Labor Rights News Thread

[caltrek]

Longshore Deal Secures New Automation Language and Big Pay Bump
by Joe DeManuelle-Hall

January 10, 2025

Introduction:

(Labor Notes) The International Longshoremen’s Association has settled its East and Gulf Coast contract shortly before a January 15 strike deadline. The deal locks in a 62 percent wage increase over six years and expands existing automation protections. Workers will also see larger “container royalty” payouts.

The agreement will go first to a body of ILA delegates, and then members will vote. The full agreement is not yet public.

ILA members won the big wage promise after striking for three days in October, shutting down container shipping on the East and Gulf Coasts in their first coastwide strike since 1977. But the 20,000 workers went back to work with the major question of automation still on the table.

Further negotiations broke off in November, when the union and the port employers, organized under the U.S. Maritime Alliance (USMX), deadlocked over the introduction of new technology to automate work. Employers, flush with cash from a recent shipping boom, seek to invest it in automated equipment to reduce human control and blunt the effect of job actions.

The sides reconvened less than two weeks before the strike deadline, and quickly inked a tentative agreement.

Read more here: https://www.labornotes.org/2025/01/lon ... pay-lump

[caltrek]

Damn that's surprising.

Trump also apparently made a statement regarding the settlement of the Long Shoremen's contract which is also "surprising":

Just finished a meeting with the International Longshoremen’s Association and its President, Harold Daggett, and Executive VP, Dennis Daggett. There has been a lot of discussion having to do with “automation” on United States docks. I’ve studied automation, and know just about everything there is to know about it. The amount of money saved is nowhere near the distress, hurt, and harm it causes for American Workers, in this case, our Longshoremen. Foreign companies have made a fortune in the U.S. by giving them access to our markets. They shouldn’t be looking for every last penny knowing how many families are hurt. They’ve got record profits, and I’d rather these foreign companies spend it on the great men and women on our docks, than machinery, which is expensive, and which will constantly have to be replaced. In the end, there’s no gain for them, and I hope that they will understand how important an issue this is for me. For the great privilege of accessing our markets, these foreign companies should hire our incredible American Workers, instead of laying them off, and sending those profits back to foreign countries. It is time to put AMERICA FIRST!

Source: https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrum ... 976193077

caltrek's comment: While I don't necessarily agree with everything in Trump's statement, the overall support expressed for longshoremen is encouraging. Trump is one sensitive to brand image and he just may have gotten the message of late that the Republican party has in the past suffered from a terrible image from its lack of support of organized labor. The cited statement and his nominee to be Secretary of Labor may be efforts to improve that "branding" image. It is also interesting to note how he couched his support based on the idea that "foreign companies" are responsible for
'''automation' on United States docks."

Edit:

In over 25 years of working in Washington, I have never seen a Republican take up the mantle for working-class people. President-elect Trump proved me wrong yesterday.

He didn’t just tell us in private that he supports workers—he made it clear to the whole world.

As we move forward, let us focus on the opportunities ahead. I will continue to fight for your jobs, our communities, and the future of the working class in this country.

In solidarity,
Dennis A. Daggett
Executive Vice President
International Longshoremen’s Association

Source:
https://www.facebook.com/dennis.daggett ... BLVfNc2tl

[caltrek]

One thing to watch regarding Trump's support (or lack thereof) of labor will be the National Labor Relations Board:

Dark Clouds Gather at the National Labor Relations Board
by Robert M. Schwartz
January 7, 2025

Extract:

(Labor Notes) On December 11, without a legitimate basis in her record, the Senate rejected President Biden’s routine re-nomination of Chairperson McFerran to a second five-year slot on the board.

McFerran’s confirmation would have cemented a Democratic Board majority until at least 2026. Her rejection will give Trump the ability to nominate her replacement as well as fill an existing vacancy, giving the Republicans a decisive 3-2 majority.

To win the vote against McFerran, the Trump forces needed at least one independent or Democrat to vote with the 49 Republicans. Mavericks Kyrsten Sinema (I-Arizona) and Joe Manchin (I-West Virginia) quickly lent their support, quashing the nomination 50 to 49 (one Republican didn’t vote).

Read more here: https://www.labornotes.org/2025/01/dark ... ons-board

[caltrek]

Nurses and Doctors Are on Strike at Eight Oregon Hospitals
by Kari Thompson
January 14, 2025

Introduction:

(Labor Notes) Declaring that understaffing had them “running on empty,” 5,000 nurses, doctors, midwives, and nurse practitioners walked off the job January 10 in an open-ended strike at Providence Health and Services, the dominant hospital chain in the Pacific Northwest.

The strikers work at eight hospitals plus women’s health clinics across Oregon. They’re demanding proper staffing, affordable health insurance, and competitive pay that can attract and retain seasoned workers.

“I’ve been with Providence for over 30 years, and I have seen what’s changed,” said medical-surgical nurse Kim Martin at Providence Portland Medical Center. “Providence used to be a nice community hospital, and now it’s venture capital with health care as a side gig.”

The coordinated strike includes workers whose contract just expired and others who have been working without a contract for a year or are still bargaining their first agreement. Management, evidently alarmed by the broad coordination, has tried to split off strikers by negotiating separate agreements. So far it has met a wall of solidarity.

The unions, Oregon Nurses Association and the Pacific Northwest Hospital Medicine Association, are affiliated with AFT. They have filed numerous unfair labor practice charges.

Read more here: https://www.labornotes.org/2025/01/nur ... ospitals

[weatheriscool]

Costco's unionized workers vote to authorize nationwide strike

Source: ABC News

January 20, 2025, 12:02 AM

Teamsters union members working at Costco Wholesale locations across the country voted to authorize a strike on Sunday, with more than 85% of members in favor of hitting the picket lines. The union represents more than 18,000 Costco employees nationally.

"Our members have spoken loud and clear -- Costco must deliver a fair contract, or they'll be held accountable," Teamsters General President Sean M. O'Brien said in a press release Sunday.

"From day one, we've told Costco that our members won't work a day past January 31 without a historic, industry-leading agreement. Costco's greedy executives have less than two weeks to do the right thing. If they refuse, they'll have no one to blame but themselves when our members go on strike."

The union says "fair wages and benefits" are the catalyst for the strike.

Read more: https://abcnews.go.com/US/costcos-union ... =117875222

[caltrek]

Workers Double Down on Union Effort
by Ethan Bakuli
January 23, 2025

Introduction:

(Capital & Main)

Industry

Home health care aides

Number of Workers

35,000 in Michigan

What They’re Fighting For

A union and contract to raise wages, professionalize training and regulate work.

Backstory

In March 2024, Michigan Home Care Workers United, a worker organization of the state’s 35,000 home health aides, affiliated with the Service Employees International Union, launched a campaign for its members to be declared public employees in order to organize a union. Over half of the aides, who are paid by Medicaid to help program recipients with daily activities ranging from bathing to doctor’s appointments, rely on public assistance, according to national caregiver advocacy organization PHI. While workers are spread across the state’s 83 counties, the workforce is concentrated in Michigan’s largest cities. (Disclosure: SEIU is a financial supporter of Capital & Main.)

In October, with Democrats controlling both houses of the Legislature and the governorship, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed two bills pushed by the workers, Public Acts 145 and 144. Public Act 145 reclassified workers in the state’s Home Help Program as public employees, giving them the right to form a statewide union across workplaces.

Read more here: https://capitalandmain.com/author/ethanbakuli

[weatheriscool]

[caltrek]

A Top Legal Expert Says that Trump’s Decision to Fire the Head of the NLRB is ‘Completely Unprecedented’: ‘Workers Need to Buckle Up’
by Sara Braun
January 30, 2025

Introduction:

(Fortune via MSN) President Trump continued to make waves just over a week into his presidency with his decision earlier this week to fire the chair of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), Gwynne Wilcox. This unprecedented decision came alongside Trump’s firing of NLRB General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo.

The National Labor Relations Board is an independent federal agency that was created to enforce the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), a 1935 law which guarantees the right of “most private sector employees to organize, to engage in group efforts to improve their wages and working conditions, to determine whether to have unions as their bargaining representative, to engage in collective bargaining, and to refrain from any of these activities.” The Board has five members, each appointed by the president to 5-year terms with Senate approval. As a result of Wilcox’s termination, the NLRB currently only has two members. Under law, the Board needs a quorum of three members to make any decision.

In addition to the changes at the NLRB, Trump also fired two out of three Democratic commissioners of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the federal agency that enforces civil rights law in the workplace.

Wilcox’s firing was met with shock and anger from union leaders, including AFL-CIO president Liz Schuler. In a statement, she wrote that Wilcox’s firing “is illegal and will have immediate consequences for working people.” She added that the president had effectively hobbled the board, leaving workers “on their own in the face of union-busting and retaliation.”

An interview with employment lawyer Peter Rahbar is included in the linked article (see below for link).

Read more here: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/a-to ... 5&ei=120

[weatheriscool]

Trump moves to cancel recent union deals with federal workers

Donald Trump said today that any collective bargaining agreements reached with federal workers within 30 days of his inauguration will not be approved, the latest salvo in the president’s bid to remake the federal workforce.

In a memo addressed to the heads of all executive departments and agencies, Trump said former President Joe Biden’s administration purposefully finalized collective bargaining agreements with federal employees in its final days “in an effort to harm my administration by extending its wasteful and failing policies beyond its time in office.”

It was not immediately clear how many agreements would be affected by the new policy, which refers to them as “lame-duck collective bargaining agreements.”

Collective bargaining agreements are deals between unions and their employees that outline working conditions, pay and other policies.

https://www.staradvertiser.com/2025/01/ ... l-workers/

[caltrek]

Trump Ag Secretary Nominee Says Food Issues from Mass Deportations are ‘Hypothetical’
by Sky Chadde and John McCracken
January 24, 2025

Introduction:

(Investigate Midwest) Farmers have begun raising concerns about the potential impact of President Donald Trump’s mass deportations on their operations, but the president’s nominee for agriculture secretary, Brooke Rollins, said any issues stemming from a lost labor force are “hypothetical.”

If farms are affected by mass deportations, she and other administration officials would “hopefully solve some of these problems,” Rollins said during her nomination hearing in front of the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Thursday. When a senator remarked he hoped the issues caused by mass deportations were hypothetical, Rollins said, “I do, too.”

These comments stand in contrast with those of other Trump policy officials regarding mass deportations. In an interview with The New York Times in 2023, Stephen Miller, now a deputy chief of staff in the White House, said the deportations would have a major impact: “Mass deportation will be a labor-market disruption celebrated by American workers.”

Before Trump was elected, experts and farmworker rights advocates said mass deportations could lead to the agriculture industry’s collapse.
Nationwide, an estimated 42% of farm workers were undocumented in 2022, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service.

Given how long farms have relied on undocumented labor, no other workforce currently exists that could replace unauthorized workers.

Read more here: https://investigatemidwest.org/2025/01 ... hetical/

Edit: Of related interest: https://capitalandmain.com/todays-immig ... h-workers

[caltrek]

Trump Sued by Unions Over "Illegal" Move to Dismantle USAID
by Rebecca Falconer
February 6, 2025

Introduction:

(Axios)The Trump administration is being sued over its move to dismantle the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), with unions representing workers in the lawsuit calling the action "unconstitutional and illegal."

The big picture: The lawsuit that was filed in federal court Thursday seeks to block efforts to place most of USAID's 10,000-strong global workforce on administrative leave by Friday night and restore currently frozen funding and operations.

• The lawsuit that was filed in D.C. names as defendants President Trump, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who was recently appointed as USAID's acting administrator, alleging their actions have caused a humanitarian catastrophe.

• "Not a single one of defendants' actions to dismantle USAID" has received congressional approval, notes the suit, filed on behalf of the American Foreign Service Association (AFSA) and the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE).

Driving the news: Elon Musk, who's heading the Trump administration's DOGE team that's tasked with cutting waste and saving money, has accused USAID of being corrupt, wasteful and said they had to "get rid of the whole thing" because it's "beyond repair."

• However, the lawsuit says Trump's "actions to dissolve USAID exceed presidential authority" and "only Congress may act to dissolve it or merge it with the Department of State."

Read more here: https://www.axios.com/2025/02/07/usaid ... ued-cuts

caltrek’s comment: I guess USAID workers didn’t get the memo about how resistance to the new oligarchy is futile.

[caltrek]

Steward Meetings: From Gripe Sessions to Grievance Tracking
by Bonny Hulberg
January 6, 2025

Introduction:

(Labor Notes) When I joined my local union, I dove in headfirst and became a steward. I was excited to see how things were run and where I might fall in the grand scheme of things.

It wasn’t quite what I expected; then again, I had never been in a union before. So I sat back and watched our organizer run our steward meetings, listened to the other attendees—and realized our meetings were gripe sessions, lacking structure and focus.

Stewards and members alike were expressing frustrations, but there was little tangible action to address these issues, as far as I could tell.

Additional extract:

But I learned early on that, to properly track our wins and losses, we needed to be able to look back and see how each step had progressed historically.

Preserving this history allows us to track how successful we are at each step of the process. Maybe a concern about proper headphones for call center staff gets resolved at the first step, whereas a concern about discriminatory hiring practices doesn’t see resolution until Step 3. We can look for patterns, like whether we’re getting more pushback from management in certain divisions, and these observations inform our strategy.

Read more here: https://www.labornotes.org/2025/02/stew ... -tracking

caltrek’s comment: The linked article also includes a further link to a “Grievance Tracker” spreadsheet.

[firestar464]

Utah governor signs collective bargaining ban for teachers, firefighters and police unions

https://apnews.com/article/utah-governo ... b4a1a13cc6

[caltrek]

Federal Workers Mobilize Against Musk’s and Trump’s ‘Corporate Coup’
by Jenny Brown
February 20, 2025

Introduction:

(Labor Notes) Federal employee union members have been speaking out, rallying, and suing, as agency after agency has been hit by Elon Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE)—a private unaccountable entity which has been demanding access to all government records while spreading wild lies about waste and fraud.

Around 20,000 workers have been summarily fired so far.

Federal workers raised the alarm at over 30 “Save our Services” rallies around the country Wednesday, including in New York, Washington, D.C., Atlanta, Philadelphia, Denver, Boston, Boise, Chattanooga and Chicago.

Workers protesting included those fired, or under threat, at the Environmental Protection Agency, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the IRS, Social Security, the Veterans Administration, and an alphabet soup of other agencies that do everything from running national parks to warning residents about impending floods.

Protesters warned of the potential privatization of essential services like Social Security and veteran’s healthcare, and the elimination of consumer and environmental protections.

Read more here: https://www.labornotes.org/2025/02/fed ... ate-coup

[caltrek]

First Skirmish: Ten Thousand Grocery Workers Strike Kroger
by Lisa Xu
February 10, 2025

Introduction:

(Labor Notes)Ten thousand members of United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 7 are on strike all across Colorado. They work for King Soopers grocery stores, owned by Kroger, the largest supermarket chain in the U.S.

When their contracts expired January 16, they voted by 96 percent to authorize a two-week-long unfair labor practice strike, including high-traffic Super Bowl and Valentine’s Day weekends.

Even with scabs staffing the stores, these holiday weekends should give the boss a headache. Amanda Bateman, a Local 7 steward and a seafood department head at a store in Colorado Springs, said customers have trouble finding shopping carts during these times, and it’s a challenge to keep the shelves stocked.

For Valentine’s Day, the floral department and general merchandise (which is in charge of candy) get hit hard. “Entire aisles just get wiped out, like at the beginning of Covid,” she said.

The union is asking Colorado customers not to shop at King Soopers for the duration of the strike.

This is the “first skirmish” because it is the first of large scale grocery bargaining contracts expiring this year for many Krogers and Albertsons stores.

Read more here: https://www.labornotes.org/2025/02/fir ... ke-kroger

[caltrek]

Union Blasts Trump Mass Firings as Attack on All Taxpayers
by Eloise Goldsmith
February 27, 2025

Introduction:

(Common Dreams) Everett Kelley, the national president of the American Federation of Government Employees decried the latest move by the Trump administration to drastically reduce the federal workforce, writing in a statement Wednesday that AFGE will not stand idly by as President Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and their lackeys "run roughshod over the Constitution, federal law, and basic human decency."

"Laying off potentially hundreds of thousands of federal workers will mean fewer services at higher costs for the American taxpayer," said Kelley, whose union represents 800,000 federal and D.C. government workers and has been active challenging Trump administration measures in court.

Kelley's comments came in response to a Wednesday memo released by the Office of Management and Budget and the Office of Personnel Management, which gave agency leaders guidance on how to come up with "large-scale" reduction in force and reorganization plans that are due March 13.

"Agencies should also seek to consolidate areas of the agency organization chart that are duplicative; consolidate management layers where unnecessary layers exist; [and] seek reductions in components and positions that are noncritical," according to the memo, which also touches on reducing "real property footprint," "increased productivity," and other goals.

The guidance in the directive does not apply to positions that "are necessary to meet law enforcement, border security, national security, immigration enforcement, or public safety responsibilities, " according to the memo, which outlines a few other exemptions as well.

Read more here: https://www.commondreams.org/news/afge ... ce-trump

[caltrek]

As Mountain Resorts Consolidate and Job Conditions Deteriorate, Workers Are Fighting Back
by Cathleen Calkins
March 6, 2025

Extract:

(Zócolo) American ski resorts clocked an estimated 60.5 million visits last season, an increase of 7% over the last decade. The physical safety of each one of these guests is dependent on patrollers, yet at some resorts staffing levels haven’t kept pace. At the same time, increasingly extreme and alternating storm and drought cycles and the corporatization of mountain resorts pile additional responsibilities onto patrollers. Still, we remain passionate about our work, despite low wages, skyrocketing costs of living, and reliance on GoFundMe campaigns in lieu of actual health benefits.

The consolidation of mountain resorts has complicated the relationship between patrollers and their employers. Gone are the days when patrollers could swing by the general manager’s office to air grievances, and perhaps even find a solution. Now, for larger resorts, that decision-making power lies in corporate headquarters that might be thousands of miles away. In response, patrollers are turning to alternative strategies to make their voices heard—including organizing through unions like the United Professional Ski Patrols of America. While unionized patrollers are still a small minority of the professional patrol force, unions or the threat of unionization are a powerful force at some mountains.

These union efforts made headlines last holiday season, when some 200 patrollers went on strike in Park City, Utah, picketing for better compensation and working conditions. The 12-day strike disrupted operations during the busiest week of the year, and Park City could only open a fraction of its terrain. Eventually, the union won a $2 per hour increase for first-year patrollers (from $21 to $23), incremental pay increases for experienced patrollers, and an increase in the equipment stipend (funds for patrollers to purchase the gear they need to do their jobs).

While these changes are significant, they’re still modest wins. With or without unionization, ensuring a safe experience on our mountains requires treating patrollers as the professionals they are.

Read more here: https://www.zocalopublicsquare.org/are ... wipeout/

[caltrek]

Oregon Nurses End 46-Day Strike with Pay and Staffing Agreements
by Kari Thompson
March 3, 2025

Introduction:

(LaborNotes) After 46 days on the picket line, nurses walked back into eight Providence hospitals across Oregon in good spirits after ratifying a new contract with their employer February 26. Their effort was bolstered by striking doctors, nurse practitioners, and other hospitalists at Providence St. Vincent’s, and doctors, nurses, and midwives at the Providence Women’s Clinics.

The agreements for the 5,000 nurses, who are represented by Oregon Nurses Association (ONA), include improvements in staffing language, pay raises, and pay for missed meals or breaks during a shift. They had rejected a proposal in early February, voting to stay on strike.

While nurses won language on further discussion with their employer on health insurance, they did not win a return to the previous coverage that most workers had wanted.

“We’re pretty ecstatic that we’re going back to work,” said Vicki Knudsen, nurse at Providence Medford. “We have a very feisty group down here. I think we became really unified. A lot of new friendships developed inside the bargaining unit and between the bargaining units.”

STAFFING PLANS

“We did get Providence to move a fair amount,” said Kathy Keane, cardiology nurse at Providence St. Vincent’s. “There was compromise on both sides of the table, which never feels great, but that’s the nature of bargaining.” Nurses had hoped to get aligned contract expiration dates at all eight units. While they did not achieve that goal, they were able to get six contracts with the same expiration date.

Read more here: https://www.labornotes.org/2025/03/ore ... eememnts

[weatheriscool]

Trump Revokes Collective Bargaining Rights At TSA To Crush Union

Source: HuffPost

The Trump administration said Friday that it is ending collective bargaining at the Transportation Security Administration, effectively revoking union protections for thousands of airport security officers.

In a statement, the Department of Homeland Security claimed the move would “safeguard our transportation systems and keep Americans safe.”

“Eliminating collective bargaining removes bureaucratic hurdles that will strengthen workforce agility [and] enhance productivity and resiliency, while also jumpstarting innovation,” the agency said.

Workers at TSA, which Congress created in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, do not enjoy the same union rights as employees at most other federal agencies. Bargaining rights can essentially be extended or rescinded at the will of the administrator.

Read more: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-ts ... 88c7d?f8o=

[caltrek]

'An American President Is Not a King': Judge Reinstates Labor Regulator Illegally Fired by Trump
by Jessica Corbett
March 6, 2025

Introduction:

(Common Dreams) A federal judge on Thursday reinstated Gwynne Wilcox, a Democratic member of the National Labor Relations Board, and suggested that U.S. President Donald Trump's attempt to fire her was an example of the Republican testing how much he can exceed his constitutional powers.

Wilcox filed a federal lawsuit in February, after Trump ousted her and NLRB General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo. On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell—who was appointed by former President Barack Obama to serve in the District of Columbia—declared Wilcox's dismissal "unlawful and void."

"The Constitution and case law are clear in allowing Congress to limit the president's removal power and in allowing the courts to enjoin the executive branch from unlawful action," Howell wrote in a 36-page opinion. She also sounded the alarm about arguments made by lawyers for the defendants, Trump and Marvin Kaplan, chair of the NLRB.

"Defendants' hyperbolic characterization that legislative and judicial checks on executive authority, as invoked by plaintiff, present 'extraordinary intrusion[s] on the executive branch,' ...is both incorrect and troubling," the judge wrote. "Under our constitutional system, such checks, by design, guard against executive overreach and the risk such overreach would pose of autocracy."

She stressed that "an American president is not a king—not even an 'elected' one—and his power to remove federal officers and honest civil servants like plaintiff is not absolute, but may be constrained in appropriate circumstances, as are present here."

Read more here: https://www.commondreams.org/news/gwynne-wilcox