The Weekly Download

“The union representing actors across the television and film industries announced late Wednesday that it reached a tentative contract deal with major studios, bringing to an end a monthslong strike that—combined with a simultaneous writers strike—shut down much of Hollywood's production. In a statement, the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) said the contract agreement is valued at over $1 billion and has ‘extraordinary scope,’ including significant pay increases, ‘unprecedented provisions for consent and compensation that will protect members from the threat of AI,’ and a ‘streaming participation bonus.’"

“The Culinary union has reached a deal with MGM Resorts International covering 25,400 members, averting a strike at eight casinos that had been set to start Friday. The deal, announced in a tweet by the union, comes a day after a similar deal was reached with Caesars Entertainment that averted a strike by 10,000 other union members at nine casinos operated by that company.”

“The United Auto Workers (UAW) union on Monday said members at the General Dynamics (GD.N) plants at Ohio, Michigan and Pennsylvania have voted to ratify a new tentative agreement. The vote was ratified with 74% members in favor of the new four-year deal, which provides a 14% wage hike, protection against inflation, reduces the time it takes to get to top pay and ’beats back the company's proposed healthcare concessions’, UAW previously said.”

“Workers at the Brooklyn Museum, members of UAW Local 2110, voted overwhelmingly to ratify their first contract yesterday, one day before the union had been set to strike on November 8…The staff’s union, Local 2110 UAW, had been in negotiations for a first union contract since January of 2022 and has held repeated protests at the Museum over its low wage offer and unfair labor practices. Workers announced the November 8 strike deadline two weeks ago.”

“Waffle House employees and organizers with the Union of Southern Service Workers are circulating a petition demanding better pay and workplace safety — and staging rallies in restaurants in Georgia and the Carolinas. Founded in 2022, the USSW is an affiliate of the national Service Employees International Union. The union has chosen to push for change through strikes, petitions and other direct action rather than the traditional National Labor Relations Board process.”

“A group of Alphabet Inc. contract staff working on content for Google’s support pages voted to unionize, setting up a likely contentious court battle over whether the internet company is legally their boss. The US National Labor Relations Board counted ballots in an election on Monday, with 26 eligible employees voting for the union and two voting against…The workers, whose jobs have included improving the quality of answers in Google’s search engine and artificial intelligence chatbot, are employed through consulting firm Accenture Plc.”

“Uber and Lyft have made profits by exploiting their ambiguous legal status to avoid paying workings billions in wages, but taxi unions recently sued the corporations for millions. Their victory is part of a broader wave of worker attacks on the gig economy.”

“Starbucks is increasing pay and benefits for most of its U.S. hourly workers after ending its fiscal year with record sales. But the company said Monday that unionized workers won’t be eligible for some of those perks, a sign of the continuing tension between the Seattle coffee giant and the union trying to organize its U.S. stores. At least 366 U.S. Starbucks stores have voted to unionize since 2021, according to the National Labor Relations Board. But Starbucks and the Workers United union have yet to reach a labor agreement at any of those stores. Starbucks has 9,600 company-operated stores in the U.S.”

“Public school teachers in Ohio recently got some surprising news in the mail: They were due a ‘credit’ from their union. Melissa Cropper, president of the 20,000-member Ohio Federation of Teachers, was listed as the sender of the ‘CREDIT DUE NOTICE.’ All educators had to do was fill out the attached form and mail it back for an apparent refund. There was just one problem. The notice didn’t actually come from Cropper or the union ― it came from the Freedom Foundation, a conservative group whose mission is to get teachers and other public sector workers to drop their union membership.”

“Today, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia denied T-Mobile’s request for review of a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) decision that the company selectively enforced its email policy to deny its employee’s right to collective action under the National Labor Relations Act. The Court emphatically notes that T-Mobile’s request did not actually challenge the Board’s rulings. Rather, the company argued that the Court, in a prior ruling related to the case, had left open the question of whether the employee’s email was covered by T-Mobile’s ‘Enterprise User Standard’ policy. ‘T-Mobile is wrong,’ the decision reads. ‘We did not leave that question open. We squarely held that T- Mobile’s reliance on the Enterprise User Standard fails.’”

“The administration of St. Charles Community College appears intent on breaking its faculty union, a state level representative for the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) says.”

[Burnes Center Senior Fellow Seth Harris] appeared on Bloomberg's Balance of Power with Annmarie Hordern and Joe Mathieu on Friday, November 3 to discuss the October jobs, unemployment, and wages report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

“Listen to Burnes Center Senior Fellow Seth Harris in conversation with three national union political directors exactly one year before the 2024 presidential and congressional elections. Seth is joined by Susan Valentine from Unite Here!, Russ Breckenridge from the United Association of Plumbers and Pipefitters, and Katrina Mendiola from the National Education Association.”

“These IAMAW Legal Spotlight videos are designed for the IAMAW's members and the general public, so you don't have to be a lawyer or have a background in these particular areas of law to understand them.”

“In his first few months as chief executive, Biden’s approach to labor issues signaled, as HuffPost remarked at the time, that he would eschew his reputation as a ‘consensus-making moderate’ and govern instead as a ‘hard-nosed progressive who wants to deliver for labor unions.’...Beyond his legislative and administrative agenda, Biden has consistently used his office to express solidarity with unions and enlarge their role in the public imagination.”

“In 2020, many public service workers in Virginia won the right to bargain collectively, after more than 40 years of having been denied that right. While there have been attempts to curb those gains, AFSCME members have fought back, and with Tuesday’s electoral victories, (President) Saunders said he remains optimistic about the future. ‘With a pro-worker majority in both chambers, the economic future for so many Virginians is much brighter,’ Saunders said. ‘AFSCME looks forward to working with the legislature to continue progress for working people and their families.’ While Virginia was a marquee victory showcasing the strength of the Green Machine, Election Day in other states brought further victories for working families.”

“Unions and collective bargaining increase workers’ democratic voice; raise wages and build wealth; and improve conditions for all workers. It should be no surprise that nearly 70 percent of Americans support unions, and support is especially high among younger generations. Despite the fact that workers want and need unions, decades of weakened labor law has eroded workers’ ability to form unions and engage in collective bargaining. Yet, states have significant authority to build power for working people. This column provides an overview of successful state action during the 2023 legislative session to strengthen workers’ ability to join unions and collectively bargain, such as repealing right-to-work laws, improving collective bargaining protections, strengthening protections for striking workers and allowing tax deduction for union dues.”

In this blogcast, we hosted a roundtable of labor reporters who discussed and reacted to some of the biggest stories about the labor movement today. Their conversation covered the covered recent collective bargaining stories, including the negotiations between the UAW and the "Big Three"; the ongoing wave of strikes, pickets, and other forms of collective action that workers and unions are using to confront corporate power; the state of worker worker power within the news business; and much more.

Flight Attendants at American Airlines voted to strike by 99.47 percent at the end of August, with 93 percent turnout. The 26,000-member union, the Association of Professional Flight Attendants, has been in negotiations since 2019—and members have seen no raises since then.

The 4,500-member union is demanding more counselors, more planning time for teachers, more support for special education students, smaller class sizes, and increased salaries and cost-of-living adjustments.

“The union’s core message throughout the strike was simple: After years of stagnant wages and painful concessions, workers should share in the auto industry’s prosperity.”

“During the Seattle General Strike of 1919, the Boilermakers played a crucial role as one of the participating unions. Labor unrest soaked the nation during and after World War I but the government and commerce wouldn’t raise pay for war-worn workers. The general strike of 1919 was the first general strike of any size in U.S. history. The objective was to demonstrate massive yet peaceful solidarity to change the tenor and balance of labor relations. And it all started at the shipyard.”

“At the end of his life, his resume included titles, such as chief economist of the AFL-CIO, economics professor, and former chair of the Howard University economics department. His research was frequently published in The Review of Black Political Economy, covering topics such as occupational segregation, the returns to HBCU graduation, and the impact public policies like affirmative action and welfare reform have on economic inequality…In honor of Bill’s legacy, the following are personal reflections from Larry Mishel and Valerie Wilson—two people who witnessed, learned, and benefited from that commitment throughout his career.”

“Recent strikes by the United Auto Workers have likewise been examples of multiracial class power winning historic gains. Predominantly Black, unionized health care workers at Kaiser Permanente just led that sector’s largest strike. The Black-led labor struggle cohering and expanding indicates potential for another hard break toward progress.”