STRIKES & NEGOTIATIONS The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, a Teamsters affiliate and one of a dozen and a half unions involved in national rail bargaining with the largest freight carriers, are taking a national strike vote. The vibe I get from workers I’m in touch with is that (1) a national rail strike is never going to happen (depending on who you ask having to do with the Railway Labor Act and its reliance on a Presidential Emergency Board, or because the unions just could never actually get organized to pull it off in their sorry state, or because the rail union leaders just don’t have it in them), and (2) that we are extremely close to a precipice we rarely get close to, namely the July 18th cutoff for the “cooling-off period” mandated by the Act. Basically on or before July 18th, the President has the power to convene a board to negotiate a final settlement between the employers and the unions but what happens if the settlement doesn’t hold is sort of fuzzy. The upshot is nobody really thinks 120,000 railroaders are going to strike in a midterm year during a supply chain crisis but then again people keep being wrong about things.
It's almost like it's 'cool to be union' these days... even in the south-ish
Have you heard about workers organizing at a popular Louisville (KY)-area coffee chain called Heine Brothers? I mention them because a Heine Bros location suspiciously closed this week & baristas are claiming it's a union-busting move. More here: https://www.wdrb.com/in-depth/heine-bros-workers-question-louisville-store-closure-amid-union-campaign/article_472dca02-f940-11ec-a270-97e2ba26429f.html. They announced a union drive back in April with NCFO 32BJ/SEIU. (I support them but am not directly involved in any way.)