DHS WIDENS PROBE INTO ILLEGAL MIGRANT CHILD LABOR

The Department of Homeland Security has widened its investigation into migrant children found cleaning slaughterhouses and is now working with the Justice Department to examine whether a human smuggling scheme brought migrant children to work in multiple slaughterhouses for multiple companies across multiple states, according to two U.S. officials familiar with the investigation.

Labor Start, 3/3

IAM WINS BIG CONTRACT AT LOCKHEED

In a historic win for a union, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) has successfully negotiated a contract covering its workers at Lockheed Martin plants all across the country.

The agreements cover 4,000 workers at the company’s facilities in Georgia, California, Florida, West Virginia, and Mississippi. It provides for historic pay increases, varying from 34.7 percent to 41.5 percent – depending upon the individual facility – over the life of the contract. It also provides for a $5,000 bonus, and an increase in the annual cost of living supplement. Non-salary item benefits include reductions in the cost of their comprehensive healthcare coverage and doubling the company’s contributions to their retirement fund. The contracts will last six years for Lockheed plants in Georgia, West Virginia and Mississippi and five years for the five plants in the other states.

Lockheed Martin is one of the largest US military and space equipment manufacturers.

IAM, 2/25

NYC TRANSIT UNION SEEKS TO CHANGE STRIKE-BUSTING NY STATE LAW

Transport Workers Union Local 100, representing the thousands of city bus and subway workers, are strongly pushing efforts by two state legislators to amend the New York State’s Taylor Law which outlawed strikes by public workers in the state. The law provides for stiff fines for unions that strike and some jail time for its leaders. The proposed bill would eliminate the penalties for unions that strike.

AMNY Newsletter, 3/17

RAIL COMPANY  TOLD WORKERS TO SKIP INSPECTIONS

In the wake of the disastrous derailment of a Norfolk Southern freight train in East Palestine, Ohio earlier this year, a worker at Union Pacific rail has come forward to claim that ignoring safety rules is part of the nation’s rail industry.

In a a leaked audio, a manager for Union Pacific is overheard telling Stephanie Griffin, a former carman for the company, to stop marking rail cars for broken bearings. Part of a carman’s job is to inspect cars and send those in need of repairs to the rail yards. Her manager told her that the process would delay train schedules.

The East Palestine disaster involved a train carrying toxic chemicals. It has disrupted life in the entire town as more and more residents complain of illnesses related to the release of toxic elements in the air and water supply. The Norfolk Southern derailment there was caused by a failure in the train’s wheel bearings, the same thing for which Griffin was ordered to stop marking cars for repairs at Union Pacific.

Griffin claimed that the practice was widespread throughout the industry. “It’s obvious that management is not concerned with public safety and only concerned with making their numbers look good,” she said.

Train derailments are more widespread than most people are aware of. In 2022, there were 818 derailments with 447 cars carrying hazardous materials that were damaged or derailed.

The Guardian, 3/3

LABOR ACTIONS STEPPED UP IN 2022

Strikes and work stoppages continued to increase last year as workers, dissatisfied with low pay and poor working conditions took direct action in confronting employers. Most of the work stoppages were conducted by unions but some of them involved walkouts by workers not affiliated with established unions. The largest percentage on these actions took place in the food services and accommodation industry, historically the one with the worst wages and working conditions.

According to figures compiled by Cornell University Institute of Labor Relations, there were 424 work stoppages in 2022, 417 strikes and seven lockouts. They involved about 224,000 workers taking part in 4,447,588 strike days. Employees in the food services and accommodations industry accounted for more than one-third of all the actions but since they usually worked at small establishments, the total number of these workers was small. Most of them were led by Starbucks Workers United. The majority of workers involved in strike actions were in educational services as grad student employees were organizing on an unprecedent scale and teachers struck in a number of places.

Labor Action Tracker, Cornell University institute of Labor Relations, 2/25

ELECTIONS HAVE CONSEQUENCES –THIS TIME FOR THE BETTER

Last November’s election brought Democratic majorities in both houses of the state legislature and the governor’s office in Michigan, the first time the state had a trifecta like this in decades. The result was a huge boost for the labor movement and its ability to organize workers.

Earlier this month, the legislature repealed the state’s so-called “right to work” law that had been enacted by Republicans. These “right to work” laws, in force in a number of states, enables workers to  receive the benefits of their union’s collectively bargained raises and benefits while exempting them from paying any dues to their union. It encourages workers to leave their unions to save money on union dues, thinking erroneously that their benefits will continue even if the union is weakened.

The new law goes to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s desk and she is expected to sign it. The United Auto Workers has a strong presence in Michigan and its future strength and those of other unions will be greatly aided by the law to the benefit of working people in the state.

The American Prospect, 3/9

UE LOCAL GETS COMPANY TO END TWO-TIER PENSION SYSTEM

After an intensive campaign, Local 770 of the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers (UE) signed a contract with Hendrickson Truck Suspension company that ended its two-tier pension system. The system, along with a two-tier wage system that discriminates against younger workers, had been imposed on workers in 2010 when the company threatened to close its Kendalville, Indiana  plant. The union was able to get rid of the two-tier wage system in a subsequent contract. Now the two-tier pension system has also bitten the dust in the latest contract with the company, which was approved by the union membership in a 2-to-1 vote. Hendrickson manufactures medium and heavy-duty vehicle suspensions and components for the global commercial transportation industry.

UE News, 3/11

CUNY FACULTY UNION NGEARS UP FOR NEGOTIATIONS

The Professional Staff Congress, representing about 30,000 faculty and staff at the campuses of the City University of New York has made its priorities known as it prepares to go into negotiations with the city. In addition to better salaries it is demanding better job security, and health, safety, and “salary equity for the 11,000 adjunct faculty, lab technicians and other lower paid workers in the system. Their contract, which expired at the end of February, has already established the principle that their jobs required extensive work ourside the classroom, like preparing for classes, grading papers and exams, etc. It gave them one hour’s pay for every three hours in the classroom. This time, the union is trying to get them parity with what other faculty -primary lecturers – on the same level are paid.New York City Mayor  Eric Adams meanwhile is demanding cuts the union says is disruptive to the university.

Workbites, 3/1

30 TESLA WORKERS FIRED FOR INTENTION TO UNIONIZE

In mid-February, a few days after Tesla workers in Buffalo announced their intention to unionize, about 30 of the workers were fired. The company’s union-busting move is another in a long line of illegal actions taken to thwart its workers right to unionize, a right written into labor law. One of the workers, Arian Berek, had recently received a promotion one two pay raises after getting good performance raises but was fired after becoming an organizer for the union, Tesla Workers United.

More Perfect Union,m 3/3

STRIKES ENGULF BRITAIN AS WORKER DISCONTENT RISES

About 100,000 civil servants in the UK are set to strike next month, affecting services around the country. Workers for 124 government departments and agencies will walk out on February. 1, impacting a range of public services including driving tests, passport applications and welfare payments, the Public and Commercial Services Union said in a statement. If the strike takes place, the government workers will join the thousands of rail workers, transport workers National Health Service workers and others already on strike  in a series of labor actions the UK has not seen in years as workers protest cuts in pay.

Bloomberg, 1/11; also see Rail Strike Bloomberg, 1/11

BOOK LAUNCH PARTY

The company has hired temporary editors as strikebreakers but many of its authors have refused to work with them and have honored the picket lines.

Publishers Weekly, Jan. 13, Jan. 18; Portside,Jan. 19

LATEST WORKRS TO ORGANIZE

Among the latest group of workers to vote for union representation are; employees at Peet’s coffee chain in North Davis, California, who voted 14-to-1 to be represented by the Service Employees International Union Local 1021. In their petition for representation, they wrote, “We are overworked, understaffed, and underpaid.”  They were assisted in their organizing drive by the Starbucks United union organizers.

Council 5 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Workers. were voted to be the union representing then 250 workers at the Science Museum of Minnesota. The union says it represents about 35,000 workers in cultural institutions nationwide.

Portside, 1/24,1/20

MORE GRAD SCHOOL WORKERS SEEK TO UNIONIZE

Over the past month, graduate workers affiliated with the United Electrical Workers (UE) at Northwestern University in Chicago, Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, and Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore launched organizing drives with rallies and record-breaking numbers of workers signing union cards. Workers at all three campuses are seeking a living wage, more support for international student workers, and a voice at their universities.

Together with graduate workers at the University of Chicago, these campaigns cover over 10,000 workers.

They join UE organized graduate school workers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology which won representation several months ago and is currently drawing up bargaining goals in preparation for upcoming negotiations with MIT.

UE News, 11/5

SEVERAL BALLOT INIATIVES GAIN RIGHTS FOR WORKERS

With public approval of labor unions at 71 percent, the highest in 56 years, three states and the nation’s capital voted this year to pass initiatives that raised labor standards and working conditions for employees. In Illinois voters passed an amendment to the state constitution to guarantee the right of workers to organize and bargain collectively prohibit the legislature from passing a so-called “right-to-work” law. In Nebraska, voters increased the minimum wage from $9 to $15 in incremental steps over four years and Nevada the minimum wage was raised to $12 an hour in two years. And in Washington DC  minimum pay for tipped workers will go up from $5.35 to $16 an hour in five years without forfeiting any tips.

The Century Foundation, 11/10

STARBUCKS WORKERS AT OVER100 STORES STAGE ONE-DAY STRIKE

Workers at more than 100 unionized Starbucks stores went out on strike for one day earlier this month in protest against the company’s stalling tactics – refusing to bargain with the union at unionized stores, cutting working hours, firing 150 union supporters, selectively providing raises and benefits at the non-union stores, and installing hostile managers at the union stores. The one-day strike took place on Red Cup day, a Starbucks company tradition when it hands out cups to its customers.

Jacobin, 11/xx

RAIL STRIKE LOOMS AGAIN AS LARGEST UNION’S MEMBERSHIP REJECTS CONTRACT

The country’s largest union of rail workers, the Transportation Division of the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail, and Transportation Workers (SMART-TD) has voted to turn down the contract negotiated with the aid of the White House a month ago. The major issues that were not resolved in the proposed contract, said the union are the attendance policies if the rail companies that are reflected in sick time, fatigue, and lack of family time that are not easily seen  but are deeply felt by the membership, said a union spokesperson. “It’s destroying their livelihoods.” A strike could begin as early as Dec. 9.

Common Dreams, 111/21

COLORADO LAW NOW GIVES EQUAL PROTECTION TO DOMESTIC WORKERS

A new Colorado law, enacted in August, extends to domestic workers in the state the same protections enjoyed by other workers. They had previously been excluded from the 1935 National Labor Relations Act. Colorado thus joins a few other states that have brought equal benefits as other workers under the federal law.

Domestic workers include people who care for children, tend gardens and clean other people’s homes, among other jobs. The law says that these workers are “employees,” the same as if they worked in a factory or office and can file complaints with the Colorado Civil Rights Division against employers for things like cheating them on salaries, discrimination and harassment.

These workers have been underpaid and unprotected by labor laws throughout most of the United States. Colorado had previously passed legislation establishing a minimum wage and overtime requirements for them. The new law extends their rights to those of regular salaried employees.

CPR News, 9/14

APOLOGIZE STARBUCKS AND PAY BACK

In a major ruling Aug. 25 the NLRB ordered Starbucks to repay all benefits illegally denied to workers at hundreds of its stores that voted for a union. It also ruled that Starbucks issue a written apology to the affected workers for the harm it caused and that CEO Howard Schultz record a video admitting to these illegal actions.

More Perfect Union, 8/25

UNION DRIVES ALSO HITTING SOUTH

Southern states, long a haven for non-union shops, are not escaping current union activity. For a description of organizing at Dollar General stores and other locations and how workers in these states are learning the benefits of union organizing, click on the link below.

Facing South, 8/25

MICHIGAN STORE BECOMES FIRST CHIPOTLE RESTAURANT TO VOTE UNION

In Lansing, Mich., a Chipotle facility became the first in the Mexican grill’s chain to vote union. The restaurant chain operates 3,000  facilities in the US. The union drive is backed by the 1.2 million-member International Brotherhood of Teamsters. The workers are demanding higher pay and improved schedules.

NPR, 8/26

BILL IN CONGRESS PUSHES FOR DOMESTIC WORKERS BILL OF RIGHTS

Across the country, domestic workers have been among the most exploited. These workers, both employees and independent contractors, provide services in private homes as nannies, house cleaners, home care workers, cooks, and other jobs. A large majority of them are women of color. Their median hourly wage is $12/hour, barely enough to live on, no less to support others in their household.

In the past few years, a number of cities like Seattle have taken measures to protect the rights of domestic workers. In July, Seattle’s Office of Labor Standards awarded over $71,000 in back pay, interest, and civil penalties to a live-in domestic worker who had been robbed of her rightful pay by an employer who failed to pay the city’s minimum wage and overtime pay.

Now, a bill in Congress, originally introduced in 2019 by then Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Cal.) along with Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) and Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), and reintroduced in 2021 by Gillibrand and Jayapal and Sen. Ben Ray Lujan (D-New Mex.) sets up a Domestic Workers Bill of Rights. which codifies their workplace benefits and rights and increases the tools to enforce the law. In July the House Education and Labor Committee held a hearing on the legislation that exposed the conditions facing these workers.

Inequality.org, 8/22

STARBUCKS UNION DRIVE ROLLS ON

It has been less than a year that a Starbucks store in Buffalo, NY voted for a union. Since then, despite company hostility and union busting tactics, the drive for collective bargaining has spread nearly as fast as the Covid. As of late July, the number of Starbucks stores voting to be represented by Starbucks Workers United is approaching 200 and it appears to be only the beginning. Although still only a small fraction of the 9,000 facilities operated by the coffee giant, the union drive is gaining the momentum of a snowball rolling downhill. We think you’ll be hearing a lot more about it in the coming years.

Starbucks Workers United website

HADLEY, MASS. STORE BECOMES FIRST TRADER JOE’S TO UNIONIZE

Taking their cue from workers at Starbucks, Amazon, and Apple, workers at the Trader Joe’s store in Hadley, Mass. voted 45 to 31 to unionize, becoming the first in the chain to do so. Their union is called Trader Joe’s United. Another Trader Joe’s store in Minneapolis is scheduled for a union vote in September and workers at a store in Colorado have filed a petition for an election with the

NY Times, 7/28

UNION CHARGES CHIPOTLE CLOSED STORE IN RESPONSE TO ITS FILING FOR ELECTION

Shortly after workers at the Chipotle store in Augusta, Maine, filed for a union election, the store company closed the store down, an action, the union says, is retaliation for them seeking to organize. The move came just hours before the NLRB had scheduled a hearing on the union petition. It is against the labor laws for a company to retaliate in this way and the union has filed a charge against Chipotle. The company claims that its action was not in retaliation for employee union activity but simply a result of its inability to adequately staff the store, but the timing of the move casts strong doubt on its claim.

NY Times, 7/21