For Labor Notes and the Intercept, I reported on IBEW members who contracted COVID while building a vaccine packaging facility in Indiana that had rampant health and safety violations on the part of contractor ERMCO and Operation Warp Speed partner Catalent. Lots of wild details in this one, another look at the human costs of the US’s response to the pandemic. If you have any similar stories, drop me a line.
NEW ORGANIZING
New organizing filings at the NLRB: 100 educators at Intrinsic charter schools in Chicago are organizing with the Chicago Teachers Union. 61 manufacturing workers for Wabtec in Las Vegas are organizing with the UE, who already represent Wabtec workers in Erie, PA. 50 heavy equipment operators and mechanics for Central Contractors in Alsip, IL are organizing with Operating Engineers Local 150. 50 demolition workers and laborers for IBN Construction in Newark, NJ are organizing with the Laborers, I think (filing is unclear). 48 workers at telecom provider WOW! In Warrenville, IL are organizing with IBEW Local 21. 29 EMTs and paramedics at Westerly Ambulance in Westerly, RI are organizing with the International Association of EMTs and Paramedics, a local of NAGE-SEIU. 28 editorial staff at The State in Columbia, SC are organizing with the Washington Baltimore NewsGuild. 26 workers at Railway Specialties in Croydon, PA, who make doors and components for ships, are organizing with the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers. 21 tankermen with Centerline Logistics in Los Angeles Harbor are joining either Masters, Mates & Pilots or the Seafarers. 20 workers with Block by Block, a contractor for Business Improvement Districts, are organizing with SEIU 32BJ in Washington, DC.
Small shops: 16 workers at ALS Minerals in Fairbanks, AK, which does “geochemistry” are organizing with Laborers Local 942. 13 truck drivers for Serta in Charlotte, NC are organizing with Teamsters Local 71. 13 “shredspecialists” at Shred-It in Syracuse, NY are organizing with Teamsters Local 317. 12 police sergeants at Brown University are joining the International Brotherhood of Police Officers. 11 concrete panel installers for US Crane at the Greenpoint Landing development site in Greenpoint, Brooklyn are organizing with Iron Workers Local 197. Nine drivers for Dura-Kast Concrete in Springfield, MO are joining Teamsters Local 245. Eight security guards at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx are joining either the Special Superior Officers Benevolent Association or the Special Patrolman’s Benevolent Association. Eight school bus drivers with M&J in Salem, CT are joining Teamsters Local 493. ATU Local 628 is adding a single fueler for shuttle operator SP+ Corp at the Cincinnati Airport into their existing unit.
NLRB wins…: 292 healthcare techs at the DMC Huron Valley-Sinai Hospital in Commerce, MI voted 135-48 to join SEIU Healthcare Michigan, in the third-largest NLRB new organizing win of 2021 so far. 261 security guards at the Denver Airport are joining LEOS-PBA after a 101-79 vote. 210 CRNAs at three Beaumont hospitals in Royal Oak, Troy, and Grosse Pointe, MI have formed Southeastern Michigan CRNAs and Associates, which I believe is sort of a breakaway from SEIU Healthcare Michigan after they were subcontracted (a not-uncommon phenomenon among nurse anesthetists). After counting the ballots on March 13, 2020 (yes, 2020), the ILWU Local 6 vote of 93-90 at fancy bakery Tartine in San Francisco was finally certified; 200 workers will finally be union members, 377 days late, which is just unacceptable, though good news. 107 security guards at Mount Sinai West and Mount Sinai Morningside in NYC have voted 35-16-1 to join National Security Officers Benevolent Local 971/550 over Special and Superior Officers Benevolent Association. 83 security guards at 10 federal facilities in Louisiana voted 25-10-0 to join UGSO Local 287 over SPFPA. 68 mental healthcare workers at the ReDCo Group in Pottsville, PA voted 39-4 to join SEIU Local 668. 44 staffers at the Animal Legal Defense Fund in Cotati, CA voted 24-13 to join NPEU, Nonprofit Professional Employees Union, IFPTE Local 70. 35 cleaners with Airway at the Philadelphia Airport voted 13-7-0 to join UCTIE Local 621 over SEIU 32BJ. 35 legal workers at immigration law firm Curran, Berger, & Kludt in Northampton, MA voted 16-1 to join UAW Local 2322. The 29 dispensary workers at Windy City Cannabis in Chicago (on Weed Street, no less) squeaked out an 11-10 win to join UFCW Local 881; Jacobin spoke with a worker there during the campaign. 22 Pepsi delivery and warehouse workers in Springfield, MO are sticking with the union, beating a decertification vote against Teamsters Local 916 8-7.21 elevator mechanics at Executive Elevator in Louisville, KY voted 11-7 to join the International Union of Elevator Constructors. 18 LPNs in Bloomfield, CT’s Touchpoints nursing home swept their election, 17-0, to join SEIU 1199 New England. 13 staffers at ACLU Georgia in Atlanta voted 12-0 to join IBEW Local 613; they asked for voluntary recognition, as has been the path for other state ACLU staffs (though certainly not all), but management hired an anti-union lawyer, so they took it to the NLRB, and won. 13 skilled tradesmen at OCM Construction in Buffalo, NY voted 10-0 to join Heat and Frost Insulators Local 4. Nine sanitation workers for Republic in San Diego, CA voted 8-0 to join Teamsters Local 542. Eight janitors in Torrance, CA at the Del Amo facility are joining SEIU United Service Workers West after a 6-1 vote. ATU 1091 organized clerical workers at Austin, TX paratransit service Ride Right; looks like one location voted 5-0 to unionize, one voted 1-1 not to. The scale house attendant at the recycling depot in Richmond, CA voted (unanimously, I guess) 1-0 to join Teamsters Local 315.
…and losses: 88 ski patrollers at Keystone Resort in Keystone, CO barely lost their union vote, 34-35, to join CWA. 50 steel drum manufacturing workers at Greif Packaging delivered a 23-23 deadlock in Warminster, PA, thus not joining Steelworkers Local 10-286. 48 drivers for restaurant supplier Performance Foodservice in Warren, MI voted 10-25 not to join Teamsters Local 337. 44 healthcare techs at 10 White Plains Hospital outpatient facilities in Westchester County, NY voted 17-26 not to join megalocal 1199 SEIU. Two dispatchers at Mauser Packaging in Chicago split, 1-1, on whether to join Teamsters Local 705, and thus will remain non-union.
Outside the NLRB: Indie music label consortium Secretly Group has voluntarily recognized its employees union through OPEIU Local 174. The staff of RepresentUs, the “largest grassroots anti-corruption org” have 85% of workers signed up on cards and are asking for recognition through OPEIU Local 153. Duke UniversityPress employees are organizing for voluntary recognition with the Washington Baltimore NewsGuild.
120 Strong, the grassroots network of Kentucky educators that brought the #RedforEd strikewave to that state in 2018, is now forming an official statewide local of AFT.
The Steelworkers are appealing what seems to me -- though I am not a lawyer -- like a bonkers decision from the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board that says that the Pitt grad student workers election, which they lost by 39 votes in 2019, was not corrupted by well-documented management interference, since a coercive email in question was only sent to 34 students, less than the margin of the loss. I’m sure that one email was the only bit of coercion in the election.
In December, the Massachusetts Nurses Association won (by a hair) against a decertification effort at St Luke’s Hospital in New Bedford, MA. Local news has a look into the lingering divides among the 800 nurses there.
Sarah Jones has a look into how supposedly progressive data firm Civis treats its workers, which includes such gems as firing people without telling them. Caroline O’Donovan tells us all about how Amazon just keeps breaking the law, undeterred; the NLRB is considering aggregating cases against the retail giant, in a rare move. Brandon Magner writes on what the PRO Act would have meant for the Bessemer union drive. Luis Feliz Leon has a great final dispatch from Bessemer before votes are counted.
On the day voting ended at Amazon in Alabama, voting began in the second-largest union election in the country, at Maine Medical Center, whose 1900 nurses are organizing with the Maine State Nurses Association of NNU.
STRIKES & BARGAINING
1300 Steelworkers at ATI, mostly in Western, PA (the “A” in ATI stands for Allegheny) but some other areas (like Lockport, NY) are on strike. These workers haven’t had a raise since 2014, and were locked out in 2015. The company has non-union operations in the South, and is absolutely nasty, bringing in scabs to keep the plants operating.
200 members of UAW 3057 in Scottsville, TX are on strike at Prysmian Group, which makes telecom products.
130 members of Steelworkers Local 6943 are in week two of a strike at Bradken Foundry in Atchison, Kansas. A restraining order has limited their legal right to picket, because in this country the freedom of association dies when the boss says so.
Massachusetts Nurses Association nurses in Worcester, MA are still striking St Vincent Hospital, and the hospital is spending $30k/day on a police detail rather than drop the staffing ratio by one patient.
The Care Center of Honolulu locked out its union workers during contract negotiations, says the Hawaii Hospital and Health Care Workers Union.
Tonight, barring an agreement, 1100 miners with the UMWA will walk off the job in Brookwood, AL at mine operator Warrior Met. The last UMWA strike over 1,000 workers was in 2007 in Pennsylvania, and the last UMWA strike this big in Alabama was in 1993.
Members of the New York NewsGuild at Conde Nast outlets The New Yorker, Pitchfork, and Ars Technica have nearly unanimously voted to authorize a strike. Each group of workers is seeking a first contract, with The New Yorker negotiations stretching over two years.
Faculty at Oregon Tech in Klamath Falls, OR with AAUPare considering a strike vote.
240 nurses with Teamsters Local 690 at the Lewiston (Idaho) Medical Center are talking strike, after trying to negotiate a first contract for a year and a half. Sixty of the nurses have engaged in a sort of work-to-rule, refusing any voluntary or extra work, to send a message, but the hospital apparently isn’t getting it.
IWW members picketed the Dill Pickle Food Co-Op in Logan Square, Chicago, for running roughshod over their contract and disciplining their stewards.
After their nine day strike at St Charles Hospital in Bend, OR, 130 medical techs now have a first contract with ONFHP, that includes an average 25% raise.
The Teamsters are calling on shareholders to deny a pay raise for Marathon executives, as the lockout in Minnesota among 200 members of Teamsters Local 120 refinery workers drags on into its third month. Locals are also calling for a Speedway gas boycott to support the workers.
Frito-Lay workers with BCTGM Local 218 in Topeka, KS continue to speak out about management abuse in the plant, in their fight for a fair contract.
The New York State Nurses Association is sounding the alarm about OSHA violations at Albany Medical Center. The 2200 nurses organized a one-day strike in November, after voting to join NYSNA in April 2018.
K-12: After initially voting against complying with reopening, the Seattle Education Association has ratified an agreement to go back to work next week.Santa Fe teachers have an agreement as well. The Milwaukee Teachers Education Association called their district’s plan “a mess.” Hartford, CT public schools are reopening over the union’s objections. La Crosse, Wisconsin public schools are ending their contract with the police department after the police union posted public attacks against a member of the newly-formed civilian oversight board, citing concerns over harassment and intimidation.
Whoops! The Santa Clara, CA police union accidentally did a protection racket, telling businesses to donate so their “friendlys” would support them.
City workers with AFSCME Local 1132 in Moline, IL, won a new contract after 16 months of bargaining, where the city tried to enforce pay freezes and cuts, and seems to have successfully implemented two-tier retirement benefits.
A UFCW rep says they raised the issue of a possible active shooter scenario at a King Soopers store in Boulder, CO, and the concern was dismissed by management. Soon after, as we know, there was in fact a mass shooting at a King Soopers in Colorado.
POLITICS & LEGISLATION
A state bill in Vermont targets teacher and state employee pension plans, increasing worker contributions and raising the age for eligibility, to close a pension funding shortfall. State workers and Vermont teachers in particular are protesting, claiming the #RedforEd mantle; something to watch closely.
The Connecticut state legislature dropped a proposal to establish Prop 22 special status for independent contractors, apparently after the national AFL-CIO raised objections with the state federation, per Josh Eidelson.
Bills in the New York state legislature to cut red tape around certification for green energy construction projects are drawing concern from the Civil Service Employees Association, AFSCME’s largest affiliate, as it would take away work from their members, who provide public oversight -- which also has serious safety implications -- of construction permitting processes.
The Department of Labor is undoing a Trump-era rule about union financial disclosures that, among other things, required unions to publish how large their strike funds are.
In NYC, DSA candidate for City Council Michael Hollingsworth has been endorsed by Laborers Local 79, notable for being the first time (as far as I know) an NYC building trades union has endorsed a DSA candidate. In Ohio, the trades (plus UAW) are playing their more traditional role of lining up behind the conservative pick, but plenty of unions have come out for the anti-establishment Nina Turner, which feels like a new day.
UNION LEADERSHIP
Thousands of members of stage actors union Actors Equityhave organized a petition pushing their union to revisit its stance on reopening, wanting an ease on work rules and health and safety demands, in an internal fight in that union.
Brigette Browning of UNITE HERE Local 30will be the new head of San Diego’s Central Labor Council, running unopposed for secretary-treasurer.
The former chairman of the FOP chapter representing cops at the Pentagon has pleaded guilty to embezzling almost $400k from his union.
In terms of membership, the UAW is doing just fine, maintaining their finances despite the pandemic. In terms of leadership, everything is quite up in the air, with a referendum expected this fall on whether to institute “one member one vote” (as opposed to indirect elections by delegate) as a cure for the corruption and concessions scandals that have rocked the union. Incidentally, I’m working on a piece on that referendum, the subsequent leadership elections, and what it means for UAW members. If you’re a member of the UAW and have thoughts on the matter, shoot me an email.
https://iatsecares.org/2021/03/31/iatse-organizes-broadcast-techs-at-program-productions-in-south-florida/?link_id=3&can_id=937222f2f11c023ea91dc02f840e1f5a&source=email-weekly-newsletter-3122021-3&email_referrer=email_1129580&email_subject=weekly-newsletter-422021
More on The State in Columbia: https://brutalsouth.substack.com/p/22-dress-your-baby-in-a-union-onesie