JOINING TOGETHER
College, University Strike Wave Continues Its Swell Into 2023
Bloomberg Law
By Robert Iafolla
Jan. 24, 2023
“We’re going through a post-pandemic strike wave,” said William Herbert, executive director of the National Center for the Study of Collective Bargaining in Higher Education and the Professions at Hunter College-City University of New York. The ongoing labor strife on college campuses is part of a broader trend of increased strike action across the US economy. Union work stoppages hit a 17-year high in 2023, according to Bloomberg Law’s database of work stoppages. Professors, graduate teaching and research assistants, and other academic workers went on strike 15 times in 2022, headlined by the University of California system strike that lasted nearly six weeks and involved 48,000 graduate student workers. The year saw the most strikes by academic workers in higher education in at least 20 years, a review of the work stoppages database showed.
Portland city laborers rally outside Portland City Hall ahead of planned strike
KGW8
By Alma McCarty
Jan. 28, 2023
Ahead of a planned strike on Thursday, dozens of members of LiUNA Laborers' Local 483 joined together at a rally on Saturday, outside Portland City Hall, after the city and the union failed to agree to new contract terms after 10 months of negotiations. "We're here to show the city — that if they want to be an employer of choice — then they have to bring the money," said one of the speakers to a crowd holding signs. "They have not accounted for inflation. They have not accounted for cost of living. They have not accounted for how every single person's job has changed."
Please Touch Museum workers want to unionize
The Philadelphia Inquirer
By Lizzy McLellan Ravitch
Jan. 27, 2023
Workers at Philadelphia’s Please Touch Museum have gone public with their plans to form a union, following in the footsteps of workers at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. A vast majority of the 46 proposed members filed paperwork with the National Labor Relations Board on Thursday, expressing their desire to unionize, though organizers declined to give a specific number of participants. The union would include full-time and part-time employees of the museum who are not contractors or managers. The workers must hold an election on whether to form a union before they can bargain on a contract with the museum. They’re seeking to join the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) District Council 47, which represents workers of nonprofits, colleges and universities, and government.
Orlando Weekly
By McKenna Schueler
Jan. 27, 2023
Hospitality workers at the third-largest convention center in the country achieved major gains this week, setting a new standard for hospitality workers in the Central Florida region. Restaurant, concessions and banquet workers at the Orange County Convention Center, who are directly employed by the multinational company Sodexo, won a new contract that delivers an $18 minimum wage for hourly food service workers this year and a $3 raise for workers above the minimum, retroactive to August 2022. It's the highest minimum wage set for hospitality workers in Central Florida, per the workers' union, Unite Here Local 737.
IN THE STATES
Michigan union membership increases in 2022: what happens after right-to-work repeal?
Spartan Newsroom
By Dan Netter
Jan. 27, 2023
Michigan’s union membership rate went up in the last year, rising from 13.3% of the state’s workforce to 14%, while the national rate slid from 10.3% to 10.1% , according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. There were 165,000 more people employed in the state in 2022 than in 2021, raising the workforce to 4,212,000. For every 100 jobs added, about 29 were unionized. The increase includes just under 50,000 union members, federal data show.