Meryl Streep, Jennifer Lawrence and others lend their names to demand a strong deal as writers’ strike enters third month
The US actors’ union and Hollywood studios announced in a statement on Friday that the two sides had agreed to extend their current labor deal through 12 July, hours before a midnight deadline.
“The parties will continue to negotiate under a mutually agreed upon media blackout,” the parties said.
Continue reading...Unionized workers at delivery service partner in California fight company’s intent to terminate contract
Amazon is embroiled in a fight with workers at one of its delivery service partners in what union activists say is part of a longstanding anti-union drive by the retail giant which is now facing scrutiny in the US Senate for its anti-labor rights practices.
At Battle Tested Strategies, an Amazon delivery service partner in Palmdale, California, workers are currently fighting Amazon’s intent to terminate the delivery service partner’s contract on Saturday.
Continue reading...The private club, which has included Reagan and Nixon among its members, is accused of failing to pay overtime and not giving breaks
Workers at Bohemian Grove, one of the most elite and secretive clubs in the US, have filed a lawsuit alleging numerous unfair labor practices, including 16-hour workdays without breaks, and a failure to pay overtime and minimum wages to the workers.
Bohemian Grove, which attracts some of the world’s most powerful people to a mysterious gathering in the woods north of San Francisco, has long been the subject of fascination and conspiracy theories.
Continue reading...President enlists support of union members against GOP tax cuts for the wealthy at first political rally of 2024 re-election campaign
At his first political rally since announcing his re-election campaign for president in April, Joe Biden told a crowd of labor union supporters: “Wall Street didn’t build America – you did.”
“If the investment bankers of this country went on strike tomorrow, no one would notice,” Biden said on Saturday during a speech which alluded to his blue-collar childhood roots in Scranton, Pennsylvania. Renewing his longstanding vocal support for labor unions, he continued: “If this room didn’t show up to work tomorrow, the whole country would come to a grinding halt, so tell me – who matters more in America?”
Continue reading...Unanimous vote by 17 dancers marks the first time Actors Equity association represents strip club workers
After months of late-night picketing in North Hollywood, the dancers of the Star Garden Topless Dive Bar have become the only unionized strippers in the US.
Their victory was finalized with a unanimous vote by 17 dancers in favor of unionization on Thursday morning , and marks the first time that the Actors Equity association, a century-old union for stage actors, singers and dancers, will represent strip club workers, the union said.
Continue reading...Staffers raise concerns about inclusivity and accountability after US environmental organization says it needs to cut costs
The Sierra Club, one of the US’s oldest and largest environmental advocacy groups, is going through a turbulent restructuring, which a union has issued two formal complaints about and warned could lead to more than 100 job losses.
Some staff also raised questions about how the changes might affect its recent efforts to improve workplace culture following allegations of misconduct, and boost inclusivity in the aftermath of scrutiny over the racial views of its founder, the conservationist John Muir.
Continue reading...Experts say union upsurge for journalists and graduate students is pleasing but blue-collar workers require assistance too
Union supporters have had plenty to applaud with regard to organizing college- educated workers, notching up dozens of unionization victories involving graduate students, adjunct professors, journalists, nurses and workers at museums, non-profits and video-game companies.
But some labor supporters who laud these victories are warning that something is awry, that there isn’t nearly enough unionization of non-college-educated, lower-paid workers, whether factory workers or fast-food workers.
Continue reading...The Writers Guild of America have announced a strike will begin tomorrow, after talks broke down with major studios and streamers
Hollywood’s writers are going out on strike for the first time in more than 15 years.
The Writers Guild of America announced on Monday night that its 11,500 members will stop working on Tuesday afternoon, after negotiations between the union and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), a group representing most major studios and streaming services, broke down.
Continue reading...Leading railroads give four paid sick days after years in which workers weren’t allowed to call in sick the morning of their shift
US freight rail companies nearly spurred a nationwide railroad strike last fall by refusing to grant paid sick days, but in a surprise move welcomed by workers, those railroads have recently granted paid sick days to almost half their workforce.
After being roundly criticized for not offering paid sick days, the leading rail companies – BNSF, CSX, Norfolk Southern and Union Pacific – have granted many of their 93,000 workers four paid sick days a year through labor negotiations, with an option of taking three more paid sick days from personal days.
Continue reading...Appeal judges uphold previous ruling, citing ‘implied threat’ in CEO’s tweet directed at Fremont employees who wanted to join union
A US appeals court has ruled that Elon Musk violated federal labour law by tweeting that employees of Tesla would lose stock options if they joined a union.
The New Orleans-based 5th US circuit court of appeals upheld a decision by the US National Labor Relations Board that said the 2018 tweet amounted to an unlawful threat that could discourage unionising and ordered Musk to delete it.
Continue reading...Strike joined by teachers over better wages and increased staffing closes nation’s second-largest school system
Tens of thousands of workers in the Los Angeles unified school district, accompanied by teachers, walked off the job on Tuesday over stalled contract talks for higher pay and better working conditions, shutting down the nation’s second-largest school system.
The strike, which is expected to last three days, upended the lives of more than 500,000 students and their families from schools in Los Angeles and the surrounding areas, as bus drivers, cafeteria workers and teachers demanded more support at a time when educators in the city and elsewhere are struggling to afford to live where they work.
Continue reading...Markwayne Mullin, a former MMA fighter, argues with union’s Sean O’Brien as Bernie Sanders seeks order in Senate hearing
A Republican senator who once had to reassure voters he didn’t think he was “Rambo” and was a mixed martial arts fighter before entering politics got into a vocal brawl with a union boss during a public congressional hearing, saying: “You need to shut your mouth.”
Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma exchanged verbal fire with Sean O’Brien, president of the Teamsters, during a hearing staged on Wednesday by the Senate health, education, labor and pensions committee.
Continue reading...Bernie Sanders had threatened to subpoena Howard Schultz if he refused to appear while workers file unfair labor practice charges
The Starbucks CEO, Howard Schultz, has agreed to testify before a Senate committee investigating the company’s intense opposition to national efforts to unionize its stores.
Senator Bernie Sanders had threatened to subpoena Schultz if he refused to appear before the US Senate health, education, labor and pensions (Help) committee. Sanders said Schultz had “refused to answer any of the serious questions we have asked” for over a year.
Continue reading...Two Audubon Society chapters and the union formerly know as Audubon for All are severing the name of the white supremacist
A prestigious US wildlife conservation group is facing new pressure to distance itself from its namesake’s racist past after two Audubon Society chapters and its employees’ union announced they were dropping his name from their titles.
The society at a national level has been mulling for more than two years how to handle its association with John James Audubon, a prominent 19th-century artist, naturalist and slave owner whose detailed, colourful paintings in the book The Birds of America set the gold standard for generations of ornithologists.
Continue reading...Exclusive: employee says manager told her to stop marking cars for repair, as Ohio derailment brings hard look at industry’s record of blocking safety rules
In leaked audio heard by the Guardian, a manager for one of the US’s largest rail companies can be heard explaining to a former carman that they should stop tagging railcars for broken bearings. The manager says doing so delays other cargo.
The disclosure comes as federal agencies investigate the derailment in East Palestine, Ohio. A wheel-bearing failure was cited as the cause of the crash in a preliminary report released by the National Transportation Safety Board.
Continue reading...Bernie Sanders moves to summon chief executive Howard Schultz to Senate committee to explain repeated anti-union violations
Starbucks is under fire over the company’s response to unionization efforts as senator Bernie Sanders threatens to call its chief executive before his committee on alleged labor violations and staff petition for it to end “intimidation” of organizers.
Sanders, chairman of the Senate health, education, labor and pensions (Help) committee, announced on Wednesday that the committee will be voting on whether to issue a subpoena to compel the Starbucks chief, Howard Schultz, to testify about Starbuck’s federal labor law violations, and to authorize a committee investigation into labor-law violations committed by major corporations.
Continue reading...Employees say they want to improve both working conditions and patient care but ‘the companies are not doing anything’
For 29 years, Guadalupe Tellez, a registered nurse, has worked in the kidney dialysis industry and currently works for the Fresenius Kidney Care in the city of Ventura one of several dialysis clinics where workers are currently pushing to unionize in California.
“We want to improve our wages, benefits and patient care overall. There’s a lot of issues in dialysis that need improvement and it’s been years and years and years, and it seems like the companies are not doing anything to improve any of it,” said Tellez.
Continue reading...Chiewelthap Mariar, 26-year-old Sudanese refugee, shot dead after police called to escort him from Seaboard Foods factory in Guymon
Workers at a pork processing plant in Oklahoma have condemned the calling of police by management that resulted in the killing of a worker who had just been fired.
Chiewelthap Mariar, a 26-year-old refugee from Sudan, was killed by police officers while working at the Seaboard Foods meatpacking plant in Guymon on 9 January.
Continue reading...Nurses walked off the job at the Mount Sinai and Montefiore medical centers in Harlem and the Bronx over staffing issues
More than 7,000 nurses at two New York City hospitals went on strike on Monday, saying their concerns around staffing issues had not been addressed by management.
Talks failed on Sunday night. At 6am on Monday, nurses went on strike at Mount Sinai medical center on the Upper East Side and Montefiore medical center in the Bronx.
Continue reading...Strike date at seven hospitals set for 9 January after 98.8% vote in favor, with wages, staff ratios and health insurance key issues
At least 12,000 nurses at seven hospitals in New York City are threatening to strike after their union contract expired at the end of last year. A strike date is set for 9 January.
The nurses are pushing for the hospitals to implement and enforce safe staffing ratios, improve wages in line with inflation, and maintain health insurance coverage as opposed to proposed cuts by the hospitals.
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