The Weekly Download

“Almost a month into the UAW strike against the Big 3, get an update from these union leaders on members' mood about the ongoing negotiations, the conversations happening between UAW union members, the stand-up strike strategy, and more. This blogcast is not only informative, but fun. This is absolutely a conversation you don't want to miss.”

“Thousands of Detroit casino workers went on strike Tuesday after negotiations between the three casinos and unions representing the workers failed to reach a new labor agreement by a noon deadline. The strike is the first at the Detroit casinos — MGM Grand, MotorCity and Hollywood Casino at Greektown — since they opened in the late 1990s and 2000. The Detroit Casino Council, which represents 3,700 casino workers across five unions, has been seeking better wages and benefits in negotiations with the casinos that started in early September.”

“The largest health care strike in US history produced a tentative labor agreement for a coalition of unions at Kaiser Permanente — but the deal was reached almost a week after the strike ended. That might seem odd. Once a strike ends, why should an employer settle? But the cost of the three-day strike earlier this month, and the threat of another, even larger strike next month, brought about a deal with one of the nation’s largest health systems. And the union’s win is just the latest reason why short strikes are happening more and more.”

“The executive chairman of Ford Motor Company broke his silence on the monthlong auto workers strike on Monday and said the work stoppage could ‘devastate local communities’ if it continues. Bill Ford, the great-grandson of Henry Ford and the company’s chairman since 1999, also criticized the United Auto Workers union for recently shutting down the company’s Kentucky Truck Plant, where it produces highly profitable large pickups and SUVs. Workers walked out of the Louisville facility, which employs 8,700, in a surprise strike last Wednesday…The comments drew a sharp rebuke from UAW President Shawn Fain, who said in a statement Monday that the chairman ‘knows exactly how to settle this strike.’”

“After Hollywood writers ratified a contract earlier this month, it seemed that striking actors might get a deal soon, too. But the studio bosses are still playing hardball, and actors continue to press for a better deal on residuals and the use of AI.”

“Good things are happening! Auto workers secure major wins in the electric vehicle transition, while California protects restaurant employees from exploiting themselves. Meanwhile, Vermont goes big on batteries, and Biden tosses out junk fees.”

“Workers at several Waffle House locations in the southern US are among the latest group of employees in the US to hold walkouts around a slate of demands for improvements to wages and working conditions. A petition circulating by the Union of Southern Service Workers, a worker organization supported by the Service Employees International Union, includes a push for a $25 hourly minimum wage at the huge restaurant chain that is often seen as an icon of working-class Americana.”

“In the latest sign of growing frustration among professionals, doctors employed by a large nonprofit health care system in Minnesota and Wisconsin have voted to unionize. The doctors, roughly 400 primary and urgent-care providers across more than 50 clinics operated by the Allina Health System, appear to be the largest group of unionized private-sector physicians in the United States. More than 150 nurse practitioners and physician assistants at the clinics were also eligible to vote and will be members of the union, which will be represented by a local of the Service Employees International Union.”

“Workers at Maryland’s Howard County Library System (HCLS) are forming a union through AFSCME Maryland Council 3 that would include 150 staff across all seven branches…Organizing efforts began after a group of employees met last year following sweeping job restructuring to discuss the challenges within the library system. After realizing administration had done little to address staff’s longstanding concerns, workers decided it was time to take action and form HoCo Library Workers United.”

“Workers at Alamo Drafthouse, the movie theater chain known for dine-in service and strict policies on etiquette, have voted to unionize at the Downtown Brooklyn and Lower Manhattan venues in elections held Friday, September 29th and Thursday, October 12th, respectively. In Manhattan, 65% of Alamo employees voted in favor of unionizing with United Auto Workers Local 2179 on Thursday. The bargaining unit consists of approximately 100 full-time and part-time employees, including wait staff, line cooks, bartenders, box office, custodians and dishwashers. This does not include Brooklyn’s bargaining unit of approximately 190 workers.”

“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.”

“In this month's Power Hour blogcast, Seth is joined by Victor Narro, Project Director for the UCLA Labor Center, and David Madland, senior fellow and the senior adviser to the American Worker Project at the Center for American Progress. Listen as they discuss the lasting changes that may come from the current surge in strikes, California's sectoral bargaining model and the ability to expand it across many states and sectors, organized labor’s role in the immigration debate, and Bidenomics.”

“Much has been written about the severe resource limitations for labor standards enforcement in the United States.  As labor and employment researcher Annette Bernhardt and colleagues outlined in 2008, the current era of workplace rights is one where an increasing number of employers are “breaking, bending, or evading” protections in an array of statutory arenas.  In part this happens because the U.S. workplace has become fissured, as fewer corporations are direct employers, and an array of outsourcing schemes have made enforcing workplace rights difficult.”

“California laws offer some of the most robust employment rights in the nation…Yet the breadth and promise of these laws is complicated by a challenging question – who will enforce them? This exact issue animated extensive debate in the California state legislature during the early 2000s…Hoping to harness the untapped potential of private citizens to close this gap in manpower, California enacted the Private Attorney General’s Act (PAGA) in 2004. PAGA delegates the state’s authority to individual workers and enables them to pursue civil penalties for California Labor Code violations through private suits…The California Supreme Court recently accepted Justice Sotomayor’s invitation in Adolph v. Uber Technologies and held that plaintiffs retain representative PAGA standing even when they are compelled to arbitrate the individual claim.”

“What earlier this year seemed like a long shot is now a done deal: Gov. Gavin Newsom today signed a law that will raise the pay for hundreds of thousands of California health care workers and set them on a path to a $25 minimum wage…The victory for health workers was long in the making. It unfolded in the final days of the legislative year when the hospital lobby and health care providers announced a rare deal with labor unions.”

“After decades of operating in distinct silos, the antitrust and labor movements have lately intersected in powerful ways. Progressive policymakers have taken up the cause as well. President Biden declared a clear interest in proworker antitrust with his 2021 Executive Order on promoting competition in the American economy, which singled out anti-worker trade restraints like non-compete agreements that bar employees from seeking new employment during a given period of time in the same line of work or same industry.”

“The Midwest has faced a weakened economy in recent decades—brought on, in part, by anti-worker policies. Federal relief efforts during the pandemic gave the Midwest a boost, but the sunsetting of those relief programs has put workers and families back in a precarious position. In this report, 31 charts detail the state of employment, wages, poverty, and union density in the region.”

“Kaiser Permanente and the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions came to a tentative agreement for a four-year contract on Oct. 13, with the proposed agreement raising wages and increasing job training opportunities for Kaiser workers at hundreds of Kaiser facilities across the U.S. The deal comes after nearly seven months of bargaining and a three-day strike that took place Oct. 4-7 with more than 75,000 Kaiser employees walking off the job and launching the largest health care strike in U.S. history. The tentative agreement will now go to the 85,000 members of the coalition who will vote for ratification. In the meantime, the coalition has withdrawn a notice for a seven-day November strike that would have taken place if an agreement had not yet been reached.”

“Microsoft’s $69-billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard could provide the growing labor movement among video game workers a boost because of a labor neutrality agreement the company entered last year. The agreement between the Communications Workers of America and Microsoft, which states that Microsoft will take a neutral approach when employees express interest in joining a union, kicks in at Activision Blizzard 60 days after the acquisition closes.”

“The IAM, North America’s largest air transport union, has reached its first tentative agreement with National Airlines. The tentative agreement calls for across-the-board pay raises, including two raises a year for the first nine years of employment for most Flight Attendants, with the first raise consisting of an increase to the current rate of pay ranging from 8% to 30% per hour, depending on years of service on the Date of Ratification (DOR). The IAM represents approximately 55 Flight Attendants at the Orlando, Florida-based Airline.”