The Weekly Download is the place for ideas, features, research, and news coverage about workers, worker power, and unions — delivered to your inbox and the Power at Work Blog, every week. The Weekly Download hopes to promote the writing, research, and analysis that advances a discourse putting workers and their unions at the center of the national conversation. If you have an item that we should include in The Weekly Download, or a source we should review for future items, please email us at [email protected]. Subscribe to the Power At Work Blog here to get The Weekly Download sent directly to your inbox.
Corporate Power Opposing Worker Power:
Why Poverty Persists in America - New York Times
By Matthew Desmond (@just_shelter), March 9, 2023
“There are, it would seem, deeper structural forces at play, ones that have to do with the way the American poor are routinely taken advantage of. The primary reason for our stalled progress on poverty reduction has to do with the fact that we have not confronted the unrelenting exploitation of the poor in the labor, housing and financial markets.”
Teamsters General President Sean O’Brien Testifies at HELP Committee Hearing - Teamsters
(@Teamsters), March 8, 2023
“...Teamsters General President Sean M. O’Brien testified at a hearing held by the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP). The committee hearing — “Defending the Right of Workers to Organize Unions Free from Illegal Corporate Union-Busting” — was initiated by HELP Committee Chair Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) in response to unlawful anti-union activity at Starbucks, Amazon, and other multi-billion-dollar corporations.”
Howard Schultz Subpoena Tracker - OnLabor
By Anita Alem, March 6, 2023
“This post is an ongoing OnLabor feature that will update readers on Senator Bernie Sanders’s effort to subpoena Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz about union-busting.”
East Palestine: The Forgotten Rail Workers - Confined Space
By Jordan Barab (jbarab), March 6, 2023
“...while the citizens of East Palestine were sheltering-in-place and evacuating, Norfolk Southern, being the responsible custodian of public health that they are, immediately leapt into action, sending 40 of their employees in to start cleaning up the wreckage — and to get the rail line running again. One might expect a railroad as large and profitable as Norfolk Southern to have a specially trained and equipped Hazmat Team to respond to events like this. Turns out that may not have been the case.”
Food Workers Find Doors Barred on Day of Union Protest - Capital and Main
By Mark Kreidler (@MarkKreidler), March 6, 2023
“The union’s NLRB complaints allege the company interfered with workers’ rights to organize by obstructing multiple exits from the building and “surveilling, or giving the appearance of surveilling, employees engaging in protected concerted activities.” The Cal/OSHA complaint is directed at the safety violations that ensue from having multiple exits blocked, including the designated emergency exit from the hot kitchen.”
BMWED President Cardwell Joins CNN to Discuss Norfolk Southern Derailment - BMWED
(@BMWEDIBT), March 3, 2023
[Video] “BMWED President Tony Cardwell spoke to CNN Newsroom about the Norfolk Southern derailment in East Palestine and concerning symptoms our Brothers continue to experience since working at the toxic worksite. BMWED N.S. members who worked the derailment are reporting nausea, sore throats, trouble breathing, skin and eye irritation and similar problematic and troubling symptoms.”
NLRB Judge Rules Two Hallmark Movies Violated Federal Labor Law By Firing Drivers Who Attempted To Unionize - Deadline
By David Robb, March 3, 2023
“An National Labor Relations Board administrative law judge has ruled that two Hallmark movie productions violated federal labor law in 2021 when nine of its drivers were interrogated about their union activities, were threatened with job loss, and were then fired for attempting to unionize the projects under a Teamsters Local 399 contract. The case stems from unfair labor practices charges filed by Local 399 against 3484 Inc. and 3486 Inc., the companies that produced Christmas at the Madison and Love at the Pecan Farm.”
Norfolk Southern Used Sick Leave as Bargaining Chip to Erode Safety, Union Says - Truthout
By Sharon Zhang (@zhang_sharon), March 2, 2023
"When Norfolk Southern, the railroad company behind the crash in East Palestine, Ohio, finally offered to give its workers paid sick leave, its proposal came with a major caveat: the company must be allowed to campaign to erode safety regulations without union opposition. In a letter sent on Wednesday to government officials, including Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, an official for a major rail union — representing roughly 3,000 Norfolk Southern workers — said that the company had recently said it would only agree to give workers paid sick leave if the union withdrew a letter of opposition to its new experimental inspection system that would make train operation more dangerous for workers and communities like East Palestine.”
Labor Markets, Public Policy, and Worker Power:
Democrats Propose Tax Reforms To Boost Union Membership, Discourage Union-Busting - HuffPost
By Dave Jamieson (@jamieson), March 9, 2023
"Senate Democrats plan to introduce a pair of bills Thursday that could encourage more union membership and make it more costly for employers to crack down on organizing efforts. The legislation rolled out by Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.) would use tax law to accomplish those goals. One bill, which has 40 cosponsors, would restore a tax break that union members enjoyed until Republicans overhauled the tax code under former President Donald Trump. The other bill, which has 27 cosponsors, would bar employers from deducting the cost of anti-union campaigns as a business expense.”
Michigan House passes bills to repeal right-to-work - Detroit Free Press
By Clara Hendrickson (@clarajanehen), March 8, 2023
“Michigan House Democrats passed legislation Wednesday night over GOP objections to deliver on a key promise to union activists: repealing the state's right-to-work law. The law, established by Republicans in 2012, allows workers in unionized jobs to opt out of paying union dues and fees. Michigan — a state steeped in labor history — could become the first state in nearly 60 years to ditch its right-to-work law.”
The Unexpected Compression: Competition at Work in the Low Wage Labor Market - NBER
By David Autor (@davidautor), Arindrajit Dube (@arindube) & Annie McGrew (@AnnieMcGrew1), March 2023
“Seen through the lens of a canonical job ladder model, the pandemic increased the elasticity of labor supply to firms in the low-wage labor market, reducing employer market power and spurring rapid relative wage growth among young non-college workers who disproportionately moved from lower-paying to higher-paying and potentially more-productive jobs.”
Starbucks fired a union organizer. New York City got him rehired - The Guardian
By Wilfred Chan (@wilfredchan), March 3, 2023
“Austin Locke was sacked days after he helped unionize workers. A monumental new labor law means he’s back on the job.”
The Independent Contractor Workforce: New Evidence on its Size and Composition and Ways to Improve its Measurement in Household Surveys - NBER Working Paper
By Katharine G. Abraham, Brad Hershbein (@BHershbein), Susan N. Houseman, & Beth Truesdale (@bethtruesdale)
“Young workers, less-educated workers, workers of color, multiple-job holders, and those with low hours are more likely to be miscoded. Taking these workers into account substantively changes the demographic profile of the independent contractor workforce. Our research indicates that probing in household surveys to clarify a worker’s employment arrangement and identify all low-hours work is critical for accurately measuring independent contractor work.”
Strikes and Other Worker Collective Actions:
Scabby the Rat is an American labor icon. Why are his manufacturers disowning him? - The Guardian
By Tarpley Hitt (@tarpleyhitt), March 9, 2023
“In New York – a city poised to hire its first “rat czar” after rat sightings doubled in the past year – street-side rodents are fairly commonplace. But the rat stationed on a Union Square curb is something of a different beast. This one is roughly 10ft tall, with incisors the size of iPads. Its eyes are bloodshot, its claws extended, and its belly marked with what look like open, oozing sores. Depending whom you ask, its name is “Scabby”, or just “the Rat”.”
One of US’s Largest Public Universities Could See First Strike in Its 257 Years - Truthout
By Deepa Kumar (@ProfessorKumar), March 7, 2023
“Unionized academic workers at Rutgers University have organized across hierarchies and are preparing to go on strike.”
Joint Statement from UAW, IG Metall and Volkswagen's Group and World Group Works Council Regarding VW’s New Plant in South Carolina — UAW
March 6, 2023
“IG Metall, the UAW and Volkswagen’s Group and World Group Works Council welcome the construction of a new plant in South Carolina, where electrified vehicles will be manufactured under the traditional US brand Scout Motors. This investment will create thousands of new manufacturing jobs and will further drive the transformation towards electromobility.”
Collective Bargaining:
Unionised Whitney Museum workers ratify their first contract after 16 months of negotiations - The Art Newspaper
By Anni Irish (@AnniIrish), March 6, 2023
“After more than a year of negotiations, unionised workers at the Whitney Museum of American art and the museum’s administration announced on Monday (6 March) that the union had ratified its first contract. The union, a part of Local 2110 of the United Auto Workers (UAW), represents close to 200 workers at the Whitney. The new contract, which includes many provisions the union had sought, is valid through 30 June 2026.”
Alphabet Must Negotiate If Contract Staff Unionize, Labor Board Official Rules - Bloomberg
By Josh Eidelson (@josheidelson), March 3, 2023
“Alphabet Inc.’s Google is legally the boss of YouTube contract staff and must collectively bargain with the workers if they vote to unionize, a US labor board official ruled. In a Friday decision, a regional director of the National Labor Relations Board rejected the internet giant’s claims that it wasn’t the employer of a group of Texas-based YouTube workers, who are hired via the staffing agency Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp. The director ruled that Google is in fact a “joint employer” — a company that has enough control over a group of workers to be liable for their treatment and obligated to negotiate with them if they unionize.”
Building Worker Power Through Organizing:
Independent, locally focused unions are expanding the playing field for workers’ rights - Prism
By Sravya Tadepalli (@sravyat96), March 8, 2023
“While union efforts at corporate giants have gained the most national attention, labor organizing is also happening in businesses less accustomed to unionization, including small restaurants, the video game industry, museums, newsrooms, theaters, the arts, and nonprofit organizations. These unions are on the front lines of developing new ways of operating to bring new groups of workers into organized labor.”
With voluntary recognition, Ed Markey’s staff will be the first in the Senate to unionize - Roll Call
By Jim Saksa (@saksappeal), March 8, 2023
“The rest of “the world’s most exclusive club” may feel compelled to start treating the help a little nicer, as staffers in Sen. Edward J. Markey’s office are set to form the Senate’s first labor union. Aides formally requested that the Massachusetts Democrat voluntarily recognize their bargaining unit in a staff meeting Wednesday morning. Markey happily complied.”
Exploding the Myth That Unions are “Third Parties” - Power at Work Blog
By Seth Harris (@MrSethHarris), March 7, 2023
“A favorite tactic of employers opposing their employees’ union organizing efforts is to argue that the union is a “third party” …This “third party” rhetoric is instructive and perversely helpful. It begs a critically important question that every worker should ask: who should I trust to advance my interests in the workplace: a union or my employer? In order to answer that question, it might help to read between the lines of the “union-as-third-party” epithet.”
High Injury Rates Push Minnesota’s Amazon Workers to Organize for Safety - Workday Magazine
By Isabela Escalona (@EscalonaReport), March 6, 2023
“Workers are concerned about soaring rates of injury, high productivity quotas, incoherent policies, and a sudden warehouse closure.”
Ideas to Build Worker Power:
Why Veterans in Labor Should Not Be Ignored - Portside
By Steve Early, March 3, 2023
“Largely ignored is the positive role veterans from working-class backgrounds have played in key labor and political struggles since the mid-20th century. In the heyday of industrial unionism in the 1950s and ‘60s, tens of thousands of World War II veterans could be found on the front-lines of labor struggles in auto, steel, electrical equipment manufacturing, mining, trucking, and the telephone industry. Today, about 1.3 million former service members work in union jobs, and women and people of color make up the fastest growing cohorts in these ranks.”
U.S. Labor and the Struggle for Democracy - New Labor Forum
By Joseph A. McCartin (@JosephMcCartin), January 2023
“From its inception, the U.S. labor movement’s fate has been intimately bound up with the fate of political democracy. That historic connection seems more true than ever at this time. From Starbucks to Amazon, from legislative victories by fast food workers in California to the AFL-CIO’s creation of the new Center for Transformational Organizing, many signs indicate a labor movement stirring to life after years of false starts, retrenchment, and retreat.”
Worker Power Profiles:
The Hard Head and Wild Heart of Barbara Ehrenreich - In These Times
By Sarah Jaffe (@sarahljaffe), March 7, 2023
“Revisiting Nickel and Dimed, Dancing in the Streets, and many more of the late author’s groundbreaking books.”
11 Quotes from Women Labor Leaders - U.S. Department of Labor Blog
By Jordan Steinberg, March 2, 2023
“Throughout our nation’s history, women have frequently been influential leaders in the fight for workers’ rights. Women have been pioneers of workplace safety, fair wage advocates, and labor organizers have helped to uplift and improve conditions for all workers. In honor of Women’s History Month, here are eleven inspiring quotes from women labor leaders.”
Inside Unions:
UAW count of challenged ballots delayed with Fain narrowly leading Curry - The Detroit News
By Breana Noble (@BreanaCNoble), March 8, 2023
“The counting of remaining votes in the United Auto Workers election to determine its president for the next four years has been delayed until March 16 as the court-appointed monitor's office finishes resolving the eligibility of the members who cast the 1,608 challenged ballots. Of the ballots counted in the presidential race, Shawn Fain leads incumbent Ray Curry 50.2% to 49.8% or by 645 votes, according to unofficial results from the office of the monitor, New York attorney Neil Barofsky.”