AMAZON
Union: Amazon interfering in second Bessemer election
AL.com
By William Thornton
Feb. 22, 2022
The union seeking to organize at Amazon’s Bessemer fulfillment center is making another complaint that the online retailer is interfering in the second mail-in election. The Retail, Wholesale & Department Store Union (RWDSU) announced it has filed an unfair labor practice charge against Amazon with the National Labor Relations Board, alleging company misconduct during the re-run vote.
JOINING TOGETHER
‘Rick and Morty,’ ‘Solar Opposites’ Production Workers File to Unionize With Animation Guild
The Hollywood Reporter
By Katie Kilkenny
Feb. 22, 2022
Production workers at Rick & Morty and Solar Opposites filed a petition on Tuesday for a union election with the National Labor Relations Board in a bid to join The Animation Guild. Workers announced that they had filed to unionize with TAG (IATSE Local 839) on Twitter on Tuesday, which the union confirmed later in the day. According to the union, a “super majority” of workers in the proposed unit — which includes production managers, production supervisors, design assistants, casting assistants, storyboard coordinators, office production coordinators and assistants — asked management for voluntary recognition last week.
Baristas at Coffee Tree Roasters vote to unionize in Allegheny County
TribLive
By Ryan Deto
Feb. 22, 2022
Baristas and employees of local coffee chain Coffee Tree Roasters voted to unionize Tuesday. Workers at five coffee shops across Allegheny County voted to join Local 1776 of the United Food and Commercial Workers labor union, according to UFCW Local 1776 President Wendell Young. “This is a great win for these workers and their families and now they are part of our family of 35,000 workers,” Young said in a release. “They stood tall and have remained firm in their commitment to join our union throughout what was a grueling process.”
Strike of Iowa aerospace defense supplier will last at least through the week, union says
Des Moines Register
By Tyler Jett
Feb. 21, 2022
A strike at an eastern Iowa defense supplier will last at least another week, according to the union. International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers District Lodge 6 business representative John Herrig said he received an email from Eaton Corp. management Sunday night, saying company representatives won't return to the bargaining table until March 1. The message came after the union presented its latest proposals to Ireland-based Eaton on Friday afternoon. Herrig, who declined to share the proposals with the Des Moines Register, said company managers had not responded to them.
Starbucks workers’ union drive, spreading across the U.S., has reached the company’s Seattle home
Fortune
BY Josh Eidelson and Bloomberg
Feb. 21, 2022
Workers at a Starbucks Corp. store in Seattle will hold a unionization vote, giving the labor group that recently won landmark New York elections a chance to expand its new foothold to the coffee giant’s hometown. Employees will be mailed ballots Feb. 25, the National Labor Relations Board’s Seattle regional director ordered Friday, joining counterparts in New York and Arizona in rejecting the company’s arguments that store-by-store unionization votes are inappropriate. In New York and Arizona, like Seattle, the company argued that any vote should include the combined workforce of more stores, meaning the union would need to secure a larger number of votes to prevail.
U.S. Museums See Rise in Unions Even as Labor Movement Slumps
The New York Times
By Zachary Small
Feb. 21, 2022
“Museum workers realized that the human resource policies in terms of pay and benefits were oftentimes byzantine,” said Tom Juravich, a professor who researches labor movements at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. “They realized that they were being treated more like servants to the elite.” Mary Ceruti, the director of the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, which unionized in 2020, said that labor efforts are part of a larger push for change at institutions that are also being asked to diversify their work force and to feature a broader sweep of art. “Unionizing has emerged as one way that staff are trying to affect institutional change,” said Ceruti. “Most museum leaders share the same goals as our staff organizers: to make museums places that both reflect and inspire our constituencies.”
Chicago Transit Board approves contract with largest CTA union
Mass Transit
Feb. 21, 2022
A new labor contract between the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) and Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Locals #241 and #308 was approved by the Chicago Transit Board. The contract recognizes the important role of transit workers, while also providing more flexibility to allow CTA to meet evolving service needs. The four-year agreement, covering 2020-2023, includes a 9.25 percent pay increase for ATU members, which include bus and rail operators; rail station customer service assistants; flag and track workers; and vehicle servicers. Locals #241 and #308 represent more than 8,000 members of CTA’s workforce of nearly 11,000. The contract also includes a five percent, one-time payment for hours worked in 2020.
New York’s new unionization movement
City and State
By Annie Mcdonough
Feb. 22, 2022
In new and old industries, labor leaders are hopeful that New York is in the midst of a unionization movement – a handful of coffee shops, newspapers or museums at a time. “You have this employer, and it’s Starbucks, and you’re thinking, ‘I can't beat this big business corporation.’ But they're recognizing that they can, and it’s not as daunting as they thought,” said Mario Cilento, president of the New York State AFL-CIO. “One begets another, begets another.” Employees at a SoHo location of REI, an outdoor goods retailer, launched a unionization drive to be represented by the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union. Among other things, REI workers noted that the company’s progressive ethos didn’t align with what they called “unsafe working conditions” during the pandemic. REI came out quickly against the effort.
IN THE STATES
Union workers protest proposed bill that would cut unemployment benefits
WV Metro News
By MetroNews Staff
Feb. 21, 2022
Leaders of the International Union of Paints and Allied Trades (IUPAT) DC 53 Painters Union say a bill currently in the House Finance Committee after passing the state Senate could be detrimental to West Virginia workers if it gets passed into law. IUPAT members protested SB 2, ‘Relating to unemployment benefits program,’ on Monday outside of the West Virginia Capitol. The bill measure would lower the weeks workers are eligible for unemployment from the current level of 26 weeks to as little as 12 weeks, with a maximum of 20 weeks in times of high overall unemployment. “12 weeks is not long. You’re talking three months and you have to get a resume together and go look for a job that paid as much or more than what you were making in order to sustain your life,” Brian Stanley, Business Manager for IUPAT DC 53 Painters Union told MetroNews.
LePage income tax plan punishes poor while enriching wealthy Mainers, advocates say
Maine Beacon
By Nathan Bernard
Feb. 22, 2022
Republican gubernatorial candidate Paul LePage has made eliminating the individual income tax a cornerstone of his latest campaign for the Blaine House. Earlier this month, LePage demanded that Gov. Janet Mills use the state’s budget surplus to lower Maine’s income tax instead of distributing $500 checks to 800,000 people, arguing that the tax cut would be a greater windfall for working Mainers. However, economic reports show that LePage-style economics significantly increase taxes for the bottom 80% of Maine families while enriching the wealthiest. In some instances under LePage’s tax policies, Maine’s richest have avoided more than $20,000 in taxes while the bottom 80% have paid an average of $85 more. “LePage’s tax plan has always been a shell game,” said Andy O’Brien, communications director for the Maine AFL-CIO. “He knows that in order to eliminate the state income tax, he either has to massively cut programs that Mainers rely on, which would be very unpopular, or shift the burden elsewhere and hope no one notices. In his first term, he delivered enormous income tax cuts for the wealthy while paying for it by slashing pensions and shifting the tax burden to local property taxes. In later years, he unsuccessfully tried to cut income taxes for the rich while shifting the burden to the working class by raising and expanding sales taxes.”
EQUAL PAY
U.S. Soccer and Women’s Players Agree to Settle Equal Pay Lawsuit
The New York Times
By Andrew Das
Feb. 22, 2022
A six-year fight over equal pay that had pitted key members of the World Cup-winning United States women’s soccer team against their sport’s national governing body ended on Tuesday morning with a settlement that included a multimillion-dollar payment to the players and a promise by their federation to equalize pay between the men’s and women’s national teams.