especially true of labor history; there are many false starts, failures and sometimes triumphs as workers seek change and power.”

“Dina Velasquez Escalante is a poultry worker in southwest Minnesota. She spends her workdays inspecting the chicken millions of Americans eat every day. She looks for tumors, stray bones and organs, and removes bile. After six years of hard work and cultivating expertise on almost every position on the line, she’s now in the laboratory testing samples of poultry to ensure the highest quality.”

“Just over 100 on-board attendants for Brightline Florida, including workers in Orlando, have begun the process of unionizing with the Transport Workers Union, an international labor union that represents more than 155,000 workers across the airline, railroad, transit and related sectors in the United States. It's a historic effort by the workers in a state that is generally considered hostile to labor unions, and where less than 5 percent of the private sector workforce has union representation.”

“BARTONVILLE — About a year ago, Soleil Baker noticed their coworkers weren’t getting enough hours. Many of them struggled to pay rent and buy groceries. Baker decided it was time to take action. “I just wanted everyone to be able to afford to live,” they said. A barista at the Starbucks in this small North Texas town, about 15 miles northwest of Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, contacted Starbucks Workers United, the national union for Starbucks workers, and asked for more information about how to start a union.”

“On June 23, lifeguards at the YMCA of the Pikes Peak Region in Colorado Springs, Colo., joined UFCW Local 7. This is the first unit of YMCA workers to be represented by UFCW Local 7. The 15 lifeguards joined our union family because they were concerned about low pay and poor management and wanted a voice in the workplace. The campaign to organize these workers included meeting with workers and educating them of the benefits of having and being part of a union, explaining to them the importance and power of having one collective voice at the table, and reviewing examples of recent contract gains that UFCW Local 7 was able to bargain and secure.”

“Reporters, photographers, editors and digital producers in Connecticut’s largest newsroom are working to form a union with the NewsGuild-CWA. On August 8, the staff of Hearst Connecticut Media Group went public with their union drive, with more than 80 percent of our 110-person unit having signed union cards. Staff presented Hearst with a mission statement signed by the majority of our unit and asked the company to voluntarily recognize our union.”

“The United Automobile Workers union filed charges with federal labor regulators on Tuesday accusing former President Donald J. Trump and Elon Musk of threatening workers during a livestreamed conversation a day earlier. The union, which has backed Vice President Kamala Harris, accused Mr. Trump of violating the law by voicing support for the practice of firing workers when they go on strike, an approach the former president suggested Mr. Musk had embraced.”

“SkyWest Airlines, the largest regional airline in North America, is facing legal action over an alleged “fake” company union that the airline operates and the allegedly retaliatory firings of flight attendants who were engaged in union organizing efforts. A lawsuit was filed by the Association of Flight Attendants (AFA-CWA) in October 2023. The US Department of Labor also filed a lawsuit last month against the company over the “company union”, alleging SkyWest Inflight Association (SIA) did not perform its legal duties as a representative agency and barred two employees from running in an election for leadership positions due to their support for an independent union at the airline.”

“WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Congressional Labor Caucus Co-Chairs Representatives Mark Pocan (D-WI), Donald Norcross (D-NJ), Debbie Dingell (D-MI), and Steven Horsford (D-NV) led a letter with Caucus Member Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) and over 120 Members of Congress calling on Maximus to commit to respecting its employees’ right to organize.”

“Labor advocates responded to Tuesday's announcement that global coffee giant Starbucks hired Brian Niccol as its new chief executive officer by highlighting his history of union-busting during his previous job as CEO of the fast-food chain Chipotle. Starbucks' move to replace former CEO Laxman Narasimhan with Niccol comes as the company's share price has fallen amid an ongoing unionization wave by its workers and boycotts over its perceived support for Israel, which is on trial for genocide at the World Court over its war on Gaza.”

“Thousands of hotel workers in seven cities across the U.S. have authorized strikes at Hilton, Hyatt, Marriott, and Omni hotel properties that are locked in unresolved contract negotiations. Hotel workers with the UNITE HERE union voted overwhelmingly in favor of authorizing strikes in Baltimore, Boston, Honolulu, Greenwich, New Haven, Providence, and San Francisco. Strike votes are upcoming in Oakland, San Diego, San Jose, and Seattle. Strikes may occur any time following the expiration of contracts.  Contracts in some cities have already expired, while the rest expire by the end of the month.”

“Thousands of hotel workers in Boston and Cambridge may soon walk out following a strike authorization vote on Thursday, which 99 percent of voting members approved. As many as 4,500 hotel workers in Boston and Cambridge could strike as early as Aug. 31, the Unite Here Local 26 hospitality workers union announced.”

“The Hollywood actors' union SAG-AFTRA announced on Wednesday a deal with online talent marketplace Narrativ that enables actors to sell advertisers rights to replicate their voices with artificial intelligence. As performers fear AI will make theft of their likenesses common, the new agreement seeks to ensure actors derive income from the technology and have control over how and when their voice replicas are used.”

“On July 19, about 1,000 members of UFCW Local 400 who work at 15 Shoppers grocery stores in Maryland and Virginia ratified a strong, new contract. “We’d like to thank the members of our bargaining advisory committee for their work in reaching this agreement,” said UFCW Local 400 President Mark Federici. “Taken together, they have nearly 128 years of combined experience in the stores, and it was this wisdom that helped us to reach a strong contract.””

“In December of 1936, a day into their historic sit-down strike at a General Motors plant in Flint, Michigan, autoworkers set up a school. Surrounded by idle machines, freed from the foreman’s gaze, they took classes in public speaking and labor journalism, in political economy, in the history of the labor movement. This was not a spontaneous idea. Some of the key players in the strikes—the education director and several rank-and-file organizers in the nascent United Auto Workers (UAW), as well as its future president, Walter Reuther, and his brother, Roy—had spent time at Brookwood Labor College, a small independent school for workers who wanted to radicalize the labor movement. Many of the classes at the factory in Flint were based on those at Brookwood. S, to a degree, was the strike itself. It was at Brookwood that the Reuther brothers first studied the sit-down—a tactic that would be deployed in the coming year by nearly 400,000 workers in one of the most radical upsurges in American labor history. The start of the modern labor movement in America owed a lot, as one historian puts it, to ‘Brookwood’s Detroit vanguard.’ That moment should be front of mind today for a new generation of labor leftists.”