TRANSPORTATION
NY Gov Hochul delays controversial NYC congestion pricing plan ‘indefinitely’
CNN
By Gloria Pazmino
June 5, 2024
John Samuelsen, international president of the Transport Workers Union which represents many of the city’s transit workers accused Hochul of political malpractice, telling CNN Hochul bowed to pressure. “This was going to be a disaster for Hochul at the ballot, and the plan is bleeding into the Dem’s efforts to take back the House,” Samuelsen told CNN.
ORGANIZING
U of M employees welcome reforms to state’s public employment law
MinnPost
By Chris Meglio
June 6, 2024
Employees and student workers at the University of Minnesota are hailing reforms to the state’s public labor law that they say will allow more than 23,000 workers to more easily unionize. The Public Employee Labor Relations Act was put in place decades ago to grant collective bargaining rights to workers in the state’s public sector, but critics said it effectively prevented two-thirds of the university’s workforce from forming and joining unions, in large part because of the way various workers were grouped across the system. For example, lecturers on the Twin Cities campus were barred from unionizing with assistants or adjunct professors from nearby classrooms and had to organize thousands of HR, IT and administrative staffers across the university’s five campuses.
FCPS Employees Vote on Collective Bargaining
The Wire
By Thomas Brown
June 6, 2024
Over the next week, FCPS employees will be voting for the first time on whether to be represented by unions in collective bargaining. If the election succeeds it would mark a major victory for teachers unions in one of the nation’s largest school districts and would be a big addition to a wave of similar elections happening across the state in places such as Charlottesville and Richmond. These elections were made possible by a law passed by the Virginia legislature in 2020 that ended the 40 year ban on the right of public sector workers to engage in collective bargaining. According to the Fairfax County Federation of Teachers (FCFT), collective bargaining is the process by which workers and employers sit down and negotiate a contract that determines things such as pay, health benefits, leave, and hours. If enough teachers vote for the measure, the Fairfax Education Unions (an alliance between FCPS’s two major education unions) would become the representative for FCPS employees at the bargaining table.
Nevada DMV, welfare workers seek election to join union contract negotiations
The Nevada Independent
By Eric Neugeboren
June 6, 2024
Nearly 3,000 state employees — including some working for the welfare agency and the Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles — may soon be included in collective bargaining agreements under a major state worker union. The state employees on Thursday agreed to hold an election on whether to join contract negotiations led by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Local 4041. The election would give workers in this bargaining unit the choice of having AFSCME represent them in collective bargaining talks or not be involved in such deliberations.
JOINING TOGETHER
Asheville nurses rally for change at Mission Hospital ahead of union contract renegotiation
Carolina Public Press
By Jane Winik Sartwell
June 6, 2024
Nearly 100 Asheville nurses rallied outside Mission Hospital on Wednesday morning, less than a month before the renegotiation of their contract with HCA-owned Mission Health. With the backing of their union, the National Nurses Organizing Committee (NNOC), nurses at the hospital are seeking to draw attention to what they see as severe problems with their expiring 2020 contract. The rally comes at a time when HCA, owner of Mission Hospital parent company Mission Health, faces increased pressure over its oversight of health facilities in Western North Carolina, including federal regulatory actions and lawsuits from local governments and the state Department of Justice, plus the recent state selection of a competing company to launch a new hospital in the Asheville suburb of Weaverville.
Amid construction job boom, hundreds of workers go on strike in southeastern Wisconsin
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
By Ricardo Torres
June 6, 2024
It’s been more than 20 years since there was a major construction worker strike in southeastern Wisconsin, but for the last six days dozens of projects have been on pause. Roughly 500 workers with the International Union of Operating Engineers have been on strike over wages for the next three years. Terry McGowen, president of IUOE Local 139, which represents the state, said the workers proposed a wage package of increases over time to the contractors. The offer was rejected and countered with virtually the same offer with the same raise total.
Lemonada Media Voluntarily Recognizes Creative Staff’s Unionization Under WGAE
Deadline
By Katie Campione
June 6, 2024
Lemonada Media, the podcast network responsible for titles such as Wiser Than Me With Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Fail Better with David Duchovny, has voluntarily recognized its creative staff’s unionization under the Writers Guild of America East. Producers and engineers at Lemonada will now be represented by the WGAE, after the majority of the bargaining unit signed cards in favor of the union. The WGAE is expected to begin bargaining with Lemonada on the staff’s first contract soon.
Labor relations updates from NJ Transit, Block By Block, BC Transit
Mass Transit
By Eman Abu-Khaled
June 6, 2024
Labor relations between New Jersey Transit (NJ Transit), Block by Block and BC Transit and their respective unions have made progress on new collective bargaining agreements. Members of the Transport Workers Union of America (TWU) at Local 2001 working for NJ Transit have voted to ratify a new three-year contract that includes pay raises and additional time off. The new contract was ratified with 80 percent of votes in favor for the unit representing 180 car inspectors, car mechanics and coach cleaners.
Faculty union prepares for bargaining as PSU faces budget deficit
OPB
By Tiffany Camhi
June 6, 2024
Negotiations have yet to begin but Portland State University’s largest faculty union is readying for a long and hard fight with university administration over its next labor contract. About 100 people attended PSU’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors bargaining kickoff rally in downtown Portland’s Park Blocks Wednesday afternoon. AAUP represents over 1,100 faculty, staff and researchers at Portland State. Union members wore red and white AAUP shirts and held signs with slogans like “cutting programs means cutting people” and “working conditions create learning conditions.” The group then marched through Portland State’s downtown campus to the Richard & Maurine Neuberger Center, a key PSU administration building that houses the president’s office.
IATSE to Set New Negotiations Dates As Latest Bargaining Period Ends Without Deal
The Hollywood Reporter
By Katie Kilkenny
June 6, 2024
IATSE and studios and streamers are set to add new negotiations dates to their Basic Agreement bargaining schedule once more. The top Hollywood crew union and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers did not reach a deal over a new Basic Agreement within the three-day stretch of additional negotiations that ended around 1:30 a.m. on Thursday morning, the union stated later that day. (The parties previously added these dates after they could not come to an agreement in an initial bargaining period that ended May 16.) According to the union, talks will continue “as soon as next week.”
Food4Less Union Workers Rally for a Better Deal
OB Rag
By Brent E. Beltrán
June 6, 2024
Local 135 union members of the United Food & Culinary Workers (UFCW) at Food4Less gathered for a contract rally on Wednesday, June 5, at the Mission Valley Food4Less. With their current collective bargaining agreement set to expire on Saturday, June 8,the rally was an important step in highlighting the workers’ fight for a new contract. Representing over 700 workers across 13 Food4Less locations in San Diego and Imperial counties, UFCW Local 135 members are trying to obtain better wages, staffing, security, and benefits. Their rally was a clear demonstration of their determination to make their voices heard.
LABOR AND COMMUNITY
Concert Series to Bring Music to City of Erie Parks, Senior Living Communities
Erie News Now
By Staff
June 6, 2024
Two concert series will be bringing music to the City of Erie's parks and senior living communities. The 814 Concert Series features one local band each Sunday at 5 p.m.from July 7 through Aug. 11. Each location will have a food truck and community resource tables. Both concert series are presented by UPMC Health Plan. The Music Performance Trust Fund and the American Federation of Musicians Local 17 Music Fund provided additional grant funding for the Sounds of Summer.