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

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NEW ORGANIZING

New election filings at the NLRB: 400 workers for Keurig Dr. Pepper in Windsor, VA are organizing with the RWDSU, in what would be the biggest blue collar union win of 2021 yet, if they can pull it off; across the country, in Fresno, CA 32 more Keurig Dr. Pepper workers are unionizing with Teamsters Local 431. 62 nursing home workers at the Mark Twain Caring Center in Poplar Bluff, MO are organizing with UFCW Local 655. 60 food service workers at Tucson, AZ brunch spot Prep & Pastry are unionizing with the UFCW. 36 staffers at non-partisan pro-voting non-profit Democracy Works in NYC are unionizing with the News Media Guild (TNG-CWA). 26 production workers who make pallets for Millwood, Inc in Rochester, NY are organizing with BCTGM Local 116. 25 retail workers at regional books, music, and video game chain store Bull Moose in Salem, NH are unionizing with the UFCW. 18 ride mechanics and maintenance workers at Pittsburgh-area amusement park Kennywood are unionizing with Operating Engineers Local 66. 18 CVS workers in Imperial Beach, CA are organizing with UFCW Local 770, 17 CVS workers in Rancho Santa Margarita, CA with UFCW Local 324, and another eight CVS workers in Hemet, CA with UFCW Local 1167. 11 attorneys and legal workers for Volunteers of Legal Service, a legal non-profit in NYC, are unionizing with UAW Local 2325, the Association of Legal Aid Attorneys. 10 heavy equipment operators for mining company Agregados Piedra Blancain Arecibo, PR are unionizing with LIUNA. Six developers for the San Francisco Chronicle are unionizing with the Pacific Media Workers Guild (TNG-CWA), at the nexus of tech worker and journalism organizing. Four production techs at NYC venue City Winery are joining IATSE Local 1.

NLRB election wins…: 74 rail maintenance of way workers for Bombardier, working on the San Diego-area Sprinter light rail and Coaster commuter rail out of Oceanside, CA voted 45-6 to join the Southwest Regional Council of Carpenters. 31 maintenance workers at Northwest Community Healthcare in Arlington Heights, IL voted 17-14 to join Operating Engineers Local 399. 20 production assistants at Empire City Casino in Yonkers, NY voted 8-0 to join IBEW Local 1212. 15 workers at Montebello Brands in Baltimore, who bottle amazing-looking liquors like Vladimir Vodka, voted 10-4 to join Teamsters Local 570. Six terminal attendants for CEMEX in West Sacramento, CA voted 5-1 to join Teamsters Local 150. Four building engineers at an AT&T data center in San Diego voted 2-0 to join Operating Engineers Local 501. One of two building engineers contracted to work at the FedEx facility in DC voted to join Operating Engineers Local 99, and the other didn’t vote, so they’re union.

...and losses: Teamsters Local 162 narrowly lost a vote among 102 drivers for Imperfect Foods in Idaho, Washington, and Oregon, 42-44; you’ll recall that UFCW Local 5 had better luck with their narrow win at the startup in April in Northern California. 44 weed workers at Sunnyside Dispensary in South Beloit, IL voted 13-20 not to join UFCW Local 881. 27 workers at Veolia in Middlesex, NJ voted 11-15 against joining Operating Engineers Local 825. OPEIU Local 102, the Professional Helicopter Pilots Association, lost an election among 23 flight instructors and similar working for Special Applications Group out of Red Rock, AZ. 15 workers at Hallowell in Munster, IN, which makes metal shelving, voted 5-8 not to join Teamsters Local 142.

Decertifications and raids: While the lockout at ExxonMobil's Beaumont, TX refinery continues, 165 workers at the company's Baton Rouge polyolefins (a common type of plastic) plant just lost their union, after a 51-96 vote to decertify Operating Engineers Local 407, in more bad news for refinery workers; Steelworkers Local 13-12 represents around 1,000 workers at the Baton Rouge refinery (the fifth-largest in the country) and associated plants, and has been locked in contract fights for over a year. Nearly 400 telecom production workers at Prysmian in Scottsville, TX voted to stick with UAW Local 3057, 198-66, a margin made that much more impressive by the fact that workers hired to replace strikers this spring were allowed to vote. NYSNA is facing a decertification petition among their 265 nurses at Hudson Valley Hospital in Cortlandt, NY. Pseudo-union UCTIE Local 621 is raiding a unit of 60 members of UFCW Local 888 who make frozen Jamaican beef patties for Tower Isles Frozen Foods in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn. 

Security guard union squabbles: 50 security guards with SPFPA Local 466 who work at the National Institute of Health in Bethesda, MD are facing a raid from LEOS-PBA. Meanwhile, LEOS-PBA is going after a unit of 40 security guards in and around Harrisburg, PA, who appear to be currently represented by OPEIU Local 4873, the Industrial, Technical, Professional Employees Union. URSO is raiding a unit of 25 security guards currently repped by LEOSU-DC at KR Contracting in Sterling, VA. SPFPA is raiding a unit of 14 FAA security guards in College Park, GA, currently with the Protection & Response Officers of America.

Outside the NLRB: The staff of the non-profit Institute for Local Self-Reliance had their union recognized with OPEIU Local 12. The staff of voting non-profit FairVote Minnesota also had their union voluntarily recognized… and then they were all fired.

The New York Times ran a piece on food service industry organizing in the pandemic, with shout outs to UNITE HERE Local 17 in the Twin Cities and DSA’s Restaurant Organizing Project, among others.

Strikewave took a look at the Workers United campaign to organize workers at primary care wannabe disruptor One Medical.

STRIKES & BARGAINING

BCTGM Local 218 at Frito-Lay in Topeka, KS has a tentative agreement and will be voting Friday morning, but the local president isn’t recommending a “yes” vote. The strike has primarily focused on forced overtime and brutal scheduling as well as low pay, and while the TA addresses the former to an extent (it ends the notorious “suicide” shifts, but workers can still be forced to work 60+ hour weeks), it’s still a 4% raise over two years (though now it’s 3% and 1%, instead of 2% and 2%) which members rejected on the first go-round.

Media Matters took a look at mainstream coverage of the Warrior Met UMWA strike in Brookwood, AL and found that CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News have collectively given zero minutes of coverage to the largest coal strike in years.

Checking in on the Massachusetts Nurses Association strike at St. Vincent Hospital in Worcester, MA, the news is that the company -- Tenet Healthcare -- and the union are meeting again on Thursday and Friday, the 137th and 138th days of the strike.

Workers at Fullerton Auto Group car dealerships in Somerville, NJ are on strike with UAW Local 259, as management refuses to sign a contract after apparently already agreeing to it. I haven’t seen any coverage of the strike, feel free to send me any local stories I may have missed.

Truck drivers in Puerto Rico began an open-ended strike on Wednesday over the fiscal oversight board’s refusal to raise cargo rates and plan to deregulate the freight industry.

Around 20 barbers for contractor Sheffield at Fort Lee, VA remain on strike with Laborers Local 572, after the boss raised haircut prices and lowered barbers’ commissions.

App-based drivers on the west coast, primarily with Rideshare Drivers United, held a one day strike/protest in several cities.

Fight for $15 also held a one-day action among fast food workers in multiple cities, with actions in St. Louis, Flint, Charleston, SC, Marion, NC, and elsewhere.

The two-week metal trades workers strike at Arnold Air Force Base in Tullahoma, TN ended with a 3 year contract.

Over 1500 nursing home workers with SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania are set for a one day strike on July 27th at 21 Guardian Healthcare-owned facilities across the state. The state legislature has responded by proposing reforms to the state’s nursing home regulations.

Nurses at McLaren Macomb Hospital in Mt. Clemens, MI outside Detroit with OPEIU Local 40 have delivered a 10-day strike notice, set to begin July 28th.

Teamsters Local 117 has authorized a strike against grocer Fred Meyer, causing potential distribution issues across Washington state. The contract expired last weekend, so now it’s just a matter of when and whether the union decides to pull the trigger.

Workers at Coca Cola in Bluefield, WV with Teamsters Local 175 have rejected a final contract offer and authorized a strike. Their current contract expires on July 28th.

39 healthcare workers with the Massachusetts Nurses Association announced their intent to strike for seven days, starting July 26th, if their employer, the Visiting Nurse Association of Boston, won’t agree to a first contract.

The Minnesota Association of Professional Employees rallied across the state for a new contract for their 15,000 state workers, and soon after reached a tentative agreement, alongside AFSCME Council 5.

UNITE HERE Local 226, aka the Culinary, won a rare ruling demanding that Las Vegas’s Red Rock Casino recognize the union and bargain a contract.

The Providence Teachers Union has a tentative agreement since state takeover in 2019, and since their contract expired a year ago. Teachers in Orange County, FL are at impasse in salary negotiations with the school district. Contract negotiations in the Edison school district in Berlin Heights, OH have teachers showing up to board meetings in red shirts after the school board declared an impasse after just 3 days of bargaining.

The Writers Guild has joined UNITE HERE Local 11’s boycott of upscale Hollywood hotel Chateau Marmont, over their refusal to rehire union workers post-pandemic. 

A few dozen (though exactly how many is disputed) workers at XPO in Trenton, NJ now have a union contract with the Teamsters. As FreightWaves details, it’s been a long, rocky road to this point, but there are now two XPO union shops. It sounds like the contracts themselves aren’t much to write home about, but the union now has a contractual toehold in one of their biggest organizing targets of recent years.

POLITICS & LEGISLATION

On PRO Act watch, we are still in reconciliation limbo, with no details forthcoming about whether and what provisions of the PRO Act might be passed in the coming days? weeks? But one encouraging development was Democratic holdout Senator Mark Kelly saying he’d support at least some provisions of the act in reconciliation.

After the Maine House of Representatives passed a bill to established a consumer-owned public utility, Governor Janet Mills vetoed it, and the legislature failed to override that veto. IBEW Local 1857 supported that veto, citing the uncertainty around investment that would come with a shift to the public sector, as well as fewer labor protections and rights (namely, they’d lose their right to strike, per Maine state law, and become “open shop,” per Janus).

The battle between the Houston mayor and IAFF Local 341 continues, and the firefighters continue to rack up wins, this time with the reinstatement of their local president in his city job, after an arbitrator ruled he was unjustly fired in January.

INTERNAL UNION POLITICS

Labor Notes has a useful recap of this year’s Teamsters convention, which really drives home just how different the reform efforts are going compared to anything since the 1990s in that union.

Actors Equity is steeply lowering the bar for joining that union, opening membership to any actor or stage manager who’s been paid to work. This follows in the wake of a push for a more racially inclusive union over the past year in particular.

AFT Mississippi is apparently suing AFT and the Jackson (MS) Federation of Teachers for allegedly covering up embezzlement and failing to pay dues to the state organization.