The week in US unions, April 15-22, 2021

Hi all! Thanks for reading & sharing these weekly roundups. I wanted to make a quick note that I am officially on the job hunt, and looking for a union job (a member, a staffer, a writer, anything that can help build the movement). Let me know if you’ve got any leads in the greater DC area starting in August (when I’ll be coming off self-imposed paternity leave!).

NEW ORGANIZING

New election filings at the NLRB: 300 cabin cleaners and transporters at the Philadelphia Airport for subcontractor Prospect Airport Services are organizing with UCTIE Local 621 or SEIU 32BJ; I don’t have any inside info, but this is firmly 32BJ’s “turf,” actively organizing airport contractors across the northeast, and UCTIE has been credibly accused of being a company union in the past, so someone should dig and see if these contractors are calling up UCTIE to keep 32BJ out, or if it’s a genuinely contested organizing drive -- there have been several 32BJ & UCTIE entanglements over representing these kinds of workers in the past. 64 workers at Detroit Salt Co. in Detroit are organizing with Operating Engineers Local 324. 57 workers at Scott Brothers Dairy in Chino, CA are organizing with Teamsters Local 63. 50 workers at Coca-Cola in Beckley, WV are organizing with Teamsters Local 175. 48 special education pre-K workers at Easterseals Project Excel in Monticello, NY, are organizing with CSEA, AFSCME Local 1000. 40 ironworkers for DBR/PRISA GROUP in Dorado, PR are organizing with Iron Workers Local 845. 29 counselors and caseworkers for Glove House in Elmira, NY are organizing with Teamsters Local 118. 

Healthcare: 219 RNs at Longmont United Hospital in Longmont, CO are organizing with NNU. 130 workers at Vibra Ballard Rehab in San Bernardino, CA are organizing with SEIU UHW. 126 researchers at Belmont, MA’s famous McLean Hospital are organizing with AFSCME Council 93. 30 hospice and in-home nurses at St Charles Medical Center in Bend, OR are joining the existing Oregon Nurses Association unit there (maybe they saw the healthcare tech strike win at that hospital and felt inspired). 20 EMTs and paramedics with Simsbury Volunteer Ambulance in Simsbury, CT are organizing with the International Association of EMTs and Paramedics, NAGE-SEIU Local 5000.

Organize the South!: 70 security guards working for the Federal Protective Service, DHS, in Columbia, SC are organizing with the Federal Contract Guards of America, with at least 2 other security guard unions intervening. 68 educators at charter school Bricolage Academy in New Orleans are organizing with AFT Local 527, United Teachers of New Orleans. 14 firefighters at Huntington Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula, MS are organizing with IAFF Local 100-97, in the first union election petition in Mississippi in over a year.

Small shops: 21 dispatchers and maintenance workers at MV Transportation in Van Nuys, CA are organizing with Teamsters Local 848. 21 wine delivery drivers at Zephyr Express (Winebow) in Benicia, CA are organizing with Teamsters Local 315. 17 security guards at the Children’s Village, a juvenile justice and foster care facility on Staten Island, NY are joining either the Special Patrolmen Benevolent Association or AFSCME DC 37. 16 workers at a Guitar Center in Seattle are forming a union with Machinists District Lodge 751; there are currently four unionized Guitar Centers in the US (Danvers, MA, Union Sq. NYC, Chicago, and Las Vegas), and those are all RWDSU; maybe somebody’s brother works at Boeing, and suggested they call the Machinists. 15 production workers at “seed enhancer” Incotec in Salinas, CA are organizing with Teamsters Local 890. 14 sheet metal fabricators at 360 Sheet Metal Products in Vancouver, WA are organizing with SMART Local 16. 13 cemetery workers at Glenn Abbey Memorial Park and Mortuary in Bonita, CA are organizing with Laborers Local 89. 11 HVAC techs at Warren Electric, Heating, & Air Conditioning in Paducah, KY are joining Plumbers Local 184. Nine mechanics and warehouse workers for Spider Staging, which makes scaffolding, are organizing with SMART Local 110 in Jeffersonville, IN. Eight building services workers at fancy condo complex 108 Leonard in Tribeca, NYC are joining SEIU 32BJ. Eight electricians at contractor Fortino & Son in Syracuse, NY are organizing with IBEW Local 43. Six warehouse workers for SA-TECH, a staffing agency at Ventura County Naval Base in Oxnard, CA are joining Machinists District Lodge 725. Six electricians at Pacific Shipyards in Honolulu want to join the existing union at their workplace, Boilermakers Local 627. Five mechanics at intermodal freight company Parsec in Harvey, IL are joining Operating Engineers Local 150. Four workers for Bering Global Solutions in San Francisco are joining Operating Engineers Local 39. Four tree-trimmers for Asplundh on the Farmers Electric property in Polo, MO are joining IBEW Local 53. Two hazmat radiation techs at the Marine Corps base in Barstow, CA are joining Teamsters Local 166. 

NLRB wins…: 170 educators at Second City in Chicago, as part of the broader Association of International Comedy Educators in LA, Chicago, and Toronto, voted a whopping 104-6 to join the Illinois Federation of Teachers; in LA and Toronto, the workers are organizing with CWA, in a joint union effort. 80 delivery drivers at start-up Imperfect Foods in San Francisco, Concord, Sacramento, Merced, San Jose, and Reno, NV voted 28-23 to join UFCW Local 5. 52 workers at NPR primetime finance show Marketplace voted in a landslide 37-1 to join SAG-AFTRA. 43 fancy chocolate workers at Dandelion in San Francisco squeaked out a 18-16 win to join ILWU. 42 dispensary workers at Ascend in Springfield, IL voted 20-2 to join UFCW Local 881, joining the weed organizing wave. 32 healthcare techs at the Loretto Hospital on the west side of Chicago voted 27-2 to join SEIU Healthcare Illinois & Indiana. 31 educators at Westinghouse Arts Academy Charter School in Wilmerding, PA voted 14-7 to form an NEA local. 31 Shred-It drivers in Lawrence, NJ voted 18-6 to join Teamsters Local 469. 24 rotators at Taylor Farms in Yuma, AZ are joining Teamsters Local 890 after a 15-5 vote. After a petition was initially filed in December, 15 security guards at the Department of Energy in Germantown, MD finally got their union vote, voting 7-0-0 to join Protective Service Officers United over the National League of Justice and Security Professionals. 12 helicopter mechanics for Southern California Edison Company voted 10-1 to join IBEW Local 47. 

...and losses: 23 security guards at Ward Village, “Honolulu’s premier master-planned community,” voted 3-5 not to join the SPFPA. 2 army trainers for PULAU Corp in Little Falls, MN voted 0-1, not joining Machinists District Lodge 77.

Decertification attempts and raids: In two separate units at UGI, a natural gas and electric utility based in Denver, PA, 104 workers voted 71-11-4 to join Utility Workers Local 2799 over Carpenters Local 2799 (I don’t have the full story here, but the shared local number makes it sound like a raid; there’s no record of UW Local 2799, but there is a record of a small Carpenters 2799, though the majority of UGI workers are IBEW… so it looks to me like UW just successfully raided a Carpenters shop.) 71 sanitation workers in Woodland, CA beat a decertification attempt 47-20, and will remain members of Operating Engineers Local 3. 45 workers at Hood River Distillers in Hood River, OR voted 12-0 against a decertification, sticking with Teamsters Local 670. 39 home health aides at Samaritan Senior Village in Watertown, NY voted 19-10 to stick with 1199 SEIU. 9 workers at Treadwell Corporation, a US Navy contractor in Thomaston, CT that makes oxygen generators, voted unanimously to decertify their union, UAW Local 376. Four Teamsters at Penske in Berwick, PA voted to go non-union, decertifying Teamsters Local 401. 

Outside the NLRB: 122 workers at the Skokie Public Library (IL) won their union through SEIU Local 73. University of New Mexico grad student workers are continuing their push for recognition with the UE. Over 300 workers at Insider (formerly known as Business Insider) went public with a demand for voluntary recognition with the New York NewsGuild. Workers at fancy Los Angeles donut chain Donut Friend have organized for recognition, and have been met with nastiness, despite whatever “punk” vibes ownership espouses, so they’re taking it to the NLRB. In the East Bay, charter school workers at Caliber are organizing a union through the IWW. In San Diego, the largest charter chain in the County, High Tech High, are forming a union of around 400 educators with the California Teachers Association.

There’s simply too many Amazon takes still flowing to recap them all here, but of note: RWDSU has filed objections with the NLRB that could trigger a re-run, and Luis Feliz Leon of Labor Notes sat down with lead organizer Joshua Brewer for a first-hand deep dive account of what went wrong, what went right, and what might be next.

STRIKES & BARGAINING

Around 2,900 autoworkers with UAW 2069 at Volvo in Dublin, VA have walked off the job, in arguably the largest strike, in terms of number of workers, of 2021 (it’s right up there with the Columbia grad workers). It’s the first strike at the plant since 2008, which is Volvo’s only North American plant, though the Mack plant that saw a 12 day strike in 2019 is owned by the same parent company, the Volvo Group. The contract expired on March 16th, and bargaining is set to resume on Monday.

The Steelworkers have released a bargaining update that gives a better rundown of the 1300-member ATI strike than any other news source I’ve seen. In short, the company has given the union a deadline of Monday to fold to their demands “or else.” The union specifically cites the COBRA extension, unemployment benefits, and strike funds as sources of strength to hold out. Every indication is of a long haul strike.

Over a thousand UMWA miners remain on strike at Warrior Met outside Tuscaloosa, AL, in the face of court injunctions against some very standard picket line behavior.

Nurses at St. Vincent Hospital in Worcester, MA say the hospital has spent $40 million on prolonging the strike, which began on March 8th. That includes paying scabs around 200% of a nurse’s wage, and heavy security details, which are keeping busy harassing supporters on the picket line.

A non-union employee at the Prysmian UAW Local 3057 strike in Scottsville, TX hit a striking worker with their car on the picket line. The worker is suing Prysmian for damages. The 200 or so workers at the telecom manufacturer have been on strike since March 27th. 

24 Teamsters are on strike at Scheppers Distributing, an alcohol distributor in Columbia and Jefferson City, MO, with Local 833.

84 hospital workers with SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania are on a 3-day strike at Tyler Hospital in Tunkhannock, PA. You should donate to their strike fund here.

155 California Nurses Association nurses struck Barton Memorial Hospital in South Lake Tahoe, CA for 48 hours. The nurses first organized in 2017 and struck in 2019.

Non-union workers for contractor Unifi at the Missoula Airport either struck or protested (I’ve seen different accounts), and were fired.

Grad student workers at Columbia with UAW reached a tentative agreement, though not everyone’s happy about it. Even the NYU UAW grad worker local 100 blocks downtown felt compelled to encourage a longer period of debate. So you can be sure that when NYU grad students strike if they hit their April 26 strike deadline without an agreement (which rumors say is the way things are going), they’ll have a plenty long debate period on any ratification. 400 grad student workers with SEIU Local 73 at Illinois State University authorized a strike, but haven’t yet given the legally-required 10-day notice to actually walk.

1300 members of IBEW Local 824, who work for telecom utility Frontier in and around Tampa, have authorized a strike by 90%. The company and the union agreed to extend their negotiations for a week, with the new expiration date being Friday (tomorrow). 

SEIU 1021 set a date for a 2-day strike of 1900 K-12 support workers in the Sacramento Public Schools around unsafe reopening, but reached a deal including expanded leave provisions, more PPE, and stipends, and called off the strike. Elsewhere in California, the Oxnard union filed an unfair labor practice, and plenty other districts are still wrangling over details of in-person schooling.

Having authorized a strike, 220 Boeing workers in Washington State with Teamsters Local 174, won a tentative agreement and ratified a contract.

Bargaining between the City of St. Louis and its police union has hit an impasse, with city officials saying that that nullifies at least some of the contract provisions. 

Public sector collective bargaining in Virginia is beginning to take hold, as the first two jurisdictions -- the City of Alexandria and Loudoun County -- pass collective bargaining ordinances. Under the new state law, local authorities have to opt in to public sector bargaining, and campaigns have sprung up around the state to win strong ordinances. Matt Jones of the Virginian-Pilot had a great story of how teachers union organizing got a shot in the arm during the pandemic over workplace safety, and have taken that energy into the collective bargaining fight.

After 17 months of contract negotiations with ATU Local 1039, the Lansing, MI mass transit service unilaterally cut retirement healthcare for new hires and curbed overtime, among other changes.

In the midst of a contentious bargaining fight, the new transit contractor in Loudoun County, VA, Keolis, wants to trigger essentially a recertification election (they’ve filed an RM petition at the NLRB, for you labor law heads) among current ATU Local 689 members.

Teamsters Local 804, representing NYC-area UPS workers, has organized two actions targeting management for firing around a dozen part-timers who refused (supposedly) voluntary overtime, including a woman who is 8 months pregnant. (I haven’t found any reporting on this yet, so I’ll just link to 804’s Twitter account, where you can see plenty of speeches from the rallies.)

The Jefferson Federation of Teachers, in Jefferson Parish, LA, say the school board their is trying to circumvent the collective bargaining process by changing work rules and conditions by board vote. Anchorage Public Schools aren’t circumventing the contract, they’re just offering a zero percent raise. Northern Michigan University faculty are decrying a similar no-raise contract offer. The Chicago Teachers Union are touting their high school reopening agreement and its provision negotiating vaccine distribution for high schoolers. Elsewhere in education unionism, Charlie Miller has a piece in the YDSA publication about last month’s undergraduate worker strike by UE members at Kenyon College.

Pittsburgh Department of Sanitation Teamsters — who you might remember held a job action early on during COVID — have a new 5 year contract. Memphis sanitation workers, however, have been snubbed by the city; cops and firefighters have been offered a 2% raise, while sanitation, parks, and public works AFSCME employees get nothing.

POLITICS & LEGISLATION

Two of the five remaining Democratic Senator holdouts, Angus King of Maine and Joe Manchin of West Virginia, came out in support of the PRO Act. This leaves just the two Senators from Arizona (Kelly & Sinema) and Mark Warner of Virginia. Some unions are committing to withholding campaign contributions if the holdouts don’t fall in line, which would be particularly bad news for Kelly, who’s up for re-election next year and won by just 80,000 votes, about half the number of union members in Arizona. Getting to 50 co-sponsors would mean Schumer bringing it to the floor of the Senate (if he keeps his word) and then having either a reconciliation or filibuster fight, or both. My hot take has been that a filibuster confrontation was coming sooner or later, and PRO is not bad terrain for that battle, as there’s a well-organized and visible constituency (union members and leaders) who will be very invested in the outcome. If it dovetails with a massive reconciliation deal on Biden’s infrastructure package, PRO, or at least a number of its provisions, could pass quietly as a footnote, much like COBRA extensions and Butch Lewis Act in the American Recovery Plan. Who knows. But we’re two steps closer this week than we were last week, and DSA has passed 600,000 calls made in their campaign. If you want to get involved in that effort, sign up here.

The United Mine Workers of America have come out in support of a plan to transition to renewable energy, backing parts of Joe Biden’s climate plans, they announced in a joint talk with Sen. Joe Manchin (same talk in which Manchin endorsed PRO, if you’re wondering maybe why that happened). But don’t call it a “just transition,” says union president Cecil Roberts. Some of the policy details aren’t so different from prior pronouncements, but the message they’re sending certainly is, in the age of the Green New Deal.

In Ohio, both the AFT and the FOP opposed a bill that would arm public school teachers, but for very different reasons. The FOP basically said more cops in schools (i.e., more FOP members) is the answer; the AFT basically said that that money would be better spent on public education itself. 

A couple of anti-union bills have died in the Florida state legislature, in an unexpected but welcome turn of events.

UNION LEADERSHIP

In Florida, former leadership of Teamsters Local 385, who represent, among others, mascot workers at Disney World, lost a court case to end the International Union's trusteeship of the local that's been in place since June 2019.

The Sacramento Bee has a look into how bad the past year (and beyond) has been for the United Farm Workers, with a massive decertification, COVID deaths, and a looming loss at the Supreme Court, among other setbacks.

Tiffany Choi, a young leader of the 2019 Denver teachers strike, has lost her re-election bid for president of the Denver Classroom Teachers Association. 

Frances Madeson at Jewish magazine Tablet Mag had a somewhat beautiful and somewhat brutal profile of RWDSU President Stuart Applebaum.