The week in US unions, October 8th-15th, 2022
STRIKES & NEGOTIATIONS
The BMWE, the third-largest rail union, has voted down its tentative agreement from the national freight rail carriers, and put a strike back on the table for as soon as November 19th. Nobody could’ve seen this coming! Unless of course you were talking to railroad workers. The interesting thing about the timing (except for the fact that it is of course still pointedly after the midterms) is that we’ll likely hear vote results from the two bigger unions, BLET and SMART-TD, 1-2 days before the November 19th deadline, and based on the details of their tentative agreements that came out after Biden did his victory lap, I just can’t see them both ratifying, especially now that the BMWE has shown some defiance. The BMWE workers for the most part aren’t even subject to the worst of the work-life balance issues, plus there’s a borderline poison pill in the BLET/SMART-TD TAs in its creation of “self-supporting pools” which adds a whole other layer of scheduling uncertainty for the operating crafts. I’m not just being a crank about it, you can read about it in the New York Times. Elsewhere in rail votes, SMART-MD (SMART’s mechanics division, about 2,000 members or so) and the National Conference of Firemen & Oilers (a 32BJ SEIU-affiliated craft group, also small) both voted to ratify their deals this week. So the count is now five unions to one in terms of who’s ratified or rejected, but it only takes one to force a national strike, and the BMWE is at least as big as the other five that have accepted, combined.
Amazon workers walked off the job in San Bernardino, CA, Stone Mountain, GA, and Joliet, IL this week; in the fractured landscape of Amazon organizing, each of these are separate independent group teamed up with local workers centers or union-backed organizing groups, but none formally affiliated with an existing union (though these relationships and connections are in pretty active flux, is my understanding, so maybe they’ll all come under one union umbrella, or maybe they won’t).
Starbucks Workers United struck in Buffalo, Knoxville, TN, Brooklyn, and Independence, MO, while the company continues to close unionized stores in places like Chicago and Colorado Springs, despite having set bargaining dates.
300 building services workers in the Twin Cities struck for two days with SEIU Local 26 in response to unfair labor practices from the building contractor they work under, as they seek union recognition. Elsewhere in the Twin Cities, 1500 University of Minnesota workers with Teamsters Local 320 officially authorized a strike, which could start as soon as this Friday (the union legally had to file a ten-day notice). And while we’re on the topic of higher education, 125 librarians at the University of Washington in Seattle held a one-day strike as they seek a first contract after having organized with SEIU Local 925. And both UAW Local 2865 and Local 5810, representing graduate student workers and postdocs, respectively, at the University of California system, are moving towards strike authorization votes as their contracts expire; if both of these unions walk, it could mean upwards of 30,000 workers on strike.
And in our primary schools, educators in Malden and Haverhill, MA have embarked on two illegal strikes (teacher strikes are illegal in Massachusetts) after contract negotiations broke down. In Haverhill, a judge has issued a temporary restraining order, trying to force the teachers back to work, but it’s unclear if they’ll comply.
The AFSCME Local 397 strike at the Philadelphia Museum of Art has come to an end after 19 days on the picket line. Elsewhere in Philly, members of UAW Local 1069 voted to ratify their contract with Boeing by 75% after having authorized a strike.
Three unions – CWA Local 14842 (aka Mailers Local 22), Teamsters Local 205/211, and GCC-IBT Local 24M/9N – have been on strike at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette for over a week, and are calling on the public to cancel their subscriptions. Notably, the NewsGuild is not (yet) on strike, despite very, um, active labor-management relations there over the years. Elsewhere in newspaper unionism, Gannett, the largest newspaper publisher by daily circulation, announced big cuts, which is just something I’d keep an eye on, considering how actively Gannett journalists have been organizing over the past few years.
BCTGM Local 100G members who’ve been on strike at Ingredion in Cedar Rapids for over two months took their case to the company’s corporate headquarters outside Chicago.
Hundreds of paper mill workers with three Steelworkers locals at WestRock in Cottonton, AL remain locked out; The Valley Labor Report spoke with one of the local presidents. Meanwhile, Jacksonville, FL WestRock workers held an informational picket, and the company announced it’s cutting over 100 jobs in St. Paul, MN.
In Syracuse, Sysco workers with Teamsters Local 317 are back on the job after a couple weeks on strike, ratifying a new contract that apparently brings up wages by $6-$7 an hour. Things outside Boston with the 300 members of Teamsters Local 653 on strike at Sysco since the first of the month are going decidedly less smoothly, with a massive police presence and arrests reported this morning.
I thought this piece on the SEIU Local 87 & USWW strike at Meta that was settled last week is worth a read; as more office work goes remote, the knock-on effects for building services workers could be quite drastic indeed. SEIU represents something like 225,000 of these workers, who are often low wage and heavily subcontracted. If real estate capital really faces falling profits nationwide, these fights are likely to become more frequent and more existential.
The NUHW mental health strike at Kaiser in Northern California officially crossed its two-month mark; Sarah Hughes has the story at Labor Notes. 450 doctors for Santa Clara County, CA’s public healthcare system have authorized a strike with what I believe is an independent union, Valley Physicians Group; doctors unions are rare, and doctors strikes are rarer. Over 2200 workers at two PASNAP locals at Temple University Hospital in Philadelphia have voted to authorized strikes, while the 6,000-plus member strike threat by CWA Local 1168 and 1199 SEIU at Kaleida in Buffalo has ended in a contract ratification.
There are three active transit strike threats, in Orange County, CA (Teamsters Local 952); Milwaukee (ATU Local 998); and Louisville (ATU Local 1447).
In Lordstown, OH, workers at the GM-Ultium joint venture electric car battery plant are still waiting and seeing whether UAW Local 1112 can get a deal without a recognition strike, which workers authorized by over 90% in September.
And I don’t usually cover corporate moves per se, but the Kroger-Albertson’s merger deal is a big deal for labor; the grocery leviathan would leapfrog UPS to become the largest private sector employer of union members, at something like 460,000 workers, well over 400,000 of whom would be UFCW members across a stunning ~500 contracts. The union released a statement, as did the Teamsters (who representing around 18,000 of these workers).
And Sarah Jones at New York Magazine has taken a look at the looming Teamsters strike threat at UPS, with the money quote from David Levin of Teamsters for a Democratic Union: “There’s a scenario where UPS workers mobilize and they take strike action and that affects 6 percent of GDP, and they win a good contract and that would be a huge labor victory,” explained David Levin, a staff director at Teamsters for a Democratic Union, a grassroots organization that supported O’Brien and his Teamsters United slate during the recent election. “But I think a much bigger dream is that next August 1st, 350,000 UPS workers go on strike to take on issues that are affecting them and Amazon workers and other workers in this growing sector.” Should the union prove itself to be in fighting shape, workers everywhere will take heed, or so Levin hopes. “So you have an upsurge and a fight back, not just at UPS, but at Amazon, too. And that’s the kind of thing that is historic and a game changer,” he said. [I hope to see some of you at the TDU Convention this month!]
POLITICS & LEGISLATION
Lauren Kaori Gurley has a profile of the great hope of union lawyers everywhere, NLRB General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo, where she comes from and what she might deliver. And while it’s hard not to feel like this is all just moving too slowly before our wannabe Volcker does his wannabe Volcker shock, it is worth noting that an NLRB judge did hit Starbucks with a Gissel bargaining order this week.
Speaking of labor boards, federal union leaders from AFGE, IFPTE, and NFFE are in Labor Notes calling for the confirmation of Ernest DuBester for another term at the head of the Federal Labor Relations Authority, as the agency languishes with a split partisan composition as the Democrats just can’t seem to check this one off their to-do list.
And on the state level, the Washington state supreme court is reviewing a Spokane, WA law mandating open bargaining that AFSCME Local 270 is objecting to.
INTERNAL UNION POLITICS
The UAW election is officially in full swing, with ballots mailing out to some one million active members and retirees. For The Call, Jane Slaughter and Barry Eidlin break down what’s at stake in the vote, and why the showdown between the eternally incumbent Administration Caucus and the UAWD caucus, a driving force behind the “one member, one vote” movement, is so significant.
It was a really bad week for some former Teamsters head honchos, namely Ron Herrera (former candidate for IBT Secretary-Treasurer and head of Teamsters Local 396) and John Coli (former Central Region Vice President and head of Teamsters Local 727). Herrera was at the heart of the leaks that took down some Los Angeles city council members after they were all heard making extremely racist remarks; he has now resigned as head of the LA AFL-CIO. Meanwhile, over in Chicago, the feds are asking a judge to give Coli 19 months in prison for extortion. And while we’re on the general topic, Honolulu Civil Beat has a deep dive on the charges against a former IBEW Local 1260 president; would love to read that guy’s book.
Elsewhere in Teamsters politics, a big local has new, reform-minded leadership, with the challengers in Indiana’s Local 135 winning more than two to one.
NEW ORGANIZING
New election filings at the NLRB: A fifth Amazon facility has filed for a union election, this time covering 800 workers in Moreno Valley, CA, organizing with the Amazon Labor Union, bringing the ALU outside of New York state. 286 more grocery workers at two New Seasons stores in Portland, OR are seeking to join the independent New Seasons Labor Union. 180 warehouse workers for UNFI in Rocklin, CA are organizing with Teamsters Local 150. 172 workers in New Orleans are seeking to form the first-ever Lowe’s union, and are also going with an independent union, inspired in part by the Home Depot workers in Philadelphia. 133 workers at Homegrown fresh food provider in Seattle, where workers struck this summer, (plus 22 workers at Catapult in Renton, WA, the company’s distro arm) are unionizing with UNITE HERE Local 8. 65 more grocery workers at a second MOM’s Organic Market in Timonium, MD are seeking an election with Teamsters Local 570 (I briefly covered their campaign at the first store that unionized, in Baltimore, here). 51 dispensary workers at Zen Leaf in St. Charles, IL are joining UFCW Local 881; 15 more at LivWell in Denver are joining UFCW Local 7. 50 auto parts workers at the Lear Corporation in Detroit are organizing with UAW Local 155. 37 workers at two stores in Green Bay, WI and Royal Oak, MI are joining Starbucks Workers United. 42 school bus drivers for NRT Bus in Marlborough, MA are joining Teamsters Local 170. 41 lift mechanics for Vail Resorts in Park City, UT are unionizing with CWA. 34 MFA grad workers at Brown University in Providence, RI are seeking to join the existing grad workers union there, AFT Local 6516. 25 staffers at the International Center for Journalists are unionizing with the Washington Baltimore News Guild. 25 firefighters at General Dynamics Electric Boat in Groton, CT, the biggest supplier of submarines to the US Navy, are unionizing with the Southeastern CT Fire Professionals Union (which I assume is an IAFF local but I can’t quite pin it down by that particular name), and with a few other trades listed as “intervenors” but I don’t know if that means they’re trying to block the election or they’re just involved because they rep other workers there. 14 workers at scrap metal outfit Cousins Metal Recycling in Oceanside, NY are joining the totally reputable and legit and real “Amalgamated Transit Workers Local 854”. Another 12 workers at Half Price Books, this time in Wichita, KS, are unionizing with UFCW Local 2, as that regional campaign rolls on. 11 instructors at the California Truck Driving Academy in Fontana, CA are joining Teamsters Local 63; there’s some poetry there. Ten drivers for beer wholesaler Nevulis Beverages in Emmaus, PA are joining Teamsters Local 773. Nine workers at Brooklyn, NYC bar Oddly Enough are forming an independent union. Nine gas workers at Dominion Energy in Magna, UT are joining the Steelworkers. Three workers at Alcorn Fence Company in Riverside, CA are seeking to re-join the Iron Workers after they decertified the union last May (but only one worker voted).
NLRB election wins…: Around 100 Apple store workers in Oklahoma City voted 56-32 to join CWA, the second store to unionize (and the first with CWA; the other store organized with the Machinists outside of Baltimore). 71 workers for lighting company Schoolhouse Electric in Portland, OR voted 31-24 to join IBEW Local 48. 58 support staff at Rosewood nursing home in Rensselaer, NY voted 41-6 to join SEIU UHW. 56 hospice workers for Sutter Care at Home in Alameda, CA voted 25-12 to join NUHW; eight more at Envision Hospice in Federal Way, WA voted 7-1 to join Machinists District Lodge 725. 43 Starbucks workers at two stores in Santa Maria, CA and Bloomfield, MI voted a combined 21-6 to join Starbucks Workers United. 21 workers for Gatwood Crane Service in Naperville & Arlington Heights, IL voted 17-1 to join Operating Engineers Local 150. 19 medical techs at McLaren in Lansing, MI voted 10-7 (in two votes) to join OPEIU Local 459. Ten linemen with the Ralls County Electric Cooperative in New London, MO voted 8-2 to join IBEW Local 2, and seven more at Danube, MN’s Renville-Sibley Cooperative Power Association voted 6-0 to join IBEW Local 160. Seven lab techs at Dairy Farmers of America in Sharpsville, PA voted 4-0 to join Teamsters Local 261. All five porters at Yves Condominium in Manhattan, NYC voted to join 32BJ SEIU. All three cardiology specialists at Woodland (CA) Memorial Hospital voted to join SEIU UHW. Three Lockheed Martin clericals at the Air Force base in Fort Walton Beach, FL voted 2-1 to join Machinists District Lodge 75.
…and losses: 111 warehouse workers and driver for Ryder Logistics in Hazelwood, MO voted 21-32 not to join Teamsters Local 688. 46 sanitation workers with Prairieland Disposal in Wauconda, IL voted against joining Teamsters Local 301, 15-29. Eight technicians at the Aria Resort & Casino in Vegas deadlocked 4-4 on joining Operating Engineers Local 501.
Decertifications and raids: I don’t usually cover decertification filings but 225 workers at the Tillamook County Creamery Association in Tillamook, OR could be facing a vote on whether to drop Teamsters Local 58. It looks like the “Plastic Workers Union Local 18 of the Novelty & Production Workers” are raiding a shop of 97 members of Teamsters Local 781 at Accurate Metal Fabricating in Cicero, IL. Eight workers at HD Supply Facilities Maintenance (I don’t really know what they do, they seem to be an appliance wholesaler and/or staffing agency?) in San Jose, CA dropped Teamsters Local 853 in a 3-4 vote.
I don’t have a particular news article to link here, but thousands of Iowa public sector union members are currently voting in “recertification” elections, under a 2017 law that says unless a majority of workers in a given bargaining unit (not just dues-paying members) affirmatively vote each year to keep their union, the union is decertified and contracts nullified. Last year, 17 unions lost their certification.
For More Perfect Union, I covered the formation of yet another independent union, this time among three hundred customer service workers at T-Mobile.
AFSCME Council 31 is not stopping at the Art Institute in their push to organize Chicago’s cultural institutions, with workers at the Field Museum announcing their union drive. Personally, I will not rest until the Adler Planetarium is wall-to-wall organized.
Outside Albany, Amazon workers are now voting on their union drive, which will certainly get a lot of press attention as it’s Amazon Labor Union’s third actual vote. Amazon worker Sarah Chaudhry wrote for Labor Notes about why she’s organizing.
Elsewhere in big tech-ish company organizing, UNITE HERE subcontracted cafeteria workers at Waymo, Google’s self-driving car project, have announced their union drive (part of a lot of activity across the country at food service mega-contractor Sodexo.)
Finally, grad student workers are on the march across New England, quite literally in the case of UNITE HERE Local 33 at Yale; and figuratively at Dartmouth (where student workers are rapidly signing up to join the UE) and Boston University (where SEIU Local 509 has formally called for union recognition).