MUST READ
The Senate Cannot Be the Graveyard for Labor Law Reform Again (Opinion)
Morning Consult
By Richard Trumka and Sen. Jeff Merkley
May 19, 2021
For months, the eyes of our nation were transfixed on a small suburb near Birmingham, Ala. Warehouse workers authorized the largest union election overseen by the National Labor Relations Board since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. The name of their employer is on over 5 billion packages sent annually: Amazon. As a U.S. senator and the president of the AFL-CIO, America’s labor federation, respectively, we called on Amazon to refrain from intimidation and interference in this union election. Nevertheless, the company sent grossly misleading text messages, inundated workers with anti-union propaganda and even installed a mailbox on the premises to surveil the casting of ballots. These tactics are, sadly, not new. Union-busting has proliferated, and lawyers and consultants have been perfecting the practice and profiting off of it for decades. If the National Labor Relations Act states that the policy of the United States is to encourage collective bargaining, why are workers forced to run the gantlet to form a union? We can fix the ways in which the deck is stacked against workers with critical legislation called the Protecting the Right to Organize Act — but first, we must understand why the system is broken, and what is propping up this undemocratic status quo.
JOINING TOGETHER
Local tradeswoman works to better women's work lives
Business Tribune
By Joseph Gallivan
May 17, 2021
A global nonprofit has partnered with trade unions in two countries to help women working in construction, and it's having an impact here in Oregon. LeanIn.Org, North America's Building Trade Union, and Canada's Building Together have launched LeanIn Circles for Union Tradeswomen, a peer mentorship and training program that helps women break new ground in an industry historically dominated by men.
Nurses at Maine’s biggest hospital complex unionize
People’s World
By Mark Gruenberg
May 18, 2021
By a 1,001-750 margin, registered nurses at Maine’s biggest hospital complex voted to unionize with National Nurses United. The win, NNU’s largest victory in the Northeast in years, follows NNU’s big win last year at the largest hospital complex in Western North Carolina, in Ashville. That hospital employs 1,600 RNs. Some 2,000 work at Maine Medical Center in Portland and satellite complexes. NNU said hospital management “chose not to challenge results,” but the Bangor Daily News said center management “had no immediate comment.” The hospital had hired a notorious union-busting consultant to try to beat NNU. The attempt failed.
Booksellers Unionize at Los Angeles's Skylight Books
Publishers Weekly
By Alex Green
May 18, 2021
Booksellers at the Los Angeles independent bookstore Skylight Books announced on Tuesday that they have unionized. The Skylight Booksellers Union is the latest in a spate of unionization efforts at indies across the West Coast, from Seattle’s Elliott Bay Book Company to Bookshop Santa Cruz in Santa Cruz, Calif. Skylight's union will be affiliated with the Communications Workers of America Union, an AFL-CIO affiliate with more than 700,000 members. At the time of publication, it was unclear whether Skylight management had recognized the union. Founded in 1996, the bookstore has been a prominent supporter of the city's local arts and culture scenes.
IN THE STATES
Commentary: We must not be fooled by a slogan
New Hampshire Bulletin
By Michael Honey and Gail Kinney
May 18, 2021
New Hampshire employers with existing unions and fair share contractual clauses have implored the Legislature not to interfere with their labor relations. Does New Hampshire really want to succumb to out-of-state pressure to pass an intrusive law aimed solely at unionized New Hampshire workplaces? Dr. King said the civil rights movement stood against such laws because “they constitute an obstacle to the progress of the Negro people and are inimical to the interest of America’s underprivileged.” Why would New Hampshire embrace a law founded in racism, perpetuating divisiveness, and designed to sow conflict? Someone who does not want to join a union does not have to do so. But it is not right for someone to benefit when other workers pay union dues in order to improve conditions without contributing something to the cost of securing advancement for all workers.
NC POlicy Watch
By Lisa Sorg
May 18, 2021
MaryBe McMillan, president of the NC State AFL-CIO, criticized Jackson for allowing the original language to be included in the bill. “Senator Brent Jackson is no stranger to self-dealing,” McMillan said. “For a lawmaker to change the law to shield himself from the consequences of breaking it is about as brazen as it gets.”
Nebraska rejects mandated virus protections for meat workers
Westport News
By Grant Schulte
May 18, 2021
Nebraska lawmakers rejected state-mandated coronavirus protections for meatpacking workers on Tuesday, with opponents arguing that slaughterhouses have already taken precautions and that the pandemic is nearly over. Lawmakers voted, 25-18, to sideline the measure for the rest of the year, even though supporters said it was necessary to ensure that all plants are keeping their employees safe.
Texas Labor Organizer Montserrat Garibay Goes to Washington
Texas Observer
By Gus Bova
May 18, 2021
Twenty-nine years ago, Montserrat Garibay left Mexico City for Texas with her mother and sister. They were undocumented. At a public middle school in Austin, Garibay learned English. Later, she and her sister founded one of the first organizations nationwide of so-called Dreamers, young immigrants pushing for U.S. citizenship. Garibay became a citizen herself in 2012. In Austin, she worked as a pre-K teacher, then as an official in the local teachers union. She then served as the first Latina secretary-treasurer of the Texas AFL-CIO, the state’s major union federation. This spring, she’s on her way to Washington, D.C., where she’ll work for Education Secretary Miguel Cardona as senior adviser for labor relations—a liaison position between unions and the Education Department that was scrapped during the Trump administration and resurrected this year under Joe Biden.
VETERANS
NJ AFL-CIO Union Veterans Council honors deceased veterans for Memorial Day
Insider NJ
May 18, 2021
Time, nature and the weather have taken their toll on the New Jersey Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Vineland, also known as the Soldiers Home Cemetery, and in the original spirit of Decoration Day, the New Jersey State AFL-CIO’s Union Veterans Council cleaned grime off the headstones and planted flags alongside them on Tuesday, May 18. “We visited the residents and staff of the state Veterans Home here last year at the height of the pandemic,” said Army veteran and retired AFSCME member Don Dileo of Trenton, the chair of the Union Veterans Council. “After we brought lunch to the staff – socially distanced, of course – we paid our respects at the cemetery. That’s when we saw the need for a cleanup.”