POLITICS
US Senate backs repeal of NLRB 'joint employer' rule, teeing up Biden veto
Reuters
By Daniel Wiessner
April 10, 2024
The U.S. Senate on Wednesday narrowly approved a proposal, which President Joe Biden has vowed to veto, to repeal a National Labor Relations Board rule that would treat companies as the employers of many of their contract and franchise workers and require them to bargain with those workers' unions. The Senate, which is controlled by Democrats, passed the resolution in a 50-48 vote. Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia, a Democrat who often votes with Republicans and has been critical of the NLRB rule, and independent senators Angus King of Maine and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona voted in favor of the proposal.
ORGANIZING
Smith College library staff unionizes
New England Public Media
By Dusty Christensen
April 10, 2024
On Tuesday, more than 40 Smith College library staffers did something that only 6% of private-sector workers in the United States can claim: joined a union. Locally, however, the workers who voted unanimously to join the Office & Professional Employees International Union are far from alone.
So far, 2024 is already shaping up to be the biggest year in recent memory for union organizing in western Massachusetts. Federal data from the National Labor Relations Board show that at least 477 workers have unionized this year in the region – more than in any previous year since at least 2019. And it’s higher-ed workers who have driven that trend.
Partners Coffee workers holding vote to join UFCW
The Chief
By Duncan Freeman
April 10, 2024
Workers at Partners Coffee in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, will vote this week on whether to join the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1500, nearly two years after workers first started organizing at the shop. If the 22 baristas, roasters, production workers and kitchen employees vote to unionize on Thursday, they’ll join a wave of young workers at other coffee shops like Starbucks and Blank Street Coffee that have unionized since the pandemic.
Dispensary employees in Oxford the latest cannabis workers to unionize after 15-3 vote
Worcester Business Journal
By Eric Casey
April 10, 2024
Employees at the Curaleaf dispensary in Oxford have joined a number of Massachusetts cannabis industry workers who have become members of labor unions since the state legalized adult-use cannabis in 2016.
Curaleaf workers voted 15 to 3 to join UFCW Local 1445, said Steff Coronella, an organizer with the union. UFCW Local 1445 is a Dedham-based, cannabis-focused local of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, which represents 1.2 million workers in the United States and Canada.
Penn graduate student workers prepare for next week's unionization election
The Daily Pennsylvanian
By Rachel Lee
April 10, 2024
Penn's graduate students will hold an election on whether to unionize on April 16 and 17 in Bodek Lounge in Houston Hall. Graduate Employees Together University of Pennsylvania-UAW is a group of graduate teaching and research employees at Penn who aim to "improve [their] working conditions" and "strengthen [their] collective voice." If the election is successful, GET-UP will become the largest union at Penn in recent history with about 4,500 workers.
Apple's Short Hills store workers file petition for unionization
NorthJersey.com
By Reuters
April 10, 2024
Workers at Apple's store in Short Hills, New Jersey, have filed for union representation, a staff member who is part of the organizing committee said on Wednesday amid a push for unionization across sectors in corporate America. Companies including coffee-chain Starbucks, ecommerce firm Amazon.com and software giant Microsoft are facing unionization efforts from employees who want better working conditions. Apple retail staff at New Jersey store filed for union representation with Communications Workers of America on April 8, according to John Nagy, who is the operations lead at the Short Hill store and a member of the organizing committee.
JOINING TOGETHER
WHRO
By Ryan Murphy
April 10, 2024
A safer workplace. A voice at the table. Investment in the workforce. That's what city employees and several residents told Virginia Beach's City Council fire and EMS staff would get if the city allows them to collectively bargain. Resident Cody Connor said the city has no problem spending money on something like the Jackalope extreme sports festival. “We can do a skateboard festival for a weekend, but we can’t afford the money on improving the lives of the people at the other end of the 911 call, who put the fire out to save your lives, the people you depend on in your most dire moments?” Connor asked the city council. The International Association of Fire Fighters petitioned the city in February to allow the union to bargain on behalf of the city’s fire and rescue employees, starting the clock on the city’s response. The council didn’t indicate how it would vote at Tuesday’s meeting.
Tentative wage agreement to benefit city employees approved by City Council
Flint Beat
By Emilly Davis
April 10, 2024
Flint City Council voted to approve a tentative agreement for city employees, a four-year tax abatement for an apartment building, and numerous items through its consent agenda during a council meeting on Monday, April 8, 2024. After going into closed session, council voted 7-0 to approve a tentative wage reopener agreement through June 30, 2025 between Flint and the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Council 25, Local 1600. AFSCME President Sam Muma said the agreement was an effort to retain employees and be competitive among other municipalities.
Hundreds rally at the University of New Haven to support Local 217
Yale News
By Tyson Odermann and Christina Lee
April 10, 2024
On Monday, over 100 people gathered at the University of New Haven to protest in support of Local 217 UNITE HERE, the union of Hospitality Workers across Connecticut. The protest was against alleged union busting at the University of New Haven after UNH refused to guarantee job protection for its employees. Union workers, students and other allies of the facilities workers at UNH marched around the campus demanding job security after months of a stand-still with the university regarding contract negotiations.
Unionized workers with Air Wisconsin scheduled to vote Thursday on tentative contract
Spectrum News
By Charlotte Scott
April 10, 2024
Unionized workers with Air Wisconsin are scheduled to vote Thursday on a tentative contract. The Transportation Workers Union expects the contract for 28 dispatchers to win approval, averting a potential strike that could have grounded American Airlines flights in the Midwest and East Coast beginning next month. “You take all the dispatchers out of the equation, you can't fly at all,” said Gary Peterson, the executive director to the international president for the Transport Workers Union.
NLRB
Elon Musk Wants to Gut the National Labor Relations Act
The Nation
By John Nichols
April 9, 2024
Elon Musk hates unions, with a white-hot passion that has rendered him delusional. In late November, at a New York Times DealBook Summit where the aspiring-to-be-rich gather to get pointers from the actually rich, the Tesla CEO explained that “I disagree with the idea of unions…. I just don’t like anything which creates a lords-and-peasants sort of thing.” In the same interview, Musk—a mega-billionaire who famously threatened, in 2018, to take away the stock options of Tesla workers if they organized to exercise their collective-bargaining rights—griped, “I think the unions naturally try to create negativity in a company.”
IN THE STATES
Broadband buildout requires good local workforce (Opinion)
Tucson.com
By Ginger Lane
April 10, 2024
As a member of the Communications Workers of America’s Broadband Brigade, and a frontline worker at a major telecommunications company in Phoenix, I recently had the incredible opportunity to meet in person with President Biden’s team about the nationwide high-speed internet buildout that’s about to get underway. During his State of the Union address, President Biden touted how funding from his Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) is making this possible. But alongside connectivity, we also need to ensure the “jobs” part of that bill is fulfilled, and that’s what I discussed with the president’s team, for the workers right here in Arizona.