The Weekly Download

“Negotiators for UPS and the Teamsters union have reached a tentative agreement on a crucial issue in their contract talks: The shipping giant has finally agreed to install air conditioning – gradually – in its entire fleet of 95,000 delivery vans. The union hailed the long-sought agreement as a “major tentative deal.” It said the company agreed to equip all larger delivery vehicles, smaller sprinter vans, and all of UPS’ most recognizable brown package vans purchased after Jan. 1, 2024 with in-cab air conditioning systems.”

“The union for thousands of West Coast dockworkers has reached a tentative agreement on a new contract, it was announced Wednesday, after more than a year of negotiations and several work disruptions that snarled shipping traffic at some of the largest ports. The International Longshore and Warehouse Union reached the tentative deal for a new six-year contract with the Pacific Maritime Association, a trade group for cargo carriers and terminal operators. Its members include such global shipping giants as Maersk and Evergreen Marine. The agreement will require ratification by PMA and union members and would affect 22,000 dockworkers at 29 ports from Washington state through California.”

“One of the dirty little secrets of the electric vehicle boom is that many of its workers are paid less and enjoy fewer benefits than those who manufacture the nation’s gas guzzlers. But if unions have their way, that won’t be the case for long. On September 14, the United Auto Workers' contract with the Big Three automakers — GM, Ford, and Stellantis — will expire. Negotiations for a new agreement are set to begin in July, and electric vehicle jobs will be a defining issue with potential to put the 380,000-member union on strike this fall. The union’s leadership team held a town hall late last month where they laid out the stakes.”

“‘Here Lies Love,’ the new David Byrne musical scheduled to start previews on Broadway next week, has bowed to objections by a labor union and agreed that 12 musicians will be part of the production. The producers of the musical, which is a dance-club-like show about Imelda Marcos, and the union, Local 802 of the American Federation of Musicians, announced the agreement late Friday afternoon.”

“After a two-year fight for a first contract and a 13-day ULP strike – the longest digital media strike in history – members of Insider Union today announced that they have reached a tentative agreement with management, including settlement of a ULP related to management’s unilateral changing of workers’ health care coverage. The approximately 250 members of Insider Union are represented by The NewsGuild of New York.”

“On Monday June 5, Local 73 shop members at Woodside Industries ratified a historic collective agreement with Irving Shipbuilding. The company, understanding how inflation, retention and recruitment of qualified skilled tradespersons is affecting the industry, came to the bargaining table with a fair offer. One highlight of the four-year agreement includes a 39.6% wage increase.”

“One year ago this week, I was officially elected as the first woman to lead the AFL-CIO, America’s largest labor federation—consisting of 12.5 million workers across 60 unions. It’s been the honor of a lifetime to be part of the changing labor movement that is increasingly led by women, people of color, LGBTQ+ people, immigrants and others who have gone underrepresented for too long. But the truth is, the real leaders are the women and workers on the ground who are leading organizing drives and picket lines across America, such as nurses in New York, teachers in Minnesota, retail workers at REI, warehouse workers at Amazon, or baristas at Starbucks. The past 12 months have been nothing short of historic in how these workers and many more have risen up and seized our collective power (with the Federation marching and fighting alongside them).”

“As smoke from Canadian wildfires blanketed much of the East Coast last week and air quality worsened, some workers organized to try and stay safe.”

“The last two years have seen a wave of union filings emerge from Chicago’s coffeehouses and university halls, from its cannabis dispensaries to the steps of its vaunted museums. As of the end of last year, union filings in the Chicago area were up more than 17% over the prior year. Nationally, union campaigns have taken root at retail giants including Starbucks, REI, Apple and Trader Joe’s, as well as among graduate students at top U.S. universities and cultural workers at museums. Many of the new faces on picket lines and sitting across bargaining tables are relatively young, and many of them are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender.”

“For this article, New Labor Forum’s Working-Class Voices columnist Kressent Pottenger interviewed two women who are members of Los Deliveristas Unidos (LDU): Ernesta Galvez, a delivery worker of seven years and an LDU leader, and Hildalyn Colón Hernández, Director of Policy and Strategic Partnerships at LDU.”

“The campaign, which has representatives from every team and support from unions including the NFLPA and MLSPA, has three main demands: contract security, better working conditions and league-provided healthcare. The USRPA has asked for voluntary recognition, said its board chair, the former New York lock Nick Civetta, but is prepared to file for an election if necessary.”

“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.”

“Watch Burnes Center for Social Change senior fellow Seth Harris in conversation with Portia Wu, Secretary of Labor for the state of Maryland, Laura Fortman, Commissioner of the Maine Department of Labor, and Robert Asaro-Angelo, Commissioner at New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development, as they discuss the the role and responsibilities of a labor secretary, the big successes and challenges in each state, and much more.”

“Jessica Van Briggle was excited to begin her career as a nurse when she applied to work at Centinela Hospital in southern California. Centinela sent her to a staffing agency to complete the hiring process, and the agency’s representative told Van Briggle she had to work for the staffing agency (not the hospital) for two years or pay $15,000 if she left early. This amount was agreed to by the staffing agency — Van Briggle’s official employer — and Centinela as the cost of the hospital’s eight-week training and orientation. Worker advocates befittingly call these contracts Training Repayment Agreement Provisions (TRAPs).”

“In 2022, AFSCME members in Minnesota worked hard to elect politicians who respect public service workers. That hard work paid off, as AFSCME members were able to secure major victories for Minnesotans this year — banning private prisons, securing unemployment benefits for school workers, getting paid leave for working Minnesotans, obtaining robust state funding for public services, and so much more…’Every AFSCME member, Minnesotan, and their families will benefit from things like Paid Family and Medical Leave. Our school workers will finally be eligible for unemployment insurance like every other worker. All of this is a direct result of the thousands of doors knocked and calls made by AFSCME members to elect a pro-worker trifecta in Minnesota,’ she added.”

“For the past two years, farmworkers in California’s Sonoma County have been advocating for stronger labor laws to protect them from the impacts of climate change-fueled disasters, including wildfires, floods and heat waves. In February, their efforts bore fruit. When residents, including many farmworkers, lost work due to weeks of rainstorms, the county agreed to spend one third of a $3-million disaster relief fund to provide impacted individuals with one-time, $600 payments. While the fund wasn’t large enough to cover all of the workers’ losses, its creation was a big win, according to Aura Aguilar, an organizer with North Bay Jobs with Justice, a local coalition of labor and community groups leading the campaign.”

“On June 16, the leadership of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters will report the results of its authorization vote to strike against the United Parcel Service (UPS). This is a vote of the union's membership that allows the union's leaders to commence a strike, but does not require them to call a strike. Because that date is drawing closer, several journalists have reached out to me to ask for my assessment of whether there will be a strike and, if there is, what economic consequences will result. I thought it might be easier for you if I simply provided six brief observations about the negotiations and potential strike here.”

“The week prior, union members voted overwhelmingly to authorize local leadership to call a strike should negotiations with Wabtec (an abbreviation of Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corporation) fail to produce a tentative agreement. Updates during this week, printed on flyers disseminated throughout the plant, suggested that they would do so.”

“But many nannies, caregivers, and cleaners are still hesitant to address violations of this law, out of fear that their employer will retaliate, said Nicole Kligerman, NDWA’s Pennsylvania director. The chapter wants to put more muscle behind the bill of rights, she said, so they’re asking for new legislation to speed up enforcement, empower workers to report violations, and provide them with some financial security in case reporting costs them their job.”

“A group of registered nurses at HCA Lake Monroe Hospital in Sanford joined a national day of action on Tuesday, uplifting a need for safe staffing levels in their hospitals. ‘We care,’ said Lorraine Sikes, an emergency room nurse, who rallied with fellow off-duty nurses outside of the Central Florida hospital Tuesday morning…Owned by the Hospital Corporation of America, the nation’s largest for-profit hospital system, Sikes’ hospital was one of over a dozen sites nationwide where members of the National Nurses United labor union rallied on Tuesday, and one of just three in Florida. The call to action? For the hospital industry to take safe staffing levels seriously, and for Congress to pass federal legislation, modeled after a California law, to establish nurse-to-patient ratio standards.”