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:
NLRB Punches Holes in No-Recording Policies — Labor Notes
By Robert M. Schwartz, February 23, 2023
“The ruling (372 NLRB No. 50) involved two Starbucks stores in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and members of a rank-and-file group called Baristas United. Two leaders of the group were fired for ostensibly violating established store policy by secretly recording conversations with supervisors on their cell phones.”
U.S labor board limits gag clauses in severance agreements — Reuters
By Daniel Weissner (@DanWiessner), February 22, 2023
“The National Labor Relations Board has ruled that laid-off workers cannot be required to sign agreements that contain confidentiality clauses and other provisions that could deter them from exercising their rights under federal labor law in exchange for receiving severance.”
Baseball Players Defeated Non-Competes to Build Union - Labor Notes
By Brian Callaci (@brian_callaci), February 20, 2023
“The Federal Trade Commission has proposed to ban the non-compete clause—a type of coercive labor contract that prevents workers from leaving their employer to work for a competitor … The long struggle of Major League Baseball players shows how the fight against non-competes can be linked with increasing union strength.”
Judge Bans Starbucks From Firing Union Supporters - The New York Times
By Noam Scheiber (@noamscheiber), February 17, 2023
“A federal judge in Michigan issued an injunction on Friday banning Starbucks from firing U.S. workers because they seek to form a union or engage in other collective activities. The move is the first nationwide judicial mandate related to the labor campaign that has led to the unionization of more than 275 company-owned Starbucks stores in little more than a year. Starbucks said it would appeal the decision.”
The Darker Truths About the State of Unionizing in the Country — and What Can Be Done to Change Things - Capital & Main
By Mark Kreidler (@MarkKreidler), February 16, 2023
“How are employers consistently driving down efforts by organizers? Well, about 40% of the time, they’re allegedly breaking labor law to do it. In some cases, they hire firms to do the dirty work for them. As well, there are a number of legal means of profoundly discouraging labor organizing in this country, including calling “captive audience” meetings during work hours to warn employees against unionization”
Labor Markets, Public Policy, and Worker Power:
Service & Solidarity Spotlight: UNITE HERE Culinary Union Calls for Increased Mental Health Funding for Young People — AFL-CIO Blog
By Kenneth Quinnell, February 21, 2023
“Addressing a growing crisis in the state of Nevada and beyond, UNITE HERE Culinary Union is calling for increased funding for youth mental health. The campaign will focus on direct voter contact to make sure Nevadans understand that sustainable investment in youth mental health is good public policy.”
The Good-Faith Doubt Test and the Revival of Joy Silk Bargaining Orders - University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
By Brandon R. Magner (@BrandonMagner), 2022
“The last fifty-two years have borne witness to the swift degradation and virtual irrelevance of the bargaining order. By the end of the twentieth century even pro enforcement officials in the NLRB were acknowledging the difficulty of obtaining an enforceable bargaining order, and the remedy rarely appears these days in the agency’s published decisions. This is not the product of the usual economic or political factors cited as reasons for the labor movement’s and its attendant regulating schema’s diminishment. Rather, the decline of the bargaining order can be explained almost entirely by the disappearance of the so-called Joy Silk doctrine from the labor law landscape in 1969.”
Strikes and Other Worker Collective Actions:
Worker strikes increased nearly 50% last year — Axios
By Emily Peck (@EmilyRPeck), February 22, 2023
“The number of major worker strikes in the U.S. rose to its second highest level in two decades in 2022, per a government report out Wednesday. Why it matters: The strength of the labor market and the rise in popularity of unions drove up the numbers. COVID-era issues, like short-staffing, burnout and pay that didn't keep up with inflation, also pushed workers to the picket lines.”
Striking Alabama coal miners offer to return to work— AP
(@AP) February 21, 2023
“Alabama coal miners who have been on strike for almost two years have offered to return to work. The United Mine Workers of America sent a letter Feb. 17 to executives at Warrior Met Coal Inc. offering an unconditional return to work while the union and the company continue to negotiate a new labor agreement.”
Labor Action Tracker 2022 - ILR Worker Institute at Cornell University
By Johnnie Kallas (@JohnnieKallas), Kathryn Ritchie, Eli Friedman (@EliDFriedman), February 21, 2023
“2022 was yet another important year for the US labor movement, with organizing victories at major private employers and an increase in strikes across the country from the prior year. We are pleased to release the second Cornell-ILR Labor Action Tracker Annual Report, which presents key findings from our data on work stoppages in 2022. We have created a comprehensive database of strikes across the United States because official data sources only record a small fraction of this activity.”
Workers by the Numbers Blogcast #6: Did Worker Activism and Strike Activity Grow in 2022? An Interview with Johnnie Kallas — Power At Work Blog
(@PowerAtWorkBlog), February 21, 2023
“Watch as Burnes Center Senior Fellow Seth Harris and Director of the Cornell ILR Labor Action Tracker Johnnie Kallas unveil the latest data about strikes and other work stoppages in the United States. This blogcast was posted at the same time the report was released to the public, and is the first analysis of these numbers.”
Medieval Times Scrambles Amid Strike, Flies In Knights From Other Castles - HuffPost
By Dave Jamieson (@jamieson), February 17, 2023
“Unionized workers at Medieval Times’ castle in Buena Park, California, launched a surprise strike against their employer last Saturday afternoon, just ahead of the day’s second performance. The dinner-theater chain managed to put on its show, but not without some serious scrambling as workers headed to the picket line.”
Collective Bargaining:
Northeastern University Dining Hall Workers Secured a Historic Contract Victory. Here’s How They Did It. — Power At Work
By Alexandra Anderson (@lexibanderson), February 23, 2023
“In September 2022, the Northeastern University dining hall workers employed by Chartwells Dining Services approved the most lucrative contract in the history of their union local, UNITE HERE Local 26. The contract will see workers’ pay triple over the course of 14 years, quadrupled pension plan contributions, and guaranteed sick day coverage, among other wins. At a time when Northeastern’s graduate student employees are organizing their own union in pursuit of better benefits and higher wages, the dining hall workers’ impressive victory begs an important question: How did they do it?”
Musician’s union performs in protest of production company’s resistance to bargaining - Labor Press
By Max Parrott (@mwparrott), February 22, 2023
“A group of fed up musicians set up outside of Carnegie Hall Monday night to hold a concert outside the official concert … The majority of the orchestra of Distinguished Concerts International New York voted to join the NYC musicians’ union AFM Local 802 in 2019 but have yet to reach a contract with their employer, a for-profit company that produces concerts at Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center.”
BMWED and Norfolk Southern Reach Deal on Paid Sick Leave — BMWED-IBT
(@BMWEDIBT) February 22, 2023
“An agreement has been reached between the BMWED and Norfolk Southern that establishes four (4) paid sick days annually for members employed on the Atlanta-based freight carrier.”
Temple grad students overwhelmingly vote down proposed contract, strike continues - The Philadelphia Inquirer
By Susan Snyder (@ssnyderinq), February 21, 2023
“Members of the Temple University Graduate Students Association overwhelmingly voted down a tentative agreement Tuesday that was reached last week, meaning their strike that started Jan. 31 will continue.”
New York City’s Deal with Largest Union Would Include Remote-Work Plan - New York Times
By Emma G. Fitzsimmons (@emmagf), February 17, 2023
“Mayor Eric Adams announced a tentative contract agreement with New York City’s largest municipal union on Friday that includes a plan to allow some city employees to work remotely starting in June. If approved by the union, District Council 37, the five-year deal would increase wages 3 percent a year in the first four years and 3.25 percent in the fifth. Workers would also receive a $3,000 ratification bonus and a minimum wage of $18 per hour.”
HarperCollins union approves contract, ends 3-month strike - AP News
By Hillel Italie (@hitalie), February 16, 2023
“Striking union members at HarperCollins Publishers have approved a tentative agreement reached last week and will return to work Tuesday, ending a walkout that lasted more than three months and became the center of an ongoing debate about salaries in the industry.”
Building Worker Power Through Organizing:
Anime Voice Actors Speak Out: It’s Not Kawaii When We Aren’t Paid - In These Times
By Rohan Montgomery, February 20, 2023
“Without solidarity within the dubbing community, anime voice actors effectively cannot strike like video game voice actors — though many remain hopeful that Crunchyroll can be won over through conversation.”
Five Reasons A Worker Organizing Wave is Washing Over Academia — Power At Work Blog
By Seth Harris (@MrSethHarris), February 20, 2023
“I walked my first picket line without my union-teacher parents when I was a college freshman at Cornell University. Cornell’s service and maintenance employees had won a NLRB-administered election the previous year that brought them a union, UAW Local 2300. They were fighting for their first contract. The workers won. Their lives improved (read an excellent first-person account here). In that same year, Cornell’s campus security officers organized an independent union and won a NLRB election. Soon thereafter, they had a good contract. It was a valuable real-world labor education that helped set the course for the rest of my career.”
USC graduate student workers vote to unionize - Los Angeles Times
By Christian Martinez, February 17, 2023
“Graduate student workers at USC have voted to unionize, the United Auto Workers union announced Friday. The vote was held Feb. 15 and 16, with students approving the union by a 1,599-to-122 margin. The Graduate Student Workers Organizing Committee-United Auto Workers will now represent about 3,000 teaching, research and lecture assistants at the university.”
New York City nurses encourage workers to unionize after victorious three-day strike - Prism
By Jenika McCrayer, February 16, 2023
“After a three-day strike last month, the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA) reached a tentative deal with Mount Sinai and Montefiore hospitals on Jan. 12. Ninety-eight percent of nurses voted in favor of their union contracts, which include safer nurse-to-patient ratios that ensure there will “always be enough nurses at the bedside to provide safe patient care, not just on paper,” said NYSNA president Nancy Hagans in a press statement.”
Inside the Campaign to Unionize the University of Oregon - The Nation
By Porter Wheeler (@PorterSWheeler), February 10, 2023
“Student workers at the University of Oregon are trying to build a wall-to-wall union—uniting their resident assistants, dining hall staff, and all other undergraduate workers in a massive labor campaign. Over the last few years, interest in labor organizing has surged among young people, especially at colleges and universities.”
Across the South, Black Workers Defy Labor History - The Charlotte Post
By Herbert L. White (@HerbLWhite1), February 2, 2023
“‘Workers in the South face unique challenges tied to the legacy of racism that require a unique solution,’ said Eric Winston, a restaurant cook from Durham and a USSW member. ‘We are building a union despite the fact that the rules are rigged against us as Southern workers. We are building a union by any means necessary and building it in a way that makes sense for us.’”
Ideas to Build Worker Power:
Unions, Class Identification, and Policy Attitudes - The University of Chicago Press Journals
By William W. Franko and Christopher Witko, February 16, 2023
“Compared to other Western democracies, in the United States fewer people subjectively identify as working class historically and many working-class individuals think of themselves as middle class. This likely has important political implications. We argue, however, that union membership can strengthen identification with the working class, through communications from leaders and interactions among members.”
Big Union Steps Up Help to Fill Frontline Public-Sector Jobs - Governing
By Carl Smith, February 15, 2023
“State and local governments are short over 500,000 jobs, bringing crisis conditions to agencies that operate around the clock. New strategies are needed to fill these gaps, say union experts.”
Worker Power Profiles:
Thomas Donahue, powerful labor envoy in Washington, dies at 94 - Washington Post
By Brian Murphy, February 19, 2023
“Until losing a leadership fight in 1995, Mr. Donahue was among the most feared and courted labor power brokers in Washington in an era before union clout in politics began to wane. He was only briefly the top figure at the AFL-CIO, but he was often the main envoy representing its dozens of unions and more than 12 million members from the late 1970s to the mid-1990s.”