The Weekly Download

“February is Black History Month and this year’s theme, “African Americans and the Arts”, highlights the artistic influence woven through the field of written, visual and performing arts, from both a historic and modern perspective. In the labor movement, picket signs play a crucial role in messaging and mobilization – the creation of these signs and the act of striking is an artform within itself. Many signs made for and by Black workers have stood the test of time and visually mark some of the most historically recognizable picket lines.”

“While most Chicagoans were bracing for a major snowstorm, 130 truck drivers who deliver food from warehouses to cafeterias and kitchens spent the first weekend in January preparing for another kind of storm: a strike. US Foods had stalled negotiations over wages, health care, and safety provisions. At 12:01 a.m. on Monday, January 8, Teamsters Local 705 picket lines went up at the Bensenville, Illinois, facility. Over the next three weeks, Teamsters extended the Bensenville line nationwide. Rolling pickets hit more than two dozen US Foods distribution centers and drop yards from Los Angeles to Indiana to New Jersey, paralyzing its operations in some of the nation’s highest-volume markets.”

“Fifteen hundred auto workers in Indianapolis made their New Year’s resolution public: unless Allison Transmission agreed to eliminate tiers in wages, benefits, shift premiums, and holidays, they would hit the bricks. ‘The fight plan throughout negotiations was ending tiers,’ said Phil Shupe, a 10-year assembler on tier two and bargaining committee member. ‘We weren't going to accept anything from the company that had any more division. We stood firm that we all needed to be equal.’”

“A teachers union in Nevada is now attacking the Oakland A’s and their stadium efforts in Las Vegas on a second front. A teacher-backed political action committee on Monday sued the state and Gov. Joe Lombardo, challenging the legality of the bill that last year granted $380 million in public money to a new Las Vegas stadium for the A’s. The lawsuit, which also names state treasurer Zach Conine, is the second effort aimed at the A’s brought by the Nevada State Education Association, one of Nevada’s teachers’ unions.”

“More than 200 Tribune Publishing journalists, designers, and production workers at seven newsrooms across the country walked off the job as part of a historic 24-hour strike to protest the company’s refusal to pay journalists, designers and editors a fair wage and management’s threat to take away the 401k match benefit.”

“Contract faculty at New York University are one step closer to securing a union. A group of faculty members in full-time, non-tenure track positions are organizing a union affiliated with United Auto Workers (UAW) Local 7902. In early January, the union – known as Contract Faculty United – reached a deal with university administration to hold a fair and neutral union representation election later this winter. Under the agreement, the 950 faculty members who comprise the bargaining unit will vote in an election where they will decide whether CFU-UAW will be their bargaining representative. According to a union official, if the unionization effort succeeds, Contract Faculty United would be the largest union of full-time faculty in non-tenure track positions at any private university in the United States. “

“A majority of workers at Volkswagen’s Chattanooga, Tennessee plant have signed cards to join the UAW, less than sixty days after the workers announced their campaign to form a union at the German automaker’s only US assembly plant. The milestone marks the first non-union auto plant to publicly announce majority support among the dozens of auto plants where workers have begun organizing in recent months. The grassroots effort sprang up in the wake of the record victories for Big Three autoworkers in the UAW’s historic Stand Up Strike win.”

“The National Labor Relations Board on Monday green-lighted a union election for members of the Dartmouth College men’s basketball team, a decision with potentially seismic implications for the future of collegiate athletics. Players on the team last year petitioned the NLRB to organize with a local arm of the powerhouse labor union SEIU that represents other groups at Dartmouth. Dartmouth, like other universities, has seen a recent rise of union activism on campus, which leaders of the effort to form a union for the basketball team have publicly cited as an inspiration.”

“Auto workers at Hyundai in Montgomery, Alabama, have signed up more than 30 percent of their nearly 4,000 co-workers in an ambitious drive to unionize…Workers in this plant assemble the Santa Fe and Tucson SUVs, the Santa Cruz pickup truck, the Genesis GV70 luxury SUV, and the Electrified GV70. They’re the third plant to reach the 30 percent milestone in the UAW’s new organizing push, just weeks after workers at a Mercedes-Benz plant near Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and on the heels of those at Tennessee’s Chattanooga Volkswagen plant in December.”

“2023 marked another successful year of cultural worker organizing for our union. Across the country, hundreds of workers from museums, libraries and other cultural institutions organized through the AFSCME Cultural Workers United (CWU) campaign for a voice on the job, fair and equitable wages, safe working conditions and more transparency and accountability from management.”

“The move to unionize comes after a year of record-breaking layoffs across entertainment and games journalism; in response to the need for better diversity and representation at the company; and in the wake of online media becoming less and less financially viable to staffers, many of which must live in some of the most expensive cities in the world in order to do their jobs.”

“On January 30, nearly 400 workers at Antolin Interiors USA in Howell, Michigan, voted overwhelmingly to join UAW Local 163, Region 1A. The workers, who make instrument panels and door panels for Ford, GM, Stellantis, and PACCAR, launched their organizing drive last October after years of disrespect and unacceptable working conditions.”

“Workers at Ridwell have voted unanimously to join Teamsters Local 120. The drivers and warehouse workers united to advocate for their rights and improve pay, benefits, and working conditions. This is the third group of workers to join the Teamsters at Ridwell….Ridwell is a recycling start-up focused on responsibly reusing and disposing of hard-to-recycle items like batteries, lightbulbs, and plastic film. Since its founding in Washington State in 2018, Ridwell has expanded to California, Colorado, Georgia, Minnesota, Oregon, and Texas.”

“Unpredictable schedules, hazardous working conditions, and the crushing workload of Barbenheimer combined to lead workers at the Prospect Park location of independent Brooklyn theater Nitehawk Cinema to organize a union.”

“Dillon Dix was excited to compete this year in Starbucks’ North America Barista Championship, a company-wide contest in which the winner would receive a paid trip to Starbucks’ coffee farm in Costa Rica. But he found some disappointing news in the fine print about the contest: Unionized Starbucks stores are not eligible to participate….Union baristas say their exclusion is another punishment for having organized roughly 400 of the chain’s 9,000 corporate-owned U.S. stores since 2021. Starbucks has publicly committed to reaching contracts with the union, Workers United, but in recent weeks the union has filed 47 new charges alleging unfair labor practices, including one related to the barista championship.”

“Alicia Modestino, Associate Professor at Northeastern University, hosts this month's Workers by the Numbers Blogcast. Listen to her in conversation with Aaron Sojourner and Seth Harris as they discuss the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ jobs, wages, and unemployment report for January 2024. This conversation was recorded on February 2, 2024. You don't want to miss this Numbers Day blogcast!”

“Seven in 10 U.S. workers say they’re “very” or “somewhat” concerned about employers using AI in human resources decision-making; 3 in 10 are worried about their job being eliminated by AI. Those findings are from a new report by Rutgers University’s Heldrich Center for Workforce Development, which has been surveying Americans for decades about the impact of new technology. Workers are most worried about AI’s role in hiring, firing, performance evaluation and promotion, said Carl Van Horn, the center’s director. ‘A concern about the hidden hand out there. That I’m not going to get a chance to really discuss my virtues with the hiring officer or with my boss, instead there’ll be some algorithm that tells me whether I stay or go.’”

“Starting this year, employers can match employees’ student loan repayments as 401(k) contributions, a policy that experts say can be a ‘game changer’ for Black women, who have the highest student loan debt on average.”

“Anti-worker lawmakers are quietly advancing House Joint Resolution 98 through Congress, a bill that would harm working people across the economy by undercutting workers’ ability to come together in unions. The Biden administration has announced that the president will veto the bill, which would invalidate new rules adopted by appointees to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB): “Reversing this rulemaking will prevent workers from exercising their right to bargain for higher wages, better benefits, and safer working conditions.” Moreover, the legislation demonstrates a growing divide between the economic values of everyday Americans and policymakers in Congress who say they support the working class but advance policies designed to weaken workers’ power in the economy and allow corporations to break the law without accountability.”

“Child labor remains a top issue in 2024 state legislative sessions amid soaring violations and widespread abuse of child labor laws in multiple sectors of the economy. On one hand, the coordinated, industry-backed effort to roll back child labor protections state by state has continued to expand. At the same time, some state legislators are proposing legislation to strengthen the rights of young workers and the laws designed to safeguard their health and education.”

"’We’re thrilled to see the Antitrust Division launch an investigation into Pennsylvania’s most notorious healthcare monopolist,” said Pat Garofalo, Director of State and Local Policy at the American Economic Liberties Project. “Story after story that we heard during our research revealed how UPMC has used its power to go on a merger spree, lower wages, degrade working conditions, stop workers from unionizing, and ultimately lower the quality of care for residents across the region. We look forward to seeing the conclusions of the DOJ’s investigation, and hope it leads to robust action to secure overdue justice for working families in Pennsylvania.’”

“Workers at the Columbus Museum of Art who are members of Columbus Museum of Art Workers United (CMAWU/AFSCME Ohio Council 8) are celebrating a huge victory this week after their first union contract became a reality. The contract was ratified Monday by the CMA administration after CMA workers voted unanimously earlier this month in favor of ratification. Their victory is the culmination of a process that began after the workers formed their own union in fall 2022.”

“Hours before a transit strike was set to begin, Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 616 representing almost 300 workers of Transit Windsor is pleased to announce that a last-minute tentative agreement was reached. Bargaining continued over the last four days until a tentative deal was hammered out. As a result, regular transit service will continue to run tomorrow, Monday, February 5, 2024.”

“Mary Kay Henry, the president of the Service Employees International Union, one of the nation’s largest and most politically powerful labor unions, announced Tuesday that she would step down after 14 years in her position. Ms. Henry was the first woman elected to lead the union, which represents nearly two million workers like janitors and home health aides in both the public and private sectors. Under her leadership, it launched a major initiative known as the Fight for $15, which sought to organize fast-food workers and push for a $15 minimum wage. Winning over skeptics in the ranks, Ms. Henry argued that the union could make gains through a broad-based campaign that targeted the industry as a whole rather than individual employers.”

“As the Academy Awards selections and ceremony approach, the Power At Work Blog is proud to shine a light on the films that feature worker power and unions, labor leaders, and workers' collective action. We've curated a list of 55 labor films you should watch from several different genres that have addressed these important issues over many decades. Watch as many of these films as you can over the next few weeks leading up to the Academy Awards show because the Power At Work Blog is planning to ask your opinions about labor in films very soon.”