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

Welcome to the sixth weekly union round-up from Who Gets the Bird? I (re-)wrote a short essay trying to explain myself for the readers at Discontents; check out their very good authors who write about things you are probably also interested in. As always, I appreciate folks spreading the word about this project, letting me know what you think, and updating me about what’s going on in your union or area.

NEW ORGANIZING

NLRB new organizing filings this week:

Food & wholesale: 339 workers at Colectivo Coffee Roasters in Milwaukee, and in 20 cafes in Milwaukee, Madison, and Chicago, are organizing with IBEW Locals 494 and 1220. Teamsters Local 386 is organizing 44 drivers at mega wholesaler Sysco in Modesto, CA; I’d be curious to know what density the Teamsters have organized among Sysco drivers, this is the kind of organizing in core industries that we need much, much more of. BCTGM Local 53 is organizing 35 bakers at the 105-year-old Orwashers Bakery in the Bronx.

Manufacturing: 330 production workers at Howmet Aerospace in La Porte, Indiana, are organizing with Machinists Lodge 2018. 25 production and maintenance employees at specialty fiber manufacturer Unifrax, also in Tonawanda, NY, are organizing with the Steelworkers. 23 International Paper workers in Beaverton, OR are organizing with the Association of Western Pulp and Paper Workers, which has one of the best union logos I’ve seen, and is an affiliate of the Carpenters.

Healthcare: 327 hospital workers at the Detroit Medical Center Huron Valley - Sinai Hospital are organizing with SEIU Healthcare Michigan, with Teamsters Local 283 and Michigan Nurses Association both intervening; I’m not sure whether they are all going for the same unit, or if MNA and the Teamsters just want craft carve-outs (RNs and blue collar, respectively), but hopefully it doesn’t prevent these 300 workers from winning a union. Sixty healthcare workers at five Samaritan Pacific Health Services clinics in western Oregon are organizing with SEIU Local 49. SEIU Healthcare Illinois & Indiana is organizing 34 technical employees at the Loretto Hospital on Chicago’s West Side.

Others: 103 union staffers at the Public Employees Federation, which represents 50,000 New York State employees, are organizing a staff union with Steelworkers Local 9625. Insulators Local 4 is organizing about 75 insulators at five different contractors in Western New York. Forty techs at Ira Toyota and fifteen techs at Ira Subaru dealerships in Danvers, MA are organizing with Machinists District Lodge 15. Forty sergeants of the New York University police force are forming the Security Professionals of Greater New York, a new union affiliated with NYSUT (the merged NEA/AFT statewide union). Nineteen theater and video workers at Cal Arts are joining CWA. Sixteen “logistics operators” (I think this means truck drivers) at AdvanSix, which makes something called nylon 6 resin that’s apparently in every plasticy-fibery thing you’ve ever used, in Chesterfield VA, are organizing with Teamsters Local 101. IBEW Local 613 is organizing thirteen white collar workers at the ACLU Foundation of Georgia in Atlanta. Ten sanitation workers at second-largest national sanitation company Republic Services, another core industry employer, are organizing in San Diego with Teamsters Local 542. Nine building services workers at luxury apartment complex 30 Morningside Drive in Manhattan are organizing with IUJAT Local 726, despite this being clearly 32BJ turf. Seven clericals and trainers at paratransit Ride Right in Austin, Texas, are joining the existing unit, ATU Local 1091.  Teamsters Local 512 is organizing four school bus mechanics and cleaners at Student Transportation of America in Florida. Two clerical workers at Waste Management Reduction Service in North Salem, NY, are joining something called C2C Local 707 (no clue, no online signs of life, and it’s a sanitation company in Westchester County, so draw your own conclusions). 

NLRB election wins…: 107 healthcare workers at John Muir Behavioral Health Center in Concord, CA, are joining SEIU-UHW after an 81-13 vote. Three ultrasound techs at Deaconess Hospital in Spokane have voted unanimously to join SEIU 1199NW, along with two more medical receptionists in the maternity ward who had been excluded from an existing unit. Twenty eight boilermakers and laborers at Austin Maintenance & Construction in Artesia, NM, have joined Operating Engineers Local 351, after an 11-0 vote. Thirteen civic engagement nonprofit workers at Wisconsin Voices in Milwaukee have voted 5-0 to join OPEIU Local 9. Five quality assurance techs at speciality chemical producer Stepan Company in Anaheim, CA, have voted 3-0 to join the UE. Five US Army simulation instructors who work for Phoenix Logistics in Fort Bliss, Texas, have voted unanimously to join Machinists Lodge 2515.

...and losses: A massive decertification among 1800 workers at Foster Farms in Livingston, CA has taken a big chunk of members out of the United Farm Workers; there is a lot of back story here, and Strike Wave had the best article on it. Painters Local 639 lost a five person shop in a 0-3 vote at a billboard company, OUTFRONT Media, in Columbus, Ohio.

Outside the NLRB: 

Assisted living facility workers at The Rawlin in Springfield, Oregon, have announced their intent to strike for recognition with SEIU Local 503, starting February 16th. Recognition strikes are rare, but are making a comeback, with auto parts workers in Ohio having struck unsuccessfully for recognition in January.

Journalists at the Daily News in NYC are asking for voluntary recognition with the New York NewsGuild. The union there was busted in the 90s, and has been the site of prominent labor fights since at least the 60s (and probably more that I don’t know about). It’s a sign of the historic comeback of journalist unions that the Daily News is back in the conversation. Daily Kos workers asked for and received voluntary recognition, through the Pacific Media Workers Guild, another TNG-CWA local. So are workers at three Gannett-owned papers in New Jersey.

Maine Medical Center vaccinated its out-of-state union busters before its unionizing nurses! This not only shocks the conscience, it’s also against Maine COVID-19 vaccination regulations. The 1400 member unit (second in size only to Amazon) organizing with NNU is awaiting an election date.

In other union-busting news, Amazon is paying a consultant over $3k per day to subvert the Alabama warehouse workers unionization efforts. Lots of other Amazon news to explore, but the punchline is that voting has begun and we’ll have an answer one way or the other by the end of March/early April.

UAW 2110, which has been organizing museum workers at a fast clip, is protesting the Portland (Maine) Museum of Art’s eliminating of 18 would-be union jobs; the workers voted in December on unionization but the ballots haven’t been tallied yet due to bureaucratic delays which have undermined the spirit of the entire process, which is what we should write on the NLRB’s gravestone when we finally kill our broken system.

Legal aid workers at Queens Defenders are getting union-busted by management as well. It’s almost as if the problem isn’t confined to a certain occupation or industry, but is a system-wide structural incentive that keeps workers from gaining the power to advocate for their interests in the workplace.

At least 40 workers at Medium, the online platform, are forming CWA Local 9410, forming the Medium Workers Guild.

Librarians at the Skokie Public Library, where I used to look through the CD collections as a tween, are unionizing with SEIU Local 73. Thanks to my dad for the tip.

STRIKES & BARGAINING

Nurses at a longterm care facility in Burlingame, CA, with AFSCME 829, are on a two-day strike, working on an expired contract since September, and facing rampant COVID outbreaks and deaths. You can donate to the strike fund here.

SFM Janitors with 32BJ at Miami Tower (in Miami) are on a 72-hour ULP strike over unsafe working conditions and retaliation over their union organizing efforts.

75 Ironworkers with Local 443 struck a construction site for a new Amazon fulfillment center in Oxnard, CA for using non-union labor. At least some of the non-union workers honored the line. In late January, members voted down a contract, at leadership’s recommendation, covering California, Arizona, and part of Nevada, due to a lowball wage offer.

White collar workers with UAW 2320 organized a 24-hour strike at Mobilization for Justice, a legal nonprofit in NYC.

Teachers in the Keystone Oaks district outside Pittsburgh ended their strike without a contract agreement. Teachers in Bourbonnais, Illinois are still talking strike, and have been holding informational pickets in freezing weather.

1100 National Grid workers on Long Island, with IBEW Local 1049, have authorized a strike, as bargaining has stalled.

900 electrical workers with IBEW Local 46 in Washington State rejected a contract offer and authorized a strike against the National Electrical Contractors Association (NECA). The strike threat apparently worked; they won an improved tentative agreement, which will soon go to a membership vote.

800 nurses with the Massachusetts Nurses Association have taking a strike authorization vote against St. Vincent Hospital in Worcester, primarily around safe staffing.

700 drivers and warehouse workers with Teamsters Local 104 authorized a strike against an Albertsons grocery distributor in Arizona that serves 175 stores in six states, citing health and safety failures around COVID-19.

200 Marathon Teamsters at a refinery outside the Twin Cities remain locked out, nearing a month now. Donate to the lockout fund here.

SAG-AFTRA has reached an agreement for social media influencers. It sounds kind of kooky, but is a very good sign that the union is paying attention as technology changes the industry (as they largely failed to do when cable took over from network television).

About 140 Teamsters with Local 456, public works employees in Mount Vernon, New York, haven’t been paid for 3 months of overtime. That’s wage theft, and an interest-free loan to the city, that these workers should be remunerated for.

IBEW Local 824 picketed the Super Bowl, in protest of sponsor Frontier’s efforts to undermine their pensions. Teamsters, teachers, and allies joined them.

The United Mine Workers are denying strike rumors in Ilia, New York, as the iconic Remington Arms factory reopens after being purchased out of bankruptcy. The new owners are apparently engaging in direct-dealing, going around the union, which is not a good sign for labor peace as the factory reopens.

The Alphabet Workers Union fired a shot across the bough, filing an unfair labor practice charge for Google not allowing contractors to discuss wages.

The local IAFF president in Ocoee, Florida, says he was terminated the day he assumed office, and is sounding the alarm about bigger issues in local negotiations. The starting salary for an Ocoee firefighter is $40,000.

K-12: The Philly teachers union said they weren’t going back into classrooms, and the city caved, allowing educators to stay remote until vaccinations were available. Chicago teachers voted on an agreement with CPS to return to schools, approving it by about two-thirds, with about 80% voter turnout. DC teachers faced a restraining order for talking strike authorization, which again seems totally insanely un-American and un-democratic, but was rendered irrelevant when teachers voted not to authorize such a strike. Some Montgomery County, MD teachers are talking job action in response to a March 1 reopening date, as are Prince George’s County K-12 workers.

LEGISLATION

After a state law was passed permitting but not guaranteeing collective bargaining rights, municipalities and school districts are deciding on whether or not to allow their employees to collectively bargain. This is an insane and undemocratic way to treat the fundamental right of association, but the unions are playing the hands they’ve been dealt, and are lobbying for collective bargaining statutes to be passed in each of their respective jurisdictions; Alexandria public workers look poised to be the first to win, with at least AFSCME and IAFF organizing there. Meanwhile, the Virginia Democratic Party, despite having executive and legislative control of the state, can’t be bothered to repeal “right to work” (also known as the open shop, a beloved right wing scheme to undermine unionism).

An Alaska court fined the state and instituted a permanent injunction against messing with the dues deduction system for the teachers in that state. Indiana is trying to undermine dues deduction for its teachers legislatively.

LEADERSHIP

Karen Lewis has passed away. Possibly the most influential single union leader of the past 10 years, she led to a transformation of the Chicago Teachers Union that then spread across the labor movement and the reborn socialist left. RIP.