The Weekly Download

“In this blogcast, Burnes Center for Social Change Senior Fellow Seth Harris is joined by Saba Waheed, the director of the UCLA Labor Center, and Rebecca Givan, an associate professor of Labor Studies and Employment Relations at Rutgers University. Watch now to learn about the most significant worker power stories over the past year. Also hear Givan and Waheed's perspectives on employer backlash as well as their takes on the overall current state of labor heading into 2025.”

“The time for you to exercise your voice and your vote has almost come. But first, you will need to listen to some great labor songs and, maybe, sing along. Power At Work is proud and excited to announce the nominees for #2025Labor Grammy awards. Beginning January 6, 2025, you will have a chance to vote for your favorite nominated song in the five categories listed below and one special category. It’s all for fun and to lift up great songs about worker power, unions, and worker collective action. Your collective choices will win the vaunted “Guthrie Award,” which honors labor music pioneer Woody Guthrie.”

“The Power At Work team wishes everyone in our community and working people everywhere a Happy Holiday Season! You can celebrate this holiday season by supporting union workers. Here’s a list from our friends at the AFL-CIO of places and ways that you can find amazing holiday gifts that also carry a union label.”

“The incoming Trump administration is likely to impose significant tariffs on U.S. imports to an extent not seen since before World War II. The president-elect has already announced that he will use emergency executive authority on his first day in office to impose 25 percent tariffs on Canada and Mexico, the United States’ closest trading partners, and a 10 percent tariff on Chinese goods. And given that he campaigned on an across-the-board tariff and a massive China-specific tariff, this is likely just the beginning. Donald Trump may couch his tariff proposals in the language of ‘America first’ or as fighting back against the ills of global trade, but the tariff ideas he has proposed will not make the economy fairer, bring prosperity to working people, protect the environment, or improve climate sustainability—and what’s worse, they are not even designed to do so. Yet the most common critique of Trump’s tariff agenda fails to make this point, focusing instead on the price increases likely to face American consumers instead of the negative impact Trump’s economic agenda will have on working people, the environment, and global efforts to address challenges such as climate change.”

“An AFGE member has won a precedent setting case in which the Connecticut Appellate Court ruled that union members have absolute immunity from malicious attempts aimed at silencing free speech in the grievance process. Vincent DeGray, a civilian employee of the Coast Guard Academy in New London, filed a grievance alleging he was unfairly passed over for promotion based on violations of the merit promotion system. He also alleged that two employees, a married couple, had a quid pro quo arrangement with management to promote the candidate who was selected.”

“More than 50,000 graduate students and other student workers on 51 university campuses nationwide have formed unions since 2022, according to the National Labor Relations Board. The organizing campaigns have led to some of the biggest union elections in years, with graduate student teachers and researchers and undergraduate housing and dining employees joining the ranks of the Service Employees International Union, the United Auto Workers and other traditionally blue-collar unions. These efforts have not garnered as much attention as organizing drives at Amazon and Starbucks, but they have boosted the ranks of organized labor after decades of losses.”

“Union workers broke open the cookie jar in 2024, after years of stagnant wages and rising prices. With strikes and the threat of strikes, workers did more than forestall concessions: They gained ground. Union workers in the private sector saw 6 percent real wage rises for the year. Just the fear that workers would organize drove up wages at non-union employers like Delta Airlines, Amazon, and Mercedes.”

“In a victory for labor—and in particular, for a coalition of United Food and Commercial Workers local unions—judges in Oregon and Washington state have separately ruled against the proposed mega-merger of Kroger and Albertsons, effectively blocking it and leading Albertsons to terminate the merger agreement.”

“Two years after 48,000 University of California academic workers won big pay gains in a historic six-week strike, labor experts and organizers predicted that their success, along with a labor-friendly Biden administration, would spur broad union activism within higher education institutions. A flurry of recent university union activity coupled with fears of a more pro-business, anti-labor Trump White House is providing the answer. At campuses across the country — including top California universities, New York University and Harvard — unions representing graduate student workers, part-time and non-tenure track faculty and others are rapidly and aggressively moving to organize workers.”

“Members of the Associated Administrators of Los Angeles (AALA) have voted overwhelmingly to affiliate with Teamsters Local 2010. The 3,000 members work as principals, assistant principals, adult school and ROP/ROC center coordinators, early education center principals, classified managers, and school support administrators for the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD).”

“WASHINGTON, D.C. & LORTON, VA — Workers at the Capital Area Food Bank are set to vote to unionize as the Capital Area Food Bank Workers, with the voting scheduled for January 2nd, 6th, and 7th. The staff, including office and warehouse workers, are advocating for fair compensation, a voice in implementing workplace policies, an end to PTO blackout periods and a stronger relationship between warehouse and office staff. Workers are unionizing with the Washington-Baltimore News Guild, The NewsGuild-CWA Local 32035. The Capital Area Food Bank will become the first union food bank on the East Coast, joining other Feeding America food bank unions at San Francisco Marin Food Bank, Alameda County Community Food Bank, and Oregon Food Bank.”

“On December 10, workers from the Minnesota Timberwolves and Lynx in-house audio-visual crew’s votes were counted and the workers won a union. With an estimated 80% of the 50 workers submitting ballots, the final vote count was 24 in favor of the union and 17 against. The workers are now a part of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) Local 745.”

“Last week, members of CWA Local 1298 filed a lawsuit against the Connecticut Public Utilities Regulatory Agency (PURA) for recent rulings that could force telecommunications company Frontier to use non-union contractor labor for vital utility pole repair work. These rulings run counter to legal precedent, dating back over a century, explicitly barring state regulatory agencies from interfering in contracts between public utilities companies and their employees.”

“The Teamsters said workers will begin striking at Amazon facilities across the country Thursday morning -- in what the union calls the largest strike against the online shopping giant less than a week before Christmas. The Teamsters said the strike will begin early Thursday at several facilities, including in New York City, Atlanta, three locations in Southern California, one in San Francisco and one in Skokie, Illinois. In addition, the Teamsters said local unions would also put up primary picket lines at hundreds of Amazon Fulfillment Centers nationwide.”

“The workers' union representing more than 10,000 Starbucks baristas said they have authorized a potential strike, ahead of this year's final round of bargaining talks with the coffee giant on Tuesday. Workers United, which has a bargaining delegation that represents workers at 525 Starbucks stores in the United States, said the coffee giant has yet to bring a comprehensive economic package to the table, while hundreds of legal disputes over unfair labor practices remain unsettled. The union, which has been urging Starbucks to increase wages and staffing at its stores as well as implement better schedules, said it had not yet decided on when to go on strike.”

“One-day strikes and other ‘fixed-duration strikes’ — defined as those with a short duration and predetermined time limits — are common at hospitals. While some healthcare unions have held longer or open-ended strikes, most have opted for shorter strikes in 2024. From 2021 to 2023, the majority of healthcare strikes were of a fixed duration rather than indefinite walkouts, Johnnie Kallas, PhD, an assistant professor at Champaign-based University of Illinois School of Labor and Employment Relations and project director of the Labor Action Tracker, told Becker's. The tracker, a collaboration between Ithaca, N.Y.-based Cornell University and the University of Illinois, serves as a strike activity database.” 

“In America’s longest-running strike, CWA members from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette are finally getting their day in court. Last month, a federal judge began hearing testimony to consider granting the federal labor board’s (NLRB) request for a 10(j) injunction. If granted, this could compel the newspaper to pay for workers’ health care expenses until a new contract or health care arrangement is reached.”

“Leesburg, VA - After nearly four years of off-and-on contract negotiations, Loudoun County Transit workers finally reached an agreement on a new contract with county contractor, Keolis. Yesterday, workers ratified the agreement with 92% voting to approve. Despite the contractor’s tactics, ATU Local 689, partnering with the ATU International, remained steadfast in their commitment to ensuring that Loudoun County Transit workers’ rights to bargain were upheld.”

“On Nov. 24, over 3,500 members of UFCW Locals 8-GS, 135, 324, 770, 1167, 1428 and 1442 who are essential pharmacy workers at Rite Aid locations across Southern California ratified a new contract. The agreement was reached after months of negotiations and active participation from thousands of pharmacists, pharmacy clerks, and technicians in Southern California.”

“On Nov. 21, more than 20 workers at the Cannabis 21+ dispensary in the Mission Valley area of San Diego voted to join UFCW Local 135, marking a significant step in helping them secure better wages, benefits, and working conditions. The vote was conducted by representatives of the NLRB. With this organizing win, UFCW Local 135 now represents the first of two Cannabis 21+ dispensaries in San Diego County and is eager to assist workers at the company’s second area dispensary in the Sorrento Valley area of San Diego.”

“On Oct. 25, Tonjanika Webster joined a line of nurses on Canal Street, outside of New Orleans’ University Medical Center. Some, like Webster, wore scrubs. Others, red for their union, National Nurses United. A giant banner reading “UMC Proud” unfurled over the hospital’s facade, while Beyonce and Taylor Swift echoed out of giant speakers, punctuated by approving honks from drivers. The air was jubilant, like a party, but it was a picket line. It was also Louisiana’s first-ever strike of private-sector nurses. Unlike in high-profile strikes such as that of the United Auto Workers in 2023, however, the nurses sought more than improvements to their jobs. They wanted a first contract negotiated by their union — the very document that establishes ground rules for improving their jobs. In the process, they joined a nationwide surge in short, pre-contract strikes following a spate of union organizing.”

“Writers Guild of America this week sent a letter to major Hollywood studios asking them to take action against tech companies that are using writers’ work to train AI tools without their permission. ‘The studios, as copyright holders of works written by WGA members, have done nothing to stop this theft,’ the guild’s leadership said in a letter. ‘They have allowed tech companies to plunder entire libraries without permission or compensation. The studios’ inaction has harmed WGA members.’ The guild said its collective bargaining agreement requires studios ‘to defend their copyrights on behalf of writers’ and urged studios to ‘take immediate legal action against any company that has used our members’ works to train AI systems.’ The letter was sent to studios including Netflix, Warner Bros. Discovery, Walt Disney Co., Paramount Global, NBCUniversal, Sony Pictures and Amazon MGM Studios. Representatives from those studios either declined to comment or didn’t respond to requests for comment.”

“A group of Google Help staffers reached a union contract with their employer, Accenture Plc, securing protections on remote work and workplace surveillance that could be a template for others in Alphabet Inc.’s sprawling contract workforce. The collective bargaining agreement between Accenture and the Alphabet Workers Union covers about 25 workers including writers and design analysts. Employees voted Wednesday to ratify the deal, which the union said guarantees permanent work-from-home options, creates a committee where management is required to consider workers’ input on software tools, and prohibits Accenture from monitoring their keystrokes or mouse movements.”