The week in US unions, December 4-11, 2021

STRIKES & NEGOTIATIONS

Having rejected a new tentative agreement, Kellogg’s workers are digging in for an even longer haul, as the company moves to permanently replace the 1400 striking BCTGM members in Omaha, Memphis, Lancaster, PA, and Battle Creek, MI. Joe Biden was finally moved to speak out against the company’s move, which many people were quick to celebrate as unprecedented and an important intervention. It’s better that he said something than if he hadn’t but Brandon Magner quickly pointed out that it’s not unprecedented – Bill Clinton spoke out against Caterpillar during the 17-month UAW strike in the mid-90s. Which, I’ll just let this screenshot of two news headlines of the Caterpillar strike illustrate what a statement, in the absence of legislative or economic action on behalf of the federal government, is worth. Biden is going to need to do more if he’s actually serious about intervening.

Maximillian Alvarez looked at how companies from Kellogg’s to Warrior Met are actively using the courts to break strikes, an age-old tradition in this country. Yet another avenue a pro-labor administration could pursue.

Columbia University student workers with UAW Local 2110 are facing the same sort of retaliation from their employer, with the administration claiming there was “violence” on the picket line, a claim which I have not seen anyone even pretend to try to corroborate. 

Steelworkers Local 40, after two and a half months on strike at Special Metals in Huntington, WV, say they think they’re close to a contract settlement. That’s very much a believe-it-when-you-see-it kind of thing, so give to their strike fund if you can.

Iron Workers Local 851 remains on strike against Erie Strayer, which makes industrial concrete-making equipment, in Erie, PA. Alex Press wrote it up for Jacobin (warning for those of you queasy about dentists).

The 400-some Republic sanitation workers with Teamsters Local 396 remain on strike since mid-week in Anaheim and Huntington Beach, CA; their contract has been expired since September 30th.

What started as a few dozen concrete truck drivers on strike with Teamsters Local 174 has expanded to over 300 members on strike, “stopping the flow of concrete” (as local news reports have put it) in the greater Seattle area, and stopping work on several construction sites. Leverage, baby.

Around 4,000 SEIU Local 521 members in Kern County, CA have a tentative agreement, having authorized a strike last month. Their counterparts in Santa Cruz County, CA authorized a strike just this week.

75 Coca Cola drivers and warehouse workers are on strike with Teamsters Local 773 in Bethlehem, PA.

Video game workers for Fortune 500 gaming company Activision Blizzard have turned their work stoppage – in support of fired coworkers at a subsidiary – into a formal unionization drive with CWA.

Column writers at the Daily Hampshire Gazette in Northampton, MA have joined a byline strike by the Pioneer Valley News Guild.

Several dozen film crew members working in Oklahoma City on the upcoming movie Nefarious which is I think about a demon facing the death penalty went on a recognition strike with IATSE Local 484.

UNITE HERE Local 25 is picketing Colonial Williamsburg (in Williamsburg, VA) over an expired contract.

At Labor Notes, Barbara Madeloni wrote about the state of K-12 work in Lawrence, MA as a case study of all the pressures facing teachers and students.

62 school bus drivers with Teamsters Local 326 held a one-day ULP strike in New Castle County, DE; they’ve apparently rejected four contract offers from First Student. The Teamsters have a national master agreement at the company, but it’s not clear to me whether every local unit is in it, and it doesn’t cover every contract issue (I think economic proposals, i.e. wages and pensions, are handled on the local level but I’m not 100% sure).

SEIU Local 1021 is gearing up to strike the California College of the Arts in the Bay Area, after a 97% strike authorization vote.

The 120 group home workers for Sunrise Group in Connecticut who’ve been on strike with 1199 New England for two months have a tentative agreement with the company.

At Kaiser, UNAC/UHCP, the largest union that was on the brink of striking before a TA was reached, held its ratification votes this week. All of their units except one – the Southern California pharmacists – voted to accept the contract; the 1600 pharmacists will go back to the bargaining table, but I doubt a strike would be back on the table for this small unit. Elsewhere in Kaiser news, UFCW Local 324 won a case against management at the NLRB charging Kaiser managers with “breaching a locked employee file cabinet, and removing and copying union documents.” Sounds pretty bad, right? To pay for their crimes, “the settlement agreement between Kaiser, UFCW Local 324, and the NLRB requires Kaiser to post a notice promising not to violate employees’ rights.” Not a notice!

The APWU has a tentative agreement with the US Postal Service, one of the largest union contracts in the country, covering around 200,000 workers. The ratification vote will be held at some point in the coming weeks.

Other contract settlements and TAs: 4,600 Oregon public university staff with SEIU Local 503 have a new five-year contract. 1200 skilled trades workers across twelve unions at the Los Alamos (NM) National Laboratory have a new contract. St. Cloud, MN educators are voting on a two-year agreement with a 3.75% raise.

POLITICS & LEGISLATION

Outgoing Virginia Governor Ralph Northam is proposing a raise for teachers in that state, as we’ve seen from Louisiana and New Mexico as governors make year-end budget proposals. Incoming Governor Youngkin campaigned on raising teacher salaries too, so we’ll see if it happens.

The Teamsters are continuing their Amazon strategy of targeting local tax abatements and other permitting ordinances on the municipal level, challenging West Covina, CA’s approval of a new Amazon facility.

Kim Moody wrote a great big-picture piece on the supply chain for Labor Notes. (I don’t know if that’s ‘politics’ but we don’t have a ‘the world-system’ section.)

INTERNAL UNION POLITICS

IBEW Local 304 in Topeka, KS became one of a handful of locals to pass a resolution calling on their union to implement a “one member, one vote” system of direct elections of top union officers, at least partly inspired by the UAW victory and Teamsters reform slate being elected. There’s been a simmering “one member, one vote” current in the union for some years, and more members appear to be taking up the cause in advance of the 2022 international convention (postponed to next year due to COVID). If you’re an IBEW member whose local is talking about this, let me know.

NEW ORGANIZING

New election filings at the NLRB: 76 chemical packaging workers for EMCO in North Chicago, IL are organizing with the International Chemical Workers Union Council (UFCW). 48 social services workers at non-profit Care for the Homeless (specifically the Tolentine-Zeiser Community Life Center) in the Bronx are unionizing with AFSCME DC 37, as are 33 more in Manhattan. 41 nursing home workers at Beecher Manor in Evanston, IL are organizing with SEIU Healthcare Illinois and Indiana, as that union continues its nursing home organizing drive in the Chicago suburbs. 38 workers at Enlightened Cannabis for People 2 in Schaumburg, IL are unionizing with Teamsters Local 777. 35 workers at Nelson’s Green Brier Distillery in Nashville are organizing with UFCW Local 1995 (and calling on supporters to send a letter to the CEO). 29 school bus drivers in Pontiac, MI at Trinity Transportation are organizing with Teamsters Local 614. OPEIU Local 30 is organizing 26 dog trainers and vets at Guide Dogs of America in Sylmar, CA. 20 support staffers for Healthcare Services Group in Essex, MD are joining 1199 SEIU. [CORRECTION:] ILWU Local 5 appears to be raiding organizing a unit of 17 childcare workers at Fruit and Flower Child Development Center in Portland, OR; AFT Local 3432, who, according to their exceedingly barebones website, represent workers at another workplace of the Fruit and Flower chain, is trying to get on the ballot. 17 non-profit staffers at POWER Interfaith in Philadelphia are unionizing with SEIU Local 668. Ten warehouse workers for UNFI in Hopkins, MN are joining Teamsters Local 120. Six welders and pipefitters at HVAC company Comfort Systems USA in Montgomery, AL are unionizing with UA Local 52. Six box office workers at Capital One Hall in Tysons, VA are joining IATSE Local 868. Five pharmacy workers at a Safeway in Cottage Grove, OR are joining UFCW Local 555, as are five more at an Albertsons in Klamath Falls, OR. Three parking attendants at Laz Parking in Peekskill, NY are joining Teamsters Local 272. Three sprinklerfitters for Johnson Controls in Seattle are joining Sprinklerfitters Local 699.

NLRB elections wins…: 129 food distribution workers for Performance Foodservice at five locations in Bakersfield, San Marcos, Lancaster, City of Industry, CA and North Las Vegas, NV voted 94-24 to join Teamsters Local 630. 77 workers at Spruce bakery and coffee shop in Boulder, CO voted to join BCTGM Local 26, 31-9. 28 staffers at conservation non-profit Forterra in Seattle voted 18-7 to join OPEIU Local 8. Nine workers at the Seminole Electric Cooperative in Tampa voted 6-2 to join IBEW Local 108. Five supply room clerks at Fort Bliss, TX voted unanimously to join Operating Engineers Local 351. 

…and losses: 51 construction workers for contractor Nieves & Nieves in Lares, PR overwhelmingly (1-26) voted against joining the Laborers District Council of Puerto Rico. 38 steelworkers at Amerinox Processing in Camden, NJ voted not to join SMART Local 19, 6-29.

Decertifications and raids: AFSCME Council 94 is raiding a unit of 83 blue collar employees at Bryant University in Smithfield, RI, currently represented by SEIU breakaway United Service and Allied Workers of Rhode Island, which is about 10% of the latter’s entire membership. Teamsters Local 890 is raiding a unit of 30 Republic sanitation workers in Salinas, CA who are currently represented by the Laborers Local 270; it may be that this was a local company acquired by Republic, and now the Teamsters want to pick up that unit, as they organize at Republic nation-wide, but I can’t say for sure – there’s also a separate decertification petition against Local 270 at Republic.

Security guards: Two security guard unions are fighting over 84 guards at HUD headquarters in DC. 28 security guards at the Intrepid Sea, Air, & Space Museum in Manhattan voted 21-1 to join the Special and Superior Officers Benevolent Association. 

Outside the NLRB: The University of California has been forced to recognize the 17,000 academic workers of Student Researchers United, the UAW-organized academic researchers who authorized a strike and rallied for recognition. It’s one of the biggest newly-organized unions in, I don’t know, decades? The UAW now represents something like 40,000 workers across the University of California system; that alone is something like 10% of the entire UAW membership. Coffee shop workers at Diesel, Forge, and Bloc 11 (all owned by the same people) in the Boston area won voluntary recognition through UNITE HERE’s New England Joint Board, who were also behind other recent coffee union victories in the area. The staff of iHeartMedia are organizing with WGAE.

It was a big week for public sector unionism in Virginia; under the still-newish collective bargaining law, Richmond, VA teachers and Loudoun County, VA county workers now have the legal right to negotiate union contracts. In a similar win, Maryland community college staff can now collectively bargain as well, after the state legislature overrode a governor’s veto on the question. Presumably these will all open up new fights to formally unionize those that haven’t already taken that step or win a contract for those that have (I don’t know the minutiae; in some states you can unionize, you just can’t “collectively bargain,” and different groups of workers are probably at different levels of organization).