The Weekly Download

We gave you a long list of worker power songs. Our expert Nominating Committee produced short lists of nominees in six categories. Now, it’s your turn. Starting tomorrow, the power is in your hands. The time has arrived for you to vote for the worker power songs that should win the Labor Grammys’ “Guthrie Awards.”

“U.S. employers have tremendous power over worker conduct. For decades, federal law has allowed employers to require workers to attend “captive audience” meetings—and force employees to listen to political, religious, or anti-union employer views—on work time. Last week, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ruled that anti-union captive audience meetings in particular are illegal because they interfere with workers’ right to freely choose whether to form or join a union.”

“In the second blogcast of the new Power At Work series "What Could Happen Under Trump?", Burnes Center for Social Change Senior Fellow Seth Harris is joined by two top labor law academics Ben Sachs, the Kestnbaum Professor of Labor and Industry at Harvard Law School, and  Charlotte Garden, a Professor of Law at the University of Minnesota Law School. Watch now to learn about what to expect in labor law under the second Trump administration alongside controversies that we should be prepared for.”

“December saw a number of important developments at the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). The month started well for unions but ended badly. Some observers complained of whiplash!”

“It is difficult to predict what a second Trump administration may augur for the broader political economy, yet at least one thing is almost certain: in the near future—perhaps sooner than anticipated—Donald Trump’s appointees will recapture control of the National Labor Relations Board. There is little doubt the corporate attorneys Trump is all but guaranteed to nominate to lead the agency will swiftly move to dismantle the Biden Board’s prounion legacy and, in the traditional Republican fashion, reformulate national labor policy in management’s favor. As corporate interests begin to signal an appetite for more fundamental assaults on the Board’s regulatory capacity, however, the specter that that the incoming administration may pursue more novel and radical antiregulatory measures looms. These may include, as some have speculated, outright refusing to appoint members to the NLRB. Such a move would hamstring labor law enforcement and be extraordinarily tricky to challenge in court.”

“The New York Times had a lengthy piece giving a story on how the Democrats lost the support of working-class voters over the last three decades. The essence of the argument is that working-class voters were angered by Democrats’ support of “free trade” and the bailouts of the financial industry in the financial crisis. While this story is largely true, it seriously understates the working-class cause for complaint.”

“President-elect Donald Trump’s victory in November may have stalled the effort to organize college athletes into unions, at least through the formal election process. The union seeking to represent men’s basketball players at Dartmouth College withdrew its petition last week at the National Labor Relations Board, the federal agency that oversees union elections. The Service Employees International Union Local 560 said its strategy would be ‘shifting’ in the years ahead. Then, on Monday, the NLRB’s general counsel also dismissed an unfair labor practice charge pending against the school, alleging Dartmouth had illegally refused to bargain with the union. That case is now closed. The quick unraveling of the election case shows how much a presidential election can impact a labor campaign.”

“Autoworkers at a Ford international joint venture electric-battery plant in Kentucky have filed for a union election, a key development in the storied United Auto Workers’ campaign to organize Southern auto factories and EV battery facilities. The union said more than half of the workers at the new $6 billion electric-vehicle battery plant in Glendale, Kentucky — started by Ford and its South Korean partner SK On — filed with the National Labor Relations Board on Tuesday to hold a union election. The development at the BlueOval SK plant builds on a string of victories by the UAW — which represents about 400,000 workers — under the union-friendly Biden administration. If successful, the effort could lead to the first unionized Ford-backed EV battery venture, at a time when EV sales in the United States are picking up.”

“Amazon.com Inc. workers at a North Carolina warehouse will vote in February to determine if they want to be represented by the upstart Carolina Amazonians United for Solidarity and Empowerment. The group, which is known as CAUSE, filed a petition last month with the National Labor Relations Board seeking an election. The organization and the NLRB said the voting is scheduled for Feb. 10 to Feb. 15. ‘We’re making history, and we’re on the right side of history,’ said Mary Hill, a CAUSE organizer who started working at Amazon four years ago.”

“The schools of Clovis, California, are not an obvious place for a union campaign. Some of that reflects politics: Nearly half of registered voters in this city of more than 120,000 are Republican, while about 30% are Democrats, and its home county, Fresno County, flipped to Trump this fall. Some of that reflects history: The Clovis Unified School District has been without a teachers union since its inception in 1959, and it is California’s biggest public school system without a teachers union. But since 2021, teachers, psychologists, sign language interpreters and others in this nearly 43,000-student district have been trying to change that. Under the name Association of Clovis Educators, or ACE, which is affiliated with the California Teachers Association, teachers and others have pushed for smaller class sizes, better pay and more class prep time. But the real battle, they said, has been to persuade teachers and residents in this conservative community to support a union.”

“GLENDALE, Ky. — A supermajority of workers at battery maker BlueOval SK filed a petition Tuesday with the National Labor Relations Board for a vote to form their union with the UAW. The election filing at BlueOval SK (BOSK), a new joint venture of Ford and SK On, is the first major filing in the South in 2025 and continues the movement of Southern autoworkers organizing with the UAW.”

“ALEXANDRIA, Va. – Administrative and technical workers for the City of Alexandria, Virginia, voted overwhelmingly at the end of December in favor of unionizing withAFSCME District Council 20. The historic vote ensures these essential workers have a collective voice on critical workplace issues such as wages, benefits and working conditions.

“Philadelphia – Penn Libraries staff, unionizing as AFSCME DC 47 Local 590 Penn Libraries United, announced this fall the results of their August election conducted by the National Labor Relations Board. In the final count, staff have successfully unionized, winning 40 to 27. The new bargaining unit includes around 90 employees in librarian, curator, archivist, developer and other professional titles, joining Local 590’s longtime bargaining unit of Penn Libraries support staff, unionized since 1969.”

“NEW YORK –  Editorial staff at The Athletic announced Monday that they have organized with The NewsGuild of New York and are asking The New York Times to recognize them as part of the newsroom union, The Times Guild. The Athletic’s organizing committee sent an email on behalf of about 200 Athletic U.S.-based editorial staff to Times Publisher AG Sulzberger and CEO Meredith Kopit Levien, requesting that they recognize them as part of the Times Guild.”

“Recent news reports indicate that approximately 50% of the workers at the TSMC chips fabrication plant in Arizona have been brought in from Taiwan. News reports and TSMC’s own statements also indicate that these Taiwanese workers are being brought into the United States under the E-visa program. That is a program that should not be used for construction workers. The proper program for construction workers is the H-2B visa, under which the U.S. Department of Labor must first determine that there are not sufficient qualified U.S. workers available before a visa is issued.”

“Ports on the East and Gulf Coasts could close next week if dockworkers and employers cannot overcome their big differences over the use of automated machines to move cargo. The International Longshoremen’s Association, the union that represents dockworkers, and the United States Maritime Alliance, the employers’ negotiating group, on Tuesday resumed in-person talks aimed at forging a new labor contract. After a short strike in October, the union and the alliance agreed on a 62 percent raise over six years for the longshoremen — and said they would try to work out other parts of the contract, including provisions governing automated technology, before Jan. 15. If they don’t have a deal by that date, ports that account for three-fifths of U.S. container shipments could shut, harming businesses that rely on imports and exports and providing an early test for the new Trump administration.”

“Workers organizing at the electric vehicle maker Lucid have won a settlement with a quarter-million dollars in back pay, the right to return to work, and a sweeping cease and desist order that stops the company from committing a long list of unfair labor practices.”

“Alphabet's Google is facing a second complaint from a U.S. labor board claiming that it is the employer of contract workers and must bargain with their union, the agency said on Monday. The complaint issued by the National Labor Relations Board last week claims that Google is a "joint employer" of about 50 San Francisco-based content creation workers employed by IT firm Accenture Flex who voted to join the Alphabet Workers Union in 2023, according to board spokeswoman Kayla Blado. Blado said the board is separately investigating an October complaint by the union that Google and Accenture Flex made changes to working conditions without bargaining first.”

“About half a dozen organizers at the United Academics of Philadelphia (UAP), American Federation of Teachers Local 9608, ratified their first collective bargaining agreement in December after winning voluntary recognition in July 2023. The staff unionized with The NewsGuild of Greater Philadelphia.”

“Inspired by the success of the Big 3 strike, United Auto Workers members at Daimler Truck North America ran a very different kind of contract campaign this year than we ever had before. The 7,300 members at DTNA’s four North Carolina plants and parts distribution centers in Atlanta and Memphis were very active, informed, and involved in the bargaining process. This is not how the union had done things in the past.”

“Unionized staffing cooperatives like AlliedUP can offer workers not only better pay and benefits, but critical support and a measure ownership over their professional futures.”