Labor Rights News Thread

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caltrek
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Sanders Leads Senators in Backing Kaiser Permanente Workers Before Planned Strike
by Jessica Corbett
November 12, 2021

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/ ... ned-strike

Extract:
(Common Dreams) Sen. Bernie Sanders, joined by seven Democratic colleagues, sent a letter Friday to Kaiser Permanente chair and CEO Greg Adams in support of tens of thousands of healthcare workers planning to strike on November 15 unless negotiations for a fair contract improve.
Monday's strike is set to include 32,000 Kaiser workers, though another 8,000 have authorized a strike, the letter notes. They are represented by various unions and work at facilities across California, Colorado, D.C., Georgia, Hawaii, Maryland, Oregon, Virginia, and Washington.

According to the eight senators:
  • Instead of treating these workers with the dignity and respect they deserve you have demanded that they accept just a 2% wage increase and a two-tier system that allows you to pay new workers lower wages. Considering your recent profit margins, we find this offer to be demeaning and unacceptable. These dedicated workers deserve a fair wage increase, and the new generation of Kaiser Permanente workers should have the same pay structure as those who are longer-term employees.

Noting that the healthcare giant made $2.2 billion in operating profits last year, the letter to Adams says that "now, at a time when Kaiser is sitting on $44.5 billion in cash reserves and your insured membership has grown to 12.5 million, the company wishes to diminish the safety, security, and well-being of its workers, rather than improve them
Don't mourn, organize.

-Joe Hill
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caltrek
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IATSE Members Vote to Ratify Contracts That Include Better Streaming Pay
by Catie Keck
November 15, 2021

https://www.theverge.com/2021/11/15/227 ... horization

Introduction:
(The Verge) A major Hollywood union has voted to ratify a pair of contracts to improve labor conditions for production workers — though narrowly — after previously voting to authorize a strike over stalled negotiations with major studios.

The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) announced today its members narrowly voted to ratify both the Basic Agreement and the Area Standards Agreement, three-year contracts that included provisions for things like meal times and breaks, increased base pay for the union’s lowest-paid members, and better terms for productions from streaming services. Both votes were extraordinarily close, and the vote around the Basic Agreement, in particular, is contentious.

IATSE uses an electoral college-like voting system (delegates are assigned to IATSE’s local unions based on their number of members). Delegate votes leaned yes for both contracts, and 52 percent of members voted in favor of the Area Standards Agreement (48 percent voted no). But the popular vote for the Basic Agreement shook out to 50.4 percent no to 49.6 percent yes.
Don't mourn, organize.

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caltrek
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On the grounds that writers and journalists are also workers, I will put the following article in this thread:

Big Media Strikes Back at Substack

by Sara Fisher and Nicholas Johnston
November 16, 2021

https://www.axios.com/substack-subscrib ... 3ae8e.html

Introduction:
(Axios) Pressure from new publishing platforms has finally pushed newsrooms to create programs that give writers more pay, autonomy and flexibility. Those changes are attracting some independent writers back to traditional news companies.

Why it matters: The Substack threat to newsrooms was overblown. Newsrooms have been quick to react to the idea of the independent-operator model while journalists have been sharing its challenges or detailing why they decided to return to newsrooms.

Driving the news: The Information is in early stages of launching "The Information Newsletter Network," a platform to power independent newsletter writers on The Information's tech stack.
  • "Everyone in publishing knows the hard part happens after you hit send," says CEO and founder Jessica Lessin.
  • "We are the only solution I've seen that gets that. We've got eight years of experience about how to scale premium subscription publications. No tech platform has that in their DNA, and it shows in their products."
Don't mourn, organize.

-Joe Hill
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caltrek
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Amazon Workers Strike During the Year's Biggest Shopping Holiday
by Walé Azeez
November 26, 2021

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/am ... uxbndlbing

Introduction:
(MSN) Amazon is facing strikes by warehouse workers and delivery drivers across Europe as its busiest weekend of the year begins.

Labor unions in Germany, Italy and France are calling for the company to pay its workers fairly and respect their right to join unions. The strikes have been called to coincide with Amazon's annual Black Friday event, which kicks off a four-day shopping bonanza that culminates in Cyber Monday.

The action is part of a wider global protest organized by a group called Make Amazon Pay. The coalition of unions, environmentalists and tax campaigners has called for protests in 22 countries around the world, including the United States, Canada, Brazil, and the United Kingdom.

The international coalition is also demanding that Amazon "pays its fair share of taxes and commits to real environmental sustainability."

An Amazon spokesperson said that the groups represented a variety of interests, and while the company was "not perfect in any area" it was taking its role and impact seriously.
Don't mourn, organize.

-Joe Hill
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caltrek
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A New Regime at the Teamsters
by Harold Meyerson
November 24, 2021

https://prospect.org/labor/new-regime-at-the-teamsters/

Introdcution:
(The American Prospect) There are landslide elections, and then there are LANDSLIDE elections. The Teamsters just had the italicized all-caps version.

By a margin of two-to-one, Sean O’Brien, who headed a slate of candidates opposed to outgoing president Jim Hoffa, defeated Hoffa’s preferred successor, Steve Vairma. (The vote counting was completed on Friday.) Even more impressive, the candidates on O’Brien’s slate also won the union’s number-two position (secretary-treasurer), and every other one of the 28 contests on the ballot.

Election outcomes like this are rare. I’d say “rare in union elections” but for the fact that the vast majority of unions don’t elect their leaders through rank-and-file balloting, but rather through the votes of elected delegates at their conventions. Three decades ago, when the Teamsters were glaringly mobbed up, the federal government put the union under governmental supervision, one element of which was a switch to the rank-and-file election of its leaders for five-year terms. The union has since been cleaned up and the feds’ trusteeship lifted, but the one element of the trusteeship that the union has opted to continue under its own aegis is the rank-and-file voting. (It has also continued to have New York attorney Richard Mark, who served as the court-appointed trustee, supervise the elections.)

Incoming president O’Brien is an insider turned outsider. The longtime leader of a Boston local was a member of the victorious Hoffa slate five years ago, in which capacity he was in charge of the union’s dealings with the union’s largest employer, United Parcel Service, for which roughly 300,000 Teamsters are employed as drivers and warehouse workers.
Don't mourn, organize.

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caltrek
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Amazon Workers Will Likely Get Another Chance to Unionize in Alabama
by Abigail Weinberg
November 29, 2021

https://www.motherjones.com/mojo-wire/2 ... redo-rwdu/

Introduction:
(Mother Jones) Bessemer, Alabama, who tried unsuccessfully to unionize earlier this year, will likely have another shot at a union election thanks to an order by a regional office of the National Labor Relations Board. The order said the company acted with “flagrant disregard” for certain policies that keep elections fair.

In April, after an aggressive anti-union campaign from Amazon, warehouse workers in Bessemer overwhelmingly voted not to authorize a union. As my colleague Noah Lanard wrote at the time, people voted not to unionize in part because Amazon provided relatively solid wages and benefits in economically depressed areas. But that wasn’t the only reason:
  • On top of those economic realities, Amazon fought unionization at every turn. It forced employees to attend anti-union meetings on company time, hired union-busting consultants, sent out barrages of texts urging workers to vote no, and launched a website called doitwithoutdues.com.
All of that is legal. We live in a country long wedded to union busting. But one of Amazon’s actions crossed a line.

During the election, Amazon had the Postal Service install a post office in the parking lot to make voting in the union election “convenient, safe and private.” Labor organizers disagreed, arguing that the box’s location near a security camera—and inside of an Amazon-branded tent—tainted the election. The regional NLRB agreed and granted a do-over.
Don't mourn, organize.

-Joe Hill
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caltrek
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Rethinking Work and Life
by Jim Hightower
December 1, 2021

https://otherwords.org/rethinking-work-and-life/

Introduction:
(Other Words) As a writer, I get stuck every so often straining for the right words to tell my story. Over the years, though, I’ve learned when to quit tying myself into mental knots over sentence construction. Instead, I step back and rethink where my story is going.

This process is essentially what millions of American working families are going through this year as record numbers of them are shocking bosses, politicians, and economists by stepping back and declaring: “We quit!”

Most of the quits are tied to very real abuses that have become ingrained in our workplaces over the past couple of decades — poverty paychecks, no health care, unpredictable schedules, no child care, understaffing, forced overtime, unsafe jobs, sexist and racist managers, aggressively rude customers, and so much more.

Specific grievances abound, but at the core of each is a deep, inherently destructive executive-suite malignancy: disrespect.

The corporate system has cheapened employees from valuable human assets worthy of being nurtured and advanced to a bookkeeping expense that must be steadily eliminated. It’s not just about paychecks. It’s about feeling valued — feeling that the hierarchy gives a damn about the people doing the work.
Don't mourn, organize.

-Joe Hill
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caltrek
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Environmental Activists Turn Talents Inward—and Unionize
by Jessica Kutz
December 8, 2021

https://www.motherjones.com/environment ... -wildlife/

Introduction:
(Mother Jones) A few years ago, Erica Prather, the national outreach representative for Defenders of Wildlife, and her partner allowed every piece of plastic they used for an entire year to pile up in their living room, spilling over into their garage. It was a reminder that their waste is permanent. They called the mound of Styrofoam containers, dog bags and other trash their “Pile of Petroleum Past.” As someone who cares about the state of the planet, it was an example of Prather trying to live her values.

She wants others, including her own employer, to live their values too. But it wasn’t until Bernie Sanders ended his candidacy for the presidency in 2020 that Prather moved to a different, more drastic form of action: “I remember this moment when I was weeping during his concession speech, and he was like, ‘There are ways that the progressive movement can move on,’ and he literally said, ‘Unionize your workplace.’”

And unionize she did. Prather used the organizing skills she’d honed for years as an advocate for endangered species and applied them at her own workplace, Defenders of Wildlife. Quickly, other employees jumped on board; they voted to form their union in September.

And they are not the only ones. Employees at several other green groups have successfully formed unions over the last year, including Greenpeace USA, the Sunrise Movement, the Center for Biological Diversity and the National Audubon Society.

Environmental organizations have long sought to affect change outwardly—to promote biodiversity and stave off extinctions or to curb the impacts of the climate crisis. Now the organizations’ employees are turning to unions to change their workplaces from within, by fighting for higher wages and better benefits, and by forcing their organizations—whose leadership is predominantly white—to be more diverse and inclusive.
Don't mourn, organize.

-Joe Hill
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Yuli Ban
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And remember my friend, future events such as these will affect you in the future
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caltrek
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^^^I'm not sure that spamming job applications isn't being a bit rude. Still, if threatening a sympathy boycott is prohibited despite freedom of speech...
Don't mourn, organize.

-Joe Hill
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