Labor Rights News Thread

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Seattle Starbucks stores join 3-day strike as union fight intensifies
Source: seattletimes.com

Dec. 16, 2022 at 6:45 pm Updated Dec. 16, 2022 at 8:33 pm

By Renata Geraldo
Three Seattle Starbucks cafes joined a three-day nationwide walkout that began Friday, an escalation in the nascent union’s push to secure contracts for the newly organized stores.

Workers at stores in downtown Seattle and Madison Park joined those elsewhere who expect to picket 100 stores across the U.S. over the next three days.

The workers fault Starbucks for closing union stores and refusing union demands for good faith bargaining and fair treatment. Workers at the Special Reserve Roastery, at Minor Avenue and Pike Street, will picket through the weekend; those from the Madison Park store will continue to picket Saturday; while those working at the Fifth Avenue and Pike store plan to strike Sunday.

The action will be the longest strike in the history of Starbucks Workers United, which marked its one-year anniversary last Friday. Last month, eight Washington stores, including the Fifth and Pike location, joined 110 U.S. stores for a one-day walkout on Starbucks’ annual Red Cup Day, when the company gives reusable cups to customers who order a holiday drink.


Read more: https://www.seattletimes.com/business/s ... tensifies/
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San Francisco Macy's Workers Strike Over 'Totally Unacceptable' Contract
by Brett Wilkins
December 24, 2022

Introduction:
(Common Dreams) Hundreds of workers at Macy's San Francisco flagship store walked off the job Friday amid the last-minute holiday shopping rush for a two-day strike demanding better pay, healthcare, and working conditions.

Workers at Macy's Union Square store went on strike after contract negotiations between members of the United Food and Commercial Workers (UCFW) Local 5 and the retail giant—which reported $108 million in third-quarter income—broke down Thursday. Strike-breakers kept the store open for the final two days of Christmas shopping.

Union president John Nunes told NBC Bay Area that Macy's only offered a $1-per-hour pay raise over three years and would not compromise on affordable healthcare, staffing levels, and seniority.

"What the company is offering is completely insufficient to what the workers had to go through for the last three years," Nunes said. "The wages are inadequate. The healthcare is really bad."

Chelsea Thomas, a Macy's employee and bargaining committee member, said in a statement that "nobody wants to go on strike at Christmas time but after six months of management stalling and refusal to make an offer that recognizes the hard work that we do to make the company profitable and successful, we don't have much choice."
Read more here: https://www.commondreams.org/news/macy ... co-strike
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Cal Grad Student Worker Strike Ends with Deal Panned by Many Rank-and-File Union Members
by Brett Wilkins
December 24, 2022

Introduction:
(Common Dreams) While many University of California graduate student workers welcomed Friday's strike-ending ratification of a new labor agreement that delivers increased pay and benefits, other rank-and-file union members expressed anger and disappointment that the deal does not deliver enough.

The Los Angeles Times reports two bargaining units of United Auto Workers—which represent the 48,000 student workers—approved tentative agreements on contracts that will take effect immediately and run through the end of May 2025. The six-week strike—the largest academic employee walkout in U.S. history—will end, and most U.C. graduate workers will return to their jobs after winter break.
Read more here: https://www.commondreams.org/news/univ ... ia-strike
Don't mourn, organize.

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Mired in Silence
December 22, 2022

Introduction:
(EurekAlert) RIVERSIDE, Calif. -- A University of California, Riverside, study performed in the Eastern Coachella Valley, one of California’s top agricultural production regions, has found that farmworkers there lack information and the means to advocate for improved public health even when they are aware of being exposed to health risks stemming from working and living in rural farmlands.

About 76% of the 2.4 million farmworkers in the United States are immigrants, most of whom are from Mexico. In Inland Southern California, where the Eastern Coachella Valley, or EVC, is located, not much research has been done on Latinx farmworkers’ health concerns and barriers to care.

“Agricultural production demands in the U.S. impose a heavy burden on Latinx immigrant farmworkers, which shapes their health and informs their decisions about their living conditions,” said Ann Cheney, an associate professor of social medicine, population, and public health in the School of Medicine and lead author of the study that appears in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. “The health of these workers and their families should be a national priority.”
Read more here: https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/975274
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Amazon fails to overturn Staten Island warehouse's vote to unionize
https://www.engadget.com/amazon-fails-t ... 4usC4Wxwa3
Mariella Moon|@mariella_moon|January 12, 2023 1:40 AM
Amazon has failed to convince Cornele Overstreet, a regional director with the National Labor Relations Board, to overturn JFK8 workers' vote in favor of unionization. If you'll recall, the JFK8 facility in Staten Island became the first unionized Amazon warehouse after workers voted 2,350-1,912 in favor of joining a union back in April 2022. Amazon said at the time that it was "disappointed" with the result and challenged the vote, alleging "inappropriate and undue influence" from the NLRB. The Wall Street Journal says the e-retailer also accused Amazon Labor Union organizers of threatening employees to vote in favor of unionization. 

Overstreet, however, has ruled that the company was unable to present sufficient proof of inappropriate conduct to overturn the election's results. He agreed with the labor board hearing officer who recommended in September that JFK8's union vote should be upheld. In a tweet, ALU president Christian Smalls celebrated being "certified by Region 28 NLRB." He added that the union "beat [Amazon] fair and square" and tagged Amazon CEO Andy Jassy, asking him to "come to the table" so they could sign a contract. 
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British Health Care Crisis Escalates With New Nurse Strikes
by Dominic Glover
January 17, 2023

Introduction:
(Courthouse News) — Nurses in the United Kingdom are set for a fresh two-day strike this week, protesting against low pay and poor conditions as an ongoing crisis in the country’s health care system deepens.

The protest by the Royal College of Nursing, a 107-year-old union engaged in its first-ever series of walkouts, is part of an ongoing dispute between the British government and staff in the U.K.’s National Health Service, or NHS. The standoff comes amid a general collapse of health care provision across Britain, with an estimated 1,000 excess deaths a week being attributed to extensive delays in emergency care and a critical lack of capacity.

Nurses have been joined by doctors, paramedics and other medical professionals in their public condemnation of working conditions and falling standards of patient care, primarily attributed to a staffing crisis. There are currently more than 130,000 vacancies in the NHS – a vacancy rate of almost 10%.

Unions argue the primary reason for poor recruitment and retention of staff is low pay. The starting salary for nurses is below the average U.K. wage of 27,756 pounds ($33,854), while many nurses are frequently forced to work shifts of 16 hours or longer to fill gaps in the service. The high-stress conditions have led to an exodus among hospital staff, as large student debts and the impact of leaving the European Union have been cited as reasons for falling recruitment rates.

The effects of the crisis have thus far been stark. Ambulance waiting times have more than doubled for most calls over the past year, and the service has reached record-long waits for both emergency and non-emergency treatment. A total of 7.2 million people are currently awaiting treatment in England – more than 13% of the nation’s population.
Read more here: https://www.courthousenews.com/british ... -strikes/
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Amazon Warehouse Inspections Find Workers Exposed to Safety Hazards
by Megan Butler
January 18, 2023

Introduction:
(Courthouse News) — The U.S. Department of Labor announced Wednesday that its Occupational Safety and Health Administration issued citations to three Amazon warehouse facilities for failing to provide safe workplaces.

After conducting inspections last July at warehouse facilities in Deltona, Florida, Waukegan, Illinois, and New Windsor, New York, OSHA found that workers were exposed to ergonomic hazards, putting them at high risk of musculoskeletal injuries.

According to the citations, these ergonomic hazards involve the high frequency with which workers are required to lift packages and other items, the heavy weight of these items, and awkward movements used to lift them such as twisting, bending and long reaches. The Florida warehouse was also cited for exposing workers to "struck-by hazards."

“Each of these inspections found work processes that were designed for speed but not safety, and they resulted in serious worker injuries,” said Doug Parker, the Labor Department's assistant secretary for occupational safety and health.

OSHA investigators found that these Amazon workers experienced high rates of musculoskeletal disorders after reviewing on-site injury logs.
Read more here: https://www.courthousenews.com/amazon- ... -hazards/
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Nebraska state employees union negotiates highest salary increases in more than 35 years
Source: Omaha World Herald

Erin Bamer Jan 20, 2023 Updated 3 hrs ago
LINCOLN — More than 8,000 Nebraska state employees would see the highest salary increases in more than 35 years under a tentative two-year contract agreement negotiated through their union.

Under the agreement, union members would receive raises ranging from 10% to 27%, according to a press release from the Nebraska Association of Public Employees (NAPE). NAPE Executive Director Justin Hubly said these are the highest salary increases state employees have received since the State Employees Collective Bargaining Act passed in 1987, establishing the union’s right to negotiate contracts with the state.

The contract will not be finalized until a majority of union members vote to ratify it. Hubly said ratification meetings will be held through Jan. 26. If ratified, the contracts would take effect from July 1, 2023, through June 30, 2025.

Further details about the new contracts will not be revealed until they have been ratified, Hubly said. There were other benefits NAPE was aiming to secure in the contracts, but even before negotiations officially began, members made it clear that their biggest focus was pushing for wages that exceeded inflation.
Read more: https://omaha.com/news/state-and-region ... b064c.html
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Union membership drops to record low in 2022
Source: Politico
Union membership hit an all-time low in 2022 despite a surge in organizing efforts that emerged during the pandemic.

The percentage of U.S. workers who belong to a union dropped from 10.3 percent to 10.1 percent, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Thursday, as the job market added non-unionized workers at a faster rate than unionized workers. That’s the lowest the figure has been since the agency first started tracking comparable data nearly four decades ago.

The decline comes despite the highest union approval rate in decades and a pro-union administration — and backs up earlier findings that while many workers view organized labor favorably, that doesn’t always mean they want to join its ranks. Gallup reported earlier this year that while 71 percent of Americans view unions favorably, 58 percent of non-unionized workers say they are “not interested at all” in joining a union.

Workers launched a series of high-profile unionization drives in 2022, including at nationwide chains Amazon and Starbucks. The federal agency that oversees union elections, National Labor Relations Board, reported a 53 percent uptick in petitions filed during the fiscal year.

Read more: https://www.politico.com/news/2023/01/1 ... 2-00078525
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DOJ files second antitrust lawsuit against Google
Source: CNBC
The U.S. Justice Department on Tuesday filed its second antitrust lawsuit against Google in just over two years. It’s the latest sign that the U.S. government is not backing down from cases against tech firms even in light of a mixed record in court on antitrust suits.

This lawsuit, focused on Google’s online advertising business and seeks to make Google divest parts of the business, is the first against the company filed under the Biden administration. The Department’s earlier lawsuit, filed in October 2020 under the Trump administration, accused Google of using its alleged monopoly power to cut off competition for internet search through exclusionary agreements. That case is expected to go to trial in September.

Google also faces three other antitrust lawsuits from large groups of state attorneys general, including one focused on its advertising business led by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. The states of California, Colorado, Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Tennessee and Virginia joined DOJ in the lawsuit.

Google’s advertising business has drawn critics because the platform operates on multiple sides of the market — buying, selling and an ad exchange — giving it unique insight into the process and potential leverage. The company has long denied that it dominates the online advertising market, pointing to the market share of competitors including Meta’s Facebook.
Read more: https://www.cnbc.com/2023/01/24/doj-fil ... oogle.html
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