The Weekly Download

“Union workers are having a moment due to declining unemployment rates and a lack of skilled workforce, prompting companies to dish out better pay packages and benefits to prevent employees from leaving for greener pastures. Companies in many industries are finding employees downright impossible to replace, particularly with the jobless rate just off 50-year lows.”

“The International Brotherhood of Teamsters said Wednesday that negotiations over a new contract with shipping giant UPS had ‘collapsed,’ increasing the odds of a massive strike next month. The two sides still have time to reach a new agreement and avoid a work stoppage, with the current contract in effect until July 31. But the Teamsters had said they wanted a new tentative deal in place by the end of the July 4 holiday to give workers time to digest and vote on it.”

“The two parties announced that they would delay the expiration of the union’s current TV/Theatrical contracts package on Friday, mere hours before those agreements were set to expire at midnight. This move will allow for more time for negotiations and for ongoing projects to continue operating under SAG-AFTRA agreements until the new expiration date. If the two parties do not reach an agreement by the end of the day on July 12, the union can still call a strike — which, if it came to pass, would be its first targeting major film and television companies in four decades, and, coupled with an ongoing writers’ strike, would further hamper the industry.”

“Hundreds of California state workers descended Thursday on the state Capitol to protest what they call an ‘offensive’ and ‘unfair’ contract offer from the state. The workers, who are represented by Service Employees International Union Local 1000, dressed in all black to ‘mourn the death of California’s middle class’ and carried signs that read ‘Respect Us.’ Local 1000 represents about 100,000 workers in jobs as diverse as prison librarians, janitorial staff and educators at California’s schools for the deaf and blind.”

“Six thousand Machinists working for Spirit AeroSystems in Wichita, Kansas, ratified a new four-year contract last week, returning to work today. The company had locked workers out on June 22, two days before their strike. Machinists (IAM) Local Lodge 839 accepted the latest offer on June 28 by 63 percent, compared to 79 percent who rejected the first tentative agreement and 85 percent who voted to strike.”

“My preliminary answer is that anger can be and is helpful to worker activism and organizing, but it also can be perilous. Ali/Desmet/Wacziarg summarize a comprehensive review of the psychology literature to explain how anger can affect decision-making in ways that are distinct from other emotions. Their summary offers four insights that provide a framework for thinking about anger in the context of union organizing and worker activism.”

“In a firehouse in Waterbury this week, supporters from varying organizations gathered to launch a yearlong campaign against wage theft. They urged collaboration to convince legislators to fund the hiring of more wage and hour inspectors and shared personal stories and information about workers’ rights. ‘We’re working on having people share their stories so that we can take them to the legislature next year,’ said Karime Pimentel in Spanish, lead organizer at the Naugatuck Valley Project, a nonprofit focused on providing resources to low-income and working families. ‘We’re showing up in written [testimony], through video, in-person … so that legislators know how severe the abuses are and the discrimination that our people are suffering.’ The CT Mirror previously reported that a bill that would have increased the number of wage and hour inspectors failed to pass, despite a backlog of cases. Since 2019, over 13,000 complaints were filed to the Connecticut Department of Labor. After investigations of the cases, almost $17 million in wages were ordered to be paid back to workers.”

“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.”

“The argument that voluntary workplace affirmative action survives SFFA is straightforward: SFFA was not an interpretation of Title VII. The Court's majority purported to interpret the Constitution's 14th Amendment and the Civil Rights Act's Title VI, which share a legal standard, according to Chief Justice Roberts's opinion for the majority.”

The FLSA has done much good, but its reach has been limited by unjust exclusions of farmworkers, tipped workers, domestic workers, and others. It’s long past time for Congress to remedy these discriminatory exclusions … In the guest essays that follow, you will read about the origins and impacts of these exclusions from the FLSA from the perspective of workers and advocates, whose direct experience with the law’s shortcomings serve as a starting point for discussion and action to change it.”

“The U.S. Office of Special Counsel has found a ‘substantial likelihood of wrongdoing’ by officials at the U.S. Department of Agriculture who failed to provide a safe workplace for employees at the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center in Maryland after members of the American Federation of Government Employees filed a whistleblower complaint against the agency. In May, three USDA employees who hold leadership roles at AFGE Local 3147 filed a whistleblower complaint with OSC, disclosing that leadership at the research center had put workers at risk and undermined their scientific experiments by failing to properly maintain the worksite.”

“15,000 hotel workers in Los Angeles, California, just walked out in the largest hotel strike in 50 years. We spoke to workers about why they’re taking this historic action. They told us that they’re getting priced out of Los Angeles and are forced to spend hours commuting or cram multiple families into one apartment.”

“When the Wrights and their two young daughters joined the picket line, it upended every aspect of their lives — and that was just the beginning. Two years later, they look back at their family's role in one of the longest coal strikes in U.S. history.”

“In recent years, the media has turned its attention to the stories of ordinary working people. Farmworkers and grocery clerks who risked their lives to care for us and keep us fed during the height of the pandemic were briefly celebrated and deemed ‘essential.’ Tales of their bravery were followed by headlines about the great resignation, as many quit their jobs or retired early. Of course, work has always been with us. It’s older than poetry, even, and central to who we are as a people and a country…Despite the losses, labor remains at the center of the story of who we are as a country — including through slavery, farming and assembly lines. And today the headlines are about unionization — and the thwarting of these efforts — in previously unorganized places like Starbucks coffee shops and Amazon warehouses. The ‘singing’ continues.”