Today's AFL-CIO press clips
JOINING TOGETHER
US graduate students protest against low pay while universities profit from their work
The Guardian
By Michael Sainato
March 30, 2022
Thousands of graduate student workers around the US at private and public universities have gone on strike over the past few years, from Ivy League institutions like Harvard University and Columbia University to public state universities in California. Graduate workers at even more colleges have organized unions in spite of staunch opposition from their administrations. Among the most pressing unifying themes among graduate student workers organizing unions and holding protest actions and strikes is the low pay, an issue plaguing graduate student workers around the US. In the US, graduate workers take on jobs such as helping teach courses, assisting with research projects and performing often vital clerical tasks that help run academic institutions.
Whitney Museum Workers Stage Union Event During VIP Opening for 2022 Biennial
ARTNews
By Shanti Escalante-De Mattei
March 30, 2022
Workers at the Whitney Museum in New York handed out leaflets Tuesday night in below-freezing temperature calling for support of their union as VIP guests arrived at an invite-only opening of the 2022 Whitney Biennial, the institution’s hallmark exhibition that occurs every two years. About three dozen Whitney workers and allied workers from other museums stood in front of the Whitney to call attention to seemingly stalled negotiations between the union and museum leadership. “The lack of progress has been extremely frustrating, they haven’t put a dime on the table, and that’s why we’re here tonight,” Maida Rosenstein, president of UAW Local 2110, told ARTnews outside the museum Tuesday night.
After Spate of Strikes, Big Raises for Kellogg Workers
U.S. News & World Report
By Josh Funk
March 30, 2022
Several hundred workers at a Kellogg's plant that makes Cheez-Its won a new contract that delivers more than 15% wage increases over three years after 1,400 workers at the company's cereal plants went on strike for nearly three months last fall. A spokeswoman for the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union that represents the Kellogg's cereal plant workers said that strike and the others across the industry in the past year have helped it secure significant gains for workers at other companies.
NLRB
Daily Grill Found to Have Violated Federal Labor Law by Refusing to Bargain with UNITE HERE Local 11
Yahoo! Life
March 30, 2022
Last week, in an unusually strong decision, a judge within the government agency tasked with enforcing federal labor laws found that The Daily Grill violated its duty to bargain in good faith with UNITE HERE Local 11, the union for hotel and restaurant workers in Southern California. Workers at the Daily Grill restaurant near Los Angeles International Airport voted to unionize with Local 11 in an election that was certified in 2019. However, National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) Administrative Law Judge Dickie Montemayor found that in the wake of the election the Daily Grill violated its duty to bargain by "failing to meet at reasonable times and confer in good faith, engaging in delay tactics, restricting the time available to bargain, engaging in surface and bad faith bargaining and refusing to bargain with the Union." Reacting to the decision, Kurt Petersen, the union’s co-president said: "The Daily Grill has thumbed its nose at worker rights laws for years. We are gratified that the NLRB judge saw this outrageous conduct for what it is and we look forward to helping these workers win the dignity and justice they deserve."
IN THE STATES
Insider NJ
March 30, 2022
New Jersey State AFL-CIO President Charles Wowkanech said, “We are proud to stand in solidarity with the Starbucks employees as they begin their historic election. Time and time again, when workers come together and fight for higher wages and better benefits, they win. The New Jersey State AFL-CIO looks forward to a successful union election, and welcomes the Starbucks employees into our union family. We are one state, one voice, and one labor movement, fighting to make the difference.”
POLITICS
Ahead of the Final Four, Democrats weigh college athletes’ struggles
Roll Call
By Niels Lesniewski
March 30, 2022
Bart Sheard, an AFL-CIO legislative representative, criticized the circular argument against paying student-athletes for their work. "These college athletes who are amateurs because they don't get paid, and we can't pay them because they're amateurs," Sheard said.