POLITICS
Biden pro-union panel’s recommendations: Boost organizing, hit union-busters
People’s World
By Mark Gruenberg
Feb. 14, 2022
The report also wants all of Biden’s administration to follow his lead and use the “bully pulpit” to advocate unionizing, including in speeches, appearances, interviews, and public service announcements. That’s what Biden did in the Bessemer campaign. “The choice of forming a union is the worker’s choice, full stop…There should be no intimidation, no coercion, no threats, and no anti-union propaganda,” he said then. “This unprecedented report recognizes the critical role unions play in creating a fairer economy,” AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler said in a prepared response. “Now, Congress must do its part. In order to fully empower workers, it is time to pass both the Protecting the Right to Organize Act and the Public Service Freedom to Negotiate Act, which will ensure every worker who wants to join a union may freely do so.” The Communications Workers made those points, too, and others.
JOINING TOGETHER
Texas refinery workers to vote on Exxon contract proposal -union official
KFGO
By Erwin Seba
Feb. 14, 2022
Union officials on Monday agreed to schedule a membership vote on a contract offer that could end a nearly 10-month worker lockout at an Exxon Mobil refinery in southeast Texas, a union official said. The leadership of United Steelworkers (USW) Local 13-243 agreed to put a sweetened Exxon contract proposal received last week to its about 600 members. A vote was scheduled for next Monday, Feb. 21. “With the company’s latest move, with the MLK holiday added, we felt it was time for the membership to have the say-so on where we go from here,” said Bryan Gross, a USW International representative.
Despite resistance from Duke, DUP Workers Union wins election to unionize
Duke Chronicle
By Milla Surjadi
Feb. 13, 2022
After nearly a year, the Duke University Press Workers Union won its election to unionize on Friday. This final vote count comes after a series of requests for review from Duke for a re-run election and subsequent denials from the National Labor Relations Board. Employees originally voted in June, with 35 in favor of unionizing, 31 against. A week after the vote count, however, lawyers representing the University petitioned the NLRB for a re-run election, citing “administrative failures” and technical issues during the ballot count. The June election resulted in eight challenged ballots, though five were later dropped.
UNION BUSTING
Raven Software Workers Forced To Endure Union Busting Propaganda
The Gamer
By Justin Reeve
Feb. 13, 2022
The news broke on February 11, 2022 that employees at Raven Software were forced to attend a mandatory meeting earlier in the week which included misleading information about unionization. This comes in the wake of a long struggle with management on the part of workers at the company. While the actual content of the meeting has not been made public, the recently formed Game Workers Alliance issued a statement shortly afterwards which referred to the presentation as “anti-union propaganda.” Stemming from the strike earlier this year by workers in its quality assurance department, the Game Workers Alliance represents many of the people currently employed by Raven Software.
IN THE STATES
Murphy: ‘Norcross has Dedicated His Life to Fighting for NJ’s Working Families’
Insider NJ
By Insider NJ
Feb. 14, 2022
“I am proud to join with Governor Murphy to support the reelection of Donald Norcross. Don is not the typical career politician. He spent most of his life as a blue-collar electrician and he knows the enormous challenges that our working families are under. From making a decent wage, rising health care costs, providing safe neighborhoods, providing education for our children, to just simply putting food on the table – Donald knows the issues that affect us and he takes care of us.” – Charles Wowkanech, President NJ AFL-CIO.
WSPA
By Danny Connolly
Feb. 14, 2022
A panel of House lawmakers reviewed building code protocols and heard testimony from emergency management experts at a warehouse standards hearing on Monday in an effort to improve workplace safety during natural disasters. Labor experts pointed out even with safer buildings, employees still need to be trained by their employers how to respond to natural disasters while on the clock. “You can have the safest, best safety chambers in the country,” Tim Drea, president of the Illinois AFL-CIO, said. “But if workers don’t know to go there, they won’t do any good.”
YOUNG WORKERS
Young workers give unions new hope
Youth Today
By Dee-Ann Durbin
Feb. 14, 2022
Workers in their 20s, and even in their teens, are leading ongoing efforts to unionize companies large and small, from Starbucks and REI to local cannabis dispensaries. The Alphabet Workers Union, formed last year and now representing 800 Google employees, is run by five people who are under 35. Multiple polls show union approval is high, and growing, among the youngest workers. And U.S. union membership levels are even ticking upward for workers between 25 and 34, even as they decline among other age groups. Between 2019 and 2021, the overall percentage of U.S. union members stayed flat. But the percentage of workers ages 25-34 who are union members rose from 8.8% to 9.4%, or around 68,000 workers, according to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics. Young workers say they see unions as the best way to combat wage inequality and poor working conditions. For some, personal heroes like Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, a vocal labor advocate, have piqued their interest in unions. Others say the coronavirus pandemic caused them to rethink what they deserve from their jobs. “Whatever this is isn’t working,” said Adriana Alvarez, 29, a McDonald’s employee in Chicago. “We obviously need change.”
When a union organizer first approached Alvarez in 2014, she was skeptical of his goal to raise her pay to $15 per hour. At the time, she was making $8.50 per hour and hadn’t gotten a raise in three years.