The Weekly Download

“The President does not make laws regarding worker organizing and collective bargaining. The Constitution delegates that responsibility to Congress. In turn, Congress delegated the administration of private-sector labor law to the National Labor Relations Board. The Supreme Court subsequently built a fortress called “preemption” around the NLRB’s jurisdiction and Congress’ authority. With only limited exceptions, efforts by the states or the President to regulate within the labor relations fortress are preempted and, therefore, void.”

“Hotel workers at the Sofitel, overwhelmingly immigrants, women and people color, are organizing to join UNITE HERE and the International Union of Operating Engineers. The hotel, operated by Accor and owned by Brookfield Asset Management, has held mandatory anti-union meetings  and threatened to change the schedule of an employee who is leading the union organizing effort.”

“After a bruising three-year fight, workers at school bus manufacturer Blue Bird in Fort Valley, Georgia, voted May 12 to join United Steelworkers (USW) Local 697…The main issues in Georgia were pay and safety. Workers began organizing at the height of the pandemic in the summer of 2020. They overcame a fierce anti-union campaign in a right-to-work state where only 4.4 percent of workers are union members.”

“Attorney General Ferguson’s announcement also establishes a framework for close monitoring of the current and future management of Windmill Farms (also known as Greenwood Mushrooms Sunnyside, formerly known as Ostrom Mushroom Farms) to prevent future violations. The resolution of this lawsuit in no way functions as an indication of approval of Windmill Farms, its management, or current working conditions by the Attorney General or the UFW…‘We are in this fight, and we are not going to stop until we get a union contract,’ said current Windmill Farms worker Isela Cabrera. ‘I am very happy for my coworkers who experienced humiliations and retaliations by Ostrom management. I hope this announcement will help begin to improve conditions at Windmill Farms – as this new management continues to commit favoritism and retaliation. We want our fired friends to get their jobs back and for Windmill Farms to recognize our union.’”

“CNET journalists are pushing to unionize, seeking a formal say on issues including the use of artificial intelligence at the technology-news company. Pro-union employees, who are organizing with the Writers Guild of America East, said they’ve signed up the vast majority of their coworkers. The union seeks to represent about 100 writers, editors, video producers and other content creators. The employees are asking management to voluntarily recognize and negotiate with the guild. ‘Our diverse content teams need industry-standard job protections, fair compensation, editorial independence and a voice in the decision-making process, especially as automated technology threatens our jobs and reputations,’ they said in a mission statement sent to management Tuesday.”

“For much of last year, a group of strippers at a California club called Star Garden raised concerns about safety issues like handsy customers and a poorly maintained stage — as well as retaliation from management when they spoke up. The complaints led the dancers to picket the club and seek a union vote. But while support for the union appeared strong in last fall’s election, the results have been delayed for months as the two sides litigated the dancers’ eligibility to unionize. The club, in North Hollywood, filed for bankruptcy in the meantime. Now, under a set of agreements finalized Monday, Star Garden has dropped its ballot challenges and agreed to work with the union, paving the way for the dancers to join the century-old actors and stage managers union, Actors’ Equity Association. That appears to make them the first strip-club dancers to unionize in the United States since the 1990s.”

“Graduate students from many public and private universities are now voting to unionize so they can engage in collective bargaining with the university employers over their working conditions. By 2019, just over 83 000 graduate students in the US out of a total of roughly 3 million were in collective bargaining units, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. And that number is growing. Continuing goals for the unionizing graduate students include establishing procedures to address workplace harassment, paid parental leave, mental health care access, and basic lab safety.”

“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.”

“The PUMP Act passed with bipartisan support in December 2022 and was signed by President Joe Biden in December. It builds on the thirteen-year-old Break Time For Nursing Mothers Act by extending pumping rights to approximately nine million salaried workers who do not earn overtime pay and guarantees them a clean, private space—apart from a toilet stall—to express milk when they need to.”

“Work stoppages by labor unions are having a moment. Several high-profile strikes have taken place locally in less than a year, including Temple University graduate student workers, Philadelphia Museum of Art staff, Rutgers University faculty, and Teamsters at the Liberty Coca-Cola distribution center. Noticing this, leaders of the AFL-CIO Philadelphia Council figured a lot of workers might have questions. Their solution: Strike School.”

“Affixed to the gate was a piece of paper that read: “You are crossing a picket line (cool!)” The site has become one of the recurring picket locations for the Writers Guild of America (WGA) East, which is now entering its third week of a nationwide strike. The 11,500 members of the guild and its counterpart on the West Coast stopped working after negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) broke down on May 1, with the studios rejecting several key proposals from the writers without offering any counterproposals.”

“More than 500 registered nurses (RNs) and other health care professionals held a rally on Tuesday, calling on California lawmakers to act to relieve the chronic staffing shortage. They are seeking a half-billion-dollar investment and legislation that will double California’s capacity to graduate new RNs and bring transparency and accountability to the enforcement of California’s groundbreaking nurse-to-patient ratios. Members of the United Nurses Associations of California/Union of Health Care Professionals (UNAC/UHCP) participated in the rally at the state Capitol and then visited elected representatives.”

“Following what the Air Line Pilots Association called ‘more than four years of empty promises,’ 3,000 off-duty United Airlines pilots represented by the union protested at major airports across the U.S. on Friday, demanding the finalization of a contract with higher pay and humane scheduling practices…United pilots—joined by ALPA president Capt. Jason Ambrosi, fellow ALPA pilots, and union supporters—demonstrated in front of terminals at airports in 10 cities as well as outside the company's flight training center in Denver.”

“As of midnight on the morning of May 17th,160 workers at Constellium Automotive are on strike, after weeks of the company refusing to bargain in good faith. The plant supplies parts for the Ford F-150, F-150 Lightning, Explorer and Super Duty at six UAW-represented Ford Assembly plants. The workers, members of UAW Local 174, are seeking to address serious health and safety issues, along with unfair discipline from management.”

“For decades, a giant, inflatable rat with beady eyes, sharp teeth and a pustule-covered belly has loomed over union protests, drawing attention to various labor disputes. As New York City deals with an influx of actual rats, Scabby the Rat has become that rare thing, like Pizza Rat or Buddy the Rat — a rodent New Yorkers can rally behind. But in the era of TikTok and influencer culture, middle-aged Scabby faces a new challenge: staying relevant.”

“Late Saturday night, the two sides announced they had agreed on four ‘common good’ demands, many of which had placed the two sides in a gridlock throughout last week. The district had argued the demands — which seek to address racial equity, homelessness, and environmental justice for students — fell outside the scope of a union bargaining agreement. But on Saturday night, the union and the district agreed on four of those proposals relating to housing and transportation, a community schools grant, a Black thriving community schools initiative, and school closures. Union officials said teachers slept at their union office Saturday before getting back to negotiations Sunday morning. According to Khattab, Sunday marked 20 days of work on the bargaining process. She said she had spent so much time at the union office that she could count the number of hours she’d spent with her 9-year-old daughter on two hands.”

“General Electric and two major unions have reached a “labor peace agreement” for facilities the company wants to build for offshore wind equipment manufacturing at the Port of Coeymans…GE says the manufacturing plants could create 870 jobs. The company said it reached an agreement with the IUE-CWA unions in which GE would remain neutral during the labor organizing process for the plants. Approximately 825 of GE Vernova’s U.S. employees — including about 700 in New York — are represented by contracts with the IUE-CWA.”

“The AMPTP has called the Writers Guild’s minimum staffing demands for episodic TV shows “a hiring quota that is incompatible with the creative nature of our industry.” But if the WGA prevails in its ongoing strike, it wouldn’t be the first guild to require minimum staffing in its contract. The Directors Guild of America doesn’t call it “minimum staffing” or a “hiring quota,” but its current film and TV contract, which is up for renegotiation beginning Wednesday contains mandatory staffing provisions for various below-the-line members of the director’s team, including unit production managers, assistant directors and associate directors.”

“In this blogcast, Burnes Center Senior Fellow Seth Harris hosted a roundtable of labor reporters from a diverse group of news outlets to talk about some of the biggest stories about workers, unions, and worker power in the U.S. today.”

“In this episode, Burnes Center Senior Fellow Seth Harris hosted a roundtable of labor reporters from a diverse group of news outlets to talk about some of the biggest stories about workers, unions, and worker power in the U.S. today.”

“In the early morning of April 12, members of International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 90 rallied in the parking lot of the United Parcel Service distribution hub in Des Moines, Iowa, to prepare for what could be the largest strike against a single company in US history later this summer. The sun was shining as the union distributed “hot dogs for breakfast” to a crowd that started small but quickly ballooned to over 100, workers said. People were standing on trucks giving speeches to their coworkers. “We had workers talking about working six days a week, talking about getting written up for calling in sick,” said Tanner Fischer, the 26-year-old president of the local, who has been working for UPS since he was 18.”

In anticipation of the union’s forthcoming TV/Theatrical Contract negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), which begin June 7, the SAG-AFTRA National Board agreed unanimously to recommend that its members vote to authorize a strike. An affirmative vote does not mean a strike would necessarily happen, but it would allow the National Board to call one if deemed necessary during the negotiations process. The action comes following a unanimous agreement by the TV/Theatrical negotiating committee that the strike authorization would give the union maximum bargaining leverage as it enters this round of negotiations with the AMPTP. SAG-AFTRA represents more than 160,000 entertainment and media professionals.