Workers at Peet’s Coffee & Tea in California have announced that they’re filing for a union election. They’re not just inspired by their peers at Starbucks — they’ve been organizing with and learning directly from them.
New Zealand’s experiences highlight that sectoral bargaining — in conjunction with worksite bargaining — is necessary to improve working conditions in today’s economy and thus should be part of policy efforts to strengthen unions.
Sharon Otterman, Joseph Goldstein and Jenny Gross
The New York Times
The strike exemplified a problem in hospitals across the nation, where cost-cutting had resulted in staffs stretched well beyond recommended safe staffing ratios even before emergency conditions began.
On the heels of an unprecedented 24-day labor strike late last year, around 20 journalists at the 117-year-old Fort Worth Star-Telegram have ratified the only union contract at a Texas newspaper.
Profound legal and political changes enacted in 2019 have undermined the monopoly of corrupt protection unions and opened the way for a transformation of Mexico’s labor relations regime.
At the height of the coronavirus pandemic, the American working class faced a paradox: workers were told they were “essential” and touted as “heroes,” yet they were often treated as sacrificial lambs.
First, employers want to take away the union’s statutory right to receive advance notice of any significant changes that might affect employees. Second, they want to take away the union’s legal right to bargain to agreement or impasse before the employer puts the change into effect.
The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in Glacier Northwest v. International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 174 on Jan. 10. Justices Alito and Thomas might want to use this case to narrow what is considered “protected activity”. That would follow the pattern of the 2018 Janus v. AFSCME decision, which was preceded by another case where Alito disputed the 1977 precedent that public-sector unions may charge nonmembers fees for the costs of representing them.
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