AMAZON
The Long Struggle Against Giving Up
In These Times
By Hamilton Nolan
April 12, 2021
But the Amazon campaign was extraordinary in so many ways that it needs to be seen in context, to avoid drawing all the wrong conclusions. The RWDSU’s attempt to organize more than 5,000 warehouse workers in the South — going up against the most deep-pocketed company imaginable — gained attention in the first place because it seemed so crazy. Everyone in the union world knew that every aspect of the situation — the size of the unit, the high turnover of the work, the fact that the job was considered a good one by local standards, the fact that it took place in a “right to work” state, the resources that Amazon could deploy against it, the fact that it was an attempt to crack an extremely tough union-free company — made success harder. From the beginning, every union veteran I spoke to about the campaign was hopeful, but skeptical it could succeed.
'This Fight Is Far From Over': Amazon Union Vote Shows Exactly Why We Need the PRO Act (Opinion)
Common Dreams
By Rebekah Entralgo
April 12, 2021
“Americans want to organize unions,” said AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka. “And it should never be this hard to do so.” “Working people deserve better than the way Amazon has conducted itself during this campaign,” said RWDSU president Stuart Appelbaum in a statement. “This campaign has proven that the best way for working people to protect themselves and their families is to join together in a union. However, Amazon’s behavior during the election cannot be ignored and our union will seek remedy to each and every improper action Amazon took. We won’t rest until workers’ voices are heard fairly under the law.” Going forward, a clear way to ensure fair, democratic union elections is for the U.S. Senate to pass the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act. The PRO Act, which passed the U.S. House in March, would add real teeth to existing federal labor laws. Nearly all of the union-busting tactics deployed by Amazon would be banned and enforced under the bill.
LABOR AND ECONOMY
Economists are ‘lazy’ when it comes to studying the effects of racism, says AFL-CIO chief economist
MarketWatch
By Elisabeth Buchwald
April 13, 2021
But for too long economists have assumed in their research that race does not affect individual outcomes, to the point where racism that people experience on an everyday basis is virtually nonexistent in economic research, said AFL-CIO chief economist William Spriggs at a Tuesday panel on race and economics hosted by the Federal Reserve System.
JOINING TOGETHER
Tech workers at The New York Times have formed a union
The Verge
By Russell Brandom
April 13, 2021
Tech workers at The New York Times have formed a union under the NewsGuild of New York, and they are demanding voluntary recognition from the paper’s management. The new union, called the Tech Times Guild, represents more than 650 workers from the digital side of the company, including software engineers, designers, and data analysts.
America Needs to Empower Workers Again (Opinion)
The New York Times
By Paul Krugman
April 12, 2021
But union advocates shouldn’t give up. The political environment that gave anti-union employers a free hand may be changing — the decline of unionization was, above all, political, not a necessary consequence of a changing economy. And America needs a union revival if we’re to have any hope of reversing spiraling inequality.
IN THE STATES
Michigan's big employers speak out against moves to restrict voting rights
Detroit Free Press
By Paul Egan
April 13, 2021
The Detroit NAACP has organized a noon rally outside the Capitol Tuesday, in opposition to the legislation, which is expected to have the support of Republican majorities in both chambers. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has promised to veto any bills that restrict voting rights, but Republicans are also discussing a voter initiative under the Michigan constitution that would allow them to bypass a veto by collecting voter signatures. Democrats are discussing a possible separate voter initiative to counter that move. Michigan voters in 2018 approved a constitutional amendment to enshrine certain voting rights, including any-reason absentee voting and an independent citizen redistricting commission.
Pass the Protecting the Right to Organize Act (LTE)
The Courier
By Sue Vogel
April 11, 2021
Agood union job like the one I had for 24 years before retiring provided for me and my family. The union made sure that I was being taken care of at work with proper safety protocols as well as proper pay. Now that I am a retired union member, I have a certain sense of security because of the union and its work to ensure that I received fair benefits. Thank goodness for my pension. Thank goodness for my union. I just wish everyone had the opportunity to join or form a union. There is currently legislation with just that in mind. The Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act is waiting in the Senate currently. It needs to have Sen. Joni Ernst and Sen. Chuck Grassley as co-sponsors or at the very least they need to vote for it.
Republicans propose minimum wage cuts that could impact an estimated 220,000 Mainers
Maine Beacon
By Evan Popp
April 13, 2021
As Maine Republicans introduced a flurry of bills Monday to curb or delay minimum wage increases, advocates for workers warned that the measures would hurt struggling people by cutting into needed pay raises. Instead, they argued the legislature should approve bills to increase wages, giving low-income Mainers a boost and helping jumpstart the struggling economy. A remote public hearing on the minimum wage bills before the Maine Legislature’s Labor and Housing Committee drew a litany of testimony, including from business interests who trotted out new iterations of outdated claims against raising the wage. The hearing was held as Maine’s low-wage workers continue to grapple with the impacts of the pandemic. And as James Myall, policy analyst with the Maine Center for Economic Policy, pointed out at the hearing Monday, around 220,000 Maine workers could see reductions in pay by 2026 if the GOP were to succeed in its efforts to undercut the minimum wage.
A time for mourning and action
NWLaborPress.org
By Graham Trainor
April 13, 2021
This year, on April 28, Oregon’s unions will observe Workers Memorial Day amidst a grim backdrop the likes unseen in our lifetime. Workers continue to face unnecessary and avoidable risk on the job with too many, year after year, paying the ultimate, unthinkable price. And essential and frontline workers in our communities have simultaneously faced a deadly invisible airborne virus every time they have clocked in for over a year.