JOINING TOGETHER
Culinary Union announces negotiation schedule with MGM, Caesars, Wynn
Fox 5 Las Vegas
By C.C. McCandless
Oct. 2, 2023
The Culinary and Bartenders Union announced its schedule for negotiations with the three largest Las Vegas resort companies this week, following a recent vote that authorizes members to initiate a strike at any time. The release noted that all sessions will start at noon and Culinary Union Secretary-Treasurer Ted Pappageorge, President of the Culinary Union Diana Valles and “thousands of Culinary Union and Bartenders Union negotiating committee members” are expected to attend. 95% of the members of the Culinary and Bartenders Unions voted to authorize a Citywide Strike on September 26. The Culinary Union represents 60,000 hospitality workers in Nevada. 53,000 are based in Las Vegas and are in active negotiations with casino/hotel employers for a new 5-year contract. As of September 15, 2023, 40,000 workers employed at 20 casino resorts among the three largest gaming employers in the state (MGM Resorts, Caesars Entertainment, and Wynn/Encore Resorts) are working under an expired contract and are at risk of a major labor dispute.
UMaine System graduate-student workers win union certification
Maine Biz
By Laurie Schreiber
Oct. 2, 2023
Low wages and poor health care benefits were among the reasons some graduate students who work for the University of Maine System sought certification as a labor union. After a majority of the grad-student workers signed cards supporting the formation of a union and the cards were verified, the Maine Labor Relations Board last week certified the University of Maine Graduate Workers Union-United Auto Workers. The new union will represent the 1,000 graduate workers across all campuses of the University of Maine System, who make up a large percentage of the overall teaching and research workforce.
SAG-AFTRA and Studios to Continue Negotiations Wednesday
The Hollywood Reporter
By Katie Kilkenny
Oct. 2, 2023
SAG-AFTRA and Hollywood’s top companies are plowing ahead with negotiations. The performers’ union and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers released a joint statement on Monday noting that they had just “met for a full day bargaining session” and would resume talks on Wednesday, Oct. 4. Monday marked the first time that the parties had been back at the negotiations table since the actors’ strike began in mid-July.
Playbill
By Logan Culwell-Block
Oct. 2, 2023
Actors' Equity Association has filed with the National Labor Relations Board to recognize them as the bargaining representative of the newly unionized Broadway production assistants after failing to receive voluntary recognition from The Broadway League, which represents producers and theatre owners on the Main Stem. The government board will determine a schedule to hold a formal unionization vote among the production assistants. The PAs announced their intention to unionize with AEA last month. "We had high hopes for a swift and collaborative process with The Broadway League, and are disappointed to hear they've chosen the more contentious path," says union 3rd Vice President Erin Maureen Koster, who represents stage managers. "That said, these workers are giving a master class in solidarity and it’s honestly our honor to witness that and to continue to support them through every step of the organizing process. One way or another, at the end of this process is the fair contract PAs have long deserved."
Nurses strike at SSM Health St. Louis University Hospital, citing short-staffing, violence
Labor Tribune
By Tim Rowden
Oct. 2, 2023
Registered nurses at SSM Health Saint Louis University Hospital went on a 24-hour strike Monday, Sept. 25, to protest the administration’s refusal to address RNs’ concerns about patient care, safe staffing, and workplace violence. The strike follows a 94 percent yes vote on strike authorization on Sept. 1. Nurses, represented by the National Nurses Organizing Committee/National Nurses United (NNOC/NNU), gave advance notice to the hospital to allow for alternative plans to be made for patient care during the one-day walkout. SLU Hospital nurses have been in negotiations since May 2023 for a new contract with little to no movement on key issues. Their contract expired on June 15, 2023.
Actors union resumes negotiations with Hollywood studios
Spectrum News 1
By Susan Carpenter
Oct. 2, 2023
The union representing 160,000 actors is meeting with Hollywood studio executives Monday to resolve a strike that is now in its third month. SAG-AFTRA members walked off the job July 14 demanding higher wages, better compensation from streaming services and protections against the use of artificial intelligence from the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. The two groups have not had any official talks since July, when SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher derided the AMPTP studios for pleading poverty while paying hundreds of millions of dollars to their CEOs and announced the strike.
Here’s How The Nationwide Kaiser Strike Will Impact The D.C. Region
DCist
By Amanda Michelle Gomez
Oct. 2, 2023
Approximately 180 pharmacists and optometrists in D.C. and Virginia plan to strike on Wednesday alongside more than 75,000 Kaiser Permanente health care workers across the nation, according to their union OPEIU Local 2. The strike would be the largest of its kind in U.S. history. Local health care workers plan to picket outside Kaiser’s Springfield Medical Center in Virginia Wednesday morning if a new labor agreement is not reached with the company, says Sarah Levesque, Local 2’s secretary-treasurer. The union is meeting again with Kaiser executives on Monday in the hopes of averting a strike.
SAG-AFTRA and AMPTP resume negotiations on Monday
CBS Los Angeles
By KCAL-NEWS Staff
Oct. 2, 2023
Negotiators for actors and the major studios are heading back to the bargaining table on Monday in an effort to end the ongoing strike by performers. Last week, the Screen Actors Guild American Federation of Television and Radio Artists posted on social media, "SAG-AFTRA and the AMPTP will meet for bargaining on Monday, October 2. Several executives from AMPTP member companies will be in attendance. As negotiations proceed, we will report any substantiative updates directly to you."
IN THE STATES
Ortega Announces New Law to Prevent Child Labor Exploitation
Contra Costa News
By CC News
Oct. 2, 2023
California high school students will learn about their rights at work and how to defend themselves against workplace abuses under a first-of-its-kind law just signed by Governor Gavin Newsom over the weekend. AB 800, authored by Assemblymember Liz Ortega (D-San Leandro), creates a Workplace Readiness Week at all public high schools to teach students about their workplace rights, protections for minors on the job, and how to join or start a union. The Governor announced the law’s passage on Saturday.