The week in US unions, December 11-18, 2021

A weekend of travel slowed me down, so thanks for the patience, again. In the spirit of the end of one year and the beginning of a new one, I’d recommend you check out the year in review from Al Bradbury and a look at the biggest potential union fights and contract expirations from Dan DiMaggio, both at Labor Notes.

STRIKES & NEGOTIATIONS

The 1400 BCTGM strikers have another tentative agreement with Kellogg’s, less than two weeks after rejecting the last one, but at least the Battle Creek, MI local (the largest of the four on strike, though not determinative) sounds like they’ll be voting it down, with their local president characterizing the new TA as a “Trojan Horse” at a rally hosted by Bernie Sanders. Voting is scheduled for Monday; we’ll see. Jane Slaughter wrote up the latest for Labor Notes.  The other BCTGM (Local 37) strike happening at Jon Donaire bakery in Santa Fe Springs, CA continues on as workers rejected the company’s latest offer; More Perfect Union is on the story.

UAW 2110 remains on the largest strike in the country, at Columbia University. The university is still actively threatening to replace the student workers, and soliciting other desperate academic workers to take their jobs in the spring. 

After a whopping 284 days, the longest strike in Massachusetts history, that of the Massachusetts Nurses Association at St. Vincent Hospital in Worcester, MA, has a tentative agreement. For months, the final sticking point has been corporate giant Tenet’s vindictive refusal to restore strikers to their old jobs, and a deal was apparently hammered out via Labor Secretary Marty Walsh. In a totally bizarre aside, the local news reported that the scab nurses had collected enough cards to unionize, but were disavowed by whatever field organizer’s boss at AFSCME got wind of it.

Meanwhile, the 1100-strong UMWA strike at Warrior Met in Brookwood, AL, the other insanely long strike, rolls on. Kim Kelly went on the Takeaway to tell the story that she’s been covering closely the entire time. The only other news I’ve seen is a group of 15 senators have signed a letter calling on the company to settle the strike, which, like, cool, it’s been literally over eight months.

The Steelworkers Local 40 strike of 450 workers at Special Metals’s nickel alloy plant in Huntington, WV is going to last through the holidays. The company is looking to gut seniority and triple the health insurance premiums, among other attacks.

In better news, Ironworkers Local 851 has reached a deal with industrial concrete equipment manufacturer Erie Strayer in Erie, PA and workers will return to work after two months on strike, with a dental plan.

A lot of Teamsters are on strike. After eight days on strike, Teamsters Local 396 at Republic sanitation in Anaheim and Huntington Beach, CA have won a tentative agreement, but not before spreading their picket line to Orange County and New Orleans (where you’ll recall Local 270 members struck Republic last month). Picking up where 396 left off, 250 sanitation workers with Teamsters Local 542 in San Diego began a strike at Republic on Friday. 330 concrete truck drivers with Teamsters Local 174 are on strike in the greater Seattle area, and don’t see an end coming before the holidays. Some 75 members of Teamsters Local 773 remain on strike in Bethlehem, PA. And though it’s been many months, a couple dozen members of Teamsters Local 553 in Brooklyn are still striking UMEC, the John Catsamitidis-owned energy company (here’s a story from November on the strike, which began in April). 

The producers of Nefarious, filming in Oklahoma City, have apparently replaced the workers who are striking for recognition through IATSE Local 484. 

UFCW Local 555 won what was supposed to be a 7-day ULP strike against grocery giant Kroger (in the guise of its local avatars, Fred Meyer and QFC) in the Portland, OR area in just 24 hours. Meanwhile, UFCW Local 455 in Texas continues to teeter on the edge of a massive, 14,000-worker strike, but the rumor is that a settlement is in the works.

School bus drivers in Chesterfield County, SC kept the school bus driver strike wave alive this week.

165 Klamath County, OR employees with Laborers Local 737 have voted to authorize a strike; the county is providing cost of living adjustments (of 4%) but not actual base wage increases (the union is pushing for 6% annually).

Workers at Veritiv in Tukwila, WA, which makes paper and packaging products, have authorized a strike over both contract negotiations and COVID workplace safety; the warehouse workers are with Teamsters Local 117, and the drivers are with Teamsters Local 174. Both locals unanimously authorized strikes.

85 airport workers in Minneapolis voted to authorize a strike with Teamsters Local 320, as did 275 court reporters across the state of Minnesota.

Per Don McIntosh at nwLaborPress, 1200 workers across six unions – AFSCME Local 189, IBEW Local 48, Machinists Local 1005, Operating Engineers Local 701, UA Local 290, and Painters District Council 5 – for the City of Portland, OR have reached an impasse in bargaining with the city. This sets in motion a possible strike no sooner than January 19, per Oregon’s public sector labor law.

1500 K-12 educators in the Mt. Diablo Unified School District in Contra Costa County, CA have reached an impasse in bargaining with the district; the psychologists voted to authorize a strike earlier this month. Teachers in Palos Verdes Peninsula, CA have a tentative agreement, as do teachers in Brevard County, FL.

Vermont Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals (AFT) negotiations are not going well with the UVM Medical Center in Burlington, VT. The nurses’ contract doesn’t expire until 2022, and the technical employees in 2023, but could be a sign of things to come. I covered their last strike for Labor Notes in 2018.

Ski patrollers in Breckenridge, CO who organized with CWA this year have their first contract with Vail Resorts. Montgomery County, IL cops with the FOP have a new contract. So do nurses at Warren General Hospital with PASNAP in Warren, PA.

The finance-types are watching the upcoming west coast port negotiations with ILWU quite closely, and note that even if there isn’t a strike, shipping has a funny way of slowing down when bargaining gets tense.

INTERNAL UNION POLITICS

TWU Local 234 president Willie Brown has left his post as local leader of Philadelphia’s SEPTA’s largest union to head up the Transit Division of TWU international. He’ll be replaced by Brian Pollitt to lead the local.

NEW ORGANIZING

New election filings at the NLRB: 

Healthcare: 135 healthcare workers in Seattle are organizing with SEIU 1199NW at Country Doctor Community Health Centers. 55 more workers at the Wellfound Behavioral Health Hospital in Tacoma, WA are also unionizing with SEIU 1199NW (you’ll note that 127 of their coworkers just won their union this week). 50 workers at Preterm, an abortion and sexual health clinic in Cleveland, are organizing with SEIU District 1199 WV/KY/OH. 11 nurses at the Children’s National Outpatient Center in Bowie, MD are unionizing with the DC Nurses Association.

Teamsters: 67 facilities workers at the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence are organizing with Teamsters Local 251. 18 workers at Zurcher Tire in Columbia, MO are unionizing with Teamsters Local 833. Nine sanitation workers for Service Sanitation in Pewaukee, WI are unionizing with Teamsters Local 695. Nine warehouse workers for FreezPak Logistics in Philadelphia are joining Teamsters Local 169. Nine more workers for Congo Brands are (which I don’t know what they do but probably beverage distribution on account of them) organizing with Teamsters Local 830, also in Philadelphia. Five truck drivers with Tyler Trucking in Bethesda, OH are unionizing with Teamsters Local 697. Three parking attendants for Pacific Parking in Brooklyn, NY are joining Teamsters Local 272.

Everybody else: 94 more workers for North Pacific Paper Corporation paper mill in Longview, WA are organizing (in two separate petitions) with ILWU Local 21 while the Association of Pulp and Paper Workers (UBC) seeks to get on the ballot as well (judging by the filings, which, as I always reiterate, are vague unless you FOIA them which I will not be doing though I encourage an enterprising journalist to go ahead and do). 55 bookstore workers at iconic DC bookstore Politics & Prose are unionizing with UFCW Local 400, and management’s refusal to recognize the union is causing a stir among the liberal-progressive types who frequent the stores (I bought Capital there! Is there no ethical consumption of Capital?!) 47 more Starbucks workers – this time in Allston and Brookline, MA – are unionizing at two stores with Workers United. 16 journalists for WGBO in Chicago are organizing with SAG-AFTRA. 11 parts employees at three locations of construction equipment dealer Alta in Gary, IN, Ottawa, IL, and Spring Grove, IL are unionizing with Operating Engineers Local 150. 11 “acoustic and electronic warfare operators'' for a defense contractor at the Jacksonville and Mayport, FL Naval Air Stations are unionizing with what appears to be an independent union (small military base defense contractor units being a consistent target of the Machinists and Operating Engineers, one wonders if one of them will get involved). Eight workers for RBP Chemical Technology, which makes chemicals for circuit boards (?) in Milwaukee are unionizing with UFCW Local 1473. 

NLRB election wins…: 597 faculty at Antioch University’s campuses in Keene, NH, Culver City and Santa Barbara, CA, plus online faculty, voted 231-37 to join SEIU Local 925. 130 school bus drivers for Hopewell Transportation in Carol Stream, IL voted a whopping 61-2 to join Teamsters Local 777. In two votes, 127 workers at the Wellfound Behavioral Health Hospital in Tacoma, WA voted 72-4 to join SEIU 1199NW. CWA has filed for separate elections at 11 (I believe) field offices of the National Audubon Society, after winning their campaign to unionize the national office staff; this week 122 staffers voted 86-14 to join the union, from Anchorage, AK to Durham, NC. 66 nurses voted to join PASNAP at Butler Memorial Hospital in Butler, PA in a 43-12 vote. 24 school bus drivers for Dean Transportation in Roscommon, MI voted to join the independent Dean Transportation Employees Union. 24 workers at the Garfield Beach CVS in Reseda, CA voted 13-8 to join UFCW Local 770. 22 workers for airport contractor Primeflight Cargo in El Paso, TX voted 8-0 to join Teamsters Local 745. 20 workers at Verilife Cannabis Dispensary in Ottawa, IL voted 15-1 to join Teamsters Local 777; 14 more workers at the Verilife in Romeoville, IL voted 5-0 to do the same. 19 workers for Semper Fi Express in Madison, WI, which contracts with DHL, voted 5-2 to join Teamsters Local 344. 14 slot machine technicians at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Wheatland, CA joined Operating Engineers Local 39 in a 6-3 vote. 12 power plant workers for Ameren in Steedman, MO voted 8-3 to join Operating Engineers Local 148. Six surgical techs at Rice Memorial Hospital in Willmar, MN voted 5-0 to join AFSCME Local 3296. All three stationary engineers at Nature’s Fynd – which makes “fungi-based foods for optimists” in Chicago – voted to join Operating Engineers Local 399. Two biomedical techs at USC’s Keck Medicine in Los Angeles both voted to join NUHW. 

…and losses: UNITE HERE lost another massive vote at HelloFresh, this time in Richmond, CA, where the 763 workers voted 198-289 against unionizing. UFCW Local 876 also lost a big one, with 165 workers at Garden Fresh Gourmet in Ferndale, MI, which I believe makes salsa and was recently sold by Campbell’s Soup, voted 25-79 against the union. 52 warehouse workers at Canon in Menlo Park, CA split right down the middle, 22-22, on joining Teamsters Local 853. Nine workers at Eversource Energy in Berlin, CT voted against joining IBEW Local 457, 3-6. Two nurses at a Providence Medical clinic in Eureka, CA couldn’t agree, splitting 1-1 on joining the California Nurses Association.

Decertifications and raids: Someone has filed a decertification petition for the 637 nurses of St Vincent Hospital in Worcester, MA; unclear if this is related to the weird story of the scabs trying to organize with AFSCME (see above) or just weak timing on the company’s part (kind of telling if it took you eight months to find enough signatures to file a de-cert), considering the Massachusetts Nurses Association has just reached an agreement… but notable. Not sure the full story here, but 202 staffers at MESSA, the insurance/benefits agency for Michigan K-12 workers, voted 135-12 to stick with their independent union over joining the United Staff Organization (one of NEA’s national staff unions). 170 workers at CarePoint Health – Christ Hospital in Jersey City, NJ stuck with NUHHCE District 1199J (AFSCME) in a 96-27 vote against an attempted decertification. 20 workers at Comcast in Florence, AL decertified their union, IBEW Local 558, in a 6-9 vote.

Security guards: 130 security guards at the Dominion Energy Power Station in Surry, VA are unionizing with the National Union of Nuclear Security Officers, though obviously at least one other security union will likely try to get in on the action. 44 security guards at the Lake City Army Ammunition Plant in Independence, MO voted 11-6 to join SPFPA over PSOs United. 22 security guards at the Social Security Administration building in Baltimore are joining the Federal Contract Guards of America, as are 10 guards at the DEA training facility in Quantico, VA. 15 more security guards in DC are joining the high-falutin National League of Justice and Security Professionals – who wouldn’t join an organization with a name like that?

Outside the NLRB: In the biggest new union win of the week, 1,547 graduate student workers at the University of New Mexico won a card check with the UE, though the administration is still bent on fighting it. Video game workers at Vodeo Games won voluntary recognition through CODE CWA (in stark contrast to Activision Blizzard).