Category Archives: US unions

US healthcare workers focus on pay and understaffing in fight for new contracts

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Over 85,000 workers hold pickets at 50 facilities across US as union contracts set to expire on 30 September

Unions representing more than 85,000 healthcare workers have held pickets at 50 facilities across California, Washington, Oregon and Colorado amid new contract negotiations as their current union contracts are set to expire on 30 September.

The negotiations at Kaiser Permanente are the third largest set of contract negotiations in the US in 2023, behind the 340,000 workers at UPS who will be voting on a tentative agreement this month that was reached days before planned strike action, and 150,000 autoworkers at Ford, General Motors and Stellantis whose contracts are set to expire on 14 September.

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‘We’re going to see workers die’: extreme heat is key issue in UPS contract talks

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Teamsters union members are prepared to hold the largest single-employer strike in US history over heat protections

As a UPS delivery driver in Dallas, Texas, Seth Pacic is intimately familiar with the dangers of extreme heat. After a long day’s work through record-breaking temperatures in summer 2011, he found himself dry heaving in the parking lot, incapable of driving home until he spent an hour and a half in the air-conditioned office.

“It was one of the worst feelings I’ve ever had in my entire life,” he said. “I didn’t feel like I fully recovered for a couple of weeks.”

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‘Bargaining for our very existence’: why the battle over AI is being fought in Hollywood

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The ramifications of artificial intelligence are of concern to the actors and writers on strike – from big stars to bit players

To get her start in Hollywood, Chivonne Michelle studied acting at New York University. But what helped her break into the industry and gave her the key training she needed was working on set as a background actor.

Today, the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) technology threatens to put those “entry level and working class” Hollywood jobs at risk, Michelle and other striking actors say.

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Teamsters, UPS to resume negotiations next week ahead of looming strike

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If strike were to occur, it would be the largest walkout in US history at a single private employer, costing company $170m a day

The Teamsters and delivery giant UPS look set to return to the negotiating table next week as a strike deadline of 1 August approaches for 340,000 workers represented by the union to walk off the job if a new contract agreement isn’t reached by then.

On 5 July, contract negotiations broke down between the union and UPS as both sides are still apart on issues that include better starting pay for part-time workers, wage increases for full-time workers and more full-time roles.

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Hollywood actors’ strike: entertainment desert looms and pain will spread wider

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The walkout by writers and screen stars won’t affect just the US film industry but production in UK and Europe

There will be no fresh helpings of The White Lotus, The Last of Us or even Emily in Paris beaming into front rooms when summer fades. Nor will a screen version of the musical Wicked, starring Ariana Grande, be showing in your local cinema in the spring. And all shooting on Gladiator 2 in Morocco is likely to be indefinitely paused. Already, the wails are almost audible.

On this, the first weekend of the American screen actors’ strike, the level of frustration registered by film and TV drama fans around the world has dwarfed earlier reactions to the equivalent writers’ strike, running since the beginning of May.

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Hollywood actors announce strike in first joint action with writers in over 60 years

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Simultaneous strikes by WGA and Sag-Aftra are expected to halt the majority of Hollywood’s film and TV production

The union representing Hollywood actors formally announced a strike on Thursday, expanding the standoff between Hollywood workers and studio executives over wages, AI technology and how to divide the profits of the new digital streaming era.

The strike by the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (Sag-Aftra) marks the first time in 63 years Hollywood writers and actors are striking simultaneously.

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UPS workers edge closer to strike as talks break down with shipping giant

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A strike has already been authorized by union members – who number 340,000 – should negotiations for a new contract fail

UPS workers moved closer to their first strike action in 27 years on Wednesday after the Teamsters Union said United Parcel Service “walked away” from negotiations over a new contract. The shipping giant denied the claim, lobbing its own accusation that the union had stopped negotiating.

The two sides traded salvoes in early morning statements even as they attempted to come to an agreement to prevent a strike when the current contract, which covers about 340,000 workers, expires at the end of the month.

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Thousands of hotel workers in LA area begin strike for better pay and benefits

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As the tourist season is taking off, workers walked off the job at more than 60 hotels for higher pay and better benefits

Thousands of hotel workers in southern California walked off the job on Sunday, as the Fourth of July extended holiday weekend begins, demanding higher pay and better benefits in what their union is calling the largest strike in its history.

Cooks, room attendants, dishwashers, servers, bellmen and front desk agents at hotels were picketing outside major hotels in Los Angeles and Orange counties just as the summer tourist season is ramping up.

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US actors union agrees to extend talks as A-list stars show they are ready to strike

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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.

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‘We’re going to keep fighting’: delivery workers stand up to Amazon

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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.

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Workers sue secretive elite club Bohemian Grove for wage theft

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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.

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Joe Biden rallies with union workers in Philadelphia: ‘You built America’

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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?”

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Dancers at Los Angeles club become US’s only unionized strippers

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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.

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Sierra Club clashes with union over layoffs and restructuring plan

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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.

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Focus organizing drives on workers without college degrees, US unions told

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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.

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Another Hollywood writers’ strike is going ahead. Here’s what you need to know

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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.

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US rail companies grant paid sick days after public pressure in win for unions

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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.

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Elon Musk broke law with threat to Tesla workers’ stock options, court rules

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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.

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Half a million kids out of class as LA school workers strike for better pay

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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.

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‘Shut your mouth’: Republican senator and Teamsters leader in fiery clash

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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.

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