MUST READ
Progressive US Lawmakers Mark Black Friday With Calls to Pass the PRO Act
Common Dreams
By Jessica Corbett
November 26, 2021
As workers worldwide took to the streets while shoppers flooded stores for Black Friday, progressive U.S. lawmakers used the event to pressure the Senate to pass sweeping, House-approved labor rights legislation. Without calling out any lawmakers by name, AFL-CIO president Liz Shuler in late August signaled there could be electoral consequences for right-wing Democrats like Sinema who won't support ending the filibuster or passing the PRO Act. "Workers want to hold elected officials accountable on an agenda that they voted for. Right now that agenda is being blocked by arcane rules in the Senate. We believe that voters will take that into consideration for the next election," Shuler said. "Elected officials, if they're not listening, that's when elections end up having consequences."
POLITICS
Biden’s Nearly $2 Trillion Social Spending and Climate Bill Is a Boon for Unions
The Wall Street Journal
By Brody Mullins, Julie Bykowicz and Ted Mann
November 26, 2021
The newer green-energy industry is largely not unionized, according to Tim Schlittner, a spokesman for the AFL-CIO. “We want to make sure that as we fight climate change that good union jobs are at the center of the fight,” Mr. Schlittner said. Mr. Schlittner of the AFL-CIO called the new fines “the most significant step forward in labor law since the 1935 National Labor Relations Act,” which gave workers the right to form labor unions and go on strike. “It’s a tremendous opportunity to rein in employer behavior that is preventing workers from freely forming unions,” he said.
INFRASTRUCTURE
Infrastructure law expected to boost jobs, economy
Springfield News-Sun
By Lynn Hulsey
November 28, 2021
The new $1.2 trillion federal infrastructure law is viewed as a boon to the Dayton region and state, bringing jobs and economic development while helping to fix a range of longstanding infrastructure problems, including the Brent Spence Bridge over the Ohio River in Cincinnati. “Not only does it rebuild the country in so many ways that need to be built, but it does it with jobs you can’t outsource,” said Tim Burga, president of the Ohio AFL-CIO. “It’s a tremendous investment in our country and the American worker. And when the AFL-CIO and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce come together and support a piece of legislation like this, that tells you a lot.”
JOINING TOGETHER
Starbucks baristas are on the verge of forming a union. The company is pushing back.
The Washington Post
By Joanna Slater
November 23, 2021
Starbucks opposes the effort and has intensified its campaign to persuade employees to vote no. Three stores began voting this month via mail-in ballots, with results expected Dec. 9. Another three stores in Buffalo and one in Arizona also filed petitions to hold a union vote. They’re seeking to join Workers United, an arm of the Service Employees International Union, or SEIU.
Kellogg’s plans to permanently replace striking workers
NJ.com
By Katherine Rodriguez
November 24, 2021
Kellogg’s is planning on permanently replacing its striking workers after the company failed to reach an agreement with the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union on Tuesday. About 1,400 union members at its cereal plants across the country have been on strike since Oct. 5 after their contracts expired the day before.
Harvard Grad Student Union Ratifies 4-Year Contract With 70.6% Approval
The Harvard Crimson
By Meimei Xu
November 27, 2021
A three-day strike, a second strike threat, and eight months of negotiations later, Harvard’s graduate student union ratified a four-year contract with the University in a vote that ended Saturday, with 70.6 percent of voters in support. According to Harvard Graduate Students Union-United Automobile Workers President Brandon J. Mancilla, 1,917 out of 2,615 total union members participated in the vote, which opened Nov. 18, marking a 73.3 percent turnout rate. The union represents more than 4,900 student workers at Harvard.
Harvard Graduate Students Union votes to ratify contract with university
Boston Globe
By Nick Stoico
November 28, 2021
Members of the union representing graduate student workers at Harvard University have voted to accept a new four-year labor contract that will raise wages, expand health care benefits, and create a legal support fund for workers, the union said. The Harvard Graduate Students Union-United Auto Workers Local 5118 said in a statement Saturday that more than 70 percent of its members who voted had approved the contract, following eight months of negotiations with the university. It is the second contract between the union and the university since student workers voted to unionize in 2018. “Now that the contract is ratified, we enter a new phase in our union’s history,” union President Brandon J. Mancilla said in the statement. “We still have not achieved some important goals, but this contract gives us a chance to immediately improve our working and living conditions and gain the time to develop an organizing plan for the future. Ratifying a contract does not mean organizing and pressure campaigns stop. With an employer like Harvard, unions always have to be ready to fight back.”
LABOR AND ECONOMY
NY Times Tries to Recruit Scabs to Cover for Wirecutter’s Black Friday Strike
Daily Beast.
By Zachary Petrizzo and Lachlan Cartwright
November 24, 2021
In an effort to minimize the financial impact of unionized staffers at Wirecutter striking on Black Friday, The New York Times has attempted to recruit “scab” labor to work the ecommerce website for the lucrative shopping weekend, The Daily Beast has learned. Times management and the union representing staffers at the paper’s product review page have been deadlocked for nearly two years in negotiating an initial collective bargaining agreement. In an effort to ramp up pressure on Times brass, the Wirecutter union this week announced a strike for the Thanksgiving holiday weekend .
LABOR AND COMMUNITY
IBEW Local 827 Members Deliver 18,000 Pounds of Food to Paterson Food Pantry
Tap into Paterson
By Steve Lenox
November 26, 2021
Members of IBEW 827, the local union whose members work for Verizon installing and repairing phone, internet and data services (FIOS) in Bergen, Passaic and Hudson counties, donated and delivered over 18,000 pounds of food to the Father English Food Pantry earlier this week. "The men and women of IBEW never cease to amaze me with their generosity and desire to build stronger communities," Tom Kelly, a Business Agent for Local 827 told TAPinto Paterson. "It's been another challenging year, but our members have much to be thankful for, and we all believe in paying that forward so others do as well.".
Blue Collar Boxing event brings in over $300K for nonprofits; labor union members step into the ring
3News Now
By Jessika Eidson
November 25, 2021
Wednesday night as many families were prepping for Thanksgiving, boxers were stepping into the ring for a good cause. This is the second year the Blue Collar Boxing event has come to the Ralston Arena. The fighters are members of the local labor unions, and the event is a major fundraiser for United Way of the Midlands and the Nebraska Center for Workforce Development and Education. “It helps provide food, safe and stable housing; helps people who have been victims of domestic violence," Forsberg said. "And Nebraska Workforce does a lot to help people be ready for financially stable jobs.” The 22 boxers represented Nebraska’s labor unions during the fight: IBEW Local 22, IBEW Local 1521, Heat & Frost Insulators 39, Ironworkers Local 21, Sprinkler Fitters Local 669, Operating Engineers Local, 571, IAFF Local 385, Steamfitters & Plumbers Local 464 and Plumbers 16.