The Weekly Download is the place for ideas, features, research, and news coverage about workers, worker power, and unions — delivered to your inbox and the Power at Work Blog, every week. The Weekly Download hopes to promote the writing, research, and analysis that advances a discourse putting workers and their unions at the center of the national conversation. If you have an item that we should include in The Weekly Download, or a source we should review for future items, please email us at [email protected]. Subscribe to the Power At Work Blog here to get The Weekly Download sent directly to your inbox.
Corporate Power Opposing Worker Power:
New Report: Over 90% of ‘Authorized Retail’ Workers at Leading Telecom Carriers Report Wage Theft; Nearly Three Quarters Make Less than $16 an Hour — Communications Workers of America
(@CWAUnion) February 7, 2023
“A new report released today by the Communications Workers of America (CWA) and the National Employment Law Project (NELP) provides a first-of-its-kind look at the effects of outsourcing in the wireless telecom industry. The report titled, “Broken Network: Workers Expose Harms of Wireless Telecom Carriers’ Outsourcing to ‘Authorized Retailers,’” includes a survey of over 200 workers from nearly 45 states at “authorized retailers” for the industry’s three dominant carriers, AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon.”
$340 Million Anti-Labor Consulting Industry Is Behind Contemporary Union-Busting — Truthout
By Tyler Walicek (@tylerwalicek), February 6, 2023
“Deterring unions in the workplace has become a veritable cottage industry — though perhaps that phrase is inappropriately diminutive for a sector which brings in hundreds of millions annually.”
Employers are charged with violating federal law in nearly 40% of union elections — Economic Policy Institute
By Celine McNicholas (@CmMcNich), Marc Edayadi, Daniel Perez (@Dannperr), Margaret Poydock and Ben Zipperer, February 3, 2023
“Employers regularly employ illegal tactics to suppress unions. An analysis of the latest government data on unfair labor practice charges and union elections shows that employers were charged with violating federal labor law in nearly 40% of elections—everything from firing to retaliation to changing work terms.”
How Do Broad Non-Disclosure Agreements Affect Labor Markets? — W.E. Upjohn Institute
By Jason Sockin, Aaron Sojourner (@aaronsojourner) and Evan Starr (@evanpstarr), November 22, 2022
“Employers can exacerbate the uncertainty job seekers face by using broad nondisclosure and non-disparagement agreements (NDAs) to prohibit current and former employees from speaking about their negative experiences at work. These policies can keep job seekers in the dark about important aspects of working at a potential new employer.”
Labor Markets, Public Policy, and Worker Power:
Working People Respond to the State of the Union Address — AFL-CIO Blog
By Kenneth Quinnell, February 8, 2023
“President Biden gave his annual State of the Union address Tuesday night. Here is how advocates for working families across the country responded.”
Shorter State of the Union: Which Side Are You On? — The Power At Work Blog
By Seth Harris (@MrSethHarris), February 7, 2023
“He didn’t say it in quite this way, but the dominant theme of President Biden’s State of the Union Address might have been cribbed from an old labor anthem: which side are you on? President Biden’s speech was designed, in part, to let working people know he’s on their side. Others in the House chamber (and beyond)? Not so much.”
Workers by the Numbers Blogcast #5: Analyzing the Employment Situation Report with Alicia Modestino, William Spriggs and Aaron Sojourner — The Power At Work Blog
(@PowerAtWorkBlog) February 3, 2023.
“Watch Burnes Center Senior Fellow Seth Harris, Northeastern University Professor Alicia Modestino, AFL-CIO Economist Bill Spriggs and W.E. Upjohn Institute Senior Researcher Aaron Sojourner have an in-depth worker-focused conversation on the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Employment Situation Report.”
Strikes and Other Worker Collective Actions:
NBC and MSNBC Staffers Walk Off the Job to Protest Layoffs — The Daily Beast
By Corbin Bolies (@CorbinBolies), Diana Falzone (@dianafalzone) and Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona), February 9, 2023
"Unionized reporters and editors at NBC News staged a daylong walkout on Thursday in protest of recent layoffs and the network’s handling of ongoing contract bargaining."
Wednesday, Speedy Ortiz, Anjimile, & Dozens More Artists Demand Higher Pay From SXSW In Open Letter — Stereogum
By Rachel Brodsky (@RachelBrods), February 7, 2023
“More than 120 artists have signed an open letter to SXSW from the Union Of Musicians And Allied Workers (UMAW) demanding higher pay. Artists who signed include Guy Picciotto, Y La Bamba, Anjimile, Wednesday, Vijay Iyer, Eve 6, Cadence Weapon, Zola Jesus, Heba Kadry, Speedy Ortiz, and more. The letter marks the launch of a campaign called Fair Pay At SXSW.”
'Strikes Work': REI Agrees to March 3 Union Election After Ohio Walkout — Common Dreams
By Jessica Corbett (@corbett_jessica), February 3, 2023
“After REI employees in a suburb of Cleveland, Ohio walked off the job Friday morning, the recreational equipment retailer agreed to schedule a union election vote next month and stopped pushing to exclude certain workers. Following successful union drives at two other REI stores, employees in Beachwood last month filed for a union election with National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) seeking representation with the Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union (RWDSU).”
YouTube Contract Workers Are Going on Strike — Vice
By Jules Roscoe (@julesaroscoe), February 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.”
L.A. Hotel Workers Fight an Uphill Battle to Live Where They Work — Capital and Main
By Mark Kreidler (@MarkKreidler), February 2, 2023
“Last week, outside the L.A. Live Marriott, more than 1,000 members of UNITE HERE Local 11 gathered for a demonstration. Inside, executives mingled at the American Lodging Investment Summit, which is billed as the largest hotel investment conference in the world. The union members’ goal: to make the investors understand they’re part of the problem in L.A. — and should be part of the solution.”
South Carolina Dollar General workers strike over wage theft and dangerous working conditions — Prism
By Alexandra Martinez, February 2, 2023
“The two workers, who comprise 50% of the employees at their store, say the collective action was necessary after enduring months of hazardous working conditions. Together with the support of the newly formed Union of Southern Service Workers (USSW), both employees have filed safety complaints with the state’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), a wage theft complaint with the state’s Office of Wages and Child Labor, and an unfair labor practice charge with the National Labor Relations Board.”
Building Worker Power Through Organizing:
Mobilizing against pesticides from the ground up — Environmental Health News
By Zaydee Sanchez (@zaydee_s), February 9, 2023
“Reporter Zaydee Sanchez traveled through California’s San Joaquin and Salinas valleys and spoke to four people with different journeys to activism. Together, their stories illustrate the complexities of organizing in communities faced with challenges like language differences, immigration status and systemic racism — and explain what keeps them motivated.”
How My Co-Workers Got Me Reinstated at Amazon's San Bernardino Air Hub — Labor Notes
By Sarah Fee, February 6, 2023
“For me the highlight of working at Amazon is being part of Inland Empire Amazon Workers United—spending time with my co-workers and making our workplace better and safer. When it’s you vs. Amazon, you know who has the power. But when we work together, there’s nothing better to protect you.”
‘It’s about damn time’: College workers organize amid nationwide labor unrest - Politico
By Bianca Quilantan (@biancaquilan) and Blake Jones (@jonesblakej), February 4, 2023
“After fearing the National Labor Relations Board under President Donald Trump would roll back graduate students' power to unionize, campus organizers are energized under President Joe Biden.”
US board clears path for mini-union vote at big Nissan plant - AP News
By Jonathan Matisse, February 3, 2023
“Fewer than 100 employees out of the thousands who work at Nissan’s auto assembly plant in Tennessee can hold a vote on whether to form a small union, the federal labor board has decided. The ruling Thursday by the National Labor Relations Board overturns a June 2021 decision by one of its regional officials that has long blocked the vote.”
Collective Bargaining:
Disney World workers overwhelmingly ‘stand together, vote no’ on company’s offer, planning to fight for better pay - Orlando Weekly
By McKenna Schueler (@SheCarriesOn), February 4, 2023
“After several months of negotiations, Disney World workers in Orlando, Florida, overwhelmingly rejected the Walt Disney Co.'s "best offer" of a $1 pay raise this year for thousands of workers fighting to survive in a region of the United States that's experiencing a cost-of-living crisis.”
Ideas to Build Worker Power:
Labor Law Reform Is Needed for Unions to Succeed — On Labor
By Sharon Block (@sharblock) and Benjamin Sachs, February 7, 2023
“There’s an important puzzle here: How can support for unions be at its highest level ever and union membership be at the lowest level ever recorded in the U.S.? How can we continue to witness heroic worker efforts to form unions in industries once thought unorganizable, when actual unionization rates continue to plummet?”
Life’s Better in a union: AFSCME launches union wage calculator — LaborPress
By Stephanie West, February 7, 2023
“Upon release of the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ annual report on union membership and earnings, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) has launched a Union Wage Calculator to help workers evaluate the material benefit of having a voice on the job.”
Chat GPT: A Powerful Tool for Worker Collective Action? — The Power At Work Blog
By Saiph Savage (@saiphcita), February 6, 2023
“Are you tired of feeling powerless in the face of workplace injustices? Have you ever wondered how technology could help amplify your voice and bring about real change in the workplace? While some may fear ChatGPT as a threat to job security, we see it as a powerful tool for workers, especially for helping them to bring change in the workplace.”
Worker Ownership Builds Community Wealth and a More Just Society - Truthout
By Pamela Haines, February 5, 2023
“Cooperative initiatives in cities across the world are strengthening worker pay, local economies and democracy.”
Voluntary Recognition of Unions Is Increasingly Popular Among U.S. Employers — Center for American Progress
By Aurelia Glass, January 18, 2023
“In recent years, a surge in worker organizing across the country has coincided with unions achieving levels of popular support not reached in decades. A growing number of businesses are now recognizing that their workers want unions and are opting out of fighting workers in intense union election campaigns.”
