“Jesse Mason, the Washington state worker Verizon fired last year after he tried to organize two Seattle-area retail stores, went back to work on Monday, as part of the telecom giant’s recent settlement with federal labor regulators.”

“Captive audience meetings allow employers facing an organizing drive to gather large groups of employees on company time and push their views about a union or unions in general. Employees who fail to attend or attempt to leave such meetings can be disciplined.”

“Chipotle Mexican Grill has agreed to pay out $240,000 as part of a settlement for illegally closing its Augusta location to quash a fledgling union.”

“In a federal court case over Starbucks’ alleged anti-union retaliation, the coffee giant is deploying a maneuver that labor experts say could have a chilling effect on workers’ organizing efforts and potentially set a disastrous precedent — hijacking the proceedings to dig up information on employees and intensify retaliation as part of its battle to crush a labor uprising in its stores.”

“The cooks, servers, cashiers, bartenders, dishwashers and other unionized staff at 15 restaurants in the Philadelphia International Airport thought they had finally won a new contract last June, after four years of bargaining with their employer, OTG. The workers waited months to see those changes go into effect. Then, in December, their employer told union representatives that there had been no agreement.”

“Howard Schultz was the star witness, but the hearing revealed almost as much about the party in power as it did about the longtime Starbucks chief executive. When Mr. Schultz appeared Wednesday before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, at a session titled “No Company Is Above the Law: The Need to End Illegal Union Busting at Starbucks,” he encountered a Democratic Party much changed since some of his earlier trips to Washington.”

“Starbucks violated federal labor law when it excluded unionized stores from a new policy that facilitated tipping via credit card, according to a new complaint filed by the NLRB on Monday. In May 2022, then-CEO Howard Schultz announced that the company would begin rolling out credit card tipping in the fall at all of its locations — save for the 200+ stores that were unionized or in the process of unionizing. The ability to collect tips from customers that paid with their credit cards had been a core demand of Starbucks Workers United, and Starbucks speciously argued that contract negotiations rendered it illegal for them to provide additional benefits. When the program rolled out in September, the union filed charges with the NLRB alleging that the exclusion constituted union-busting.”

“The Communications Workers of America (CWA) filed two Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) charges with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) yesterday on behalf of Apple retail workers in Kansas City and Houston who have been fired and have faced intimidation on the job for exercising their right to organize.”

“Employers spend a lot of money trying to derail union organizing campaigns. EPI estimates employers spend $433 million per year on union-avoidance consultants. This work is well compensated—consultants report being paid $350-plus hourly rates or $2,500-plus daily rates for their work to defeat union organizing efforts. This estimate is just a drop in the bucket because there is not enough data to reveal the true scope of what employers spend”

"Amazon’s spending on labor consultants soared to $14.2 million last year amid its effort to quash union drives within the company, according to a Labor Department filing. That’s more than triple the total from the previous year, when Amazon first began to confront organizing efforts at its warehouses."

“Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) could head into the GOP presidential primary against Donald Trump with a shiny new conservative credential: destroyer of public-sector labor unions. Republicans in the Sunshine State are moving ahead with legislation designed to make it harder for government employee unions to collect dues and, well, to exist at all. The bill cleared the GOP-dominated state Senate in Tallahassee last week, despite several Republican lawmakers joining their Democratic colleagues and voting against it.”

“Twitter Inc (TWTR.MX) faced a lawsuit on Tuesday accusing the social media giant of illegally laying off contract workers without notice after Elon Musk bought the company last year, the latest action stemming from its massive job cuts. The proposed class action, filed in San Francisco federal court, claims Twitter in November laid off numerous workers employed by staffing firm TEKsystems Inc without the 60 days of advance notice required by U.S. and California law.”

“A federal appeals court on Friday affirmed a finding that Tesla illegally fired an employee involved in union organizing, and that the company’s chief executive, Elon Musk, had illegally threatened workers’ stock options if they chose to unionize. The opinion, by three judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, allows the National Labor Relations Board to enforce a 2021 order requiring Tesla to reinstate, with back pay, the employee, Richard Ortiz, and Mr. Musk to delete a Twitter post suggesting workers could lose stock options if they unionize.”

“Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.) confronted former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz over the coffee company’s hiring of Littler Mendelson, the country’s largest employment and labor law firm devoted exclusively to representing management. ‘[It’s] one of the largest and most notoriously union-busting firms in the country,’Casey said, noting that the coffee giant can write off as a business expense on its taxes the millions it pays Littler Mendelson to aid Starbucks in its anti-union efforts. ‘Taxpayers are subsidizing union busting,’ Casey said.”

“Rizzo is one of dozens of union organizers that Starbucks has fired since late 2021, according to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), which has accused the company of hundreds of labor law violations. Just last month, an NLRB judge ordered Starbucks to reinstate seven Buffalo-area workers who were illegally fired.”

“In many Minnesota franchises, franchise owners within the same franchise agree not to hire from each other, keeping wages down and profits up. It is already illegal for non-franchise business owners to use this anti-competitive strategy to limit workers’ freedom. Minnesota legislators are moving to close a franchise-owners loophole, via bills (SF2216/HF1831) championed by Rep. Emma Greenman, DFL-Minneapolis, and Sen. Alice Mann, DFL-Edina.”

“Two of America’s biggest grocery store chains, who control 16% of all grocery stores, are preparing to merge. It’s an impending disaster for workers and consumers.”

“A judge at the National Labor Relations Board issued a decision Monday in a case where workers accused Amazon of illegally suppressing a union campaign in Staten Island, New York ― finding that the online retail giant violated the law on three occasions as it tried to persuade workers not to unionize during 2021 and 2022.”

“...[I]ntense pushback against unionization is becoming the norm in the US – and it is having an impact. The intense opposition from many major US employers to workers who are trying to unionize is a major factor in the recent decline in labor union density in the US, with the US having among the lowest union densities compared with other industrialized countries.”

“Apple Inc (AAPL.O) maintains workplace policies that unlawfully discourage employees from discussing working conditions, a U.S. labor agency has found. The National Labor Relations Board will issue a complaint targeting the policies and claiming Apple executives made comments that stymied worker organizing unless the company settles first, an agency official said on Monday in an email reviewed by Reuters.”

“Alphabet Inc. is illegally using return-to-office policies as a tool to try to derail YouTube contract workers from organizing in Texas, a union alleged in a National Labor Relations Board complaint.”

“If you have a steady job in the United States, there’s a good chance you are bound by an employment contract that sets the terms of your work, including hours, salary and benefits. But the contract’s reach may not be limited to that job. It may also contain language that puts restrictions on your life even after you leave that job. These are noncompete clauses, the focus of the Opinion video above. They typically prevent an employee from working for a competitor for a certain period after leaving the company.”

“U.S. workers are not happy with their bosses — they filed 16% more complaints about unfair labor practices in the first half of the current fiscal year, according to the National Labor Relations Board. The rise coincides with a nationwide increase in union organizing. Employees can file charges against their employer for a lot of reasons, including ‘threats, interrogation, discharges, harassment,’ said Kate Bronfenbrenner, director of Labor Education Research and a senior lecturer at Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations. She said that these charges often happen when workers try to unionize and employers try to stop them.”

“About 40 immigrant indigenous workers at the non-union, Brooklyn-based demolition company Best Super Cleaning, have begun their monthly picket lines outside the company’s worksites again, this time demanding an end to the retaliation and intimidation from their employer.”

"The United States labour movement faces a potentially transformative moment, as workers have won breakthrough union organizing victories at various high-profile, private-sector employers. While winning an election is essential to establishing collective bargaining, unions then need to secure a first contract with employers to make tangible improvements in working conditions.”

“Several workers also have alleged that Chipotle stores in New York City—reminiscent of Starbucks—have violated their federally protected right to organize by firing them for voicing complaints about working conditions and pushing to form a union. Brenda Garcia, a Chipotle worker in Flushing, was fired soon after the New York Times quoted her complaining about Chipotle's scheduling practices. Chipotle reinstated her after protests and negative news coverage and after Local 32BJ filed an NLRB charge accusing the company of firing her for union activity.”

“Many of the 140-plus workers preparing and serving meals for the World Bank, a D.C.-based international institution whose mission includes fighting poverty, struggle to afford rent or food, according to their union, UNITE HERE Local 23.”

“In less than a year, Schultz’s reputation as a can-do corporatist has been replaced by an image as one of this generation’s most committed opponents of unionization. In February, Schultz declined an invitation from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) to appear before his Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee. When Sanders responded by arranging a subpoena vote, Schultz caved and agreed to be grilled by the committee just days before his late March scheduled retirement; on March 20, Starbucks announced Schultz had left early. That made the appearance a fitting last act, if not one he would have chosen.”

“Workers from Sun Country airlines are exposing what union-busting and retaliation looks like in practice. Sun Country Airlines, based out of Minneapolis, MN, is an ultra-low-cost passenger and cargo airline and the 11th largest in the United States. In 2022, the airline’s mechanics voted to unionize with the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association (AMFA) and were soon followed by the ramp agents who manage the “grunt work of the Tarmac.” Ramp agents transfer cargo, direct taxiing aircraft, deice planes, refuel, and maintain safety in all kinds of outdoor weather conditions. At Sun Country airlines, they do all this despite OSHA violations, long hours, inadequate pay, understaffing, and a lack of benefits.”

“On March 1, Stellantis (formerly Chrysler) “idled” the Belvidere Assembly Plant in Illinois—putting 1,350 people out of work indefinitely, with the threat hanging over them that the plant might stay closed forever.”

“Wells Fargo & Co. leaders are privately expressing increased concern that a years-long effort to unionize the bank’s employees could soon start notching victories — and have made plans to spend millions addressing the “pain points” that can fuel organizing efforts.”

“Several workers at an Apple retail store in Kansas City, Missouri, say they were recently fired for attempting to organize a union. Now the Communication Workers of America (CWA) has filed unfair labor practice (ULP) charges against the company for wrongful termination and intimidation on the job.”

“Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) supervisors at a Florida service center violated U.S. labor law by telling employees not to discuss pay and other working conditions or bring complaints to higher level managers, a U.S. labor board official has ruled. Managers at the Orlando repair shop illegally silenced workers in 2021 after some of them complained that new hires were being paid more, according to the decision issued Tuesday by National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) Administrative Law Judge Michael Rosas.”

“A regional director for the National Labor Relations Board filed a complaint Tuesday accusing Medieval Times management of an illegal scheme to undermine union support at its castle in Buena Park, California. Last year, workers at the castle launched a union campaign to improve pay and working conditions, gathering signed union cards from members of the show cast, horseback-riding knights and stablehands. Later a petition was circulated in which some workers who had signed union cards asked to retract them.”

"Following a recent protest calling on Northeastern officials to allow graduate students to unionize, the university admonished organizers for failing to plan the demonstration around a campus ceremony for the victims of the 2013 Boston Marathon Bombing... But in an April 26 email statement to The News, the GENU-UAW Organizing Committee that staged the protest accused the university of  'weaponiz[ing] the tragedy of the Boston marathon bombing to undermine our labor rights as graduate workers.'"

“Workers continue to speak out about conditions at a Sunnyside mushroom farm that changed hands earlier this year. The owners of Ostrom Mushroom Farms sold the facility to Canadian mushroom grower Windmill Farms in February. It came after workers' call for a union and a lawsuit from the state attorney general's office. At an April 18 rally, workers resumed their public campaign for recognition and better working conditions. It was the first public action held in Sunnyside by United Farm Workers, a union that represents farmworkers, since the change in ownership.”

“The Norfolk Southern freight train that derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, on February 3 sent a toxic barrage of hazardous chemicals into the air, soil, and water and caused untold damage to waterways, wildlife, air quality, and people’s health. It was a grim confirmation of what rail workers have been saying would happen for years. And it could have been worse.”

“For any member of a union, dues are often automatically deducted from their paychecks. But for teachers and government employees who are union members in Florida, a recently passed bill will add friction to that process, banning automatic deductions from their paychecks and requiring separate payments to their unions.”

“A coalition of labor groups on Thursday filed an antitrust complaint with the Justice Department against UPMC, the giant Pittsburgh-based hospital employer, accusing the system of using its enormous clout to depress wages and harm workers. In its complaint, the group, which includes S.E.I.U. Healthcare Pennsylvania, claims UPMC workers are subject to a ‘wage penalty’ because of the health system’s dominance in local markets. The complaint describes nurses who are given heavier workloads than nurses at other hospitals, creating concerns over patient safety, and catalogs what the coalition considers to be labor law violations that it says illustrate the powerlessness of employees to improve working conditions.”

“Thanks to the dedication of members and leaders at the Communications Workers of America (CWA), civil rights groups, and consumer advocates fighting against the financialization of local news, the effort of hedge fund Standard General and its private equity partner Apollo Global Management to take over local news broadcaster TEGNA appears to have failed.”

“Amazon.com Inc. repeatedly violated federal labor law by unilaterally changing policies and terminating union supporters at its sole unionized warehouse, US labor board prosecutors alleged in a complaint, which also accuses Chief Executive Officer Andy Jassy of personally making illegal anti-union comments…The agency alleges Amazon changed its policy on off-duty workers’ access to the premises, as well as its practices on announcing and providing paid leave for Covid-19 cases, without negotiating with the union at the Staten Island facility. It also accuses the company of terminating two employees because of their involvement in the Amazon Labor Union. Amazon should be forced, among other measures, to rescind its off-duty access policy for at least three years, the complaint says.”

“A pattern of similar worker accusations — and corporate denials — has arisen at Starbucks, Trader Joe’s and REI as retail workers have sought to form unions in the past two years. Initially, the employers countered the organizing campaigns with criticism of unions and other means of dissuasion. At Starbucks, there were staffing and management changes at the local level, and top executives were dispatched. But workers say that in each case, after unionization efforts succeeded at one or two stores, the companies became more aggressive. Some labor relations experts say the companies’ progressive public profiles may help explain why they chose to hold back at the outset.”

“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.”

“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 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.”

“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.”

“She was 17, working as a barista, and living in her car. Days before her high school graduation, Starbucks fired Katie for union organizing. Her plans for a new apartment & college were put on hold. Now, thanks to a new federal labor rule, Starbucks may have to pay her tens of thousands of dollars.”

“Tesla fired at least 18 employees, including several leaders of a unionization campaign, a day after they announced plans to organize a Tesla plant in Buffalo, workers said in a filing to the National Labor Relations Board.”

“Falling on Valentine’s Day, the 110-plus actions were themed around the idea of Starbucks as a “toxic partner”—a play on Starbucks terming its workers “partners.” The informational pickets were the latest in a series of maneuvers by SBWU to attempt to push back against retaliatory actions by Starbucks.”

“The Ninth Circuit granted a preliminary injunction against the California legislature’s latest attempt to protect workers’ ability to enforce their rights in court in the case Chamber of Commerce v. Bonta. Tuesday’s decision joins a long line of Supreme Court and Circuit Court precedent that upholds arbitration agreements as “consensual,” regardless of their coercive nature, particularly in employment agreements.”

“Joe Oliveira and his coworkers relied greatly on donations of food and gift cards after going on an Unfair Labor Practice strike against multibillion-dollar specialty steelmaker ATI in 2021... As much as the strike tested workers, however, it pressured ATI even more and ultimately enabled Oliveira and more than 1,300 other members of the United Steelworkers (USW) to secure long-overdue raises and stave off the company’s attempt to gut benefits. Corporations so fear this kind of worker power that they’re asking the U.S. Supreme Court to rig the scales and help them kill future strikes before they even begin.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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”

“In a sweeping decision, an administrative judge in New York ruled on Wednesday that Starbucks had violated federal labor law dozens of times in responding to a union campaign in the Buffalo area shortly after the campaign began roughly 18 months ago.”

“Eschucha Mi Voz (Listen to my Voice), a group who says its mission is to fight for worker justice and immigration reform, says it is opposed to the bill that would allow kids as young as 14 to work in meat packing plants. "This bad bill is a way for the big companies to disrespect the workers who have been there for many years while taking advantage of children, all in the name of profit." Said Pedro Neiro, a meatpacking plant worker at Tyson Foods in Columbus Junction."

“Dozens of white-collar Starbucks Corp. employees and managers have signed an open letter protesting the company’s return-to-office mandate and its alleged union-busting, opening a new front in the battle over the avowedly progressive coffee chain’s treatment of its staff.”

“Two influential labor leaders are working to hash out their differences regarding the potential merger of JetBlue and Spirit Airlines”

“The Biden administration announced measures to crack down on child labor on Monday amid a steep rise in violations and investigative reports by Reuters and other news outlets on illegal employment of migrant minors in dangerous U.S. industries. U.S. officials said the Labor Department had seen a nearly 70% increase in child labor violations since 2018, including in hazardous occupations. In the last fiscal year, 835 companies were found to have violated child labor laws.”

“US corporations have mounted a fierce counterattack against the union drives at Starbucks, Amazon and other companies, and in response, federal officials are working overtime to crack down on those corporations’ illegal anti-union tactics – maneuvers that labor leaders fear could significantly drain the momentum behind today’s surge of unionization.”

“Arriving in record numbers, they’re ending up in dangerous jobs that violate child labor laws — including in factories that make products for well-known brands like Cheetos and Fruit of the Loom.”

“IAM Secures Congressional Letter of Support in its Fight to Save Union Jobs at Boston Ship Repair: The IAM is fighting to save union jobs at the Boston Ship Repair and has secured a Congressional letter of support addressed to the Secretary of the Navy led by U. S. Rep. John Garamendi (D-CA) to help the fight.” 

“There are, it would seem, deeper structural forces at play, ones that have to do with the way the American poor are routinely taken advantage of. The primary reason for our stalled progress on poverty reduction has to do with the fact that we have not confronted the unrelenting exploitation of the poor in the labor, housing and financial markets.”

“...Teamsters General President Sean M. O’Brien testified at a hearing held by the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP). The committee hearing — “Defending the Right of Workers to Organize Unions Free from Illegal Corporate Union-Busting” — was initiated by HELP Committee Chair Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) in response to unlawful anti-union activity at Starbucks, Amazon, and other multi-billion-dollar corporations.”

“This post is an ongoing OnLabor feature that will update readers on Senator Bernie Sanders’s effort to subpoena Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz about union-busting.”

“...while the citizens of East Palestine were sheltering-in-place and evacuating, Norfolk Southern, being the responsible custodian of public health that they are, immediately leapt into action, sending 40 of their employees in to start cleaning up the wreckage — and to get the rail line running again. One might expect a railroad as large and profitable as Norfolk Southern to have a specially trained and equipped Hazmat Team to respond to events like this.  Turns out that may not have been the case.”

“The union’s NLRB complaints allege the company interfered with workers’ rights to organize by obstructing multiple exits from the building and “surveilling, or giving the appearance of surveilling, employees engaging in protected concerted activities.” The Cal/OSHA complaint is directed at the safety violations that ensue from having multiple exits blocked, including the designated emergency exit from the hot kitchen.”

[Video] “BMWED President Tony Cardwell spoke to CNN Newsroom about the Norfolk Southern derailment in East Palestine and concerning symptoms our Brothers continue to experience since working at the toxic worksite. BMWED N.S. members who worked the derailment are reporting nausea, sore throats, trouble breathing, skin and eye irritation and similar problematic and troubling symptoms.”

“An National Labor Relations Board administrative law judge has ruled that two Hallmark movie productions violated federal labor law in 2021 when nine of its drivers were interrogated about their union activities, were threatened with job loss, and were then fired for attempting to unionize the projects under a Teamsters Local 399 contract. The case stems from unfair labor practices charges filed by Local 399 against 3484 Inc. and 3486 Inc., the companies that produced Christmas at the Madison and Love at the Pecan Farm.”

"When Norfolk Southern, the railroad company behind the crash in East Palestine, Ohio, finally offered to give its workers paid sick leave, its proposal came with a major caveat: the company must be allowed to campaign to erode safety regulations without union opposition. In a letter sent on Wednesday to government officials, including Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, an official for a major rail union — representing roughly 3,000 Norfolk Southern workers — said that the company had recently said it would only agree to give workers paid sick leave if the union withdrew a letter of opposition to its new experimental inspection system that would make train operation more dangerous for workers and communities like East Palestine.”

“The practice of requiring repayment for training programs aimed at recent nursing school graduates has become increasingly common in recent years, with some hospitals requiring nurses to pay back as much as $15,000 if they quit or are fired before their contract is up, according to more than a dozen nursing contracts reviewed by NBC News and interviews with nurses, educators, hospital administrators and labor organizers.” 

“Union members with Starbucks Workers United (SBWU) reacted with surprise, excitement, and a sense of vindication to the news that Schultz will be appearing under oath in front of a U.S. Senate committee on March 29.”

“Trader Joe’s may have run afoul of the law at a store in Minnesota where workers unionized last year. The grocery chain’s management illegally removed union literature from the break room and forbade workers from posting fliers about organizing last November, according to a new complaint filed at the National Labor Relations Board.”

“Under the National Labor Relations Act (“NLRA”), workers can bargain with and file labor law complaints against their employer. In the modern economy, though, identifying a worker’s actual employer (or employers) can be a deceptively complex task. “Lead” firms often franchise their businesses or contract out work to third-party staffing agencies that directly employ workers…More and more, companies including Amazon seek to abdicate their responsibilities as employers by “domestically outsourcing” their workforces through temporary staffing agencies, contractors, and franchise models. Under these new arrangements, companies look to offload the costs and liabilities inherent to being an employer onto other entities and onto workers themselves. At the same time, however, the companies implement surveillance technologies and practices that allow them to retain control over workers.”

“The largest nonprofit organization supporting people with eating disorders is firing human staff and volunteers for its telephone helpline, NPR reported. The helpline will be shut down and the organization will transition to an AI chatbot named Tessa, a spokesperson for the National Eating Disorder Association confirmed in a statement to Insider…Staff who are part of the Helpline Associates United at NEDA said in a Twitter statement that they were told that they would be fired and replaced with a chatbot on June 1. The staff members won federal recognition for their union on March 17, according to the statement, and wrote that two weeks after the election to form a union, they were told they would lose their jobs.”

“Amazon on Friday fired Jennifer Bates, a warehouse worker and lead spokesperson of the unionization campaign in Bessemer, Alabama, without cause. The Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union (RWDSU) described Bates as the "woman who lit the spark of the current rise of labor activism." Her termination comes as the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) continues to investigate RWDSU's claims that Amazon violated federal labor law in order to vanquish a union drive broadly supported by local residents.”

“As predicted on the Power at Work Blog three months ago, the National Labor Relations Board (Board) has reinstated a longstanding test for determining which workers are "employees" covered by the National Labor Relations Act (Act) and, therefore, entitled by law to organize and bargain collectively with their employers. The Board announced in The Atlanta Opera Company, issued on June 13, 2023, its resuscitation of a straightforward application of the common-law test used to define 'employee.'”

“A US labor board ruling on Tuesday laid the groundwork for drivers from Uber Technologies Inc. and Lyft Inc. and other gig workers to formally unionize – a still difficult but potentially transformative task. In a ruling concerning workers at the Atlanta Opera, the National Labor Relations Board’s Democratic majority voted to make it easier for workers to prove they’re employees rather than independent contractors, granting them the right to organize.“

“Last month, DeSantis passed a provision that stripped public employees’ unions in the state of the ability to collect dues automatically from union members’ paychecks. (Police and firefighters unions, backers of DeSantis, were exempted from the provisions)...DeSantis and his anti-union allies thought their legislation had dealt a death blow to Florida public unions. Many unions were worried that they would lose tens of thousands of members as they struggled to get members to give their bank account information so that unions could manually deduct dues. However, Florida Education Association President Andrew Spar says the attacks have backfired. The Florida Education Association says that it actually gained 5,000 members in the month since DeSantis signed the bill in May. Indeed, many non-union teachers, particularly younger teachers, startled by DeSantis’s attacks on gays, immigrants, and minorities, have sought to join the union to fight back against the governor’s attacks.”

“Starbucks agreed to a settlement with the NLRB and Starbucks Workers United that will compensate nearly a dozen unionized employees in Seattle who were illegally discriminated against throughout the fall of 2022. In August, managers called for volunteers to work at a mobile Starbucks bar the company operates at Husky Stadium during University of Washington football games. The opportunity was advertised in a Facebook post…and promised an extra $3-an-hour in base pay and perks that included food, drinks, and free parking.”

“Why are public transit operators struggling to retain workers and hire new ones? Workers at AC Transit say one major factor is intolerable working conditions—overwork, inadequate breaks, safety hazards, and a pervasive culture of disrespect.”

“Projectionists at an Alamo Drafthouse in Brooklyn, the movie theater chain known for serving food and drinks during screenings, filed a petition to unionize with the National Labor Review Board on Wednesday. Two days after the petition was filed and one day after the NLRB sent official notice to the company, Alamo sent an internal email notifying staff of the company's intention to do away with the projectionist position and replace it with a more expansive ‘technical engineer’ role…The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees Local 306, the entertainment industry union that Alamo workers are petitioning to unionize under, said projectionists had been organizing before the union heard about the position change, and speculated the company could have been aware of the push to unionize when the decision was made.”

“Workers should pay attention to news that Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has been wined and dined by a billionaire businessman for years without disclosures, while Justice Neil Gorsuch sold property to a law firm executive who has been involved in numerous cases before the court. It will come as no surprise that justices receiving lavish gifts are going to side with the interests of their wealthy benefactors when a case comes before them involving business interests versus workers’ rights…The Supreme Court has played an important role in the decades-long campaign to erode workers’ rights in this country. In particular, the Supreme Court has issued rulings that have undermined everything from workers’ rights to form unions, the ability to build strong unions, and health and safety on the job. This term, the Supreme Court once again sided with corporations in Glacier Northwest v. Teamsters to make it easier for employers to sue unions over their decision to strike.”

“Misclassification is the practice of identifying workers as independent contractors when, in reality, they act as employees of the company, often in order for the employer to avoid paying the worker benefits, overtime, taxes, and insurance—and to avoid responsibility when accidents occur on jobsites. Misclassification often goes hand in hand with wage theft, and is especially common in the non-union sector of the construction industry.”

“Apple Inc. “coercively interrogated” retail employees about their pro-union sympathies and restricted the circulation of union flyers, a US labor board judge ruled, marking a victory for labor organizers at the world’s most valuable company. In a Tuesday decision, a National Labor Relations Board judge wrote that Apple violated the rights of employees at its World Trade Center store in New York City, one of several around the country where workers waged union campaigns last year.”

“As a queer person who has worked at a Starbucks in Oklahoma City for the past five years, I helped organize a union at my store. In late May, we were told by our manager that the Pride flag we had hung proudly in our cafe, along with other colorful decorations, would no longer be allowed. At first, I thought Starbucks was removing all Pride-related material. Then I realized the company was still selling Starbucks branded Pride t-shirts and cups. It was shocking to see that Starbucks would cave in to the transphobic and homophobic turmoil started by rightwing media, unless they could turn a profit from it.”

“In what union members called a "huge victory for workers," an administrative judge with the National Labor Relations Board has ruled that coffee giant Starbucks violated federal labor law by terminating organized workers in several Pittsburgh locations, accusing the company of orchestrating a "purge" of employees leading the unionization effort.”

“Graduate students at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) were arrested at their homes last Thursday by campus police in the most recent escalation of the university’s aggressive anti-union campaign.”

“Twitter has settled with a former employee who US labor board prosecutors concluded was illegally punished for protesting its return-to-office mandate. Software engineer Alexis Camacho claimed the company put them on administrative leave in retaliation for posting a message urging coworkers to take collective action against the company’s return-to-office policy. A regional director of National Labor Relations Board found merit in Camacho’s allegation, and the NLRB informed Twitter that it would issue a complaint unless the company settled the case, according to agency spokesperson Kayla Blado. Twitter and Camacho then reached a settlement, the terms of which weren’t disclosed. Twitter’s attorney didn’t immediately respond to an inquiry about the case, and the company didn’t specifically respond to a request for comment.”

“A host of alleged labor law violations at Starbucks cafes across the country is threatening to stymie a growing movement to oust the union some two years after an organizing wave hit the coffee giant. Workers so far have filed 10 petitions to decertify Starbucks Workers United at stores in six states where the union has been certified for more than a year—a requirement for seeking decertification where a contract hasn’t yet been reached. But labor lawyers say widespread accusations of union busting, combined with current National Labor Relations Board doctrine, will make it difficult for anyone to bring the matter to a vote. NLRB Regional Director Linda Leslie already has tossed two decertification petitions filed at stores in New York, one in Buffalo and Rochester, saying that allegations of illegal threats, reprisals, and discharge of union organizers ‘irrevocably taint the petition and any related election.’”

“Prosecutors at the National Labor Relations Board filed a complaint against Trader Joe’s on Friday, accusing the grocer of retaliating against pro-union workers and making illegal threats. In the filing, a regional director for the federal labor board said that managers at a Massachusetts store punished workers who tried to wear union pins by ending their shifts, and told them they would lose out on raises and see their working conditions worsen if they unionized.”

“Today, the UAW releases ‘High Risk & Low Pay: A Case Study of Ultium Cells Lordstown,’ a white paper that highlights the dangerous working conditions at General Motors’ joint-venture battery cell plant in Lordstown, Ohio. It includes worker testimonials and health & safety research that show the urgent need to raise wages and safety standards in the EV battery industry. In December 2022, the workers who build electric vehicle batteries for Ultium Cells in Lordstown, Ohio, voted overwhelmingly to join the UAW.”

"Since ratifying a contract, academic workers at University of California, San Diego have faced what they say is an escalating retaliation campaign."

“United Parcel Service (UPS) said Friday it will be training non-union delivery drivers in the coming weeks as the threat of a strike from tens of thousands of unionized workers looms closer. In a statement Friday, shipping giant UPS said many of their employees will ‘participate in training that would help them safely serve our customers if there is a labor disruption.’...Contract negotiations between UPS and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters fell apart last week, increasing the chances the estimated 340,000 workers could strike after their current contract expires at the end of July. The UPS Teamsters, which represents over half of the UPS workforce, is fighting for better benefits and working conditions.”

“Facing a wave of strikes as the summer season kicked off, California hotels found a new way to fight back - apps that hire temporary workers and automatically penalize them if they join the strikers, union leaders say. Replacements hired through the apps have seen their employee ratings cut and shifts canceled for taking to the picket lines, said Kurt Petersen, co-president of Unite Here Local 11, which called July's walkouts over pay, conditions and housing costs. ‘These apps automatically punish workers for participating in union activities ... This is the first time we've ever seen this,’ said Petersen, whose union represents more than 30,000 hospitality workers in Southern California - from cleaners to dishwashers and waiters.”

“DoorDash Inc. illegally prohibited office employees from discussing working conditions and fired one because of their organizing efforts, US labor board prosecutors alleged. The food delivery company threatened to punish staff in Arizona if they took collective action and told them it was illegal to discuss worker conditions on their days off, a regional director of the National Labor Relations Board wrote in a complaint filed on behalf of the agency’s general counsel. DoorDash also engaged in illegal interrogations and surveillance of employees’ workplace activism, according to the complaint, and terminated an employee because they formed an organization, the Service Desk Analysts group, to address working conditions there.”

“Trader Joe’s has sued its workers’ union to prevent it from selling T-shirts, tote bags and mugs emblazoned with the union’s logo and name, Trader Joe’s United. The grocer filed a lawsuit in federal court in California on Thursday claiming the merchandise in the union’s online store infringes on its trademark and ‘dilutes’ its brand. The company alleges that the sale of the items ― including a reusable shopping bag that says Trader Joe’s United and shows a raised fist clenching a box cutter ― could cause ‘significant reputational harm.’”

“Public safety workers whose timesheets were illegally altered by the state of Maryland are getting justice. Thousands of current and former employees of Maryland’s Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services (DPSCS) will share a total of $13 million after an investigation by the federal Department of Labor resulted in a settlement with the state. Spurred by complaints from AFSCME Maryland Council 3, the Labor Department focused on allegations that the state was altering workers’ timesheets to pay them less – a violation of the federal Fair Labor Standards Act.”

"It’s important to understand what Starbucks has done — and what it hasn’t done. The company has been accused of deploying familiar anti-labor tactics, such as the shuttering of some union stronghold cafes. (Starbucks denies closing stores in response to union drives and blames other factors, such as crime.) Union activists reported being spied upon, harassed or fired on flimsy pretexts, complaints that Starbucks disputes. But Starbucks has also done a lot of nothing — time-buying, morale-eroding, innocent-seeming nothing. The company dedicated to caffeinating the world turns out to be very good at moving slowly, and the inaction is devastating for the workers, many of whom are economically vulnerable. Starbucks, on the other hand, faces little risk. Even if the company eventually ends up losing cases on the final appeal — a stage that could take years — the N.L.R.B. is barred from imposing monetary penalties. The board can only order employers to “make whole” anyone who lost money and warn them to do better."

“While much of the conversation around the work stoppage has focused on the role of A-list actors, another group could play a key role in making or breaking the strike: online influencers. Sony, Hulu, Netflix, Universal, Paramount and Showtime are just some of the production companies who have partnered with creators on the platform.”

“Early last year, the president of a small manufacturing company in Missouri received a cold call from a man who went by the name of Jack Black. Workers at the company, called Motor Appliance Corp., or MAC, had just asked to hold a union election. Jack Black specialized in “union avoidance.” He wanted to offer his services. Jack Black’s firm has brought in millions of dollars over the years by providing employers with ‘persuaders,’ or, to use unions’ less charitable term, ‘union busters’ — consultants who try to convince workers not to organize. Persuader work is big business these days. The number of union elections in the U.S. has surged amid an organizing wave over the last two years. Employers are now paying upwards of $3,000 a day, plus expenses, for each persuader. Amazon alone dished out more than $14 million to consultants last year.”

“60 seconds is the deadline managers give each team racing at a dozen stations: to bolt the frame together, lay electronics, add heating and cooling gear, set cushions, and attach trim…That harsh speedup makes it a small wonder that repetitive motion injuries are piling up for U.S. auto workers, while the Big 3 auto companies—Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis (formerly Chrysler)—posted $250 billion in profits in just the last four years.”

“Starbucks (SBUX.O) violated U.S. labor law by firing a Manhattan store supervisor who had organized workers to join a union, a federal labor board judge ruled on Monday. The National Labor Relations Board established ‘striking and strong evidence of animus’ behind Starbucks' termination of Rhythm Heaton as a shift supervisor at its Astor Place store, NLRB Administrative Law Judge Benjamin Green wrote.

“In the fall of 2020, a group of workers at a recycling company called United Scrap Metal were trying to form a union at their Philadelphia plant. The company hired a “union avoidance” firm called Chessboard Consulting in hopes of defeating the organizing campaign. The firm sent a bilingual consultant named Mike Rosado to give the workers, who were mostly immigrants, second thoughts about a union. United Scrap provided Rosado with detailed spreadsheets listing each worker’s name and address, as well as their fluency levels in both Spanish and English, according to documents obtained from the National Labor Relations Board.” 

“More Perfect Union went to Lordstown, Ohio, to see what the electric vehicle revolution actually looks like for the workers making it possible. Lordstown is home to one of Ultium Cells’ three battery manufacturing plants — and the town is no stranger to auto manufacturing. The first GM car rolled off the Lordstown Assembly line in 1966. For the next 6 decades, GM was the town’s largest industrial employer and a crucial source of well-paying, union jobs.” 

“Trader Joe’s United, which formed last year and represents some of the grocery chain’s employees in three states, faces trademark claims over merchandise graphically bearing the company’s trademarks that go beyond identifying the union. The grocer’s complaint, filed in California federal court earlier this month, says the ‘purely commercial’ sales ‘to the public is irreparably harming.’ The union called the lawsuit ‘retaliation’ and ‘simply one more act of union-busting.’”

“A coalition of gig economy giants plan to reboot a failed ballot initiative in Massachusetts in a renewed push to cement their workers’ status as independent contractors. The Massachusetts Coalition for Independent Work, a group bankrolled by Uber Technologies Inc., Lyft Inc., Instacart Inc. and DoorDash Inc., will file a petition to include a measure concerning gig worker classification on the 2024 ballot, according to people familiar with the matter.”

“The BMWED has sued BNSF Railway in federal court to combat the carrier’s bad faith in dealing with the Union by its depletion of its Maintenance of Way workforce and its blatant disregard of contractual obligations intended to protect our members and their work.”

“Following The Trevor Project’s decision to lay off nearly 12% of bargaining unit employees, Trevor Project workers and members of CWA Local 1180 (Friends of Trevor United) are taking action to call out the organization for its increasingly aggressive anti-worker behavior. Just last week, the Communications Workers of America (CWA) filed an Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) charge on behalf of the workers with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) in response to management’s unlawful threats and coercive attempts to silence workers.”

“TCGPlayer employees have filed an unfair labor complaint against parent company eBay, The Verge reports. The company, which sells and authenticates trading cards was acquired by eBay in 2022. The complaint accuses eBay of ignoring the union’s existence after workers organized in March. The workers at TCGPlayer were represented by Communications Workers of America (CWA) Local 1123 and became ‘the first group of eBay workers to win union representation in the U.S.,’ a CWA news release said at the time…However, since TCGPlayer employees unionized, both the company and eBay have stalled workers from negotiating a fair contract and refused to acknowledge the union.”

“Grindr Inc., the LGBTQ dating company, is using a new return-to-office policy to punish employees who are trying to unionize, workers alleged in a complaint filed with US labor officials. The company has recently restricted remote work and threatened workers with firing unless they live near or relocate to an in-person office, the Communications Workers of America said in a complaint filed Friday with the National Labor Relations Board.”

“Innovations in digital technology and artificial intelligence have transformed the increasingly sophisticated world of visual effects, which can ever more convincingly draw from, replicate and morph flesh-and-blood performers into virtual avatars. Those advancements have thrust the issue toward the top of the grievances cited in the weekslong strike by the actors’ union. SAG-AFTRA, the union representing more than 150,000 television and movie actors, fears that a proposal from Hollywood studios calling for performers to consent to use of their digital replicas at ‘initial employment’ could result in its members’ voice intonations, likenesses and bodily movements being scanned and used in different contexts without extra compensation.”

“A commuter airline has filed 19 lawsuits against pilots who recently quit their jobs, suing them for thousands of dollars the airline says the pilots owe for training costs. The company, Florida-based Southern Airways Express, is trying to enforce a controversial employment clause that has recently gained national attention. Known as a ‘training repayment agreement provision,’ the clauses stipulate that workers will pay the company a particular amount of money if they resign before they’ve worked there for a set amount of time.”

“Organizing activity among workers in the United States is on the rise, and support for labor unions among the general public is the highest it’s been in decades. From union drives at Starbucks, to Trader Joe’s, Medieval Times, college campuses and low-wage industries in the U.S. South (an atypical hotbed for organizing) this wave of unionization has employers scared. Scared enough that they will often turn to ‘union avoidance’ experts like the Labor Pros, a consultancy firm based in Orlando that has a history of flouting federal labor law — because it’s easy, and there have historically been few or no repercussions.”

“Bosses that foist debt on new hires, an increasingly common management practice, appear to be violating their workers’ right to organize unions. According to a report published on July 20 by federal regulators, employment agreements that require workers to pay for training if they quit before an arbitrary deadline have the same effect as another type of legally dubious contract.”

“In May 2022, an employee at a Target store in Christiansburg, Virginia, leaked audio from a meeting that store employees were forced to attend. Workers had been trying to organize a union at the store since 2019. In the recorded meeting, which was mandatory, the store managers assembled to tell the staff that they didn’t have to support the union. One manager claimed that joining a union could end up costing everyone $500 a month.”

“Trader Joe’s workers and union supporters rallied outside the company’s Boston headquarters Tuesday, accusing the grocery chain of retaliation against the union and demanding the reinstatement of a longtime employee they say was fired illegally.”

“Grindr sent workers its return-to-office plan in an Aug. 3 memo, a copy of which was reviewed by The New York Times. The company asked them to pledge by next week that they’ll report to their assigned offices and show up two days a week, or leave the company. Anxiety rippled through the staff of roughly 180 people, as some weighed whether to move or lose their jobs. The plan was unveiled two weeks after employees filed a petition to unionize. A complaint filed with the National Labor Relations Board the next day by the Communications Workers of America, the union that Grindr employees hope to join, argued that the company’s new office rules were meant to retaliate against workers for their union organizing efforts.”

“It’s been a year since organic convenience and frozen food company Amy’s Kitchen unexpectedly shuttered its factory doors in San Jose, California, leaving more than 300 workers without a job. The decision was a part of a series of retaliatory blows against workers organizing for safer conditions, better pay, and unionization. Workers had been organizing with Unite Here, a union representing about 300,000 workers in Canada and the U.S. Leadership at Amy’s Kitchen had shown a pattern of retaliation, including firing a worker after he spoke to management about his concerns, a lack of bathroom breaks, and penalties for sick days. A year later, laid-off workers are still calling for a boycott of Amy’s Kitchen products, and current workers still say conditions have not improved.”

“US labor board prosecutors plan to formally accuse Wells Fargo & Co. of violating federal labor law at an Oregon call center, unless a settlement is reached that addresses the agency’s concerns. A regional director of the National Labor Relations Board has determined that the company illegally imposed a rule prohibiting employees from distributing pro-union literature unless management first approved it, agency spokesperson Kayla Blado said in an email. The regional official also determined that the company illegally removed pro-union literature from non-work areas on its property. Absent a settlement, he will issue a complaint against the company on behalf of the labor board’s general counsel, Blado said Thursday.”

“Cornell will be terminating its partnership with Starbucks no later than the expiration of its current contract, Student Assembly President Patrick Kuehl ’24 announced in an Aug. 16 email to the student body. The contract is set to expire in June 2025. Cornell is currently a participant in the ‘We Proudly Serve Starbucks’ program, which allows its cafés and dining halls on campus to serve Starbucks products. The decision to end the partnership comes following a National Labor Relations Board ruling that found Starbucks punished pro-unionization Cornell students who were Starbucks employees by denying them leave over Cornell’s academic breaks during the unionization process at Ithaca’s three locations, among other violations.” 

“In August 2021, a few Starbucks workers in Buffalo formed Starbucks Workers United. The union has now organized more than 350 stores and represents over 5,000 workers. But Starbucks has refused to come to the table and negotiate in good faith with those workers. More Perfect Union just learned that a billionaire-funded, right-wing group is doing Starbucks’ dirty work to try to crush the union from the inside with what’s known as a decertification campaign.”

 “A regional director of the National Labor Relations Board submitted a filing on Monday accusing Amazon of illegally calling the police on workers and other unlawful union-busting tactics during its effort to crush an organizing campaign at a warehouse near Albany, New York.”

"The dinner-theater chain Medieval Times broke the law repeatedly as it tried to stop a union organizing campaign at its New Jersey castle last year, according to a complaint issued Monday by the National Labor Relations Board. The agency’s general counsel alleges that the company illegally fired a union supporter, withheld raises from workers who had unionized, and sought to have the union’s TikTok account banned by the social media platform in an apparent effort to muzzle employees. The charges directly implicate Medieval Times’ chief executive, Perico Montaner, who has fought the organizing campaign from the start.”

“This summer has broken records for heat all across the country. From the smoke generated by the Canadian wildfires spreading south, to the sweltering heat wave in Southern states, to the earliest heat advisories on record in New York and Boston, Americans are increasingly concerned for their health. Like other public health issues, the heat affects some groups of people disproportionately.”

“Paying the National Labor Relations Board a backward compliment, Republican senators seem to be celebrating Labor Day this year by trying to shut it down. The good news is that they’re making a terrible hash of it.”

“​​With more than 340 victories at Starbucks stores across the US, the campaign to organize the coffee chain’s workers is one of the most successful union drives in a generation. But Starbucks’ fierce union-busting campaign has badly slowed its momentum and exposed deep flaws in US labor law that threaten other promising unionization efforts…Many labor experts say the unionization campaign at Starbucks has done more than any other effort to inspire union drives, whether at Trader Joe’s, Apple or elsewhere, but if Starbucks succeeds in quashing its baristas’ organizing efforts and prevents them from ever getting a first contract, that would be a major symbolic and substantive blow to the hopes for a union rebirth in the US.”

“Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey on Tuesday vetoed an ordinance that would have set minimum rideshare pay rates and guaranteed a host of other labor protections for Uber and Lyft drivers, in what the leader of a rideshare workers’ advocacy group called a 'second painful experience' during the last several months. The ordinance passed by the Minneapolis City Council last week would have set pay rates for drivers to a minimum of $1.40 per mile, $.51 per minute, and $5 per ride. The bill would have also created a city-run resource center for drivers, allowed them to appeal deactivations from the services, and banned the use of gift cards to force riders to use their own names, which drivers’ advocates argue would blunt an increase in crimes against drivers.”  

“Two of the New York Times' unions have sent cease-and-desist letters to management over its new policies that will see the Times monitoring its workers' return to office via badge swipes, sources told Axios.”

“Wall Street’s insatiable thirst for profit has created a dangerous environment in the railroad industry, especially after wide implementation of stock buybacks and precision scheduled railroading, or PSR. The railroad owners’ actions demonstrate unconcern for their employees—the very people who make their profit—and for public safety, as evidenced in Norfolk Southern’s lukewarm response to this year’s train derailment and subsequent environmental disaster in East Palestine, Ohio.”

“The Hawaii Nurses Association says it is filing an unfair labor practice charge against the management at Oahu Care Facility, a nursing home in Honolulu. The union said after months of contentious negotiations over a new contract — and a seven-day strike in July — on behalf of the facility’s registered nurses and certified nurse aides, it was hopeful…. After notifying management last Thursday that members had voted to ratify the agreements, the union learned the next day it was eliminating a medical insurance plan.”

Two economic releases today tell us that U.S. economic conditions remain strong for workers. The Commerce Department's Bureau of Economic Analysis reported an advance estimate that the U.S. economy grew 2.9% in the last quarter of 2022. That's a slight decline from the preceding quarter, but still strong economic growth. Solid economic growth is a clear indication that the American economy is strong and there are no signs that an unemployment-producing recession is looming.

Minnesota Starbucks workers interviewed by Workday Magazine attest to "soft" union-busting tactics that are on par with trends across the country: not giving unionized stores the same wage increases as non-unionized stores, not installing credit card tip readers in unionized shops, cracking down on dress code violations that never used to be enforced, cutting hours, denying promotions, and spreading confusion about the union.

Minnesota Starbucks workers interviewed by Workday Magazine attest to "soft" union-busting tactics that are on par with trends across the country: not giving unionized stores the same wage increases as non-unionized stores, not installing credit card tip readers in unionized shops, cracking down on dress code violations that never used to be enforced, cutting hours, denying promotions, and spreading confusion about the union.

Two economic releases today tell us that U.S. economic conditions remain strong for workers. The Commerce Department's Bureau of Economic Analysis reported an advance estimate that the U.S. economy grew 2.9% in the last quarter of 2022. That's a slight decline from the preceding quarter, but still strong economic growth. Solid economic growth is a clear indication that the American economy is strong and there are no signs that an unemployment-producing recession is looming.

“Jesse Mason, the Washington state worker Verizon fired last year after he tried to organize two Seattle-area retail stores, went back to work on Monday, as part of the telecom giant’s recent settlement with federal labor regulators.”

“Captive audience meetings allow employers facing an organizing drive to gather large groups of employees on company time and push their views about a union or unions in general. Employees who fail to attend or attempt to leave such meetings can be disciplined.”

“Chipotle Mexican Grill has agreed to pay out $240,000 as part of a settlement for illegally closing its Augusta location to quash a fledgling union.”

“In a federal court case over Starbucks’ alleged anti-union retaliation, the coffee giant is deploying a maneuver that labor experts say could have a chilling effect on workers’ organizing efforts and potentially set a disastrous precedent — hijacking the proceedings to dig up information on employees and intensify retaliation as part of its battle to crush a labor uprising in its stores.”

“The cooks, servers, cashiers, bartenders, dishwashers and other unionized staff at 15 restaurants in the Philadelphia International Airport thought they had finally won a new contract last June, after four years of bargaining with their employer, OTG. The workers waited months to see those changes go into effect. Then, in December, their employer told union representatives that there had been no agreement.”

“Howard Schultz was the star witness, but the hearing revealed almost as much about the party in power as it did about the longtime Starbucks chief executive. When Mr. Schultz appeared Wednesday before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, at a session titled “No Company Is Above the Law: The Need to End Illegal Union Busting at Starbucks,” he encountered a Democratic Party much changed since some of his earlier trips to Washington.”

“Starbucks violated federal labor law when it excluded unionized stores from a new policy that facilitated tipping via credit card, according to a new complaint filed by the NLRB on Monday. In May 2022, then-CEO Howard Schultz announced that the company would begin rolling out credit card tipping in the fall at all of its locations — save for the 200+ stores that were unionized or in the process of unionizing. The ability to collect tips from customers that paid with their credit cards had been a core demand of Starbucks Workers United, and Starbucks speciously argued that contract negotiations rendered it illegal for them to provide additional benefits. When the program rolled out in September, the union filed charges with the NLRB alleging that the exclusion constituted union-busting.”

“The Communications Workers of America (CWA) filed two Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) charges with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) yesterday on behalf of Apple retail workers in Kansas City and Houston who have been fired and have faced intimidation on the job for exercising their right to organize.”

“Employers spend a lot of money trying to derail union organizing campaigns. EPI estimates employers spend $433 million per year on union-avoidance consultants. This work is well compensated—consultants report being paid $350-plus hourly rates or $2,500-plus daily rates for their work to defeat union organizing efforts. This estimate is just a drop in the bucket because there is not enough data to reveal the true scope of what employers spend”

“With the UAW strike spreading, GM is dispatching nonunion workers and managers to try to keep their parts distribution centers running. ‘I wish them luck,’ one striking worker said. ‘They’re gonna be so goddamn lost.’”

“Hames, an airline cabin cleaner who works for JetStream, an American Airlines contractor at Charlotte Douglas International Airport, contends the job is physically demanding and potentially dangerous due to high turnover and exposure to extreme heat without access to water or breaks. That’s too much to bear for $14 an hour.”

“Drew Lakey quit her job as a physician assistant at the Skin and Cancer Institute in Delano, Calif., in November. She gave four months’ notice…Ms. Lakey had signed a training repayment agreement, or T.R.A., when she was hired. The contracts require workers to pay back training costs if they leave their jobs before the end of a certain period. The agreements are frequently presented late in the hiring process as a take-it-or-leave-it provision: No T.R.A., no job…Nearly 10 percent of workers who participated in a 2020 study by the Survey Research Institute at Cornell University reported being covered by a T.R.A. The arrangements are especially common in the nursing field and the trucking industry; one survey by National Nurses United found that nearly 40 percent of nurses who had joined the profession in the last decade had been subject to the practice.”

“A workers rights group called Arise Chicago has hundreds of members who do domestic work in the city. But the group said very few have been able to secure written contracts. Ania Jakubek is an organizer with the group. ‘People just don’t know about it, that this is mandated,” she said. “There needs to be more education and outreach.’”

“Starbucks Corp. broke federal labor law when it boosted wages and benefits only for workers in non-unionized stores across the US last year, a National Labor Relations Board judge held. Thursday’s decision from Administrative Law Judge Mara-Louise Anzalone marks the first nationwide ruling against the coffee giant amid its resistance to a unionization wave that began two years ago. Starbucks violated the National Labor Relations Act in August 2022 by lifting wages to at least $15 an hour and providing benefits such as credit card tipping, increased training, and faster sick time accrual to all stores that weren’t unionized, the judge said.”

“Amazon.com Inc. was accused by US officials of violating the terms of a labor board settlement, teeing up an expedited process for the government to consider claims that the company illegally tried to suppress union organizing. In a complaint issued Thursday, a regional director of the National Labor Relations Board accused the internet retailer of breaching obligations under a 2021 settlement. The accord required the company to let workers stay on its premises after their shifts in order to organize.”

“Trader Joe’s workers first began organizing their own union in 2022. They were partly inspired, they say, by the growing wave of union organizing at once-unlikely companies like Starbucks, Apple and REI. But they were also inspired by the divide between Trader Joe’s image and the way they say they were treated when customers were out of earshot…Workers say the company has also added injury to that insult. Half a dozen workers across the four union Trader Joe’s cited common complaints that spurred organizing, including safety concerns…Yet according to the New York Times and workers interviewed by Capital & Main, the company has pared back its health coverage and cut retirement contributions.”

“Anti-union law firms — the three biggest are Jackson Lewis, Ogletree Deakins and Littler Mendelson — are also being retained and have played a dominant role in campus union busting and academic reorganization.”

“A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit that Medieval Times brought against its workers union last year accusing the group of trademark violations over its name and logo. In an opinion issued Thursday, the judge said the dinner theater chain failed to demonstrate that the union, called Medieval Times Performers United, was creating “confusion” among consumers and leading people to believe the labor group was somehow endorsed by the company.”

“A group of farm owners escalated their concerns that the state’s enforcement of new union standards for laborers violate their constitutional rights and threaten the livelihood of the agricultural industry. The viewpoint is vehemently rejected by the union representing the state’s first organized farm workers. The New York State Vegetable Growers Association, alongside the first five farms in the state to see activity by the United Farm Workers, has requested a federal court place a temporary restraining order on the novel state policy. The request was made on Tuesday and a briefing schedule is expected soon.”

“Thomas Armstrong, a professor of industrial and operations engineering at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, said musculoskeletal injuries are ‘inherent’ to this kind of work.”

“Former Starbucks Corp CEO Howard Schultz violated federal labor law by telling a barista in California who questioned the coffee chain's response to union organizing to ‘go work for another company,’ a National Labor Relations Board judge has ruled. Administrative Law Judge Brian Gee in Los Angeles said in a decision issued on Friday that the comment Schultz made during a ‘listening tour’ last year amounted to an illegal threat against the worker, Madison Hall.”

“Hey Instacart shoppers, you might have noticed that you got something extra from the app recently–some misinformation from the company asking you to contact city council members. The real story is that they are hoping to use you to undermine new laws Seattle passed to protect their workers. Let me explain. It’s been a banner couple of months for Instacart. The megacorporation went public with a $10 billion valuation, netting its CEO more than $15 million. At the same time, they announced they were cutting their workers’ base pay nearly in half. Now, they’re spreading misinformation and coming after PayUp, Seattle’s new worker protection laws.”

“The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is accusing Shangri-La dispensary in Columbia of numerous violations of labor law for aggressively fighting a union organizing campaign in the late spring of 2023.”

“As a new commercial pilot, Nate Hilliard came to Southern Airways Express two years ago with no illusions. He knew the commuter airline’s starting pay for a first officer ― the co-pilot next to the captain ― was just $12 per hour, less than he could earn behind a fast-food counter.”

“Starbucks Corp. supervisors at a Wisconsin shop illegally threatened workers with the denial of an abortion-related travel expense benefit because of their union activity, a National Labor Relations Board judge ruled. Managers threatened workers with the loss of abortion benefits in July 2022 meetings held at the store to discuss a union petition that they had filed a month earlier, Administrative Law Judge Charles Muhl said in his Tuesday decision.”

“Elon Musk’s X Corp. illegally fired an employee in retaliation for her internet posts challenging its return-to-office policy, the US labor board alleged in its first-ever formal complaint against the company. In a Friday filing, a regional director of the US National Labor Relations Board accused the company — formerly known as Twitter — of violating the federal law that prohibits punishing employees for communicating and organizing with others about their working conditions. The complaint, issued on behalf of the agency’s general counsel, said the company ‘has been interfering with, restraining and coercing employees in the exercise of rights granted’ under US labor law.”

“The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has determined that the National Audubon Society has violated national labor laws during negotiations with its union employees, represented by the Bird Union-CWA. The union workers of the Bird Union-CWA have been working to negotiate a first contract with Audubon for 18 months. The negotiations have been overseen by a federal mediator since March. Across four cases, the NLRB has determined that Audubon has bargained in bad faith or violated the rights of their union employees.”

“Tens of thousands of people who work for Toyota in Kentucky, Mercedes-Benz in Alabama or Tesla in Texas are technically not involved in the high-stakes negotiations taking place between labor and management in and around Detroit. But they are very much a presence. Executives at Ford Motor, General Motors and Stellantis, the parent of Chrysler, invoke nonunion automakers, many of them in the South, as a competitive threat that makes it impossible for them to meet striking workers’ demands for big raises, more generous benefits and better working conditions.”

“Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin (W.Va.) wants to kill a new progressive labor reform, and he’s teaming up with Republicans to try to do it. Last week, the agency that enforces collective-bargaining law rolled out its new rule on joint employers. The regulation makes it more likely that big companies like McDonald’s will be held responsible for unfair labor practices involving their franchisees or subcontractors, or even forced to bargain with a workers’ union. While labor groups have hailed the change as commonsense and long overdue, Manchin has panned it as government overreach and vowed to stop it from going into effect.”

“Uber and Lyft have made profits by exploiting their ambiguous legal status to avoid paying workings billions in wages, but taxi unions recently sued the corporations for millions. Their victory is part of a broader wave of worker attacks on the gig economy.”

“Starbucks is increasing pay and benefits for most of its U.S. hourly workers after ending its fiscal year with record sales. But the company said Monday that unionized workers won’t be eligible for some of those perks, a sign of the continuing tension between the Seattle coffee giant and the union trying to organize its U.S. stores. At least 366 U.S. Starbucks stores have voted to unionize since 2021, according to the National Labor Relations Board. But Starbucks and the Workers United union have yet to reach a labor agreement at any of those stores. Starbucks has 9,600 company-operated stores in the U.S.”

“Public school teachers in Ohio recently got some surprising news in the mail: They were due a ‘credit’ from their union. Melissa Cropper, president of the 20,000-member Ohio Federation of Teachers, was listed as the sender of the ‘CREDIT DUE NOTICE.’ All educators had to do was fill out the attached form and mail it back for an apparent refund. There was just one problem. The notice didn’t actually come from Cropper or the union ― it came from the Freedom Foundation, a conservative group whose mission is to get teachers and other public sector workers to drop their union membership.”

“Today, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia denied T-Mobile’s request for review of a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) decision that the company selectively enforced its email policy to deny its employee’s right to collective action under the National Labor Relations Act. The Court emphatically notes that T-Mobile’s request did not actually challenge the Board’s rulings. Rather, the company argued that the Court, in a prior ruling related to the case, had left open the question of whether the employee’s email was covered by T-Mobile’s ‘Enterprise User Standard’ policy. ‘T-Mobile is wrong,’ the decision reads. ‘We did not leave that question open. We squarely held that T- Mobile’s reliance on the Enterprise User Standard fails.’”

“The administration of St. Charles Community College appears intent on breaking its faculty union, a state level representative for the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) says.”

“Ever since the union Workers United began organizing Starbucks stores in late 2021, the company has denied it threatened or retaliated against union supporters like Clark. But a growing body of decisions by NLRB judges and board members is undermining the company’s public insistence that it has run a clean campaign against the union.”

“The UAW strike against Big Auto succeeded in winning impressive wage gains, but it failed to obtain a little-reported demand: that the auto companies reinstate defined benefit pension plans for new employees that had been suspended as a concession during the 2008 Great Recession. Instead, as a consolation prize the auto companies offered and the unions took larger company payments to employee 401(k) plans. This was a significant loss for newer workers who were not grandfathered into the preexisting pension plans.”

“Last year, during a mandatory meeting of employees at a Manhattan REI store, a manager ticked off a list of what he called ‘serious red flags’ about the union trying to organize the company’s employees. The Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU) has suffered a decline in membership and revenue, he said, which should be concerning…Employees at eight of REI’s roughly 180 US stores, starting with the Manhattan one, have voted to unionize over the past two years with the RWDSU or other chapters of the United Food & Commercial Workers, seeking a say in issues such as safety, scheduling and benefits. But—like their newly unionized counterparts at Amazon.com, Apple and Starbucks—none has gotten close to negotiating an actual union contract with the company.”

“At a small press conference in Raleigh, North Carolina, on Nov. 3, farmworkers, activists, and advocates gathered to honor the dead. Steps away from the state’s Department of Agriculture, farmworker advocates transformed Bicentennial Plaza into a public ofrenda for Día de los Muertos that included images of farmworkers who recently died in the line of work—including José Arturo González Mendoza. The 30-year-old and most of the other men honored were young, fit, and in the prime of their lives—factors that make little difference when the body is exposed to extreme temperatures for long periods while deprived of water, shade, and rest.”

“Tesla Inc. has fought off allegations it illegally terminated dozens of New York employees in response to a unionization campaign, a setback for organizing efforts at the Elon Musk-led carmaker.”

“Amazon.com Inc. has escalated a clash with an incipient organizing movement by ordering workers at a major distribution center in Kentucky to tear down a pro-union display or face termination. The workers last week filed a charge with the National Labor Relations Board, arguing the threats were designed to chill protected union speech at Amazon facilities.”

“A new report claims Minnesota’s affordable housing developers receive millions in public funds while working with subcontractors with problematic records of worker exploitation.”

“Lego play sets have captivated children and adults alike for decades, but engineers at Legoland California are dealing with blocks of a different kind: opposition from management and hired union avoidance consultants trying to deter their bid to formally unionize.”

“Last year, the independent, fledgling union Trader Joe’s United accomplished what had never been done before: It formed the chain’s first unionized store, in Massachusetts, then its second, in Minnesota. Once the celebrations were over, workers got down to the less glamorous business of negotiating a first contract. But Trader Joe’s insisted everyone participate in person, with no virtual option, according to the union. The company’s stance meant grocery store workers from Hadley, Massachusetts, and Minneapolis, Minnesota, had to travel to one another’s bargaining sessions if they wanted to take part ― a great expense for a brand-new labor group that was still crowdfunding.”

“An internal Amazon memo has provided a stark look at the company’s carefully laid out plans to grow its influence in Southern California through a plethora of efforts that include burnishing its reputation through charity work and pushing back against ‘labor agitation’ from the Teamsters and other groups.”

“Food delivery workers in New York City are now earning a mandated minimum $17.96 an hour before tips, following months of unsuccessful legal challenges by delivery platforms DoorDash, Uber and Grubhub. But a sudden coinciding move by the affected apps to change how customers can tip is taking money back out of their pockets, the workers say — and the city’s labor enforcement agency says it’s reviewing the situation.”

“The head of the union that represents track maintenance workers says Union Pacific is jeopardizing safety by delaying nearly 1,200 planned projects until next year and laying off more than 1,000 workers, but the railroad says the seasonal move shouldn’t be alarming.”

“The United Auto Workers union said Monday it filed unfair labor practice charges against Honda Motor (7267.T), Hyundai Motor (005380.KS) and Volkswagen (VOWG_p.DE), citing aggressive anti-union campaigns to deter workers from organizing. The union's filings with the National Labor Relations Board and a video address Monday evening by UAW President Shawn Fain are the latest steps by the union to draw attention to its effort to organize workers at Tesla and foreign-owned U.S. auto plants.”

“More than a year and a half after Amazon workers on Staten Island voted to form the company’s first union in the United States, the company appears to be taking a harder line toward labor organizing, disciplining workers and even firing one who had been heavily involved in the union campaign. The disciplinary actions come at a time when union organizers appear to be gaining ground at a major air hub operated by Amazon in Kentucky, where they say they have collected union authorization cards from at least one-quarter of hourly employees. Workers must typically demonstrate at least 30 percent support to prompt a union election. In disciplining the employees, Amazon has raised questions about the extent to which they are free to approach co-workers to persuade them to join a union, a federally protected right.”

“How much does GOP presidential hopeful Nikki Haley hate unions? The former South Carolina governor once devoted more than three minutes of her ‘State of the State’ address to a diatribe against organized labor, boasting about her state’s low unionization rate. ‘We don’t have unions in South Carolina because we don’t need unions in South Carolina,’ she said. She waged a years-long personal crusade against a union organizing a Charleston-area factory, putting an anti-union lawyer in her administration expressly to help her ‘fight’ the campaign. She later lent her voice to radio ads urging factory workers to reject the union effort.”

“A federal administrative judge ruled last week that Starbucks must rehire and provide back pay to a shift supervisor in Colorado who was fired in November 2022 due to “anti-union considerations.”

“The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has filed a complaint against SpaceX, accusing it of unlawfully firing eight employees involved in writing a letter that called Elon Musk's behavior on social media ‘a frequent source of distraction and embarrassment.’”

“According to formal charges filed by the UFW, on or about Aug. 21 a union meeting inside farm workers’ homes was forcibly broken up by owners of Porpiglia Farms, a major apple producer where workers voted for the union. Owners Anthony and Joseph Porpiglia with two other white men forced their way into the Mexican workers’ living spaces without permission.”

“A bipartisan group of U.S. senators asked Amazon on Wednesday to provide them with information regarding the company’s delivery network and its response to union organizing — the latest instance of lawmakers putting heat on the retail giant over its labor practices. In a letter, the lawmakers accused Amazon of using a subcontracting arrangement to ‘avoid legal liability’ regarding drivers’ pay and working conditions, and said they planned to carry out a ‘distinct oversight inquiry’ into the matter.”

“More than two years into a campaign that has unionized more than 350 Starbucks stores, the company is facing mounting pressure from union officials and activists who say it has illegally retaliated against workers and resisted contract negotiations. Starbucks, which denies violating labor laws, has responded with mixed signals about its willingness to engage with the union. The company announced early last month that it was seeking to restart negotiations at unionized stores, only one of which has held bargaining sessions over the past six months. Yet the company continues to resist a union demand that some workers be allowed to take part in bargaining sessions remotely to enable more to participate. Starbucks has taken steps to address workers’ complaints about being overstretched in stores. But it and the union have sued each other in a dispute arising from social media postings about the war in Gaza."

“New York is the national leader in community solar installation, and it’s ahead of its own schedule to build rooftop solar. But the workers driving that progress face low wages, unpredictable hours, and frequent layoffs. Until last month, the residential rooftop sector was entirely non-union. On Saturday morning, a couple dozen people with signs and a giant inflatable rat stood on the busy corner of Bethpage that hosts EmPower, the leading Long Island rooftop solar installation firm that furloughed 40 percent of its workforce two weeks ago — just after employees voted to unionize with the United Auto Workers.”

“Alphabet Inc.’s Google illegally refused to bargain with a union representing YouTube contract staff, the NLRB held, allowing the technology giant to mount a court challenge to the finding that it jointly employs the staffing agency workers. Google admitted its refusal to bargain while disputing the validity of a Communications Workers of America affiliate’s certification as the Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp. workers’ representative, the National Labor Relations Board said in its ruling late Wednesday.”

“From algorithms firing staff without human intervention to software keeping tabs on bathroom breaks, technologies including artificial intelligence are already upsetting workers and unsettling workplaces. At call centers, AI systems record and grade how workers handle calls, often giving failing grades for not sticking to the script. Some corporate software spies on workers to see whether they ever write the word “union” in their emails.”

“Starbucks Corp. convinced the US Supreme Court to consider its attempt to escape a federal judge’s order to rehire a group of union activists in Memphis, Tenn., that the coffee giant fired after they spoke on the local news about their organizing effort. By granting Starbucks’ petition for review Friday, the justices could resolve a split among federal circuit courts over the legal test used to evaluate National Labor Relations Board requests for temporary injunctions against companies that are accused of violating federal labor law.”

“A federal judge threw out Trader Joe’s trademark infringement claim against its workers’ union on Friday, delivering the equivalent of a legal smackdown in an order dismissing the complaint. Hernán D. Vera, a judge for the U.S. District Court of the Central District of California, wrote that the grocer tried to ‘weaponize the legal system’ against the union, Trader Joe’s United, all in the hopes of ‘gain[ing] advantage in an ongoing legal labor dispute.’ Vera determined that Trader Joe’s legal effort against the union “comes dangerously close to the line of Rule 11” ― a federal rule that allows district courts to sanction attorneys for submitting filings for an ‘improper purpose.’”

“For decades, Boeing chose shareholders and executives over workers and production quality — to the tune of $69 billion. While the companies responsible for the door plug that blew out of a plane in mid-air last week were cutting corners, outsourcing manufacturing, laying off employees, and working to evade expensive safety upgrades, they paid their top executives $817 million and showered Wall Street investors with $68 billion in dividends and stock buybacks over the past decade.”

“Many grocery products from Mexico are sold in the US with labels touting their fair labor practices — but the farmworkers who produce that food say they are subject to brutal exploitation and widespread abuse by their employers.”

“The Supreme Court has agreed to take up a case in which Starbucks is arguing that it does not have to follow a lower court’s order to rehire a group of union activists the company fired in Memphis, Tennessee, in a case that could have reverberating effects across the entire labor movement.”

“The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday turned away Alaska's bid to revive a Republican-backed policy to make it easier for state workers to opt out of paying union dues in the latest case aimed at limiting the influence of unions representing public-sector employees. The justices declined to hear the state's appeal of a lower court's ruling that found that a union's collecting of dues from public employees who it represents without receiving their explicit written consent did not violate their free speech rights under the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment.”

“In many Minnesota franchises, franchise owners within the same franchise agree not to hire from each other, keeping wages down and profits up. It is already illegal for non-franchise business owners to use this anti-competitive strategy to limit workers’ freedom. Minnesota legislators are moving to close a franchise-owners loophole, via bills (SF2216/HF1831) championed by Rep. Emma Greenman, DFL-Minneapolis, and Sen. Alice Mann, DFL-Edina.”

“The union that organized nearly 400 Starbucks stores has asked regulators to demand financial disclosures from the coffee chain and its law firm related to their long-running campaign against the organizing effort. Workers United sent a complaint to the Labor Department on Tuesday, arguing that both Starbucks and the firm, Littler Mendelson, should have to reveal details about their relationship, including how much Starbucks is paying the firm. Starbucks has deployed dozens of Littler attorneys in labor litigation across the country, part of a two-year legal effort to blunt the organizing campaign. The union suspects Starbucks has spent a fortune on the firm’s services – and claims the law should compel both parties to divulge numbers.”

“The Missouri AFL-CIO is closely monitoring a host of bills filed in the state legislature that would negatively impact Labor, one of which would enable counties to enact phony so-called ‘right-to-work’ laws. This, even after Missouri voters overwhelming defeated so-called “right-to-work” in 2018.”

“Members of the Denver Newspaper Guild-CWA Local 37074 have won a major victory over the union-busting Musk family. When program coordinators and program managers at Kimbal Musk’s nonprofit, Big Green, formed their union in 2021, leadership responded with a campaign of intimidation, surveillance, and retaliation, then escalated by laying off the entire 10-person bargaining unit.”

“Passional Boutique & Sexploratorium, a decades-old, multilevel South Street sex shop known for its queer and trans inclusivity, has laid off its roughly dozen staffers ahead of a proposed sale. The layoffs come one month after the store’s part-time sales associates — eight in total — announced their intent to form a union, seeking job protection in the event of a sale. The workers, who hoped to organize an independent union called the South Street Workers Union, believe they got laid off because they attempted to unionize. It’s illegal for employers to retaliate against workers who want to form a union, but workers don’t have many options when their rights are violated, especially if the business shuts down.”

“Trader Joe’s is facing a litany of union-busting charges before the National Labor Relations Board. The agency’s prosecutors have accused the company of illegally retaliating against workers, firing a union supporter and spreading false information in an effort to chill an organizing campaign. But in a hearing last Tuesday, the grocer’s attorney briefly summarized a sweeping defense it intends to mount against the charges: The labor board itself, which was created during the New Deal and has refereed private-sector collective bargaining for nearly 90 years, is ‘unconstitutional.’ The argument would appear to fit inside a broader conservative effort to dismantle the regulatory state, which has taken aim at agencies tasked with enforcing laws to protect workers, consumers and the environment.”

“Appalling as it may sound, this is far from the first modern instance of Republicans calling for a return to 19th-century labor laws. The right has lately been seeking to slash regulations so that businesses from retail, restaurants and assembly lines, to meatpacking plants and agriculture can staff their operations with low-paid, pliable, sometimes undocumented teenagers. Arkansas, under former Trump spokesperson and now-Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, has been at the vanguard of this regressive effort, but its effects have spread across the nation. Tragically, poverty in the U.S. is such that many children, immigrant children chief among them, are themselves incentivized to obtain underage employment out of necessity. A recent spate of fatal accidents involving children on the job is simply an inevitable outcome of two related trends: deteriorating social welfare and unethical corporate practices aimed at maximizing profits. The result is that, in the latest low point of neoliberal excess, we find ourselves confronting an issue that many would assume was resolved by the tail end of the Industrial Revolution.”

"Fresh off of trying to replace education with child labor, Florida Republicans have another bright idea that’s sure to improve conditions for workers in the Sunshine State. They’re out to ensure that workers don’t have any right to protection when toiling outdoors in the heat.”

“The St. Louis Housing, Urban Development and Zoning (HUDZ) voted Jan. 17 to advance a tax subsidy supporting the remodeling of the struggling Oyo Hotel in downtown St. Louis, despite lingering concerns about the developer’s position on union Labor and workers organizing. Maryland Heights-based Midas Hospitality plans to spend $46 million to turn the run-down Oyo Hotel on South 14th Street near the Enterprise Center into an upscale Sheraton.”

“From credit card terms of service to employment contracts, millions of people are trapped in agreements that only allow them to challenge corporate abuse through a private system of arbitration rather than in a court of law. Now, the biggest player in that private system has posted a 25-fold increase in its filing fee — a move that experts say could prevent consumers and workers from holding corporations accountable.”

“Dillon Dix was excited to compete this year in Starbucks’ North America Barista Championship, a company-wide contest in which the winner would receive a paid trip to Starbucks’ coffee farm in Costa Rica. But he found some disappointing news in the fine print about the contest: Unionized Starbucks stores are not eligible to participate….Union baristas say their exclusion is another punishment for having organized roughly 400 of the chain’s 9,000 corporate-owned U.S. stores since 2021. Starbucks has publicly committed to reaching contracts with the union, Workers United, but in recent weeks the union has filed 47 new charges alleging unfair labor practices, including one related to the barista championship.”

“Trader Joe’s isn’t backing down in a trademark battle with its workers’ union. Last month a federal judge threw out all of the company’s claims that the union, Trader Joe’s United, had violated its trademarks with the union’s name and logo. The judge went so far as to say that the company’s attorneys nearly deserved sanctions for even filing the lawsuit. But the scathing order didn’t stop Trader Joe’s from filing an appeal in federal court Thursday in hopes of keeping the lawsuit alive. The company is trying to force the union to stop selling merchandise like tote bags, T-shirts and mugs that have the name Trader Joe’s United on them.”

“A lawsuit filed by New York growers challenges the right of farmworkers on H-2A visas to unionize. Win or lose, the lawsuit is posing an obstacle to the state’s farmworkers, who only won the right to collectively bargain in 2019.”

“Last month, Passional Boutique and Sexploratorium, a Philadelphia sex shop with a reputation for “inclusivity,” laid off its entire staff after they asked the store to recognize their union. Jacobin spoke with one of the workers.”

“In this blogcast, Burnes Center Senior Fellow Seth Harris is joined by Charlotte Garden, Professor of Law at the University of Minnesota Law School and contributor to the Economic Policy Institute's Unequal Power Project; Michael Z. Green, Professor of Law at the Texas A&M University School of Law and Director of the Workplace Law Program; and Jeffrey Hirsch, Professor of Law at the University of North Carolina School of Law and editor of the Workplace Prof Blog, to discuss the business community's legal attacks on the NLRB. Listen to their conversation as they discuss the pending Supreme Court case Starbucks v. McKinney, the constitutionality of the NLRB, and the legal infrastructure of labor relations.”

“Amid a recent surge in unionization and other workers' rights victories, wealthy U.S. corporations have fired union organizers, surveilled employees as they voted on forming a collective bargaining unit, and closed store locations to penalize labor leaders—but a court filing by Amazon on Thursday suggested a new tactic as the e-commerce giant seeks to dismantle the federal agency tasked with protecting employees.”

“Last December, a group of 238 Costco workers in Norfolk, Virginia, voted to unionize and join Teamsters Local 822. The local declared the vote ‘the union’s first organizing victory at the wholesale retailer in two decades.’ The voices of the pro-union workers who won this contested election — the vote was 111-92 — were quickly overshadowed, however, by a letter from Costco’s leadership that garnered much attention beyond the shop floor.”

“The grocery giants Albertsons and Kroger illegally colluded to weaken workers’ leverage amid strikes and contract negotiations in 2022, according to a lawsuit Colorado’s attorney general filed this week. As workers at 78 Kroger-owned King Soopers stores in Colorado were preparing to walk off the job that January, an Albertsons labor relations executive informed a counterpart at Kroger that his company would not poach strikers during the work stoppage, the lawsuit states.”

“Elon Musk’s lawsuit-plagued SpaceX rocket company is departing Delaware for a new legal home base in Texas just as the Lone Star State rolls out a new, separate court system for businesses that will allow Republican Texas Governor — and longtime Musk ally — Greg Abbott to handpick judges.”

“A year after Norfolk Southern derailed a toxic vinyl chloride train in East Palestine, Ohio, many freight railroad carriers remain addicted to the short term, lucrative cost-cutting measures at the behest of their shareholders. Such cuts gut essential workforce and safety measures that in tandem protect shipper interests and insure safe passage of trains through often unaware communities. The current trend of aggressive corporate restructuring at several Class I freight carriers is predatory.”

"Fifteen janitors represented by Service Employees (SEIU) Local 1 are losing their jobs at a downtown St. Louis office tower after a non-union firm took over the contract for the work. The janitors, who worked at 10 S. Broadway, formerly known as the Equitable Building, were told by security guards Feb. 7 they could no longer work there. The building’s property manager, Colliers International, decided to replace their employer, Platinum Cleaning & Facility Services, with non-union Buildingstars, based in Maryland Heights. Local 1 said Colliers had given no indication that the 15 union janitors would continue as Buildingstars employees.”

“Rocket maker SpaceX is being accused in a new lawsuit of refusing to promote a female production worker, paying her less than male colleagues and retaliating against her for reporting sexual harassment by her manager. Michelle Dopak, a production coordinator at SpaceX headquarters in California, said in the lawsuit filed in state court on Tuesday that company officials including president and chief operating officer Gwynne Shotwell have ignored complaints by her and other employees of widespread bias against women.”

“This week, the Communications Workers of America (CWA) union filed a charge with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) against Fordham University for violating union members’ right to engage in a legally protected union action. Fordham leadership has waged a protracted fight against the workers who perform core functions of the university, including instructing graduate students and conducting research. Since the workers first formed their union, the Fordham Graduate Student Workers (FGSW-CWA), in 2022, Fordham leadership has drawn out contract negotiations for 18 months.”

“Prosecutors at the National Labor Relations Board say Trader Joe’s illegally interrogated workers and threatened to take away their pay raises when they were trying to form a union last year. The alleged threats came in the run-up to a January 2023 election at a Louisville, Kentucky, store where workers voted in favor of joining a new union, Trader Joe’s United. The company has challenged the election results by claiming the union illegally influenced the vote. But according to the complaint filed Monday, prosecutors say it was Trader Joe’s that committed “unfair labor practices” meant to sway workers against unionizing.”

“Advocates of legal immigration say foreign-born workers have long been a key factor in U.S. economic growth. But are they sharing in the benefits of their contributions? For more than a year, ProPublica has been investigating the harsh realities of life for immigrant workers on Midwest dairy farms. John Yang speaks with ProPublica reporter Melissa Sanchez about what she’s found.”

“Workers at Mercedes-Benz’s largest U.S. plant have filed multiple federal charges with the National Labor Relations Board in response to the company’s aggressive and illegal union-busting. Workers are requesting an injunction to put an end to the company’s retaliation against workers for standing up for their rights at work. In February, Mercedes workers announced that a majority of their coworkers at the Mercedes plant in Vance had signed union authorization cards. Every Mercedes plant in the world is unionized—except the company’s two plants in the United States.“

“The Long Beach Media Guild announced Friday that at least 60% of the bargaining unit received layoff notices shortly after newsroom employees moved to unionize and went on strike to protest the impending cuts. The unit, which is seeking voluntary recognition from its employer, the Long Beach Journalism Initiative, said that nine of its members were laid off, while three surviving members remain on strike. The entire Long Beach Post staff was reduced from 17 to eight, said a source close to the nonprofit who was not authorized to comment.”

“Amazon spent more than $3 million on anti-union consultants last year in its continuing effort to keep organized labor out of its delivery network, according to disclosures filed Saturday with the Labor Department. The Seattle-based retail giant has been ringing up a large tab hiring “persuaders” who try to convince workers not to form unions. It doled out more than $14 million on such consultants last year as well. Employers are required to disclose such spending when the consultants speak directly to workers about unionization. The figures cited in the forms generally would not include money Amazon spent on in-house work against unions or legal advice aimed at undermining organizing efforts.”

“When William Littig showed up for work at his REI store on Feb. 21, it didn’t take long for him to realize it would be his last day ... .The firing of a popular department manager shocked the store’s workers, according HuffPost interviews with several employees. It revealed the aggressive response of REI ― a customer-owned cooperative known for its progressive image ― to a union effort that’s organized nine stores so far. And it underscored the difficult, sometimes impossible position that companies put low-level managers in when their underlings start to discuss unions.”

“The general counsel of the National Labor Relations Board took a swipe at SpaceX, Trader Joe’s and Amazon on Friday for challenging her agency’s constitutionality. Jennifer Abruzzo, a progressive appointee of President Joe Biden, described such companies as ‘deep-pocket, low-road employers’ that were trying to throw the agency off its mission of protecting workers’ rights ‘because they have the money to do so.’...Abruzzo’s remarks, delivered as part of a panel put on by the Roosevelt Institute think tank, appear to be her first public comments regarding the legal effort to undermine her agency, long a punching bag for Republican lawmakers and anti-union forces.”

“Painters District Council 58 is calling out the city of Herculaneum in Jefferson County for issuing a $1 million, no-bid contract to a non-union, out-of-state contractor to paint and maintain two of the city’s three water towers in violation of its own protocol to put the project out for bid.”

”On Thursday, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) announced that it is seeking an injunction pursuant to Section 10(j) of the National Labor Relations Act against the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette for dozens of ongoing unfair labor practice violations of federal law, 18 months after workers struck to compel the newspaper to follow the law and provide health insurance to workers.”

“Starbucks and the National Labor Relations Board, the federal agency charged with protecting workers’ rights, will battle each other before the Supreme Court Tuesday, in one of numerous cases now pending in which major employers are questioning the NLRB’s powers and even its right to exist. The NLRB under the labor-friendly Biden administration has been overseeing a period of significantly more organizing and strike activities by the nation’s unions. Some high-profile companies are complaining that the agency is abusing its powers. The companies are asking federal courts, often with conservative, pro-business judges, to stop the agency from standing behind the more activist unions now making their lives more difficult.”

“A U.S. appeals court on Wednesday rejected Starbucks' (SBUX.O), opens new tab claims that an election won by a union at the coffee company's flagship Seattle store was invalid because it was held via mail ballot during the COVID-19 pandemic. A three-judge 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel upheld a National Labor Relations Board decision that said the company, which is facing a nationwide union organizing campaign, must recognize and bargain with the store's union, which represents nearly 100 workers.”

“The peace coalition No Tech for Apartheid accused Google of a "flagrant act of retaliation" late Wednesday night as the Silicon Valley giant announced it had fired 28 workers over protests against its cloud services contract with the Israeli government.”

“A federal judge has rebuked Trader Joe’s for filing a ‘meritless’ trademark claim against its workers’ union and ordered the grocer to cover the union’s legal fees as a deterrent against similar litigation. The company had claimed that Trader Joe’s United, a new union representing employees at four stores, violated Trader Joe’s trademarks through its name and logo. But U.S. District Judge Hernán D. Vera dismissed the lawsuit in January, finding that Trader Joe’s had tried to ‘weaponize the legal system’ against its own workers. In a new order issued Tuesday, Vera went a step further and said Trader Joe’s should have to pay more than $112,000 in attorney’s fees for the union. He wrote that the trademark claim was notable for its ‘lack of substantive merit,’ and reiterated his belief that Trader Joe’s never would have filed it if it wasn’t battling the union in an organizing campaign.”

“Today, Massachusetts State Auditor Diana DiZoglio released an official report documenting how companies like Uber and Lyft have cheated the state’s employee protection programs out of hundreds of millions of dollars by misclassifying workers as independent contractors. According to conservative estimates, Uber and Lyft have avoided paying more than $266 million into the state’s workers’ compensation, unemployment insurance, and paid family leave programs over the past 10 years, including an estimated $47 million in 2023 alone…’The Massachusetts State Auditor’s report exposes the true cost of worker misclassification. Companies like Uber and Lyft are exploiting workers and taxpayers in the name of innovation and convenience,’ said Teamsters General President Sean M. O’Brien.” 

“While [Kate] Ivey’s fierce opposition to the UAW is no secret, what was noteworthy about her post was the so-called media outlet she cited: Yellowhammer News. Yellowhammer is no ordinary “news” site. It is co-owned by a longtime political consultant, Paul Shashy, who has deep ties to the Alabama political and business establishment, which is driving the opposition to the UAW. Indeed, in March 2023, the Business Council of Alabama, which is coordinating a statewide anti-union campaign, announced its hiring of Shashy as a political strategist. None of this appears to be disclosed in Yellowhammer’s day-to-day coverage of topics, like the autoworker union drive, despite the owner’s apparent conflict of interest. Moreover, while Shashy purchased Yellowhammer in late 2023, its past owners have been lobbyists and consultants for major state politicians and executive directors of the Alabama GOP.”

“Boeing locked out 125 unionized firefighters and emergency responders from their jobs in Washington state this weekend as the two sides battle over a new four-year contract. The aircraft manufacturer and the workers’ union, the International Association of Fire Fighters Local I-66, have been negotiating since February. Boeing forced the workers out early Saturday morning after the union turned down the company’s final offer.”

“The manager of an Apple Inc (AAPL.O), retail store in Manhattan violated U.S. labor law by asking an employee whether he supported a union campaign, a federal labor board has ruled in its first decision involving the tech giant. The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) in a single-page ruling late on Monday said the manager's questioning of the worker, who had raised concerns about pay at a group meeting, amounted to unlawful interrogation and upheld a decision by an administrative judge. The Democrat-controlled board also affirmed the judge's ruling that Apple illegally barred workers at the World Trade Center store from distributing union flyers.”

“More than two years into the fight for a new contract, union members say the National Audubon Society appears to be punishing them by withholding better benefits.”

“Politicians like Nikki Haley will proudly bust unions. But the latest events at Boeing are a clear example of what happens when corporations don't listen to their workers.”

“Starbucks workers have done what many thought was impossible — force one of the largest corporations in the world to negotiate a union contract. It's a major turning point for Starbucks Workers United and the labor movement. Here's the inside story on how they did it.”

“Uber wants you to think “innovation” and “diversification” are the reason they finally turned a profit in 2023. The real reason? The company raised prices 65% in 5 years while taking a bigger cut from drivers. They even admitted it all. We have the proof.”

“Mercedes-Benz USA hired a large team of anti-union consultants to help the company defeat an organizing effort by the United Auto Workers union earlier this month, according to new disclosures with the Labor Department. The filings show the automaker contracted with three consulting firms to bring on at least 11 ‘persuaders’ to hold meetings with workers about the union ahead of an election. Employees at the Vance, Alabama, plant ultimately voted 2,045 to 2,642 against forming a union, a setback for the UAW as it tries to organize Southern auto facilities. Employers often spend big bucks to hire persuaders to hold what are known as ‘captive audience’ meetings — mandatory gatherings where workers tend to hear anti-union talking points. The going rate these days is around $3,200 per day for each consultant.”

“C.A. felt something was wrong when he was assigned to pick apples in fields without enough ripe crops to meet the required five boxes per day. The 40-year-old seasonal worker from Jamaica joined several other workers to complain to the manager that it would be impossible to meet their required minimum. The manager told them that he knew the fields did not have enough apples for workers to meet the quota, but he would not hold that against them, according to C.A., who asked to be referred to by his initials due to the fear of reprisal from potential future employers. Meanwhile, workers from Mexico, who were not perceived to be with the union, were assigned to fields with enough apples to pick.”

“Ferras Hamad, who used to be an engineer working with Meta's machine learning team, has accused the company of firing him over his handling of Palestine-related Instagram posts in a lawsuit. According to Reuters, he is accusing the company of discrimination, wrongful termination and showing a pattern of bias against Palestinians. Hamad said he noted procedural irregularities on how the company handled restrictions on content from Palestinian Instagram personalities, which prevented them from appearing in feeds and searches. One particular case that involved a short video showing a destroyed building in Gaza seemingly led to his dismissal in February.”

“Workers in Towson, Maryland, have earned the distinction of becoming the first Apple retail workers in the nation to vote to strike over failed union negotiations with their employer. The approximately 100 Apple workers were also the first in the nation to successfully form a union. They did so in 2022, as the Coalition of Organized Retail Employees (CORE), joining the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM). Two-thirds of the store’s workers voted to join the union, a resounding success at a company that has long staved off union activity. Apple could have embraced the Towson store union, respecting the legal right of its workers to bargain collectively for their rights. Instead, the company chose a depressingly familiar path of using its economic power to resist the union at all costs.”

“Farm workers at Windmill Mushroom traveled to Seattle on Wednesday to shed light on their years-long struggle for dignity and respect – and to urge lawmakers to pass legislation to ensure farmworker labor rights. Accompanied by United Farm Workers President Teresa Romero and joined by state legislators, farm workers spoke passionately about their fight to unionize and the need for labor laws that protect all farm workers, organized or not.  The workers have been organizing together for more than two years at Windmill Farms – formerly Ostrom – fighting back against intense pressure and retaliation from the boss. But because farm workers are excluded from many federal and state labor laws, farm workers in Washington currently cannot organize a union and collectively bargain like most workers.”

“Media workers across the world are facing unprecedented levels of retaliation for speaking out for Palestinian liberation. Reports from the U.S., Europe, and beyond highlight a disturbing trend of censorship and punishment aimed at those who dare to confront Israel’s occupation of Palestine. In response, the Freelance Solidarity Project, the digital media division of the National Writers Union, created a report documenting the retaliation workers in the media industry have faced since Oct. 7. The report, titled “Red Lines: Retaliation in the media industry during the war on Gaza,” was released on May 6 after World Press Freedom Day and recorded 44 cases of retaliation affecting more than 100 media professionals between Oct. 7, 2023, and Feb. 1 in North America and Europe. The report centered on media workers of Middle Eastern or North African descent and those identifying as Muslim.”

“More than 15,000 Amazon contract drivers filed arbitration claims against the e-commerce giant on Tuesday, alleging Amazon classified them as independent contractors instead of employees with minimum wage and overtime rights. Millions of Americans participate in the ‘gig economy,’ freelancing work through delivery and ride apps like Lyft, Uber, Doordash and Instacart. But as gig work has gotten more popular, many of those workers say they are in fact employees, not just contractors, and therefore deserve more benefits and protections. The definition and rights of a contract worker versus an employee, for example, has been fiercely debated in laws such as California’s Prop 22, which allows ride-hailing and delivery drivers to be treated as independent contractors with some added benefits, including a minimum earnings guarantee.”

“Ana Espino, an advocate with the Farmworker Association of Florida, has gotten an influx of calls from people over the last year who say they weren’t paid for their work. Or, if they work a service job, that their boss stole or mismanaged their tips. She hears mostly from construction workers in Central Florida who do building, roofing or repair services, but also from landscaping workers, restaurant workers and agricultural workers. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, construction is one of the most common industries in which violations of wage and hour laws occur, along with food service, healthcare and retail. The federal Wage and Hour division, which enforces these laws, says they received nearly a million calls last year alleging violations.”

“California’s labor commissioner has fined Amazon $5.9 million for allegedly violating the state’s new warehouse safety law. Officials announced Tuesday that they had issued citations to the online retail giant for failing to disclose productivity quotas to employees at two distribution centers in Southern California.”

“Tesla shareholders on Thursday approved a pay package for CEO Elon Musk worth more than $45 billion while rejecting a pro-union measure that sought to prevent the company from interfering with worker organizing. The shareholder vote on Musk's pay package, the exact value of which fluctuates with the company's share price, was a response to a January court ruling that voided the package because the Tesla board that had issued it had too many personal and financial ties to Musk. The CEO's supporters expect the vote to strengthen his legal case for the money.”

“Recent years have seen an upsurge in union activity. At Amazon warehouses, Starbucks coffee shops, and auto manufacturing plants in the South, workers have asserted their collective interests and, in many cases, won union recognition and significant concessions. Yet unionization efforts have had to contend with one of management’s most powerful weapons—propaganda. Whether by inundating workers with anti-union messaging (as Amazon and other clients of the union-busting industry have done) or calling for teamwork and cooperation, propaganda has long been a powerful communications tool among those determined to undermine workers’ collective interests. For over a century, managers and specialists aligned with them have dedicated energy and resources to weakening unions. Although many workers are familiar with management propaganda, its roots, development, and relationships to broader historical forces are understood less well.”

“The Southern Poverty Law Center, one of the few nonprofit organizations providing pro bono legal counsel to immigrants across the southern U.S., laid off 78 workers on June 12, gutting a quarter of its workforce and dismantling programs that work directly with incarcerated immigrants. The decision has ignited frustration from workers who are accusing the organization of hypocrisy and abandoning its core mission. Among those dismissed were 61 union members and more than 20 supervisors, many of whom are people of color actively working in the Deep South—a region historically fraught with racial tensions and inequalities.”

“A coffee chain in the Washington DC area is accused of hiring dozens of friends of management, including other local food service executives and an Uber lobbyist, in an effort to defeat a union election scheduled for 16 July. Workers at seven Compass Coffee locations, more than a third of the company’s stores, announced their intent to unionize in May 2024. The company has 18 cafes in Washington DC and northern Virginia and its coffee can be purchased in grocery stores throughout the area. In a post on Twitter/X, Compass Coffee United accused the coffee chain of hiring 124 additional people at cafes that are attempting to unionize. The union has also accused the company of manipulating worker schedules retroactively to try to make the new employees eligible to vote in the union election.”

“Honda has been accused by the National Labor Relations Board of violating the rights of workers at a Greensburg, Indiana, factory by illegally cracking down on union organizing, an agency spokeswoman said on Thursday. The board's general counsel issued a complaint on Tuesday claiming that Honda forced workers to remove United Auto Workers (UAW) stickers from their safety helmets, unlawfully surveilled employees and threatened to discipline union supporters, according to the spokeswoman, Kayla Blado.”    

“Artificial intelligence (AI) is expected to significantly disrupt the workplace, and in particular, to change how employers make decisions about hiring, firing, and promotions. According to one prediction, up to 40% of employers will use AI to interview job candidates instead of conducting in-person interviews by the end of 2024. Unions such as the Writers Guild of America (WGA), the Communications Workers of America (CWA), and the AFL-CIO have all sought to protect their membership from the harmful effects of AI’s disruptions in the workplace.”

“It’s the final day for Amazon’s 48-hour Prime Day sale, in which the multinational e-commerce corporation offers a wide range of discounts to its endless catalog of products, from $24 Hydro Flask tumblers to $80 Beats earbuds. It’s a barrage of deals that few can refuse, made even sweeter by Amazon’s same-day, one-day, or two-day delivery service. Unsurprisingly, it’s an incredibly profitable day for Amazon. Last Prime Day, the company saw $12.7 billion in sales and over 375 million items purchased, the largest numbers it’s seen since Prime Day launched nearly 10 years ago in 2015. Adobe Analytics, an organization that studies e-commerce data, predicted that this year’s sale will be another record-breaker, with a forecast of $14 billion dollars in sales. But Amazon’s self-proclaimed customer celebration comes at a cost. While Prime members can purchase goods with the ease of a few clicks year-round, getting those millions of products to arrive at their doorsteps in just a day or two is far more intensive — and even dangerous, as research and investigations into the company show — for the warehouse workers and delivery drivers that Amazon employs and relies on. The speed and scale is worse on Prime Day, when even more consumers are buying things.”

“Two sets of unfair labor practice proceedings against SpaceX are on hold, as two Fifth Circuit courts have issued preliminary injunctions against the NLRB pending the outcome of the company’s constitutional challenges to the agency.”

“As Central Florida receives warnings for dangerously high temperatures outdoors, local workers at Disney World say their employer isn’t taking their health and safety seriously, just days after two live performers passed out on the job. Denys Ortega, a business agent for the Teamsters Local 385, told Orlando Weekly two performers at Disney’s Beauty & the Beast show at Hollywood Studios actually fainted the weekend before last, as the company lagged to fix a broken air conditioning system in a room that performers occupy prior to entering the outdoor stage.”

“Many workers, especially low-wage workers, aren’t getting key benefits they want—such as paid leave and predictable schedules—because lawmakers are letting companies and employers get away with anti-worker practices.”

“The United Auto Workers on Tuesday condemned the manufacturing company John Deere over recent mass layoffs at factories in Iowa and Illinois, arguing the company's strong profits, lavish handouts to investors, and exorbitant CEO pay give the lie to claims that the job cuts and outsourcing were necessary. ‘John Deere's reckless layoffs and job cuts are an insult to the working-class people of Iowa and Illinois, and the United Auto Workers will fight for justice for our members and communities affected by these moves," the union said in a statement. "Let's be clear: there is no need for Deere to kill good American jobs and outsource them to Mexico for cheap labor. The company is forecasted to make $7 billion in profit this year. CEO John May's total compensation for 2023 was $26.8 million.’”

“Aerospace giants have been accused of putting profits ahead of safety as officials consider cutting the minimum number of pilots required on commercial flight decks from two to one. The move, which is currently being evaluated by the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), would weaken standards to the ‘lowest common denominator’, the world’s largest union of airline pilots has warned.”

“Drivers and mechanics say bosses picked buses without regard for the requirements of the routes. Safety is also an issue. School bus drivers in San Francisco say their new EV buses have a fiberglass frame that puts a blinding glare in the rear view mirror. They also worry the bus frame, widened to fit large batteries, now barely fits in the road lane, which might cause accidents. “The technology is just not there yet. It’s not good enough for the situations we’re in, but I hope that it will be soon,” said Meghann Adams, a bus driver in San Francisco, and president of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers (SMART) Local 1741.”

“The United Automobile Workers union filed charges with federal labor regulators on Tuesday accusing former President Donald J. Trump and Elon Musk of threatening workers during a livestreamed conversation a day earlier. The union, which has backed Vice President Kamala Harris, accused Mr. Trump of violating the law by voicing support for the practice of firing workers when they go on strike, an approach the former president suggested Mr. Musk had embraced.”

“SkyWest Airlines, the largest regional airline in North America, is facing legal action over an alleged “fake” company union that the airline operates and the allegedly retaliatory firings of flight attendants who were engaged in union organizing efforts. A lawsuit was filed by the Association of Flight Attendants (AFA-CWA) in October 2023. The US Department of Labor also filed a lawsuit last month against the company over the “company union”, alleging SkyWest Inflight Association (SIA) did not perform its legal duties as a representative agency and barred two employees from running in an election for leadership positions due to their support for an independent union at the airline.”

“WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Congressional Labor Caucus Co-Chairs Representatives Mark Pocan (D-WI), Donald Norcross (D-NJ), Debbie Dingell (D-MI), and Steven Horsford (D-NV) led a letter with Caucus Member Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) and over 120 Members of Congress calling on Maximus to commit to respecting its employees’ right to organize.”

“Labor advocates responded to Tuesday's announcement that global coffee giant Starbucks hired Brian Niccol as its new chief executive officer by highlighting his history of union-busting during his previous job as CEO of the fast-food chain Chipotle. Starbucks' move to replace former CEO Laxman Narasimhan with Niccol comes as the company's share price has fallen amid an ongoing unionization wave by its workers and boycotts over its perceived support for Israel, which is on trial for genocide at the World Court over its war on Gaza.”

“Florida’s Gov. Ron DeSantis-backed union-busting continues as the Public Employees Relations Commission (PERC) mails out ballots to Miami-Dade County Public School union members to determine the union’s future. Ballots were mailed out on Aug. 13 to United Teachers of Dade (UTD) members, and significant controversy and strategic maneuvering surrounds the process. The election has drawn intense scrutiny from political consultants, union leaders, and educators as another tactic to dismantle the local teachers’ union and further derail public education across the state. Jeffrey Garcia, a political consultant working with the union, provided insight into the election and the broader implications of the voting process. According to Garcia, the ballot presents three options for teachers: to continue with the current United Teachers of Dade, to reject union representation altogether, or to switch to the Miami-Dade Education Coalition (MDEC), a newer group that has been aggressively campaigning against UTD and is directly funded by the Freedom Foundation, a conservative think tank behind anti-union policies and censorship in education, including Senate Bill 256.”

“Aug 26 (Reuters) - U.S. labor board prosecutors have determined that a union's claims that Chipotle Mexican Grill (CMG.N) illegally refused to give raises to workers at a Michigan restaurant after they became the first and only employees of the fast-casual chain to unionize have merit.”

“Florida’s high-speed passenger train Brightline has responded to their onboard attendants’ newly announced effort to unionize by hiring lawyers from the notorious union avoidance law firm Littler Mendelson and internally communicating that they would prefer for Brightline to remain union-free. (Shocker!)”

“A car rental agency at Miami International Airport, Sixt Rent A Car, recently hired a local consulting firm that specializes in “union avoidance” to obstruct an organizing effort by sales agents, according to a disclosure report filed by Orlando-based Labor Pros with the federal Department of Labor earlier this month.”

“When Stan Upshaw got a job at Eos Energy Enterprises Inc. in 2020, he hoped for good pay and benefits, like the ones that went to union workers who decades ago built American manufacturing. After all, Eos’ zinc battery plant in the Pittsburgh suburb of Turtle Creek had already received a nearly $400 million conditional loan guarantee from the Department of Energy, as well as millions in subsidies through the Inflation Reduction Act. At Eos, Upshaw said he didn’t see the ‘good clean jobs’ the act was meant to create. Instead, he saw management ignore seniority — and force workers to train new supervisors rather than promote from within, he said. The work felt dangerous, too. ‘We’re having people getting their fingers pinched [under batteries and] working under very hot, humid conditions [where] we’re almost tripping over each other,’ he said. So earlier this year, Upshaw and some of his coworkers began to push for representation by the United Steelworkers union. In early August, they filed a petition to hold a union election; on Sept. 5, they’ll cast their votes and test whether reality in Turtle Creek matches the talk about the Inflation Reduction Act’s good jobs.”

“Portland, OR — After the third day of the Federal Trade Commission v. Kroger-Albertsons hearing in the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon, the American Economic Liberties Project released the following summary—from Research Manager Laurel Kilgour, reporting from Portland—of the key arguments made and points discussed.”

“Last month, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt delivered a provocative talk at Stanford's School of Engineering. He claimed that Google is falling behind Anthropic and OpenAI in the latest wave of technological innovation because Google prioritizes engineers' work-life balance over winning the innovation race. The recorded talk went viral on YouTube sparking widespread controversy and heated debate—before mysteriously being taken down. Schmidt’s assertion is puzzling.”

“Minneapolis – Today UNITE HERE Local 17 filed federal unfair labor practice (ULP) charges against Kim’s and Vestalia Hospitality, the restaurant group behind the now-closed Kim’s as well as Young Joni, Pizzeria Lola, and Hello Pizza. Kim’s is required by law to negotiate about matters related to the closure with its unionized staff. Yet, Kim’s first closed its Bronto Bar and then the entire restaurant suddenly and without giving the workers an opportunity to bargain about the decisions.”

“ITHACA, N.Y. — A National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) judge ruled that two Ithaca Starbucks stores were improperly shut down last year and ordered the company to reopen them. Administrative Law Judge Geoffrey Carter ruled that Starbucks closed the locations, near the Commons and on Meadow Street, in May 2023 in response to unionization efforts at both stores and did not negotiate with the union representing workers before making the decision. The decision comes a year after a similar judgment that Starbucks improperly closed its College Avenue location in Ithaca, where the union effort originated, in which the company was also ordered to reopen that location.”

“The National Labor Relations Board was prevented on Tuesday from moving forward with an unfair labor practices case against the social services tech company Findhelp, after a Trump-appointed judge granted the Texas-based firm's request for a temporary injunction. In the Northern District of Texas, U.S. District Judge Mark Pittman ruledin favor of Findhelp's claim that administrative law judges at the NLRB have unconstitutional protections from being dismissed by the White House.”

“Willard Tipsord was a father, foster parent, husband, grandfather, and for over 30 years, a member of Carpenters Local 63 in McLean County, Illinois. As a young newlywed, he went to work at Bloomington’s United Asbestos & Rubber Company (UNARCO) plant to provide for his family. On May 1, 1989, at age 57, he died of mesothelioma, an asbestos-related cancer.”

“In a monumental decision, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has ruled that Color Of Change violated federal labor law by unlawfully laying off 54 employees without bargaining. Workers first unionized with the Washington-Baltimore News Guild in October 2020. Color Of Change, one of the nation’s largest racial justice nonprofits, illegally laid off workers in mid 2023, but the NLRB found that the organization, represented by Seyfarth Shaw, did not meet its obligation to notify and bargain with the union before taking action. It’s illegal for organizations to lay off workers after they unionize prior to winning a first contract, a period called status quo.”

“Jyothi Renny says she learned about her $30,000 debt when she received a phone call in January from her old employer, a health care staffing firm called MedPro International. MedPro had accused Renny of violating her employment contract by quitting too soon. What Renny didn’t know until the phone call was that the case had already gone to arbitration. Renny had lost….Renny is one of many foreign nurses who come to the U.S. and soon feel stuck in their jobs, thanks to what critics call “stay-or-pay” contracts. The agreements require workers to put in a minimum number of hours before leaving, or else they’ll have to pay back thousands of dollars the staffing firm says they owe for licensing, travel, housing and other expenses.”

“Amazon.com Inc. is facing its first formal labor complaint involving accusations the e-commerce giant is a joint employer of its delivery drivers and broke federal law by terminating their contract. A National Labor Relations Board regional director hit Amazon and its delivery service provider Battle Tested Strategies with the complaint Sept. 30 based on a merit determination last month that found the company should be held jointly responsible for drivers at the Palmdale, Calif., DAX8 warehouse, the agency announced Wednesday. The case could be the first to begin unraveling Amazon’s nationwide network of thousands of contractors, and more broadly make it harder for US businesses to distance themselves from legal liability by outsourcing front-line work. Another NLRB regional director made a similar merit determination Sept. 4 about Amazon’s employment relationship with drivers in Atlanta.”

“Tech giant Apple (AAPL) has been accused of fostering an illegal work environment and violating multiple efforts organized by employees to advocate for better wages and workplace conditions, according to the U.S. National Labor Relations Board. According to the complaint filed on Monday by the labor board, Apple forced employees across the country to sign “illegal” non-disclosure, and non-compete agreements, according to Reuters.”

“It’s been nearly eight months since NLRB regional director Laura Sacks found that Dartmouth College men’s basketball players are employees within the meaning of the National Labor Relations Act. And it’s been seven months since the players unionized with the Services Employees International Union Local 560. But to date there has no bargaining between Dartmouth and the union, and the agency’s board hasn’t indicated if it will accept Dartmouth’s request for review (appeal), let alone set a schedule.”

Washington, D.C. — In response to news that the Department of Justice Antitrust Division has filed a statement of interest supporting healthcare workers in a class-action antitrust lawsuit against the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) — which alleges that UPMC weaponizes its monopsony power to suppress wages, illegally fight unionization, and trap employees with “do not hire” blacklists — the American Economic Liberties Project released the following statement.

“Federal officials claim Starbucks cut workers’ hours at hundreds of unionized stores without bargaining over it — and they want the coffee chain to pay up. The general counsel of the National Labor Relations Board filed a complaint late Thursday alleging that Starbucks made the scheduling changes in late 2022 and early 2023 and didn’t consult the union. As a result, shift supervisors and baristas at 290 stores saw their hours reduced. Once workers have formed a union, it’s generally against the law for the employer to make changes to pay and scheduling without negotiation. Starbucks insisted in a statement that it didn’t violate the law.”

“AFGE National President Everett Kelley issued the following statement: “Our members at FEMA have been targeted by vile and baseless conspiracy theories and lies spread by rightwing extremists. Not only are these types of rhetoric an affront to our sense of shared decency and civic values, they undermine the ability to deliver assistance to those who need it the most. Words have consequences, and the fact that the rhetoric has caused actual threats of violence should inspire a moment of reflection for those parroting these absurd, dangerous, and outright lies.””

“Only four of Trader Joe’s nearly 600 stores have unionized. Beginning with the Hadley, Mass., store in 2022, these four locals have joined an independent union, Trader Joe’s United (TJU), despite facing intense pushback and retaliation from the corporation. Alec Plant is a crew member at Chicago’s Lincoln Avenue location and an active member of TJU. He and his comrades may have won their union fight, but they remain locked in a demanding and potentially years-long battle to become officially certified. In this episode [of the Working People podcast], Plant discusses workers’ continued struggle to unionize against a powerful corporation, the labor movement’s resurgence, the far-reaching impact of Covid-19 and how customers and allies can continue to support their cause.”

“Today, the UAW released a powerful new video calling out Stellantis for failing to honor its commitments to UAW members and criticizing CEO Carlos Tavares for mismanaging the company. The release coincides with a one-day general strike by Italian unions to protest Stellantis’ significant production cuts and the broader impact on metalworkers across Italy.”

“‘Workers have a constitutional right to organize and advocate for improvements in their wages and working conditions, as well as statutory rights to engage in protected concerted activity under Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA),’ the members wrote in a letter to Amazon Chief Executive Officer Andy Jassy.”

“Washington, D.C. – In a powerful show of solidarity with UAW members, 79 Members of Congress have sent letters to Stellantis and its CEO, Carlos Tavares, expressing deep concerns about the company’s recent actions and urging a renewed commitment to American workers.”

“A federal court in Omaha upheld the reinstatement of a BMWED member on Union Pacific Oct. 25, the correct decision and an obvious cause for celebration. What makes it especially noteworthy, however, is what the court said about the railroad’s craven attempt to vacate the award in the first place and its affirmation that labor disputes mostly remain the purview of Arbitration Adjustment Boards as stated in the Railway Labor Act.”

“The foundational 1935 labor law protecting workers is unconstitutional, according to major corporations and right-wing zealots who believe they have enough votes on the Supreme Court to overturn it. In the latest sign that anti-union forces will doggedly press the matter, a federal judge for the Northern District of Texas enjoined the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) from processing any allegations of employer violations of workers’ rights. The National Review hailed the decision as ​’A Welcome Blow to the NLRB.’ This is after Elon Musk’s SpaceX won a similar injunction against the NLRB before the Western District of Texas in July. Both cases will work their way up to the Fifth Circuit Court, which has served as an expressway to steer anti-regulatory legal appeals to the Supreme Court ever since Donald Trump packed it with right-wing ideologues. The arguments that the employers utilize, and even the immediate outcomes of these cases, are almost irrelevant to the ultimate goal: the right wing aims to repeal the twentieth Century.”

“As cannabis workers move to unionize, some employers are fighting to block their efforts. One legal challenge to a union drive at a cannabis operation in St. Louis, Missouri, has made its way up to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). Organizers and legal experts who spoke to Truthout said the board’s eventual decision in this case could have far-reaching consequences, affecting future efforts to organize and protect workers in this fast-growing industry. While similar cases at the regional level have been decided in favor of the workers, further delay on the national case could upend precedent if former President Donald Trump is reelected and makes good on his promise to fire the NLRB’s general counsel and reorganize the board. At issue in the Missouri case is a group of post-harvest workers employed by BeLeaf Medical at one of its cannabis cultivation and processing facilities. BeLeaf Medical operates three such facilities under the name Sinse Cannabis. Its largest Sinse Cannabis location employs more than 30 workers who cultivate, process, package and ship marijuana products to dispensaries.”

“Labor prosecutors have accused the LGBTQ+ dating app Grindr of wielding a return-to-office policy to thwart a union organizing effort. A spokesperson for the National Labor Relations Board said the agency’s general counsel filed the charges Friday, alleging Grindr used the mandate to force out employees because they had ‘joined the union and engaged in concerted activities.’ The NLRB is responsible for investigating union-busting claims and overseeing union elections. The complaint also accuses Grindr of presenting workers with an unlawful severance agreement and refusing to bargain with the workers’ union, the Communications Workers of America.”

“Worker organizing has surged in recent years amid the highest levels of support for unions in decades. Petitions for union representation elections are up 27% at the National Labor Relations Board and have more than doubled since 2021 (NLRB 2024b). Workers are winning a higher share of elections than they have in years. Union membership has increased in each of the last two years (BLS 2024; Shierholz et al. 2024). Research shows that nearly half of nonunion workers would vote for a union at their workplace if given the opportunity (Shierholz et al. 2024). This conservatively translates into 60 million workers who would like union representation—a huge increase from the 14 million workers who are currently union members.”

“A labor union that represents thousands of hotel and food service workers at Disney World in Orlando has filed an official complaint against a Disney Springs contractor, alleging the Patina Restaurant Group illegally fired a young cashier. The complaint, formally known as an unfair labor practice charge, was filed …with the National Labor Relations Board on Nov. 6. It comes less than two weeks after the union, Unite Here Local 737, held a press conference, announcing that cashier and server Julie Ruiz, an employee of the Patina-owned Pizza Ponte eatery at Disney Springs, had been abruptly fired. The official reason, according to Ruiz, was that she walked into work last month wearing an earbud.”

“The Orange County teachers union, representing roughly 14,000 public school teachers, psychologists and other school staff, filed a lawsuit against the school board and district superintendent Monday, arguing the defendants have unconstitutionally abridged employees’ ability to negotiate changes to teacher evaluations. Teacher performance evaluations are conducted at least once a year, and can be used to determine teacher pay and raises that teachers receive. In 2022, Florida lawmakers changed state law to limit aspects of teacher evaluations that can be negotiated during collective bargaining sessions between labor unions and school districts.”

“Workers in the food industry earn some of the lowest wages in the U.S. economy, and after a long day of preparing, cooking, or serving food at work, many struggle to put food on their own tables. A hefty 29% of U.S. jobs were linked to the food and agricultural industries in 2021, and job growth in food sectors is on the rise. But the low pay has consequences. According to the U.S. Government Accountability Office, 11.3% of workers in food preparation and service were enrolled in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) in 2018. These food workers were ranked third highest for SNAP enrollment rates out of all occupations…Low-wage workers may be warming up to the idea of organizing their collective power, but in 2023, food service workers held some of the lowest union membership rates across all occupations.” 

“John Deere is costing American farmers $4.2 billion a year by restricting them from fixing their own tractors. Apple, Amazon and major automakers use the same strategies on everything you own. It's bad for consumers and local mechanics, but excellent for corporate profits.”

“The union negotiated contracts for 50,000 members last year at resorts across the Strip and downtown. In all these contracts, workers won a common standard: a 10 percent wage increase in the first year, and a total of 32 percent in raises over the five-year contract. Virgin is the last holdout.”

“A grocery store worker filed a proposed class action lawsuit against Kroger and Albertsons in Colorado state court on Monday, accusing the two supermarket giants of colluding against striking employees to keep pay and benefits down.”

“(Washington) – The Teamsters have filed multiple unfair labor practice charges against Costco for blatantly violating federal labor law and the national master agreement in a calculated effort to undermine workers’ rights and disrupt the collective bargaining process. In the past 48 hours, Costco’s upper management has escalated its illegal and reckless behavior. The company expelled union representatives from stores, harassed and intimidated workers for wearing Teamsters buttons and attire, sent employees home, and even changed locks on union bulletin boards after the company removed literature and blocked the Teamsters from providing future updates.”

““Union” is not your grandmother’s organized labor documentary. The film, about the efforts of a group of workers at a Staten Island Amazon warehouse to unionize their colleagues, fits broadly into a lineage of nonfiction classics that includes Oscar winners “Harlan County USA” and “American Factory.” But for co-director Brett Story (“The Hottest August”), there was something new to the tale.”

““Do no harm” is the guiding principle of American Sign Language (ASL) interpreters’ professional code of conduct. But when Joe Klug, 28, worked as a Video Relay Service (VRS) interpreter for a Twin Cities metro area office of Purple Communications, he says this principle was routinely violated. The VRS field, which allows Deaf and Hard of Hearing people to make phone calls by video interfacing with interpreters, is difficult and fast-paced work. While some calls are social, others can be serious: medical emergencies, job interviews, jargon-heavy discussions with lawyers or sensitive conversations with doctors. Amid heavy staff turnover at Purple Communications, new interpreters struggled to keep up the pace and wait times soared, according to Klug.”

“Last week, members of CWA Local 1298 filed a lawsuit against the Connecticut Public Utilities Regulatory Agency (PURA) for recent rulings that could force telecommunications company Frontier to use non-union contractor labor for vital utility pole repair work. These rulings run counter to legal precedent, dating back over a century, explicitly barring state regulatory agencies from interfering in contracts between public utilities companies and their employees.”

“Recent news reports indicate that approximately 50% of the workers at the TSMC chips fabrication plant in Arizona have been brought in from Taiwan. News reports and TSMC’s own statements also indicate that these Taiwanese workers are being brought into the United States under the E-visa program. That is a program that should not be used for construction workers. The proper program for construction workers is the H-2B visa, under which the U.S. Department of Labor must first determine that there are not sufficient qualified U.S. workers available before a visa is issued.”

“Labor activism in the United States has had a remarkable resurgence over the last three years (NLRB 2022; Combs 2023). In the past few years, workers mounted successful organizing campaigns at a wide range of companies, including Amazon, Starbucks, Trader Joe’s, Apple, Barnes and Noble, Ben & Jerry’s, Chipotle, REI, and Volkswagen. Moreover, according to Gallup polls, 70% of the U.S. public—and almost 90% of young workers—approve of unions, a figure not seen since the mid-1960s (Saad 2023). Even more remarkable, unions are wildly popular despite their organizational weakness: In the mid-1960s, they represented almost one-third of private-sector workers, while today they represent fewer than 6%. At the bargaining table, unions have won record wage increases at companies such as UPS (Gurley 2023), the Big Three auto companies (Whalen 2023), Kaiser Permanente (Simmons-Duffin 2024), and Disney (Isidore et al. 2023; Rainey et al. 2024).”

“Elon Musk’s ‘department of government efficiency’ (Doge) has been accused by a leading labor union of an “absolutely illegal” breach of federal regulations after posting a vague request for job applications. The Trump administration’s much-vaunted but ill-defined program to reshape the federal government announced it was recruiting “full-time, salaried positions” for software engineers, information security engineers and “other technology professionals” on its official website. The page was promoted by Musk on X, the social network he owns, and swiftly drew criticism from a prominent union leader.”