Entries by Paul Becker

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Amazon union head arrested on eve of election

With a vote on union representation at the Amazon’s JFK8 facility on Staten Island, New York, set for March 25-30, the company had the leader of the union arrested on charges including trespassing on company property. The union has responded by filing an unfair labor practice charge with the National Labor Relations Board claiming the […]

More Starbucks workers organize

In an update on the spreading movement of Starbucks workers to organize, nearly 350 more at 14 stores around the country have filed petitions for elections with the National Labor Relations Board. By one estimate, over 2,000 workers in 78 locations have filed for elections in the past two months. (For a fuller account of […]

Museum Workers Moving Toward Unions

Adding to the number of workers moving toward union organization, professional employees at a number of museums around the country are are forming collective bargaining units and demanding recognition. While workers employed at many of these museums, like security guards and carpenters are already organized, this is a first for curators, librarians, educators, conservators and […]

unions and renewable energy

With the transition away from fossil fuels to renewable energy, many workers are apprehensive about losing their jobs. A recent article on the website Truthout discusses the role that unions can play in creating the new union jobs that could accompany the transition. Truthout, 1/22  

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GOOD NEWS FOR DELIVERY WORKERS – URINE LUCK

Drivers who deliver food from New York City restaurants will now be entitled to use customer restrooms from restaurants when they’re picking up food. Beginning January 31, the drivers for app-based delivery companies like UberEats, Grubhub, and others will no longer have to resort to the indignity of relieving themselves between parked cars and risking […]

COLORADO SUPERMARKET CHAIN WINS MAJOR GAINS AFTER TWO-WEEK STRIKE

Eight thousand workers at the King Scoopers supermarket chain in the Denver metropolitan area ended a two-week strike January 24 with a three-year contract that sees many gains in their pay and working conditions. They Can’t Run Without Workers The strike showed “the company they can’t run without workers,” triumphantly declared Kim Cordova, president of […]

STARBUCKS WORKERS TALKING UNION AROUND COUNTRY

Buoyed by the victory of a newly organized union at one Starbucks store in Buffalo to gain collective bargaining rights, and in the face of intense anti-union pressure from the company, Starbucks workers at other facilities are also talking union. Workers at a second store in the Buffalo area won union rights after the National Labor […]

COLUMBIA GRAD SCHOOL WORKERS WIN STRONG GAINS AFTER10-WEEK STRIKE

Striking graduate school student workers at Columbia University ended their labor action Jan. 7 with an agreement that includes a 7 to 11 percent raise for workers with annual contracts based upon the length of their appointments and an hourly wage boost from the previous $15/hour to $21/hour. The annual salaries of doctoral candidates on […]

DC BOOKSTORE GROUP RECOGNIZES UNION

The Washington DC bookstore group, Politics and Prose, which has 54 employees in three locations in the Capital, has voluntarily recognized Local 400 of the United Food and Commercial Workers as the bargaining agent for its employers, the union and owners announced in a joint statement. “We look forward to working with the union,” said […]