The Weekly Download

“United Parcel Service workers have authorized their union, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, to call a strike as soon as Aug. 1, after the current contract expires, the Teamsters announced Friday. The Teamsters represent more than 325,000 UPS employees in the United States, where the company has nearly 450,000 employees overall. The union said 97 percent had voted in favor of strike authorization.”

“The new president of the United Auto Workers gave his strongest warning yet Friday that the union is preparing for strikes against Detroit’s three automakers when contracts expire in September. In a Facebook Live appearance to address members, Shawn Fain said the union is in a strong position to make major gains in talks with Stellantis, Ford and General Motors, ‘but only if our members get organized and are ready to strike.’”

“In 2021, the veteran trucker triumphed in an insurgent campaign to become president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, an election marking the end of the Hoffa era. James P. Hoffa, that is, the 82-year-old son of mid-century labor legend Jimmy Hoffa and a lawyer by training who, rivals like O’Brien believed, lacked his dad’s connection with the average worker and conceded too much for the sake of remaining friendly with employers.”

“Amazon delivery drivers and dispatchers walked out of their delivery facility on Thursday to demand that Amazon bargain with them. The 84 drivers currently on strike have held picket lines before, but this is the first time Amazon drivers have walked out in the U.S., according to a Teamsters press release.”

“AFGE workers and its General Committee leadership descended on Capitol Hill to demand Congress fix the problems festering inside the Social Security Administration. Representative Maxwell Frost (FL), Representative Matt Cartwright (PA), Social Security Works, and the Center for American Progress joined AFGE leaders for our National Day of Action Rally. The worsening SSA staffing attrition and service crisis has left many Americans helpless and without lifesaving resources. Individuals are waiting too long for claims to be processed while SSA workers grapple with overwhelming caseloads and little to no support.”

“Legalizing pot has opened the floodgates to a new multibillion dollar industry in multiple states. But where there are high profits, there’s often high exploitation. The experience of unionized cannabis delivery drivers and warehouse workers who belong to Grassdoor Workers provides an instructive example of exploitative practices found across industries, and how workers can organize to fight back. Despite the best efforts of management to keep employees isolated from one another, Grassdoor workers managed to organize in response to company wage theft and successfully joined their Teamsters local. Grassdoor Workers organizer “G” speaks with The Real News.”

“In a moment of heightened interest in unions across the country and an upsurge in militancy among ‘culture workers’ in particular, a new industry is joining the labor movement: architecture.”

“Fifteen years after ProPublica published its first investigation, employees of the award-winning, nonprofit investigative newsroom announced today that they were forming a union, the ProPublica Guild. The announcement comes as a slew of newsrooms have organized and, increasingly, won major material gains for members.”

“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.”

During our recent blogcast with labor law scholars Charlotte Garden and Anne Marie Lofaso, we briefly discussed “textualism” in our analysis of the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Glacier Northwest v. Teamsters. This post expands on that brief discussion and seeks to explain some of the exasperation you may have heard.

“Union workers benefit from collective bargaining in all sorts of way—higher wages, better benefits, increased job stability, safer workplaces, and more—and these effects are especially prominent for the working class. While researchers often neglect to draw conclusions on the benefits of union membership for the working class—defined as those without a four-year college degree—a body of existing research points the way forward for researchers and policymakers alike.”

“Joe Biden opened his 2020 presidential run at a Pittsburgh union hall, declaring, ‘I’m a union man. Period.’ As he gears up for reelection, the president’s first political rally is being held at a union gathering on the other side of Pennsylvania, punctuating just how much Biden is counting on labor support to carry him to a second term — especially in a critical battleground state…Biden has used executive actions to promote worker organizing, personally cheered unionization efforts at corporate giants like Amazon and authorized federal funding to aid union members’ pensions. He’s also traveled the country, trumpeting how union labor is building bridges and improving train tunnels as part of the bipartisan, $1.1 trillion public works package Congress passed in 2021…Still, the White House’s relationship with labor has occasionally been tested, such as in December when some union activists criticized Biden for signing legislation preventing a nationwide rail strike.”

“Union negotiators looking to secure wage-related concessions from employers have reached a new benchmark for success. For the first time in decades—and probably ever—labor contracts ratified in the first quarter of 2023 provided union-represented workers with an average first-year pay raise of 7%, according to Bloomberg Law’s latest Quarterly Union Wage Data report. A 7% wage hike is the highest average payout in a single quarter since at least 2007. And based on the yearly averages that Bloomberg Law has calculated since it began tracking negotiated wage settlements in 1988, it appears unlikely that a quarterly average has ever hit that mark before. The latest quarterly report analyzed wage changes reported in 177 collective bargaining agreements signed in Q1, covering a total of approximately 236,000 workers.”

“The worker-driven social responsibility (WSR) approach, first championed by the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) in the tomato fields of Florida, has garnered acclaim for its successes in mitigating abuses within the agricultural and other low-wage production sectors. In the latest report from the Clean Slate for Worker Power project, Susan L. Marquis highlights the origins of WSR, how it’s been effective, and the promising implications of its application in sectors and industries beyond agriculture.”

“‘Workers, honest businesses, and entrepreneurs won today as New York lawmakers voted to ban noncompete agreements,’ said Pat Garofalo, Director of State and Local Policy at the American Economic Liberties Project. ‘Banning noncompete agreements will ensure corporations can’t use their power to trap employees in their jobs, push down wages across the board, block small business formation, and ultimately raise prices. The bill also sets an important standard by voiding existing noncompete agreements.’”

“The Teamsters and UPS Inc. came to terms on all noneconomic issues during national contract negotiations on Tuesday, the union said. “We have reached tentative agreement on well over 40 noneconomic issues that affect all our members at UPS, and we did it as a team. The Teamsters haven’t sacrificed a single concession in these negotiations,” said Teamsters General Secretary-Treasurer Fred Zuckerman in a statement on the union’s Facebook page.”

“ABF Freight System provided the details of a recently inked tentative agreement with its union workforce Thursday after the market closed. The new labor deal, if ratified, would provide employees with wage increases, a step up in health and welfare contributions, additional sick time, one more paid holiday and a revised profit-sharing program. The new five-year collective-bargaining agreement with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters would become effective when the current deal ends on June 30.”

“After standing strong on the picket line for nearly a month, UAW Local 174 members at Constellium Automotive in Van Buren Charter Township, MI, have ratified a new contract. The agreement provides improved contractual language, including a stronger grievance procedure and additional holidays, while also securing strong pay increases for workers. ‘These contract negotiations were very difficult,’ said Region 1A Director, Laura Dickerson. ‘The company was unwilling to work with us and repeatedly canceled negotiating sessions. Despite this, our members stood together and forced Constellium to offer them a contract that reflects their immense value to the company.’”

"For the new AFSCME members at the Waukegan Public Library (WPL) in Chicago’s northern suburbs, the first chapter in the story of their union ends on a high note. They’ve won a first contract guaranteeing them a strong voice on the job and fair wages that reflect how valued they are in their community. When working under a new library administration in early 2020, arbitrary new rules hampered their ability to do their jobs. Job duties were frustratingly inconsistent and could change at the drop of a hat. Under the new library administration, the number of staff shrank from 70 to just 35 in the span of a year…WPL workers organized and their union was certified with AFSCME Council 31 in December 2021. The union represents 38 library clerks, specialists, assistants, associates, coordinators and librarians."

“Watch Burnes Center Senior Fellow Seth Harris in conversation with John O'Malley, Legislative Coordinator for the Communications Workers of America Local 1180, as they discuss his history organizing in the workplace, the legislative goals of local 1180, organizing not-for-profit workers, and much more.”

“For months, Rizzo had clocked in before dawn convinced that the company where she had worked for nearly eight years was determined to fire her. And Rizzo thought she knew why: She was one of 49 baristas from across Buffalo who sent a letter to the company’s chief executive in August 2021 informing him that they were seeking to form a union.”

“Few of us have a voice in the political systems we are embedded in; the decisions that shape our lives are mostly made behind closed doors in rooms we can’t access. In theory, one exception to this rule is collective bargaining—a right that only 10 percent of U.S. workers exercise.”