In Sheboygan, Wisconsin, 265 workers at the Vollrath plant, went out on strike April 4 after new contract talks fell through. The workers are members of Local 1472 of the United Auto Workers union. The main issue is the union demand that the company end its two-tier wage system and institute one uniform wage system. The vote to strike was approved by a membership vote of 74 percent in favor.
Labor union activity appears to be spreading among Kindergatden through 12th grade educators and school staff members across the country. Among the latest cities reporting strikes, strike preparations, and union pushbacks in school systems are: Sacramento (California), St. Louis (Missouri), Dickinson, (N. Dakota), Rochester (New York), Lawrence (Kansas) and Elk Grove (California).
Who Gets the Bird, 4/4
In a memo to the National Labor Relations Board, Its general counsel, Jennifer Abruzzo, urged the board to reverse its precedent that had upheld the widespread employer practice of forcing workers to attend anti-union meetings on company time. The general counsel is charged with enforcing federal labor law.
While these company-time anti-union meetings are mandatory for workers, union representatives have been forbidden by the companies to address workers in the shops on their lunch times or breaks.
Abruzzo said she would soon file a brief before the labor board arguing that these coerce meetings are inconsistent with the National Labor Relations Act’s protection of the workers’ right to free choice, “I believe that the NLRB case precedent, which has tolerated such meetings, is at odds with fundamental labor-law principles, our statutory language, and our congressional mandate.”
The practice of these coercive anti-union meetings and denying unions the right to talk to workers has been a widespread tactic used recently in union elections at Amazon and Starbucks.
NY Times, 4/7
In another significant union vote, workers at the REI store in New York’s Manhattan SoHo district have voted overwhelmingly to unionize. On March 2, they voted 88-14 to join the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union after an effort lasting nearly two-years. During these two years, the store engaged in a ceaseless anti-union effort to intimidate its employees to reject the union.
The store employed all the usual tactics – from one-on-one “meetings” where managers used pressure on individual workers, to flooding employee rest and break rooms with propaganda and falsehoods about unions.
Resentment among workers had been building at the REI store against inadequate safety measures, callous scheduling policies, overwork and underpayment.
Significantly, the REI workers pointed to the inspiration they received from Amazon and Starbucks workers who were organizing in facilities around the country. “Every new Starbucks that organizes — I also know organizers from RWDSU that have been in Bessemer [Alabama] helping to organize Amazon —all those stories are just incredibly inspiring,” said one. “I think organized labor is the future.” Another added. “Just seeing other groups stand up to Amazon, which is a behemoth, stand up to Starbucks which is everywhere, ingrained in every single neighborhood, it was really comforting. I didn’t feel alone. Also, you know, it was an inspiration, because these are people in my same situation, trying their best to stand up for themselves and their co-workers. I feel like I look to these drives, whether they’ve won their votes or not, for constant inspiration.”
Contract talks with REI management are expected to begin within the next three months.
After a year of running up against a stone wall, tech workers at the New York Times finally won their battle for union recognition. The 600 workers will join the 1300 workers in the editorial and business departments represented by the New York NewsGuild, Local 31003 of the Communications Workers of America. This will make the Times tech workers, the largest shop of tech workers with collective bargaining rights in the country.
The Times fought against the union all the way, refusing their request for voluntary recognition, then forbidding the workers from showing their support for the union, an unfair labor practice under labor law. It took some workplace actions to win the fight, including a half-day protest walkout against the Times attempts to stand in the way of an election for union recognition.
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 company violated a December order not to inhibit workers’ ability to engage with colleagues in non-work areas on their own time. The union leader, Chris Smalls, said that the reason for his arrest was “we’ve got an election and they’re scared.”
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 Starbucks workers efforts, see Labor News page on this website.)
Who Gets the Bird website, 2/19-2/26
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 others on the payrolls. Among the museums where this is taking place are the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Guggenheim Museum in New York, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, and the Art Institute of Chicago.
Union organizers place the increasing desire of white collar museum arts workers to organize has been the large and growing pay gap between these workers and museum executives.
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.
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 the company, “to solve problems and address needs.” Hailing “the growing movement of booksellers and baristas across the country who have unionized their workplaces,” the union said it “looked forward to negotiating our first contract and welcoming more bookstore workers in DC” into the union.
