ORGANIZING
Off-Broadway's Backstage Workers Are Unionizing; Atlantic Theater Company Workers Vote to Join IATSE
Playbill
By Logan Culwell-Block
Feb. 20, 2024
Backstage workers at Off-Broadway's Atlantic Theater Company have voted to unionize and join IATSE, a historic move that could have far-reaching implications for the Off-Broadway industry. Delayed results of the vote come days after a similar outcome at Off-Broadway's Titaníque, made official just last week. Of the company's 178 workers, 73 percent voted, with 129 for and one against. The group includes workers in the company's carpentry, electrics, scenic, props, audio, video, hair-makeup, and wardrobe departments. The move is part of a growing trend in Off-Broadway theatre, whose backstage workers are currently largely non-union, unlike their Broadway counterparts. Similar action at other Off-Broadway companies is expected to follow in the wake of this vote.
B&N on Manhattan's Upper West Side Files for Union Election
Publishers Weekly
By John Maher
Feb. 20, 2024
Workers at the Barnes & Noble on West 82nd St. in the Upper West Side neighborhood of Manhattan filed for a union election with the National Labor Relations Board on February 20. Workers are seeking representation with the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU). This marks the third unionization effort launched at a B&N location in New York City in the past year. The move is only the latest in a series of labor efforts across many sectors of the book business in recent years, but especially in bookselling. In that sector, the RWDSU has been a big player, including leading successful organizing efforts at McNally Jackson and Greenlight Bookstore.
JOINING TOGETHER
Faith leaders call out racial disparities in pay for Sky Harbor workers
Phoenix New Times
By TJ L'Heureux
Feb. 20, 2024
Public pressure is mounting on the city of Phoenix to address complaints against the company it uses to manage concessions at Sky Harbor International Airport as workers raise concerns about racial inequities in pay, discriminatory discipline and unsanitary conditions. Religious leaders sent a letter to Phoenix City Council on Thursday asking for officials to investigate allegations of racial disparities by airport contractor SSP America. The letter, signed by a diverse coalition of 31 clergy members from across the Valley, was received by Vice Mayor Yassamin Ansari during a press conference across the street from Phoenix City Hall. Workers and labor organizers from the Unite Here Local 11 joined the religious leaders at the media event.
Sixteen Months on Strike at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Labor Notes
By Finley Williams
Feb. 19, 2024
Bob Batz, Jr., thought it would end quickly. “It's kind of cute now, that we thought getting into last December [2022] and January was a long time,” Batz said. “Little did we know. [We said] ‘Oh, it’s Christmas and we're still on strike. We can't believe it.’” Batz is one of 31 Newspaper Guild workers striking the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, owned by the family company Block Communications, Inc. Journalists at the Post-Gazette have been on strike since October 2022—making this strike the longest of the digital age—along with four other units: mailers, advertising workers, and Teamster truck drivers and pressmen.
IN THE STATES
Q&A with Peter DeJesus, president of WNY Area Labor Federation, AFL-CIO
The Buffalo News
By Matt Glynn
Feb. 20, 2024
Organized labor is enjoying a bit of a rebound. Organizing efforts have been launched at a handful of high-profile local companies, from Tesla to Starbucks, and some smaller ones, too, such as the Lexington Co-op and Elmwood Taco and Subs. Peter DeJesus is president of the Western New York Area Labor Federation, AFL-CIO, an umbrella group for unionized workers in Western New York. He talked about recent bargaining and organizing, and what's ahead for unions in Western New York.
‘Right to work’ bill back before NH legislature (Opinion)
Concord Monitor
By Nicholas Lydon
Feb. 19, 2024
It’s back to session for our state’s legislature, and with it comes a few guarantees: partisan fighting, and a seemingly semi-annual introduction of “right to work” legislation. While the former is an unfortunate standard in modern politics at the moment, the latter is an old, tired and unnecessary bill that is something that should have stayed dead when it was killed the first time in 1949. Fast forward a short 75 years and we’re still seeing it show up.
Oregon House passes bill to fix law that forces state to refund child labor fines
OPB
By Kaylee Tornay
Feb. 19, 2024
In 2020, a Ford dealership located in a suburb of Portland settled with the U.S. Department of Labor for nearly $28,000 over reported violations of federal child labor law. Federal investigators had learned that six workers, ages 16 and 17, were performing prohibited tasks as lot attendants at Landmark Ford in Tigard, including operating trash compactors. One teen was injured when he was thrown backwards into a tailgate while riding in the bed of a pickup truck.
LABOR AND COMMUNITY
Training program helps Portlanders find new careers in health care
OHSU
By Franny White
Feb. 20, 2024
A new program that aims to grow and diversify the health care workforce will provide 86 Portland-area residents free education and training — and possibly employment — in four allied health fields. The effort is supported by a $3-million, three-year grant from the state’s Future Ready Oregon job education and training initiative, administered by the Higher Education Coordinating Commission.
REI SoHo workers unionized in 2022, but still don’t have a contract. This play tells their story
Fast Company
By Kristin Toussaint
Feb. 20, 2024
In Laura Neill’s new play, employees at an outdoor goods store face a series of obstacles as they try to unionize one summer. Pay cuts in June. Staffing and scheduling issues in July and August. Finally, a strike in September. If that timeline sounds familiar, you may already be aware of the play’s inspiration: the unionization effort at the REI store in SoHo, Manhattan. Neill herself is an REI employee and union member, through the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store union (RWDSU), and she experienced those issues firsthand—along with safety issues at the store when there were floods and gas leaks, and alleged union busting.