Labor Rights News Thread

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caltrek
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On Black Friday, Amazon Workers in 40+ Countries Strike and Protest 'Despicable' Treatment
by Jake Johnson
November 25, 2022

Introduction:
(Common Dreams) Thousands of Amazon workers in more than 40 countries are planning to mark Black Friday by walking off the job and protesting the corporate behemoth's abuse of employees and the climate, as well as its chronic avoidance of taxes while raking in huge profits.

"Make Amazon Pay" actions are expected to include marches and rallies for union recognition in Bangladesh, strikes at nearly 20 warehouses in France and Germany, walkouts in a dozen cities in the United States, and a protest by newly unionized workers in Japan.

"Today, unions, civil society, and progressive elected officials will stand shoulder to shoulder in a massive global day of action to denounce Amazon's despicable multimillion-dollar campaigns to kill worker-led union efforts," Christy Hoffman, president of UNI Global Union, said in a statement. "It's time for the tech giant to cease their awful, unsafe practices immediately, respect the law, and negotiate with the workers who want to make their jobs better."

Amazon spent around $4.3 million on anti-union consultants in the U.S. last year as it worked to crush historic labor organizing efforts in Alabama and New York. Workers ultimately voted earlier this year to unionize at a Staten Island warehouse, the first-ever organized location in the United States.
Meanwhile, Amazon avoided $5 billion in federal corporate income taxes in the U.S. last year, according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, as the company continued to shortchange and exploit its employees, who are frequently injured on the job as they race to meet the company's punishing productivity metrics.
Read more here: https://www.commondreams.org/news/2022 ... treatment
Don't mourn, organize.

-Joe Hill
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caltrek
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Farmworkers from Nearly a Dozen States Attended Rally in D.C. to Urge Action During Lame Duck Session
by Gabe Ortoz
November , 2022

Introduction:
(Daily Kos) It’s not only young undocumented immigrants who are pushing for legislative relief during the lame duck session.

More than 60 farmworkers from nearly a dozen states are also in Washington, D.C., to urge Senate action on bipartisan legislation putting undocumented laborers onto a pathway to legalization. While the Farm Workforce Modernization Act passed the House more than a year ago, it has stalled in the upper chamber.

“Despite all the backbreaking work, the blisters and pain we face, farm workers put so much effort into ensuring that we all have our fruits and vegetables on our tables,” said Arizona farmworker Maria Yolanda Bay. The joint release from advocacy organizations notes Bay’s late husband was also a farmworker. He died from COVID in 2020. “I am going to Washington D.C. because farm workers deserve legal status. We work so hard for this country.”

It’s true—and it should be noted that as farmworkers are in D.C., lawmakers are also set to return to their districts for their Thanksgiving holiday, where many will likely eat poultry, vegetables, and other items that were harvested and processed by undocumented workers.

“Farmworker Mairi Elston has never been to the Capitol before,” central California’s KVPR reports. “The Delano teenager is there with her parents to urge senators to pass the bill. The Elstons harvest fruits and vegetables in the productive Central Valley, helping to feed the nation’s families. But Mairi’s undocumented parents haven’t been able to visit their own families in Mexico in decades.”
Read more here: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/ ... k-session
Don't mourn, organize.

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weatheriscool
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NLRB Region-29 Wins Federal Court Order Requiring Amazon to Cease and Desist from Firing Employees..
Source: NLRB

November 28, 2022
Staten Island, New York – On November 18, 2022, Judge Diane Gujarati of the United States District Court for the District of Eastern New York issued a Section 10(j) injunction against Amazon.com Services LLC directing Amazon to cease and desist from discharging employees, and from engaging in any like or related conduct, in retaliation for employees engaging in protected activities. The injunction also directs Amazon to post, distribute, and read the Court’s order to employees at the Employer’s Staten Island facility (“JFK8”).

The injunction was issued based on a petition for Section 10(j) injunctive relief filed by Kathy Drew King, former Regional Director of Region 29 of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). Section 10(j) of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) authorizes the NLRB to seek injunctions against employers and unions in federal district courts to ensure that employees' rights will be adequately protected from remedial failure due to the passage of time.

The petition alleged that Amazon unlawfully fired an employee at JFK8 for advocating, with his co-workers, for workplace health and safety protections in light of the COVID-19 pandemic and by protesting with his co-workers Amazon’s failure to provide greater safety protections to employees. While the injunction does not order interim reinstatement of the employee at this time, it does order Amazon to cease and desist from further discharging any employees for protected activities under the NLRA, or in any like or related manner interfering with, restraining, or coercing employees in the exercise of the rights guaranteed to them by Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act. If Amazon violates the cease-and-desist order, it could be held in contempt by the court.

“The Judge’s order in this case recognizes Amazon’s unlawful conduct and provides the full force of a federal court injunction to prohibit Amazon from further discharging employees for engaging in protected concerted activity,” said Region 29 Brooklyn Director Teresa Poor. “This relief is critical to ensure that Amazon employees can fully and freely exercise their rights to join together and improve their working conditions, including by forming, assisting, or joining a union.”

Field Attorneys Matthew Jackson and Evamaria Cox of the NLRB’s Region 29 represented Regional Director Poor in the Section 10(j) proceedings before Judge Gujarati.

Established in 1935, the National Labor Relations Board is an independent federal agency that protects employees from unfair labor practices and protects the right of private sector employees to join together, with or without a union, to improve wages, benefits and working conditions. The NLRB conducts hundreds of workplace elections and investigates thousands of unfair labor practice charges each year.


Read more: https://www.nlrb.gov/news-outreach/news ... -cease-and
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“All of Rail Labor Is Going to Suffer”: Workers Furious Over Biden Move to Preempt Strike
by Jake Johnson
November , 2022

Introduction:
(Common Dreams) Rank-and-file rail workers voiced frustration and anger late Monday after Joe Biden—a self-described "pro-labor president"—urged Congress to pass legislation forcing unions to accept a contract agreement without any paid sick days, a step that would avert a looming nationwide strike and deliver a win for the profitable railroad industry.

"By forcing workers into an agreement which doesn't address basic needs like healthcare and sick time, President Joe Biden is choosing railroads over workers and the economy," said Ross Grooters, an engineer and co-chair of Railroad Workers United, an inter-union alliance that supports public ownership of the national rail system.

Another worker was more blunt in a text message to labor reporter Jonah Furman: "Words cannot express how fucking livid I am at this administration... people in power, LIKE HIM, would rather screw workers than stand up to fucking robber barons."

While Congress could put forth legislation that would improve the tentative White House-brokered contract deal announced in September, Biden made clear he wants lawmakers "to pass legislation immediately to adopt the tentative agreement between railroad workers and operators—without any modifications or delay—to avert a potentially crippling national rail shutdown."

That agreement, which has been rejected by more than half of the country's unionized rail workforce, does not include a single day of paid sick leave and would only allow three penalty-free days off per year for medical visits. But even that time off is heavily constrained: It's unpaid; can only be taken on a Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday; and must be scheduled at least 30 days in advance.
Read more here: https://www.commondreams.org/news/2022 ... pt-strike

caltrek’s comment: To me, this is yet another argument for a primary challenge to Biden in 2024, should he decide to run for re-election. Any such challenge should recognize that, for the most part, Biden has been far more helpful to organized labor than can realistically be expected from any likely Republican nominee that comes forward. Such a primary challenge does threaten to assist Republican in the general election, even if an unsuccessful candidate does end up endorsing Biden. Still, Democrats need to receive the message that the laboring class should not be taken for granted. A contested nomination would also energize voters and thus increase voter registration, fund raising, etc.
Don't mourn, organize.

-Joe Hill
weatheriscool
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House votes to impose agreement to block rail strike
Source: ABC News

The House on Wednesday voted to block a strike by the nation's railway workers, intervening in a labor dispute with wide-ranging economic and political implications.

The House voted 290-137 to adopt the tentative deal between the rail companies and employees reached in September and brokered by the White House.

In a second, separate 221-207 vote -- aimed at addressing progressive Democrats' concerns over protecting workers -- the House added seven days of paid sick leave to the agreement, which currently calls for only one.

Just three Republicans vote in favor of the added paid leave. The two bills now head to the Senate.
Read more: https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/house-v ... d=94207518
weatheriscool
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Senate rejects proposal to give rail workers seven days of paid sick leave
Source: The Hill
The Senate voted on Thursday to reject a proposal to give railway workers seven days of sick leave, a benefit that was left out of a labor deal brokered by the presidential emergency board between freight rail companies and unionized workers.

The proposal to give workers seven days of sick leave, which was championed by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and other liberal Democrats, failed to pick up enough Republican support to overcome a 60-vote threshold set for adopting the measure.

It passed the House Wednesday with a narrow bipartisan majority, 221 to 207 with only three Republicans voting for it.

The votes in the Senate and House now give Democrats the ability to blame Republicans for imposing a labor deal on rail workers that includes little flexibility for taking time off work due to illness or doctors’ visits.
Read more: https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/375 ... ick-leave/
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We May be at the Beginning of a New Era of Labor Power
by Noah Berlatsky
December 5, 2022

Introduction:
(Alternet) Despite major tech layoffs and ongoing fears of a recession, unemployment in the US remains low. In the long term, businesses are likely to continue to struggle to fill positions. That creates an opportunity for unions. And there are encouraging signs that workers are seizing the moment.

There’s no doubt that the economy is slowing, with ugly consequences for some workers. Tech companies have been laying off employees at a brutal rate. Amazon plans to lay off about 10,000 workers. Hewlett-Packard has announced plans to lay off 4,000 to 5,000 people in the next few years.

NBC estimates tech layoffs this year could hit more than 137,000.

Higher interest rates and a slowing job market contributed to a 3.7 percent unemployment rate in October, higher than the 3.5 percent estimate.

Job gains were lower than in any month since December 2020. Many economists still expect a recession in 2023. That’s the bad news.

The article goes on to discuss the effects of an overall growth in the number of jobs in the non-farm economy, early retirement, and lower rates of immigration. Unionizing efforts in places like Starbucks are reviewed, as are organizing efforts among academic workers. Opposition toward unionizing efforts by the business class and rightwing politicians is noted.

Read more here: https://www.alternet.org/beginning-new ... or-power/
Don't mourn, organize.

-Joe Hill
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caltrek
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‘Nurses Have Had Enough': Largest-Ever NHS Strike Kicks Off in UK Over Low Pay
by Jake Johnson
December 15, 2022

Introduction:
(Common Dreams) Tens of thousands of nurses across the United Kingdom are set to walk off the job Thursday in what's been described as the largest-ever strike by National Health Service workers, who said they were forced to act after the government refused to negotiate over pay amid painfully high inflation.

The walkout represents NHS nurses' first national strike, and it comes as U.K. rail and postal workers are also taking major labor actions in response to falling real pay, meager benefits, and worsening conditions.

Nurses taking part in Thursday's walkouts in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland—one of two scheduled days of action in the week—lamented that a strike became necessary but said they had no choice as inadequate pay and staffing shortages put themselves and patients in danger. Healthcare workers also pointed to years of Tory-imposed funding cuts as a factor harming nurses and compromising the U.K.'s public healthcare system.

"Nurses have had enough—we are underpaid and undervalued," said nurse anesthetist Lyndsay Thompson of Northern Ireland. "Yes, this is a pay dispute but it's also very much about patient safety. The fact we cannot recruit enough nurses means patient safety is being put at risk."
Read more here, including Twitter feeds on this topic: https://www.commondreams.org/news/2022 ... r-low-pay
Don't mourn, organize.

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caltrek
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'To Hold Billionaire CEOs Accountable,' House Democrats and Union Leaders Push for Fully Funded NLRB
by Kenny Stancil
December 14, 2022

Extract:
(Common Dreams) A half-dozen progressive lawmakers joined multiple union representatives at a Tuesday afternoon press conference outside the U.S. Capitol to urge Democratic leaders to include ample funding for the cash-starved National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) in the final appropriations bill of the lame-duck session—before Republicans take control of the House.

"Our country is experiencing a moment of mass worker organizing—71% of Americans approve of unions and tens of millions of Americans would join a union right now if they could without retaliation or harassment," said (Jimmy) Williams (president of Communications Workers of America). "But the drastic underfunding of the NLRB means that many of these workers will face delays in getting a union vote or receiving justice for illegal retaliation or termination from their employers, which is why Congress must respond to this crisis to stand with workers and fully fund the NLRB with this urgent budget bill."

Due to GOP opposition, the federal agency tasked with enforcing U.S. labor law hasn't received a funding increase in nearly a decade. The NLRB's annual budget has been frozen at $274.2 million since fiscal year 2014, which amounts to a 25% cut when inflation is taken into account.

While the NLRB's budget has effectively shrunk, its workload has soared. The agency recently reported that from FY2021 to FY2022, the number of union representation petitions and unfair labor practice (ULP) charges filed grew by 53% and 19%, respectively. Meanwhile, the number of NLRB officials who oversee union elections and investigate employer abuses has been slashed by 50% since FY2002.

Last month, NLRB Chair Lauren McFerran and General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo warned members of Congress that the agency "has exhausted its ability to absorb cost increases through staff attrition and operational efficiencies." They added that it "has already implemented a hiring freeze and, without additional funding, will likely be forced to pursue furloughs." The NLRB Union was more blunt, characterizing the situation as "budgetary Armageddon."
Read more here: https://www.commondreams.org/news/2022 ... ly-funded

caltrek’s comment:
Don't mourn, organize.

-Joe Hill
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Most Workers Who Were Fired This Year Lost Their Jobs for No Good Reason—Again
by Maggie Duffy
December 16, 2022

Introduction:
(Mother Jones) A new report, published on Friday, finds that “more than two out of three workers who have been discharged received no reason or an unfair reason for the termination” this year.

In a survey of workers, the National Employment Law Project (NELP) found that 69 percent of respondents told them they had been let go for “no reason or for an unfair reason.” Only “one out of every three terminated employees received severance,” according to the report. Many workers told NELP they stayed at positions where they were faced with poor—or even illegal—working conditions and did not speak up for fear of losing their jobs.

The report highlights a long-held problem for workers: the lack of “just cause” employment protections. Just cause protections would prohibit employers from firing workers without an explanation, prior warning, or due process. The protections look to counter the standard “at-will” employment system in the United States which allows employers to terminate employees for little to no reason, creating a predatory power dynamic. This system means that in low-wage jobs with few employment protections—delivery app drivers, retail cashiers, pharmacy workers—there is little safeguard against unjust and often arbitrary firings.

Conclusion:
There have been some wins in recent years. Fast food employees in New York and rideshare workers in Washington won just cause protections in the last two years–protecting them through a higher standard of termination. Meanwhile, the report finds plenty of work left to be done.

One 52-year-old survey respondent in Tippecanoe County, Indiana told researchers that his employers “fired [him] for being left-handed”—a legal reason under current at-will employment law.
Read more here: https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2 ... p-report/
Don't mourn, organize.

-Joe Hill
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