More Pieces of a Big Picture

In the space of a few weeks in May, two Verizon stores in Washington state have voted “yes” to unionizing. Responding in typical fashion, Verizon is spending big on a campaign to break the [embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=–v7HhV2wp8[/embedyt]union drive rather than negotiate with the union. Central to its strategy is the firing of union activists to intimidate workers. Verizon worker Jesse Mason was the first victim – he has been active in the organizing drive of his own and two other Verizon stores in the state.

More Perfect Union, 5/12

Another piece of this all-too-familiar picture is now taking place in Virginia where workers at Target stores are trying to unionize. In Christiansburg, Virginia, they have filed an NLRB petition for a union election. The company has responded with anti-union videos at compulsory meetings on company time and are expected to use delaying and stalling tactics, as they have at other Target stores, to prevent an election.

The Guardian, 5,18; Portside, 5/18

Earlier labor actions include 5,000 nurses with an independent union at Stanford and Packard Hospitals in Palo Alto, Cal., and 8,000 nurses on a one-day strike at Sutter Health facilities in northern California.

Who Gets the Bird, 4/24