If you missed it: I had a great time doing a deep dive with the left’s best podcast, The Dig, with Dan Denvir and Alex Press on the state of the labor movement. You can check that out here, and I strongly suggest you subscribe to The Dig. I also weighed in on the myths union-busters trot out, for VICE.
NEW ORGANIZING
New organizing filings at the NLRB: 350 production workers at Chemours in Johnsonville, TN, which makes titanium dioxide, a ubiquitous white pigment, are organizing with the Steelworkers. 112 ski patrollers at Vail Resorts in Breckenridge, CO seek to join CWA, which seems to be on a veritable tear of ski patroller organizing (you can read about some of the issues ski patrollers unions face in bargaining with Vail Resorts here). 87 in-home care workers with WCI - Work, Community, Independence at 12 group homes in Waltham and Maynard, MA are organizing with Teamsters Local 25. 50 sanitation workers at Yakima Waste Systems in Yakima, WA are organizing with Teamsters Local 760. The SPFPA seeks to represent 45 armed drivers and ATM techs with Loomis Armored Guard in Portland, OR. 21 healthcare support staff at a practice in Redding, CA are joining SEIU UHW. 19 skilled trades workers at Veolia in Pearl River, NY are organizing with Operating Engineers Local 30. 13 clerks at Island Creek Associates, a defense contractor at Naval Air Station North Island in Coronado, CA, are joining Machinists District Lodge 725.
Dubious union watch: Local 1032 LIFE, the League of International Federated Employees -- which I’m in no place to judge as a company union or not but for your information includes the following on its website: “Whether you're an employee or an employer, LIFE UNION has the experience and resources to dramatically improve your current work environment.” -- seeks to represent 30 drivers and warehouse workers at Crown Millwork Corporation in Nanuet, NY, which makes door moldings and received half a million in PPP money. Teamsters Local 191 is organizing 16 school bus workers with First Student in Weston, CT, with United Service Workers Union Local 455, IUJAT intervening; considering the Teamsters have a national agreement with First Student and IUJAT is not always a totally-not-company-union, probably for the best if the Teamsters win this one.
Tiny shops: Nine white collar workers at the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits in St. Paul are joining the Minnesota NewsGuild. Eight parking attendants and doormen at a condo association at 1418 N. Lake Shore Drive in Chicago are joining Teamsters Local 727. Eight HVAC engineers for JLL, subcontracted for AT&T in St. Louis are joining Operating Engineers Local 148. Eight inpatient social workers at Kaiser hospitals in Hawaii seek to join an existing NUHW unit. Four techs at Hitachi Rail in Honolulu are joining IBEW Local 1186.
NLRB election wins…: 50 legal workers at Federal Defenders of San Diego in San Diego and El Centro, CA have joined IFPTE Local 20 after a 40-1 landslide. 34 RNs and 16 healthcare techs at the Allegheny General Hospital Cancer Institute in Pittsburgh are joining SEIU Healthcare PA after a 24-5, and 10-1 vote, respectively. 37 security guards at the Whitney Museum in Manhattan are members of LEOS-PBA after an election that at least started as a two- or three-way election (with independent union “the Whitney Braves” initially filing) that turned out 25-7-0, as best I can tell. 32 security guards at the Department of Commerce in DC are joining GUSP, Governed United Security Professionals in a three-union ballot. Teamsters Local 890 has 26 new members at Central Coast Cooling, a cold storage business in El Centro, CA, after a 13-1 vote. 16 facilities attendants at Live! Casino in Philadelphia voted 8-0 to join Laborers Local 332. 14 clinical documentation specialists at Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center in Spokane, WA voted 8-6 to join the Washington State Nurses Association. Ten foremen at Shamrock Materials in Cotati and San Rafael, CA voted unanimously to join Teamsters Local 665. Six milk truck drivers in Yakima, WA have voted 4-2 to join Teamsters Local 760. Six healthcare workers at Nellis Air Force Base in Las Vegas are joining Machinists Lodge SC711 after a 4-0 vote. Five workers for A-to-Be, a firm that develops and plans highway tolling infrastructure and “mobility solutions” in Downers Grove, IL, voted 3-2 to join IBEW Local 134.
...and losses: 59 sanitation workers at Marengo Disposal in Marengo, IL hit a tragic deadlock, with a 25-25 vote meaning they will not be joining Teamsters Local 301. Philadelphia Joint Board Workers United lost 29 members at the Keystone Adjustable Cap Company in Pennsauken, NJ in a 6-8 decertification vote.The Steelworkers went down in a 6-17 vote among 23 production workers at Unifrax specialty fiber manufacturer in Tonawanda, NY.
Outside the NLRB: Workers at Mobilize, online progressive events platform, have been voluntarily recognized by their employer through CODE CWA, continuing that union’s organizing streak. Also through CWA, staff at the Audubon Society are asking for voluntary recognition. Ditto with the staff of RAICES, who have tried to organize before.
Two dozen city workers for Hudson, NY’s youth department have requested recognition from the city through CWA (notably not big state employees union CSEA), and the local news has this deep dive on how that went, which is to say not particularly well.
Freightwaves has an interesting look into how a small California freight company decertified the Teamsters with the aid of new rules around decertification from Trump’s NLRB, and a pro-Trump board at the company.
The Teamsters are talking up their efforts to organize Amazon, particularly outside of the NLRB, which is a good sign, but I’ll believe it when I see it. Marco Rubio says he supports the Amazon organizing drive in Alabama because of the culture war. I agree. The culture war on US workers must end, and any corporation that stains the proud American history of workers’ collective action and free association ought to be the subject of our national scorn and derision. That’s what he means, right? In Chicago, the NLRB found that Amazon retaliated against workers for COVID-19 protests. What say you, Marco?
Colectivo Coffee workers in Milwaukee, Madison, and Chicago are pushing to become the largest unionized coffee chain, with over 300 workers in a wall-to-wall IBEW unit. Voting is now underway.
Sixty Maine lawmakers have decried the union-busting going on at Maine Medical Center against NNU, the nation’s second-largest ongoing union drive.
STRIKES & BARGAINING
Columbia grad workers with UAW are on strike. The Massachusetts Nurses Association strike at Saint Vincent Hospital in Worcester has entered its second week. Workers at 7-UP in Detroit with Teamsters Local 337 are on strike as of this morning. The Teamsters strike-turned-lockout at Marathon outside the Twin Cities has entered its eighth week.
Kenyon student workers conducted a 24-hour strike, the first of its kind (that I’m aware of) for undergraduate student workers, who are organizing with the UE. Staff at Fortune Magazine, pushing for a first contract with the New York NewsGuild, walked out this week. This is the second NY NewsGuild 24-hour work stoppage in a month, following actions at the New Yorker, whose members are also fighting for a first contract.
After 11 days on strike, 150 healthcare techs with OFNHP at St. Charles Hospital in Bend, OR are back on the job. They’ve been fighting for a first contract since organizing in 2019, and details of the strike settlement are unclear, but March 31st is being touted as a new deadline for an agreement. 170 Bourbonnais, IL educators are back on the job with a tentative agreement, after a week on strike.
850 nurses with SEIU Healthcare Wisconsin at Meriter Hospital in Madison, WI are prepared to strike next Wednesday. 1300 Steelworkers for ATI, primarily in Western PA, have authorized a strike and begun protesting -- but not yet striking -- at facilities. After much prelude, grad workers at Illinois State University, with SEIU Local 73, have set a date for their strike authorization vote. Writers for The Chase, a game show on ABC, organized with WGAE, are talking strike.
81,000 state workers in Florida are at an impasse in negotiations with the state. The two biggest unions involved are AFSCME and PBA, and issues range from recall and seniority rights to disciplinary records rules for cops. 500 train operators at the Long Island Rail Road with the Teamsters Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen have requested federal mediation over a contract impasse.
Nursing home workers with SEIU in St. Louis are pushing for $15/hour in the contract they’ve been bargaining for six months. The workers currently make the state minimum of $10.30. AFSCME Local 981 is fighting for a fair contract for building service workers, kitchen workers, clericals and white collar workers at Eastern Illinois University. Bus drivers with ATU Local 1031 in Beaumont, TX are accusing their employer of wage theft during the fog of war that ensued in last month’s winter storms that shut down much of the state. Members of IBEW Local 465 in Imperial, CA, are rallying for a fair contract after 14 months of negotiations with IID, the local irrigation and electricity utility. Over 3,000 healthcare workers at Alameda Health Systems with SEIU 1021 have a tentative agreement after 14 months, which included a five-day strike.
A landlord in NYC’s Chinatown’s refusal to renew a lease means Jing Fong, with its 180 union workers, is being threatened with a permanent shut down. It’s the only unionized restaurant in Chinatown. Ford is backing out of a 2019 contract promise to invest $900 million more in an Ohio plant, to UAW’s dismay, and is instead moving the work to Mexico. After receiving over $8 billion in federal aid, Delta has dropped its union catering subcontractor and is hanging out UNITE HERE members to dry.
Laid-off UNITE HERE members at Holiday Inn Long Beach are pushing for their retention rights, passed by city ordinance last year, to be honored as the County has converted that hotel into long-term housing for the homeless, and dropped some of the former workers. Elsewhere in recall and retention rights for hospitality workers, UH Local 25 in the DMV and Local 26 in the Boston area are pushing to make sure laid-off union members get rehired as the industry recovers. Rutgers adjuncts with AFT are also pushing for reinstatement and a safe return. Grad workers at Cornell have some overlapping demands about safe return as well.
The NLRB has rescinded a proposed rule to overturn the unionization rights of private sector graduate student workers. Pre-2000, the NLRB was agnostic but unfriendly to these workers’ organizing rights. In 2000, the NLRB affirmed their right to organize in response to an NYU organizing drive. Then in 2004, the NLRB reversed themselves. Then back to legalization in 2016 under Obama. Organizing drives since then have lived under the threat of an NLRB reversal, which has a big impact on which unions invest how much in these new organizing efforts, and which tactics these existing units rely on for things like winning a new contract.
IBEW Local 575 is applauding the local solar farm project in Chillicothe, OH breaking ground this year, proving again that supposedly reactionary building trades unions actually don’t care what they’re building, they just want good jobs with actual wages attached, of which the solar farm project in question provides 350, not abstract promises or projections.
K-12: Pasadena teachers sent the District a cease and desist letter for unilaterally imposing return to school dates. K-12 support staff workers in the Cleveland suburbs agreed to a one year wage freeze, because of these uncertain times. At the same meeting, the District signed contracts for over 4 million dollars in school building repairs. More from Greenfield, MA, Peoria, IL, Oakland, CA, Florida, Texas, Portland.
POLITICS & LEGISLATION
The Arkansas state legislature is pushing a bill to outlaw collective bargaining on the state, public college, and public school level, with specific carveouts for cops, firefighters, and some transit workers. The Idaho state senate killed a bill that would’ve allowed districts to stop negotiating with teachers unions. The West Virginia legislature advanced a bill to disrupt dues deduction for teachers unions. Montana’s legislature wants to extend fully at-will probationary periods from six to twelve or eighteen months. The Connecticut state legislature is officially considering a “third category” for “gig workers,” the fake sectoral bargaining model’s legislative debut, courtesy of the CT AFL-CIO and the Uber- and Lyft-funded Independent Drivers Guild, a project of the Machinists, which sounds good in theory but is really organized labor settling short to cut a deal instead of actually contesting for employee status for millions of misclassified workers. Some employers are joining with the Carpenters and other building trades unions to oppose right to work legislation pending in the New Hampshire statehouse.
Congressional Republicans have introduced a bill to end “official time,” whereby union leaders are allowed to conduct union business on the clock. Trump tried to get rid of this standard practice by Executive Order, now the GOP wants to legislate it. Elsewhere in federal union world, several national unions of federal workers say agencies are dragging their feet on Biden’s Executive Orders undoing Trump’s Executive Orders, and wrangling over return-to-work agreements.
The AFL-CIO is calling on the Biden administration to stop imports of solar energy products from China on suspicion of forced labor in Xinjiang.
The UFCW-led fight for grocery worker hazard pay by city ordinance has spread to Arcata, CA, and might come to Eureka and Humboldt soon.
Five Oregon unions -- AFSCME, SEIU Locals 503 and 49, UFCW 555, and PCUN -- are calling on the state to provide additional stimulus checks for qualifying essential workers based on American Recovery Plan funds received from the federal government.
South Carolina state employees are being forced back to in-person work, to much frustration.
Labor Notes has a great piece on the member organizing that went into getting the Butch Lewis Act passed. Some local news covered the impact of the pension legislation as well. Meanwhile, legislators in New York are decrying an apparent “religious exemption” that excludes those who work for St. Clare Hospital, whose pension system has failed.
AFSCME in New Jersey is raising the alarm about low pay for behavioral health services workers.
Members of SEIU UHW at Kaiser in California are organizing recurring protests around the company’s slashing of bonuses for non-executives. SEIU UHW is also pushing a state bill that would require dividends to be paid out to workers who worked through the pandemic.
Governor Andrew Cuomo, with the support of 32BJ and the Building Trades, wants to skirt a local law in NYC that will bring down building emissions in a REBNY-backed effort to instead let building owners buy “energy credits” rather than actually greening their facilities.
Local news has a look into what it would mean if the ballot measure to take away San Antonio police’s collective bargaining rights passes on May 1st. Meanwhile, Washington state police unions, from the Teamsters to AFSCME, are touting their support for (or at least neutrality on) state reform efforts.
UNION LEADERSHIP
The former treasurer of the Metro Detroit AFL-CIO is accused of embezzling about $50,000 in union funds. The former president of the New Castle (PA) Federation of Teachers lost his job with the District after being accused of improper use of about $35,000 of union money.
The Western New YorkArea Labor Federation president is retiring.
The Portland Police Association president has resigned after leaking information to the press about an alleged hit-and-run by the Police Commissioner. This comes during hotly contested union negotiations in which the union is fighting against a voter-mandated civilian oversight board.
Deadline has a fascinating look into SAG-AFTRA’s internal politics, on the occasion of the Los Angeles local passing a resolution to scrap the annual convention and directly elect the top officers through a membership-wide vote.
There's a good article on the League of International Federated Employees in ProPublica: https://www.propublica.org/article/a-trash-industry-union-thrives-and-employees-say-they-are-left-holding-the-bag
It's a mob organization, run by officers ousted from LIUNA.