'We Are Going to Win': UK Workers Launch Largest Coordinated Strike in More Than a Decade by Julia Conley
January , 2023
Introduction:
(Common Dreams) With organizers saying it's entirely within the power of the United Kingdom's Conservative government to ensure public sector employees are paid fairly, roughly half a million workers walked out on Wednesday in the country's largest coordinated strike in more than a decade.
About 300,000 of the striking employees are educators, and they were joined by civil servants, railroad workers, university professors, London bus drivers, museum workers, and border officials, among others, with 59% of Britons telling YouGov in a recent poll that they supported the walkout.
The strong support comes even as an estimated 85% of schools across the U.K. were closed on Wednesday. Students and parents stood on picket lines alongside teachers, whose wages have not kept up with inflation and who are struggling to teach in schools where per-pupil spending for the 2024-25 school year is now expected to be 3% lower than it was in 2010.
(See below for Twitter feed).
"It's partly about pay, which has been reduced by 11% over the last 10 years," Jon Voake, a drama teacher in South Gloucestershire, told The Guardian. "But it's also about how our workload's going up. We're all working with bigger groups. Children's education is going to suffer and enough is enough."
In the most economically deprived parts of the country, the National Education Union said, teachers' pay has gone down by more than 20% since 2010 as the rate of inflation in the U.K. stands at 10.5%—"the highest among the G7 group of advanced economies," according to Al Jazeera.
Disney World unions vote down offer covering 45,000 workers
Source: AP
By MIKE SCHNEIDER
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Union members voted down a contract proposal covering tens of thousands of Walt Disney World service workers, saying it didn’t go far enough toward helping employees face cost-of-living hikes in housing and other expenses in central Florida.
The unions said that 13,650 out of 14,263 members who voted on the contract on Friday rejected the proposal from Disney, sending negotiators back to the bargaining table for another round of talks that have been ongoing since August. The contract covers around 45,000 service workers at the Disney theme park resort outside Orlando.
Disney World service workers who are in the six unions that make up the Service Trades Council Union coalition had been demanding a starting minimum wage jump to at least $18 an hour in the first year of the contract, up from the starting minimum wage of $15 an hour won in the previous contract.
The proposal rejected on Friday would have raised the starting minimum wage to $20 an hour for all service workers by the last year of the five-year contract, an increase of $1 each year for a majority of the workers it covered. Certain positions, like housekeepers, bus drivers and culinary jobs, would start immediately at a minimum of $20 under the proposal.
Critics Slam 'Reprehensible' Iowa Bill to Expand Child Labor by Brett Wilkins
February 7, 2023
Introduction:
(Common Dreams) Labor advocates on Tuesday decried a business-backed bill introduced by Republican state lawmakers in Iowa that would roll back child labor laws so that teens as young as 14 could work in previously prohibited jobs including mining, logging, and animal slaughtering—a proposal one union president called dangerous and "just crazy."
Senate File 167, introduced by state Sen. Jason Schultz (R-6) would expand job options available to teens—including letting children as young as 14 work in freezers and meat coolers and loading and unloading light tools, under certain conditions.
Teens under 18 would still be generally barred from employment in fields including mining, logging, demolition, and meatpacking, and from operating potentially dangerous machinery and equipment including circular saws, guillotine shears, and punching machines.
However, the Des Moines Registerreports the proposed law contains "an entirely new section" that "would allow the Iowa Workforce Development and state Department of Education heads to make exceptions to any of the prohibited jobs for teens 14-17 'participating in work-based learning or a school or employer-administered, work-related program.'"
caltrek wrote: ↑Tue Feb 07, 2023 11:10 pm Critics Slam 'Reprehensible' Iowa Bill to Expand Child Labor by Brett Wilkins
February 7, 2023
Introduction:
(Common Dreams) Labor advocates on Tuesday decried a business-backed bill introduced by Republican state lawmakers in Iowa that would roll back child labor laws so that teens as young as 14 could work in previously prohibited jobs including mining, logging, and animal slaughtering—a proposal one union president called dangerous and "just crazy."
Senate File 167, introduced by state Sen. Jason Schultz (R-6) would expand job options available to teens—including letting children as young as 14 work in freezers and meat coolers and loading and unloading light tools, under certain conditions.
Teens under 18 would still be generally barred from employment in fields including mining, logging, demolition, and meatpacking, and from operating potentially dangerous machinery and equipment including circular saws, guillotine shears, and punching machines.
However, the Des Moines Registerreports the proposed law contains "an entirely new section" that "would allow the Iowa Workforce Development and state Department of Education heads to make exceptions to any of the prohibited jobs for teens 14-17 'participating in work-based learning or a school or employer-administered, work-related program.'"
Hyundai in talks with U.S. Labor Department over Alabama child labor
Source: Reuters
NEW YORK, Feb 8 (Reuters) - Hyundai Motor Co said it is in talks with the U.S. Department of Labor to resolve concerns about child workers in its U.S. supply chain, and the company is taking corrective actions after a Reuters investigation found children as young as 12 working in hazard-laden Alabama factories linked to the automotive giant.
In a statement late Tuesday, Hyundai told Reuters it has held a series of discussions with the Labor Department, which has been investigating a Hyundai subsidiary in Alabama and other parts suppliers to the automaker, and its sister brand Kia Corp, for potential child labor violations.
The talks with the U.S. labor regulator have focused on "compliance measures across our supply chain," company spokesman Michael Stewart said in a statement. He also detailed several new measures Hyundai is implementing to "ensure non-compliance never happens again."
Among them: Hyundai said it will roll out new employment training programs throughout its U.S. supply chain, validate identification documents for job applicants, set up anonymous tip hotlines, and discourage the use of third-party staffing agencies. Reuters found those agencies sometimes placed underage workers in the suppliers' plants.
Tesla fires employees in retaliation to union campaign - complaint
Source: Reuters
Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) on Wednesday laid off dozens of employees from its Autopilot department at its Buffalo plant in New York, a day after workers launched a campaign to form a union, according to a complaint filed with a government agency.
Earlier this week, Tesla workers in New York said they will unionize with Workers United Upstate New York, which would help give them a voice at their workplace.
The Workers United Upstate New York union in a filing with the U.S. National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) on Wednesday accused the world's most valuable automaker of hitting back by terminating some of the employees "in retaliation for union activity".
The company fired more than 30 employees, the union said in the statement, adding that the workers also received an email with an updated policy, which prohibits them from recording workplace meetings without all participants' permission.
Federal officials say more than 100 children worked in dangerous jobs for slaughterhouse
Source: NBC News
The Labor Department said Friday it found 102 children as young as 13 working hazardous overnight jobs cleaning slaughterhouses in eight states in what it called a “corporate-wide failure” by one of the largest food sanitation companies in the country, Packers Sanitation Services Inc.
In a statement, the company said, "We are pleased to have finalized this settlement figure as part of our previously announced December resolution with the Department of Labor (DOL) that ends their inquiry. We have been crystal clear from the start: Our company has a zero-tolerance policy against employing anyone under the age of 18 and fully shares the DOL’s objective of ensuring full compliance at all locations."
"As soon as we became aware of the DOL’s allegations, we conducted multiple additional audits of our employee base. ... Our audits and DOL’s investigation confirmed that none of the individuals DOL cited as under the age of 18 work for the company today, and many had separated from employment with PSSI multiple years ago. The DOL has also not identified any managers aware of improper conduct that are currently employed by PSSI."
"We are fully committed to working with DOL to make additional improvements to enforce our prohibition of employing anyone under the age of 18." Packers Sanitation Services has paid a $1.5 million fine for the violations. The fine amount is dictated by the Fair Labor Standards Act, which allows a penalty of $15,138 for each minor who was employed in violation of the law, according to the Labor Department.
Ninth Circuit Reverses Itself, Strikes Down California Ban on ‘Forced Arbitration’ Clauses by Hillel Aron
February 15, 2023
Introduction:
(Courthouse News) — In a major reversal, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals now says a California law banning "forced arbitration" clauses is preempted by federal law and therefore unenforceable.
The California Legislature has tried for nearly a decade to ban companies from adding "forced arbitration" clauses into their workers' contracts. The clauses prevent employees from suing in the event of a dispute and instead funnel them into an arbitration process, which is often secret. The first two efforts at such a ban were vetoed by then-Governor Jerry Brown, who said the laws “plainly” violated the Federal Arbitration Act.
A third version of the bill was signed by Governor Gavin Newsom, only to be struck down by a federal judge, though that ruling was partially overturned by the Ninth Circuit in 2021. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce filed a petition for rehearing en banc. In the meantime, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Viking River Cruises, Inc. v. Moriana, which found that parts of another law, the state's Private Attorneys General Act, was preempted by the Federal Arbitration Act. In the wake of that ruling, the Ninth Circuit took the unusual step of withdrawing its own opinion and granting a rehearing.
Passed in 2019, Assembly Bill 51 attempted to sidestep the question of federal preemption by making it a criminal offense for an employer to require an employee or job applicant to agree to an arbitration clause, rather than saying those clauses are unenforceable.
"AB 51 does not expressly bar arbitration agreements," U.S. Circuit Judge Sandra Ikuta, a George W. Bush appointee, wrote in a majority opinion published Wednesday. "There is no doubt, though, that AB 51 disfavors the formation of agreements that have the essential terms of an arbitration agreement. Because a person who agrees to arbitrate disputes must necessarily waive the right to bring civil actions regarding those disputes in any other forum, AB 51 burdens the defining feature of arbitration agreements."
Amazon mandates return to office for 300,000 corporate staff
Source: The Register
Amazon boss Andy Jassy is demanding a return to the office for the "majority" of the company's 300,000-strong corporate workforce, with an expectation that employees will spend "at least" three days on site each week.
Various parts of the business have operated under different rules during the pandemic, warehouse staff – for example – work full time in-person, while corporate group employees work remotely or mix it up.
Toyota accepts union demands for biggest wage hike in two decades
Source: CNN
Toyota Motor, the world’s biggest automaker, said on Wednesday it would accept a union demand for the biggest base salary increase in 20 years and a rise in bonus payments, as Japan steps up calls for businesses to hike pay.
As one of Japan’s biggest employers, Toyota (TM) has long served as a bellwether of the spring labor talks, which are in full swing at major companies. Many are expected to conclude swiftly as the government seeks inflation-beating wage hikes to ease burdens on consumers.
The automaker’s incoming president Koji Sato said the decision to accept the union’s demands in full at the first round of talks was meant not just for Toyota but “also for the industry as a whole, and in the hope that it will lead to frank discussions between labor and management at each company.”
Within hours of Toyota’s announcement, rival Honda (HMC) Motor said it had agreed to union demands for a 5% pay increase. The average monthly base salary rise of 12,500 yen ($92.70) at Honda (HMC) is the biggest jump since at least 1990.
Starbucks committed “egregious and widespread” violations of federal law in its campaign to halt unions, a federal administrative judge ruled Wednesday, ordering the company to give back pay and damages to workers who launched national organizing efforts.
The decision from Judge Michael A. Rosas, an administrative law judge at the National Labor Relations Board, comes as the coffee giant faces growing unionization efforts at its stores nationwide. The company’s efforts to squash them has put it in the crosshairs of progressive lawmakers.
The over 200 page ruling from Rosas concluded that Starbucks showed “a general disregard for the employees’ fundamental rights,” resolving a case that included 33 labor complaints from 21 New York Starbucks locations. Rosas also ordered the company to post a “Notice to Employees” at all of its facilities in the U.S. notifying workers that “the National Labor Relations Board has found that we violated Federal labor law.”
Rosas further ordered that the company reopen a Buffalo area store and reinstate a number of workers that the board concluded were fired for their union activities.
Arkansas Gov. Sanders signs law loosening child labor protections
Source: Washington Post/By Jacob Bogage
Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R) signed into law this week legislation that rolls back significant portions of the state’s child labor protections.
The law eliminates requirements for the state to verify the age of children younger than 16 before they can take a job.
Sanders believes the provision was “burdensome and obsolete,” spokeswoman Alexa Henning said in an emailed statement. Remaining state and federal regulations are still in effect, she said. Sanders signed the Republican-backed bill on Tuesday.
Federal officials have pledged to crack down on child labor law offenses after regulators discovered hundreds of violations in meatpacking plants and after press reports emerged of children working in hazardous occupations around the country.
The Unconscionable Push to Bring Back Child Labor by Tom Conway
March 8, 2023
Introduction:
(Other Words) Brad Greve has been a Scout leader for more than 20 years. The Davenport, Iowa retiree leads 50-mile canoe trips on Minnesota’s Boundary Waters that test teens’ mettle while teaching them essential skills.
Greve told a story recently where two boys, despite being warned repeatedly, let their canoe drift perilously close to a section of stream that swept over rapids into a lake below. They just barely recovered and made it to streambank.
That near-accident a few years ago, Greve said, underscores the vulnerability of young teens. And it fuels Greve’s anger at Republicans across the country who want to gut child labor laws and fill dangerous jobs with still-maturing high schoolers.
A GOP bill in Iowa, for example, would allow 14-year-olds to work in industrial freezers, meatpacking plants, and industrial laundry operations. The legislation would also put 15-year-olds to work on certain kinds of assembly lines, allow them to hoist up to 50 pounds, and allow employers to force kids into significantly longer work days.
In some cases, it would even permit young teens to work mining and construction jobs and use power-driven meat slicers and food choppers.
The article goes on to note unsuccessful efforts in Minnesota and Ohio to loosen child labor restrictions. Workplace injuries of a young teenagers in Tennessee and instances of child labor in Alabama are also noted.
Child labor laws are under attack in states across the country
At a time when serious child labor violations are on the rise in hazardous meatpacking and manufacturing jobs, several state legislatures are weakening—or threatening to weaken—child labor protections. The trend reflects a coordinated multi-industry push to expand employer access to low-wage labor and weaken state child labor laws in ways that contradict federal protections, in pursuit of longer-term industry-backed goals to rewrite federal child labor laws and other worker protections for the whole country. Children of families in poverty, and especially Black, brown, and immigrant youth, stand to suffer the most harm from such changes.
Summary of findings
Both violations of child labor laws and proposals to roll back child labor protections are on the rise across the country. The number of minors employed in violation of child labor laws increased 37% in the last year and at least 10 states introduced or passed laws rolling back child labor protections in the past two years.
Attempts to weaken state-level child labor standards are part of a coordinated campaign backed by industry groups intent on eventually diluting federal standards that cover the whole country.
Youth labor force participation declines over the past 20 years reflect that a steadily growing share of young people are choosing to complete high school and obtain additional education in order to increase their long-term employability and earnings. Putting off work in order to obtain more skills and education is a positive trend—for both individuals and the economy—not one that should be slowed or reversed.
Disney World reaches deal with union on minimum $18 hourly wage
Source: CNBC
Unions for service workers at Walt Disney World reached a tentative deal with the company on Thursday that would raise the starting minimum wage from $15 to $18 an hour by the end of the year in a pact that could set the basement for starting pay throughout central Florida’s sprawling tourism industry.
Disney World service workers who are in the six unions that make up the Service Trades Council Union coalition planned to vote next Wednesday on the contract proposal after rejecting an earlier offer that fell short of the $18 hourly minimum wage last month. The agreement covers around 45,000 service workers at the Disney theme park resort outside Orlando. Workers could see their hourly wages rise between $5.50 and $8.60 by the end of the five-year contract if it’s approved, union leaders said.
“Securing an $18 minimum hourly rate this year, increasing the overall economic value of Disney’s original offer, and ensuring full back pay for every worker are the priorities union members were determined to fight for,” said Matt Hollis, head of the coalition of unions. “Today, we won that fight.”
Disney said in a statement that the tentative deal also included “industry-leading” benefits in health insurance coverage and tuition reimbursement. “Our cast members are central to Walt Disney World’s enduring magic, which is why we are pleased to have reached this tentative agreement,” Jeff Vahle, president of Walt Disney World Resort, said in the statement.
LAUSD reaches historic deal, meets demands of union workers following 3-day strike
Source: KTLA.com
The “historic” deal includes a 30% pay increase that Local 99 of Service Employees International Union (SEIU) had been seeking along with a vast expansion of benefits including:
-$2 per hour increase for all employees effective January 1, 2024
-6% ongoing wage increase retroactive to July 1, 2021
-7% ongoing wage increase retroactive to July 1, 2022
-7% ongoing wage increase effective July 1, 2023
-Members working at least part-time (four days or more) or more will receive fully paid healthcare benefits along with their dependents.
-$1,000 bonus for current employees with the district from 2020-21 “during adverse circumstances caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.”
-Raise the minimum wage to $22.52 an hour
-Increase hours and compensation for paraprofessionals serving students with special needs
-Invest $3 million in an Education and Professional Development Fund for SEIU members
...
The tentative agreement will be moved to union members to vote for its approval. If approved, the deal could prevent schools from being shuttered again as members were not opposed to another strike if negotiations failed to pan out.
“This week, the eyes of our entire nation were on the cooks, custodians and classroom aides who make education possible in Los Angeles, a workforce overwhelmingly made up of women and people of color,” said Max Arias, Executive Director of SEIU Local 99. “We emerged stronger than ever from this week’s strike and showed the entire nation that unions are the most powerful force for economic opportunity and equity. Members’ sacrifice, courage, and strength – and the solidarity of 35,000 teachers of UTLA – led to this moment.”
LAUSD schools reopen after 3-day strike ends with no contract settlement for service workers
Source: ABC7 KABC Los Angeles
LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Sudents in the L.A. Unified School District will return to classes Friday following a three-day strike by service workers that shuttered the nation's second-largest school system and culminated in a massive labor rally at Los Angeles State Historic Park.
No new contract came out of the three-day walkout by members of the Service Employees International Union Local 99 -- nor was there any word on whether progress was being made in the contract dispute between the union and the district.
Mayor Karen Bass has been facilitating discussions between the sides, but it remained unclear if the talks were materializing into actual contract negotiations.
Nevertheless, it will be back to school on Friday, as the union confirmed Wednesday night it would hold to its three-day strike strategy.
Chipotle agrees to pay after closing store that sought union
Source: AP
By PATRICK WHITTLE today
PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Chipotle Mexican Grill has agreed to pay $240,000 to former employees as part of a settlement stemming from a complaint that the company violated federal law by closing a restaurant where workers wanted to unionize.
Chipotle announced it was permanently closing its Augusta, Maine, location last year after workers filed a National Labor Relations Board petition for a union election. The NLRB later said the closure was illegal.
The Maine location was the first in the chain to file a union petition. The settlement, released by union officials on Monday, states that two dozen employees will receive payments from Chipotle and they will be placed on a preferential hiring list for other Maine locations.
The company must also post a notice in dozens of stores in New England that it won’t close stores or discriminate against employees due to union support, the settlement states.
Howard Schultz Came Out of Retirement to Destroy Starbucks’ Union—and His Legacy by Noah Lanard
May June Issue, 2023
Introduction:
(Mother Jones) In November 2021, Victoria Conklin, a 23-year-old shift supervisor at a Starbucks near Buffalo, was talking to Rossann Williams, then the company’s president of North American retail. Workers at three nearby stores had recently petitioned to become the chain’s only unionized locations in the United States, but Conklin’s hadn’t. Williams wanted to keep it that way.
As the company wrapped up its anti-union campaign, Williams told Conklin that a “special guest” was coming in for a big event. “It’s Howard Schultz,” Conklin responded. “Don’t act like it’s Taylor Swift or something.”
Almost four decades before, Schultz had joined Starbucks as an operations and marketing executive. In 1987, he bought the company for $3.8 million, serving as CEO as it grew into the world’s largest coffee business. Starbucks is now worth more than $110 billion, with more employees than Iceland has people. Schultz stepped down, for the third and final time, in March. With a net worth of nearly $4 billion (including a superyacht worth at least $100 million), he’s not the richest tycoon of his generation, but he is emblematic of its self-satisfied paternalism.
In running Starbucks, Schultz claims he set out to protect people like his blue-collar dad, who was “not respected and dignified and did not have any value.” The threat posed by a union, then, was as much psychic as economic: By organizing, his employees were rejecting the protector who Schultz’s father never had and who Schultz thought he’d become by providing benefits like health care for part-time workers. Organizers’ efforts undermined the good billionaire’s faith in the frictionless existence he thought he’d built, buoyed by global adoration, immense wealth, and the gratitude of the workers who created it.
