Hearst Magazines' digital and print staff voted overwhelmingly to unionize. The new bargaining unit includes some 500 members from editorial, video, design, photo, and social staffs across 28 brands.
Dozens of workers in Byhalia, Mississippi who work for one of the country's leading producers of cereal and baked goods voted Wednesday in favor of joining the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, known as UFCW.
After years of givebacks and autocratic leadership under James Hoffa Jr, the power of the Teamsters has withered. Rank-and-file activists are mobilizing against contract concessions, taking over locals and building a coalition to transform the union.
“This has been a terrible 18 months-plus for working people in this country,” said Celine McNicholas, director of labor law and policy at the Economic Policy Institute. “It’s an unprecedented attack on workers.”
The policy shortens the timespan from when the board approves a union's request for a workplace organizing election to when that election is held to as little as 11 days. Previously, the process often took one to two months. The board formally announced the rule in December and it went into effect April 14.
As more states feel they’ve been put at a competitive disadvantage by their right-to-work neighbors, the pressure only increases to follow suit and enact their own right-to-work laws. And after a while, a national right-to-work law might not be far behind.
“I suspect that will happen within the next decade,” says Marquita Walker, an associate professor of labor studies at Indiana University.
Noreen S. Ahmed-Ullah and Ellen Jean Hirst
Chicago Tribune
Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis successfully tapped into the wrath of frustrated members and took on Mayor Rahm Emanuel last September when she led the city's first teachers strike in 25 years. On Tuesday, a group of union members said Lewis didn't leverage the strike to get enough from the district — including a guarantee not to close schools — and announced a slate of candidates that will try to unseat Lewis and her team in a regular election set for May
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