The Weekly Download

“In this blogcast, Burnes Center for Social Change Senior Fellow Seth Harris is joined by Jimmy Williams Jr., the General President of the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades. Listen now to learn about how President Williams views the Presidential election results, as well as his opinion on why the Democratic party failed to successfully nominate Vice-President Kamala Harris as the next president. Also hear his views on the current state of labor and how he envisions the future of the labor movement.”

“Does Trump’s re-election mean that the US labor resurgence is over? Not necessarily. It’s true that the new administration is preparing major attacks against workers and the labor movement. And many union leaders will assume that the most we can hope for over the next four years is to survive through purely defensive struggles.”

“The debate over the Democratic Party’s losses in the 2024 election has arrived. There will be recriminations and finger-pointing. There will be blame-laying and ideologically-driven “analyses.” There will be an endless parade of pundits, consultants, elected officials, and various family and neighborhood blowhards who will insist that, if Vice-President Harris, Senate Democrats, and House Democrats would have followed their advice, everything would have been different.”

“The election is over and a second Trump administration will begin in January 2025 (“Trump Administration”). Numerous changes to the employment law landscape will come with it. And if past is prologue, many of these changes will roll back various Biden-era initiatives and priorities at the various federal agencies tasked with implementing and administering federal law governing the employer/employee relationship. Below is a summary of just some of the changes employers could expect at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC” or “Commission”), Department of Labor (“DOL”), and National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”) during the Trump Administration, as well as what employers could expect to see with respect to the federal government’s efforts to prohibit certain restrictive covenants.”

“The Biden Board on Wednesday issued one of its most consequential holdings when it decided, in Amazon.com Services LLC, that captive audience meetings are an unfair labor practice. Otto will soon post an explainer that reviews the decision in detail. Here I want to say a few words about how the Board’s decision interacts with the recent spate of state laws that also ban captive audience meetings. The most immediate effect is also the most obvious: because there is now a definitive holding from the Board that captive audience meetings are prohibited by section 8 of the NLRA, states are preempted from imposing legislative bans on the meetings (at least with respect to meetings dedicated to questions of union organizing; the NLRA does not prohibit states from banning other kinds of captive audience meetings).”

“On Friday a federal judge in Texas struck down a new rule from the Biden administration aimed at extending overtime protections to millions of workers. Judge Sean D. Jordan of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas ruled that the Labor Department went beyond its authority in issuing the regulation earlier this year. He granted summary judgment to the state of Texas, which had sued to stop the rule from taking effect. The overtime rule is one of the furthest-reaching economic reforms that President Joe Biden has pursued unilaterally through the federal rulemaking process. It would dramatically expand the share of workers who are entitled to time-and-a-half pay when they work more than 40 hours in a week.”

“Missouri workers will see their minimum wage increase and begin earning paid sick days following voters’ overwhelming passage of Proposition A on Nov. 5.  The Labor-endorsed measure passed with nearly 60 percent of the vote. Missouri’s minimum wage will increase from $12.30 an hour to $13.75 on Jan. 1, 2025 and $15 on Jan. 1, 2026 – followed by annual cost of living adjustments so the minimum wage does not lose purchasing power in the future. Beginning May 1, 2025, employees will be able to earn one hour of paid sick time for every 30 hours worked.”

“GLENDALE, Ky. – A supermajority of workers at BlueOval SK (BOSK) in Kentucky have signed union authorization cards and today launched their public campaign to join the UAW. The campaign launch at BOSK, a joint venture of Ford and SK On, is the latest breakthrough for electric vehicle (EV) battery workers organizing with the UAW.”

“It is the largest successful union election in recent memory: 10,000 nurses will be joining the Teamsters. They work for hospital conglomerate Corewell Health at eight hospitals and one outpatient facility, all in southeast Michigan. “We’re so excited we can hardly stand it,” said Katherine Wallace, a nurse at the hospital in Troy, who has been a core part of the campaign since October 2023.”

“A wave of anger is cresting at post offices across the country. Letter carriers are looking at the big raises that other union members have won — 38 percent over four years at Boeing, 62 percent in six years at the East Coast ports, $7.50 in five years at UPS. They’re comparing those gains to the tentative agreement their president handed them in October: 1.3 percent a year for three years.”

“Some St. Louis University graduate students have voted to unionize. The Graduate Workers of St. Louis University Union-UAW will include more than 500 people who work for the school as teaching and research assistants. The union passed with 90% voting yes in the election overseen by the National Labor Relations Board…Members are calling for the university to improve working conditions and increase pay, saying prior to the unionization effort, the workers had not received a raise in over 10 years. Organizers also cited uncertainty in science funding and unstable regulation of visas as motivators for unionization.”

“The Orange County teachers union, representing roughly 14,000 public school teachers, psychologists and other school staff, filed a lawsuit against the school board and district superintendent Monday, arguing the defendants have unconstitutionally abridged employees’ ability to negotiate changes to teacher evaluations. Teacher performance evaluations are conducted at least once a year, and can be used to determine teacher pay and raises that teachers receive. In 2022, Florida lawmakers changed state law to limit aspects of teacher evaluations that can be negotiated during collective bargaining sessions between labor unions and school districts.”

“Workers in the food industry earn some of the lowest wages in the U.S. economy, and after a long day of preparing, cooking, or serving food at work, many struggle to put food on their own tables. A hefty 29% of U.S. jobs were linked to the food and agricultural industries in 2021, and job growth in food sectors is on the rise. But the low pay has consequences. According to the U.S. Government Accountability Office, 11.3% of workers in food preparation and service were enrolled in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) in 2018. These food workers were ranked third highest for SNAP enrollment rates out of all occupations…Low-wage workers may be warming up to the idea of organizing their collective power, but in 2023, food service workers held some of the lowest union membership rates across all occupations.” 

“John Deere is costing American farmers $4.2 billion a year by restricting them from fixing their own tractors. Apple, Amazon and major automakers use the same strategies on everything you own. It's bad for consumers and local mechanics, but excellent for corporate profits.”

“The union negotiated contracts for 50,000 members last year at resorts across the Strip and downtown. In all these contracts, workers won a common standard: a 10 percent wage increase in the first year, and a total of 32 percent in raises over the five-year contract. Virgin is the last holdout.”

With Democratic leaders grappling with how to move forward following this month's devastating electoral losses and governors in the party moving to resist President-elect Donald Trump's policies, low-wage workers are planning on Wednesday to send a clear message to several Democrat-led statehouses: Prioritize workers and fair wages, or ‘face the consequences.’ The national economic justice group One Fair Wage, which works closely with restaurant industry and other service workers, is organizing direct actions in Detroit, New York, and Springfield, Illinois, demanding that Democratic leaders in blue states ‘act decisively’ to protect working people from Trump's anti-regulation, pro-corporate agenda. The group said tipped service workers, advocates, and labor leaders will take part in the actions, in which participants will deliver an open letter calling for the passage of legislation to raise the minimum wage and eliminate subminimum wages.”

“Following eight days of an unfair labor practice (ULP) strike, New York Times Tech Guild (TNG-CWA Local 31003) workers have returned to work and ended their boycott of New York Times Games and Cooking. The strike was one of the first tech workers’ strikes in the U.S., and the striking workers ran one of the largest remote pickets in the nation.”

“Earlier this week, hundreds of Maryland and Texas video game workers at Microsoft subsidiary ZeniMax Studios, members of ZeniMax Workers United-CWA, walked off the job in a one-day strike to call out the company for the lack of progress at the bargaining table on a few key issues. Workers cited a lack of remote work options and the company’s replacement of in-house quality assurance work with outsourced labor without notifying the union. In October, CWA filed an unfair labor practice charge against the company.”

“The Professional Fire Fighters of New Hampshire (PFFNH) and a coalition of public safety groups are taking their fight to restore lost retirement benefits to court. The class-action lawsuit, filed Oct. 31 in Merrimack County Superior Court, challenges revisions New Hampshire lawmakers made to the state pension system in 2011 amid fallout from the Great Recession. “We have been fighting to get these pension benefits back since then because our members should be able to retire with peace and dignity after years of service and sacrifice to their communities,” PFFNH President Brian Ryll said. “The state association will continue to work all angles until this wrong is made right.’”

“San Francisco, Calif. — At a march on Wednesday, thousands of striking hotel workers called on hotel companies to “Bet on SF” and settle contracts before hotel strikes expand and continue into 2025, jeopardizing future bookings in San Francisco. Hotel workers at two additional hotels, the Marriott-operated St. Regis San Francisco and W San Francisco, announced they will take strike votes on Thursday; if authorized, 435 workers at those hotels could strike at any time, joining approx. 2,000 San Francisco hotel workers on strike at Hilton, Hyatt, and Marriott hotels. The union also announced that four major clients have pledged to book 25,000 room nights in San Francisco hotels beginning in 2025 if the strike is settled in time.”

“JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – AFSCME members in north Florida who feed school children had to fight hard for the modest raises they’re getting as part of their new contract. Last month, food service workers for Duval County Public Schools faced a tough choice — continue to accept poverty wages or go on strike. The workers, employed by private contractor Chartwells K12, were simply asking that starting pay move to $14/hour, $1 above the state’s minimum wage and still less than the $15 an hour level mandated in a 2022 law that applies to public employees in school districts across the state.”

“On Oct. 30, about 1,200 members of UFCW Local 8-GS who work at 96 Rite Aid stores in Northern California ratified a new contract that strengthens wages and protects benefits. The new contract includes critical improvements to wages. The contract also restores members to a union-trusteed health care plan with no premiums for member coverage, and includes job protections that reflect the commitment of union members to their work and communities.”

“CHICAGO — The Chicago Tribune Guild won its first contract from Alden Global Capital after six years of bargaining, securing substantial economic gains and 21st-century workplace protections for members as they continue to keep Chicago informed and accountable.”