The Weekly Download

“A wildly successful, illegal three-day strike by the Andover Education Association in November has reverberated statewide for educators in Massachusetts. The lowest-paid instructional assistants got a 60 percent wage jump immediately. Classroom aides on the higher end of the scale got a 37 percent increase.”

“Workers who make Bud Light and other top-selling beers are threatening to strike in demand of significant wage increases, job security and improvements to retirement and benefits in the first big union contract battle of 2024. Five thousand workers, represented by the Teamsters at 12 Anheuser-Busch breweries in the US, are threatening to strike after voting 99% in favor of a strike authorization last month. Their current union contract is set to expire on 29 February.”

“When the Great Depression sank workers to new depths, craft unions weren’t up to the task. Then, in 1934, a team of revolutionary leftists in Minneapolis organized a brave and bloody strike that reinvigorated labor and changed the course of American history.”

“Yesterday in downtown St. Louis, BMWED members on the Class III Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis demonstrated outside the boss’ office on Olive Street, imploring him to finally recognize the common and necessary benefit of paid sick leave. TRRA has the shameful distinction of being the only shortline within the American Rail System Federation of the BMWED yet to provide paid sick days to its employees. While management continues to insist that they are open to providing the need paid time off for illness they have yet to make the simple maneuver to put it in writing.”

“A majority of about 250 workers at the Denver Art Museum announced their intent to form a union with AFSCME Council 18 on Thursday, seeking to become the first museum union in Colorado’s largest city and joining a wave of organizing taking place across the country’s cultural sector. Denver Art Museum Workers United (DAMWU) seeks to ensure all employees earn living wages, improve management transparency and create better safety procedures, among other issues.”

“Wells Fargo workers at a branch in Daytona Beach, in a show of growing momentum for a national campaign to organize bank workers, voted to unionize Thursday, becoming the second unionized Wells Fargo branch in the country. In a 4-1 vote, the workers have opted to join Wells Fargo Workers United, a union affiliated with the Communications Workers of America, which represents over half a million private and public sector workers in the United States. Wells Fargo is the only major U.S. bank that, as of last month, has branches staffed by a unionized workforce.”

“Starbucks Corp. convinced the US Supreme Court to consider its attempt to escape a federal judge’s order to rehire a group of union activists in Memphis, Tenn., that the coffee giant fired after they spoke on the local news about their organizing effort. By granting Starbucks’ petition for review Friday, the justices could resolve a split among federal circuit courts over the legal test used to evaluate National Labor Relations Board requests for temporary injunctions against companies that are accused of violating federal labor law.”

“A federal judge threw out Trader Joe’s trademark infringement claim against its workers’ union on Friday, delivering the equivalent of a legal smackdown in an order dismissing the complaint. Hernán D. Vera, a judge for the U.S. District Court of the Central District of California, wrote that the grocer tried to ‘weaponize the legal system’ against the union, Trader Joe’s United, all in the hopes of ‘gain[ing] advantage in an ongoing legal labor dispute.’ Vera determined that Trader Joe’s legal effort against the union “comes dangerously close to the line of Rule 11” ― a federal rule that allows district courts to sanction attorneys for submitting filings for an ‘improper purpose.’”

“For decades, Boeing chose shareholders and executives over workers and production quality — to the tune of $69 billion. While the companies responsible for the door plug that blew out of a plane in mid-air last week were cutting corners, outsourcing manufacturing, laying off employees, and working to evade expensive safety upgrades, they paid their top executives $817 million and showered Wall Street investors with $68 billion in dividends and stock buybacks over the past decade.”

“Many grocery products from Mexico are sold in the US with labels touting their fair labor practices — but the farmworkers who produce that food say they are subject to brutal exploitation and widespread abuse by their employers.”

“The Supreme Court has agreed to take up a case in which Starbucks is arguing that it does not have to follow a lower court’s order to rehire a group of union activists the company fired in Memphis, Tennessee, in a case that could have reverberating effects across the entire labor movement.”

“The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday turned away Alaska's bid to revive a Republican-backed policy to make it easier for state workers to opt out of paying union dues in the latest case aimed at limiting the influence of unions representing public-sector employees. The justices declined to hear the state's appeal of a lower court's ruling that found that a union's collecting of dues from public employees who it represents without receiving their explicit written consent did not violate their free speech rights under the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment.”

“In many Minnesota franchises, franchise owners within the same franchise agree not to hire from each other, keeping wages down and profits up. It is already illegal for non-franchise business owners to use this anti-competitive strategy to limit workers’ freedom. Minnesota legislators are moving to close a franchise-owners loophole, via bills (SF2216/HF1831) championed by Rep. Emma Greenman, DFL-Minneapolis, and Sen. Alice Mann, DFL-Edina.”

“This chapter reviews research on the linkages between corporate globalization and worker representation. Studies have identified various transmission channels through which the activities of foreign multinational companies (MNCs) affect host-country institutions of union and non-union representation. First, countries compete for inbound foreign direct investment (FDI) and the ability to attract FDI depends among others on a country’s industrial relations system. Second, once foreign MNCs have invested in a host country, they exert an influence on the country’s institutions of worker representation through how their affiliates adapt to those institutions or tend to avoid them. Third, the affiliates of foreign MNCs affect the bargaining power of host-country worker organizations. Fourth, foreign affiliates have an impact on labor conflicts and the quality of industrial relations. Altogether, the available evidence provides indications that the activities of foreign MNCs can be a challenge for worker representation within host countries."

“So why didn’t Black Americans make relative progress? Probably because the benefits of reduced discrimination were offset by an increase in overall income inequality, in particular a widening gap between wages in relatively low-paid jobs and wages for the highly paid. Since Black workers remained underrepresented in well-paying jobs, the growing polarization of economic opportunity snatched away many of the gains one might have expected from a society that, again, was still racist but not as racist as before. Which brings us to the surprising progress of the past few years.”

“This week, the Biden administration’s Department of Labor announced a significant change in a federal labor rule that classifies United States workers as either independent contractors or full employees. The new policy, published Wednesday, January 10, would make an increased number of freelance workers across many industries eligible for full-employee status, potentially obligating their employers to furnish them with higher wages, certain benefits and other worker protections.”

“When the Supreme Court issued its decision in Glacier Northwest v. Intl. Bhd of Teamsters, Local No. 174 last June, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson was the lone dissenter.  The question in Glacier Northwest was whether the employer’s state court lawsuit was preempted by the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA).  Justice Jackson pointed out that by the time the Court issued its decision, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) had already conducted a nine-day hearing addressing the same issues raised in the state court proceeding.  She forcefully argued that the Court had “no business delving into this particular labor dispute at this time.”  The Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) who presided over the nine-day hearing has now issued his decision, and the decision is further evidence that the Court should have listened to Justice Jackson.”

“We employ a revealed preference test to distinguish between wage posting and wage bargaining. Using a sample of dual jobholders in Washington State, we estimate the sensitivity of wages and separation rates to wage shocks in a secondary job. In lower parts of the wage distribution, improvements in the outside option lead to higher separations rates but not to higher wages, consistent with wage posting. In the highest wage quartile, improved outside options translate to higher wages but not higher separation rates, consistent with bargaining. In the aggregate, bargaining appears to be a limited determinant of wage setting.”

“Across the country, employers are increasingly using digital technologies in ways that stand to have profound consequences for wages, working conditions, race and gender equity, and worker power. But regulation of these new technologies–like worker surveillance, algorithmic management, and artificial intelligence–is still in its infancy. In this guide, we give an overview of current U.S. public policy that regulates employers’ use of digital workplace technologies.”

“UAW members at Allison Transmission's (ALSN.N), opens new tab Indianapolis facilities voted to ratify a new labor agreement, adding to the union's recent list of victories including record wage hikes for workers at the Detroit Three automakers. Nearly 82% of workers voted in favor of the proposed four-year deal, which guarantees a starting wage of $20 an hour along with retroactive pay hikes, 6-8% gains for 401k contributions and two bonuses amounting to $7,000, the union said on Wednesday.”

“Retired-active Local 2924 member David “Hutch” Hutcheson won a seat on the Virginia Beach City Council in a special election on January 9. Hutcheson’s win means firefighters will have another advocate on the city council to pass a collective bargaining ordinance.”

“The direct care workforce provides essential care to people who need help with activities of daily living, but the care workforce is relatively low-paid and struggles to keep up with the growing demand for their services.  Some institutional features help explain why market forces could struggle to address worker shortages and highlight potential solutions to the mismatch between the supply of direct care workers and demand for care services.”

“Shannon Wait, an organizer with Alphabet Workers Union-CWA (AWU-CWA), recently spoke with Power at Work Blog writer Dane Gambrell. Their conversation covers the work AWU-CWA is doing to protect workers from risks posed by AI and the importance of unionizing the tech industry. They also discuss Shannon’s experience winning an unfair labor practice dispute against Google after being illegally suspended by the company in 2021.”

“My wife and I recently watched Rustin, a biopic about the late civil rights activist Bayard Rustin. The movie was produced, in part, by Michelle and Barack Obama’s Higher Ground Media. It is well worth the two-hour investment, despite its flaws, especially for those of us who spend our time thinking about workers and worker power. Colman Domingo’s portrayal of the title character should be enough on its own to make the movie required viewing, but it was the reminder of the labor movement’s leadership contributions to the 1963 March on Washington --- in particular, the roles of A. Phillip Randolph and Cleve Robinson --- that jumped off the screen at me.”