Portside

The Covid-19 pandemic undercut feelings of job security at cultural institutions. Now there’s an uptick in efforts to organize.

Some say the NLRB’s forthcoming rulings could even serve as a backdoor for enacting provisions included in Democrats’ Protecting the Right to Organize Act.

Whether or not the union’s challenge in Bessemer fails, Amazon will face labor battles elsewhere.

A National Labor Relations Board hearing officer ruled Friday that Amazon warehouse workers in Alabama can hold a union vote starting on Feb. 8.

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.

“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.