The week in US unions, Feb 25-Mar 4
NEW ORGANIZING
NLRB new organizing filings this week:
Healthcare: 200 healthcare techs in Burlington, VT are organizing with Vermont Federation of Nurses and Healthcare Professionals, AFT Local 5221, who already represent RNs at the UVM Medical Center. 120 healthcare techs with Nuvance Health in the Hudson Valley are joining 1199 SEIU. 100 “vehicle service technicians” in Seattle, who maintain ambulances for Global Medical Services, are joining either Teamsters Local 763 or the Washington State Nurses Association. 73 healthcare workers at Prospect Home Health and Hospice in Providence, RI are organizing with UNAP. 90 RNs at Kindred Hospital in Rancho Cucamonga, CA are organizing with SEIU Local 121RN. Four eye doctors at Essentia Health clinic in Virginia, MN, seek to join AFSCME Local 3454.
Manufacturing: 129 production workers at Ineos Pigments in Ashtabula, OH, which makes titanium dioxide and other paint-related chemicals, are organizing with Teamsters Local 377. 50 production workers who make “geogrids” which are components of roads and walls at Tensar Corp in Morrow, GA are organizing with RWDSU’s Southeast Council. 47 production workers at Greif Inc in Warminster, PA, which makes steel drums, are organizing with Steelworkers Local 286. 21 workers at airbag manufacturer DSSA in Beaver Dam, KY are organizing with Plumbers & Pipefitters Local 633. 16 production and warehouse workers at Alro Steel in Boca Raton, FL are organizing with Sheet Metal Workers Local 32.
School bus: 35 school bus drivers for Eastern Bus Co in Medford, MA are organizing with Teamsters Local 25. 63 school bus workers in Levittown, PA are joining either Operating Engineers Local 542 or Teamsters Local 115. Ten school bus mechanics at First Student in Merced, CA are joining Teamsters Local 386.
Others: 114 ski patrollers at Big Sky Resort in Montana are organizing with CWA. 50 drivers and warehouse workers at Eagle Rock, which appears to be a beer distributor that took over some Anheuser-Busch facilities last year in Littleton, CO and Colorado Springs, are organizing with Teamsters Local 455. 50 educators at Brooklyn’s private Co-op School are organizing with the UFT. 31 truck drivers at Ryder Logistics in Nanticoke, PA are joining Machinists Local 1363. 30 security guards for the federal government in Columbia, MD are joining either LEOS-PBA or SPFPA Local 444. 29 charter school employees at Westinghouse Arts Academy in Wilmerding, PA are organizing with the NEA. 21 security guards at Henry Ford Hospital in Wyandotte, MI are joining the Michigan Association of Police. 21 techs and mechanics at Veolia in El Paso, TX are organizing with Operating Engineers Local 351. 18 “doughnuteers” at Voodoo Doughnut in Portland, OR have moved from voluntary recognition efforts to an NLRB filing as Doughnut Workers United through the IWW. 18 mechanics at Victory Lane Ford dealership in Litchfield, IL are joining Machinists District Lodge 9. 17 crane operators Ponce, PR in six in Naguabo, PR are joining LIUNA. 13 oil workers for Motiva Enterprises, a subsidiary of Saudi Aramco, in Port Neches, TX, are organizing with the Steelworkers. 12 public defenders in Marion County, OR are organizing with AFSCME Council 75. 11 workers at the ICE detention center in Buffalo, NY are joining either SEIU Local 200 or the independent “United Public Services Employees Union”. Nine welders and electricians at Avantech in Richland, WA, which does work in industrial water treatment, are joining UA Local 598. Seven workers for Republic waste management at the San Francisco Bay Railway, which appears to be a train that carries only trash, are organizing with Teamsters Local 350. Seven tech consultants at Sabel Systems in Honolulu are forming what looks like an independent union, the Union of Security Cooperation Analysts. Six “captains” at the Port Isabel ICE Detention Center in Los Fresnos, TX are joining the “Federal Contract Guards of America”. Five F-35 trainers for Lockheed Martin at Luke Air Force Base in Arizona are joining Machinists Local 519. Four theater instructors at Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle are joining IATSE Local 15. Four workers at Matheson Tri-Gas in Frederick, MD are joining Teamsters Local 992.
NLRB wins…: 423 healthcare workers at North Suffolk Mental Health Association in Chelsea, MA voted 147-35 to join SEIU Local 509. 273 healthcare workers at Victor Valley Hospital in Victorville, CA, voted 157-4 to join SEIU UHW. 67 traffic flaggers with Area Wide Protective in Parkersburg and Huntington, WV voted 20-2 to join IBEW Local 978. 49 editorial employees at the Austin American-Statesman voted 36-12 to join the NewsGuild-CWA. 30 RNs at Palo Alto Medical Foundation in Sunnyvale, CA, voted 17-12 to join IFPTE Local 20. 20 LPNs at the Willows nursing home in Woodbridge, CT voted 17-0 to join 1199 New England. 13 non-profit workers at Wisconsin Voices in Milwaukee voted 5-0 to join OPEIU Local 9. 13 pipefitters and welders at CAPAVI-USA in Woburn, MA voted 8-5 to join Pipefitters Local 537. Six nursing home workers in Sistersville, WV voted 3-1 to join the Steelworkers.
...and losses: 58 manufacturing workers at Stella-Jones in Bangor, WI, which makes pressure-treated wood products, voted 16-32 not to join Operating Engineers Local 420.
Outside the NLRB: Non-profit staff at Make the Road New York are seeking voluntary union recognition through UAW Local 2320, which organizes a lot of legal aid and adjacent white collar workers. Workers at Mothers Out Front have won voluntary recognition through the Nonprofit Professional Employees Union. Animators with Floyd County Productions in Atlantaare seeking voluntary union recognition with CODE-CWA. 600 resident physicians at UMassare organizing with CIR-SEIU. Iowa Teamsters are talking about organizing recognition strikes among Amazon subcontracted drivers in that state.
Jacobin ran an interview with a unionizing weed worker with UFCW in Chicago. Section 44 interviewed Teamster leaders in the southwest in the grocery distribution industry. 36 Teamster truck drivers in Idaho decertified their union last week, after organizing 2 years ago; the Idaho Statesman has a look into what happened, which is useful for thinking about how new organizing drives lose even after they “win.”
Workers at Medium with CODE-CWA had cut a deal that if they got 75+1 votes in an online vote, the company would voluntarily recognize their union. The union came up with 75 votes…. But not +1. So, presumably, it will now go to an NLRB process. Every vote counts, folks.
STRIKES AND BARGAINING
Around 150 hospital techs with OFNHP, an AFT affiliate, are striking St. Charles Hospital in Bend, Oregon as of this morning. The hospital tried suing the union for failing to give adequate strike notice (a standard legal requirement in hospital strikes) but lost.
170 NEA educators south of Chicago in Bourbonnais, ILare on strike as of this morning.
Workers at Valvoline with Teamsters Local 618 in St. Louis County, MOare on strike. I haven’t seen much information on it, so let me know if you have heard more.
A two-week recognition SEIU Local 503 strike among nursing home workers at The Rawlin in Springfield, Oregon, has ended with half of the workers resigning their positions.
29 public works Teamsters with Local 773 in South Whitehall, PA, have a contract after a weeks-long strike.
1300 Steelworkers at Allegheny Technologies, primarily in Western PA, but also in OR, NY, CT, MA, and OH, are talking strike authorization after their contract expired on Sunday. The contract actually expired on Feb. 29, 2020 but was extended by a year due to the pandemic. The workers are facing plant shutdowns, elimination of overtime, the introduction of healthcare premiums, and more. In nearby Beaver County, 300+ Steelworkers face an uncertain future as a European company has bought a glassware plant, raising questions for that group of workers.
Over 700 nurses at St. Vincent Hospital in Worcester, MA, look set to go ahead with their strike over nurse-to-patient ratios, with the Massachusetts Nurses Association, starting on Monday.
Grad student workers: Columbia University grad workers with UAW have announced a strike date of March 15th. The strike was authorized a year ago, and is set to take place on the 2-year anniversary of the union trying to bargain a first contract. They won their union nearly five years ago, and this sort of delay on the part of the University should be illegal. 400 graduate student workers with SEIU Local 73 at Illinois State University are talking “strike readiness” as negotiations reach the 18-month mark. 1200 grad workers with UAW at NYU are also talking strike after the University has stonewalled contract negotiations. PSC CUNY is doing member political education on challenging the Taylor Law, which outlaws public sector strikes in New York State, among many other things; this is emphatically not the mainstream approach from New York’s public sector unions.
K-12: Jill Biden is visiting two re-opened schools in the administration’s push to re-open everywhere, in a very “meet the new boss” moment for K-12 educators. The California legislature is financially incentivizing districts to reopen, which sounds kind of messed up to me – how much is increased community spread worth to your local superintendent? – but has had some support (and some criticism) among teachers union leaders there. Florida teachers are still pushing for vaccination priority. The Seattle Education Association is filing unfair labor practice charges against the school district around reopening. Someone filmed the president of the Berkeley Federation of Teachers bringing his kid in for in-person preschool, which is a bad look for a leader of the anti-reopening fight, though a small preschool is not a 10,000-student district. Virginia Beach is giving its K-12 workers a raise, “to attract talent” (and maybe to keep out collective bargaining?). 600 custodians in the Detroit Public Schools with SEIU Local 1 have won hazard pay. More from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Lawrence, MA, Mississippi, Michigan, New Jersey, Madison, WI, Wilkes-Barre, PA, Boulder, CO, Renton, WA, Texas, New Orleans, Marietta, OH, Wilton, NH.
Police: The Toledo Police Patrolmen’s Association, IUPA Local 10, AFL-CIO is objecting to the city’s hiring of a coordinator for an anti-gun violence initiative who once threatened to shoot a cop. As the union president so eloquently put it, “Could I be hired as a surgeon because I have had a surgery before.” Makes you think. The Tampa PBA is fighting for a school resource officer (a cop who works in a high school), who is Black, to keep his job after using the n-word. Spokane police have bargained a collective $10 million dollar raise over 5 years; police spending accounts for over 30% of that city’s general fund. The San Antonio police union is begging voters not to repeal their collective bargaining rights in a May 1st ballot, as it’s a “form of defunding.” A fight between the city of Ithaca, NY and its police department is likewise heating up, with police unions from Ithaca and surrounding areas (though, as far as I can tell, no non-police union presence) holding a press conference to denounce the “reimagining” of the department.
Other public sector: Six union linemen with IBEW Local 77 who work for the City of Ellensburg, WA say the small city is bargaining in bad faith, and are rallying community support against wage cuts. The city of Youngstown, OHkeeps breaking labor law in dealing with its firefighters union, and keeps being found in the wrong. AFSCME Park Rangers on Puerto Rico’s Mona Island are pushing for improved housing and working conditions. Ramsey County unions (St. Paul, MN and a dozen surrounding towns) are accusing the county of using the pandemic to short workers promised hazard pay, and hire non-union positions at higher rates of pay.
The Steelworkers are calling out Giti Tire, a manufacturer in South Carolina and part of a global conglomerate, for pocketing $10 million in PPP money while firing 100 workers. USW has been trying to organize Giti since at least 2019; Giti responded back then by allegedly dumping manure at protest sites.
After sounding the alarm about job cuts in the case of a T-Mobile & Sprint merger, CWA is saying “I told you so,” as at least 5,000 jobs have been cut after the merger went through on April 1st of last year.
Other contract updates: Tech workers at Glitch have ratified the first tech workers union contract in the US, with CWA 1101, as part of the CODE CWA organizing drive. 31 bakery workers at Grand Central baking in Portland, OR ratified their first contract with BCTGM Local 114 after organizing in December 2019. Washington State Nurses Association members in Anacortes reached a tentative agreement at Island Hospital.Aramark workers at Loyola University in Chicago with UNITE HERE Local 1 won a new contract, bringing the average wage up to $15-$16/hour. The editorial staff of the Chicago Reader signed their second contract, after a two and half year fight for their first. NEA members at Carl Sandburg College in Galesburg, IL, have a new contract, as do faculty at University of Akron. Workers at Movement for Justice legal service in NYC won a contract, after their one-day strike in February.
The UMass-Lowell Labor Education Program, one of a dying breed, is in trouble, and is circulating a petition for UMass not to cut its funding.
LEGISLATION AND POLITICS
The AFL-CIO came out with a statement of support, in Burmese and English, for the Myanmar trade unions, who have been persecuted and banned in response to leading the resistance to the military coup. It’s beyond the scope of my coverage here, but US labor can and should do much more to support the very militant workers movement there, which was recently legalized, and has conducted massive amounts of strike activity, particularly in the garment sector. For more coverage, read these pieces from Burmese ex-pat paper The Irrawady, Jacobin interview with strike and anti-coup leader Ma Moe Sandar Myint, and coverage from Labor Notes.
“Right-to-work” and other anti-union bills have failed in the Montana state legislature, despite a GOP supermajority. An anti-teachers union bill advanced in the Idaho state legislature, aimed at weakening the already pretty weak teachers unions in that state. It allows school districts to unilaterally impose wages and conditions, as opposed to conferring with a union (if that union can show a majority membership in the district). Pennsylvania nurses are fighting for safe staffing, both in collective bargaining agreements, and in the PA statehouse.
26,000 grocery and pharmacy workers in Los Angeles will be getting a $5/hour raise for the next 120 days, per a city ordinance that just passed. In Washington, UFCW Local 21 is looking to extend hazard pay gains won through local ordinances. The strategy has had mixed results, with Kroger-owned companies shutting down rather than pay a $4 raise, with other chains like Trader Joe’s voluntarily adopting the policy.
SEIU Local 105 rallied for a $15 minimum wage outside Senator Hickenlooper’s office in Denver. My sense is the Fight for $15 movement and SEIU have not been as in-your-face as I’d have expected, with the $15 minimum wage on the goal line, but I’m happy to be proven wrong.
In the heated race for chair of the Illinois Democratic Party, labor is "staying out," but the AFL lawyers cautioned that if a federal officeholder were to assume the position, labor’s political contributions would have to go elsewhere, and only one of the two people running holds federal office…
A group of academics, organizers, activists, and lawyers, came out with a strong piece on sectoral bargaining, and the dangers of such “reforms” without an organized base of workers.
OSHA inspections dropped by 35% in 2020, despite an obviously heightened (to say the least) need for workplace safety enforcement.
UNION LEADERSHIP
Johnny Doc, prominent and embattled leader of IBEW Local 98 in Philly, was arrested on federal charges of extortion.
Reformers are running for leadership at UUP Stonybrook, a chapter of UUP, AFT’s second-largest local union, which covers higher ed faculty and staff across the SUNY system. SEIU Local 1000, a 95,000 member state employees local in California, is seeing contested leadership elections this Spring. So is the New Jersey Education Association. So are the Machinists, where the union president has raised eyebrows by instructing staff to support his incumbents against a challenger for the second spot. Always curious to hear about internal union elections, which are not tracked by the DOL or anywhere else, so send me a note if you hear something in your union or elsewhere.