LABOR AND ECONOMY
Why Black workers are a canary in the coal mine for the U.S. economy
CNBC
By Carmen Reinicke
Feb. 3, 2023
“Black workers are the canary in the coal mine – are you actually hiring people?” said Bill Spriggs, chief economist at the AFL-CIO. The group generally faces higher unemployment and more difficultly in securing work than their White and Asian peers.
Restaurants can’t find workers because they’ve found better jobs
The Washington Post
By Abha Bhattarai and Maggie Penman
Feb. 3, 2023
William Spriggs, a labor economist who was originally critical of the mass layoffs in the United States, now says the shake-up may have ultimately encouraged service workers to look beyond low-wage jobs. “This has been a good evolution — it has raised wages and changed the structure of the labor market in a deep, profound way,” said Spriggs, chief economist for the AFL-CIO. “Workers who were trapped in low-wage jobs were able to escape by switching to higher-paying industries.”
JOINING TOGETHER
How a YouTube Strike Could Set a Big Precedent For Workers’ Rights
Time
By Billy Perrigo
Feb. 3, 2023
Several teams of subcontracted YouTube workers went on strike on Friday, to protest a return-to-office policy that they say is an attempt by YouTube’s parent company, Alphabet, to bust their union. The case could have implications that reverberate across Silicon Valley. Around 40 workers in total, who are directly employed by Alphabet’s outsourcing partner Cognizant, walked out on Friday in a formal strike against what they say are unfair labor practices.
REI Union Cleveland Workers Walk Out in Unfair Labor Practice Strike
WTAM
By Jake Underwood
Feb. 3, 2023
Today, at 9:45 AM ET, workers at the Beachwood, Ohio, REI store in a Cleveland suburb walked out on an Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) strike as their NLRB hearing got underway. In unilateral solidarity, workers left their shifts demanding the right to vote in a free and fair NLRB election and for the company to stop its union-busting. On January 11, 2023, a delegation of REI, Inc. workers at the Ohio store formally filed for a union election with Region 8 of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) seeking representation with the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU). This came on the heels of two stores winning their union elections in both the flagship SoHo, New York, and in Berkeley, California stores. Despite REI, Inc.'s every effort to union bust coast-to-coast, workers filed for a union election in Ohio again.
Temple U graduate students go on strike for a living wage
Pennsylvania Capital-Star
By Michala Butler
Feb. 3, 2023
The Temple University Graduate Students’ Association (TUGSA) went on strike early Tuesday morning for the first time in the union’s history since it was founded in 1979 and continues to show their support for a living wage through ongoing rallies on campus. The union represents 750 graduate student-teachers and research assistants who have demanded a living wage, healthcare, longer parental and bereavement leave, and better working conditions for over a year now.
City of Portland, city laborers reach tentative agreement to end strike
KGW8
By KGW Staff
Feb. 5, 2023
The city of Portland and Portland City Laborers announced early Sunday morning that they'd tentatively agreed to a new collective bargaining agreement following 12 hours of mediation on Saturday, ending a strike that started Thursday. The agreement will remain tentative until it's approved by Portland City Council.
YouTube Contract Workers Are Going on Strike
Vice
By Jules Roscoe
Feb. 3, 2023
A group of YouTube Music contract workers in Austin, Texas will go on strike on Friday afternoon protesting a return-to-office policy that “threatens the livelihoods of workers” who don’t live nearby, according to a press release. CWA says this is the first time any Google-affiliated workers have planned to strike, although workers have undertaken work stoppages in support of Black Lives Matter and over the company's sexual harassment scandals before.
Disney World union members reject contract offer
CNN
By Chris Isidore and Vanessa Yurkevich
Feb. 3, 2023
Unionized workers at Disney World have rejected a contract proposal from the company that would have given them at least a $1 an hour raise each year over the five-year life of the rejected offer. The 32,000 Disney employees, members of six different unions, had been urged by their unions’ leadership to vote no. More than 14,000 votes were cast and 96% voted no. “I think the workers at Disney World have sent a loud message that $1 is not enough. The company need to provide a meaningful wage increase that addresses the economic issues that workers are facing,” said Matt Hollis, president of the Service Trades Council Union, the collection of unions that are negotiating with Disney management.
CATS bus operators vote to approve new contract
WCNC
By Matthew Ablon and Jesse Pierre
Feb. 4, 2023
Bus operators with the Charlotte-Area Transit System (CATS) have voted in the majority to approve a new contract Saturday evening. A pair of sources confirmed with WCNC Charlotte that operators within the local SMART Union chapter voted 204-11 in favor of it. The approval of this contract comes less than a week after SMART Union and CATS managing company RATP Dev came to a tentative agreement to avoid a potential strike.
‘It’s about damn time’: College workers organize amid nationwide labor unrest
Politico
By Bianca Quilantan and Blake Jones
Feb. 4, 2023
Frustrated by low wages and new laws limiting what they can teach — and buoyed by President Joe Biden’s pro-union bent — campus workers across the country are moving with new urgency to organize. Workers are demanding increased wages, better health benefits, more job security and improved working conditions, and so far colleges are scrambling to meet them.
Lane Transit District and the Amalgamated Transit Union reach tentative labor agreement
KPIC
By News Staff
Feb. 3, 2023
On Friday the Lane Transit District (LTD) announced that they've reached a tentative labor agreement with the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 757 (ATU). The tentative four-year agreement would include an increase in wages, clarify work schedules, and add holidays for the unions non-supervisory and non-administrative members of Operations, Fleet, Materials Management and Customer Service Departments.
NLRB
Nissan Techs Can Vote on Union, US Labor Board Rules
Bloomberg
By Josh Eidelson
Feb. 2, 2023
A group of around 86 Nissan North America Inc. technicians at a Tennessee manufacturing plant can vote on unionization, the US labor board ruled, rejecting the company’s argument that any union election should include thousands more employees. The tool and die technicians “are highly skilled,” “have separate supervision” and are performing functions that are distinct from their co-workers, a panel of three Democratic members of the US National Labor Relations Board wrote in their Thursday ruling, which overturned a decision by a regional director of the agency.
IN THE STATES
Bill rolling back Michigan’s retirement tax heads to conference committee
Michigan Advance
By Allison R. Donahue
Feb. 2, 2023
Ron Bieber, president of the Michigan AFL-CIO, said that “undoing the damage done by the Snyder-Calley administration is rightly a top priority for the first pro-worker government in decades.” “Unfortunately for Mr. Calley, some of our memories just aren’t that short,” Bieber said in a statement.
LABOR AND COMMUNITY
Topeka Metro & transit union host Stuff the Bus event
WIBW
By Lane Gillespie
Feb. 4, 2023
Topeka Metro and the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) #1360 hosted their Stuff the Bus event Saturday. Topeka Metro and ATU members took to the 21st street Dillons to load non-perishable food items donated by shoppers and cash donations. All food donations are to be distributed through Project Topeka. “It’s great,” Efren Mazas, president of ATU #1360, said. “[The community] depends on all of this food because of the depletion of donations in December, Christmas and Thanksgiving, so it helps out a lot.”