Unionization - Gains and Losses

[LFC]

It seems like there's enough unionization news to have a separate thread.

Amazon is playing hardball over unionization efforts at a warehouse in NYC. The local NYC PD precinct seems to be supporting Amazon. I guess it's a case of "union for me but not for thee."

The battle between labor organizers and an Amazon warehouse on Staten Island is turning ugly ahead of a union vote this month—one that could make the New York package hub the company’s first facility with a unionized workforce.

Last week, the NYPD arrested three union activists at the warehouse after a manager complained that one of them was trespassing. Chris Smalls, a former employee and thorn in the side of billionaire founder Jeff Bezos, was delivering catered chicken and pasta for a union luncheon when at least five cops confronted him in the facility’s visitor parking lot and demanded he leave.

Bystander footage revealed the local precinct’s top cop showed up to the 911 call targeting Smalls, who is president of the Amazon Labor Union (ALU) and fighting to unionize the “fulfillment center” known as JFK8. Amazon’s war with Smalls has been simmering since 2020, when he led a walkout over unsafe working conditions during COVID. At the time, Vice exposed internal memos indicating that Bezos and other Amazon bigwigs discussed a plan to smear Smalls by calling him “not smart or articulate” and make him “the face of the entire union/organizing movement” to discredit unionization. Critics and union crusaders decried the comments about Smalls, who is Black, as racist.

Smalls formed ALU in April of 2021. “Ironically they made me the face of the whole unionizing effort,” he told The Daily Beast. “So I said, ‘OK, good idea.’”

During Smalls’ arrest, an NYPD Deputy Inspector declared, “Listen, we’re going to ask you to, on behalf of Amazon—” before Smalls interrupted in surprise: “You’re protecting Amazon, now?” The cop answered, “I’m not protecting anyone. You’re trespassing.” An assistant general manager, who fired Smalls in 2020, was captured in the video looking on as police addressed his former foe.

Moments later, cops handcuffed employee organizers Brett Daniels and Jason Anthony for obstruction of government administration. The workers had challenged officers for accosting Smalls, and one officer warned Daniels not to get too close and pushed him away. Daniels appeared to push back before he was tackled. Police then frisked Smalls for weapons against a squad car and charged him with obstruction, resisting arrest and trespassing. Before he left, one officer told a worker recording the incident: “We won. You lost.”

[LFC]

Starbucks is putting the screws to pro-union organizers.

Her first workday after handing out union cards at the Starbucks where she works, Laila Dalton found herself in a meeting with two managers. The managers had brought a list of complaints against Dalton, typed up the previous day.

The managers said Dalton, 19, had “failed to fully meet performance expectations” of her job as a shift supervisor. Dalton offered a different account: she was the leading voice of a union effort at her Phoenix, Arizona, store. She is just one of multiple Starbucks workers across the country accusing the coffee chain of harassing its pro-union employees.

“They’re just trying to make me quit at this point,” Dalton alleged to The Daily Beast.

[LFC]

Small union but it sounds like management has been increasingly hostile to them but the flipside is that management is claiming issues with financial stability. I guess it's just the same old, same old when it comes to union / management bargaining at least here in the U.S.

The BuzzFeed Union overwhelmingly voted in favor of authorizing a newsroom strike amid increased fallout with management at the bargaining table.

The vote, which closed at 12:30 p.m. Tuesday afternoon, earned overwhelming support from 90 percent of the 61 person BuzzFeed union. The secret ballot vote further achieved a 90 percent participation rate among the union.

“People are fucking pissed, this was absolutely the most aggressive union-busting tactic our management has taken in the three years since this union pushed them to even recognize them,” BuzzFeed News Union chair Addy Baird told The Daily Beast.

Baird added that the union is “deeply, deeply upset” over management’s decisions that have made the union feel “not valued” and “not needed.”

In light of the vote, BuzzFeed spokesperson Matt Mittenthal, who called the process “difficult” and “painful” told The Daily Beast that “the sooner the union agrees to a package that allows BuzzFeed News to be financially sustainable, the faster it can get to solid ground.”

[LFC]

Apparently the unionization vote at an Amazon warehouse in NYC was successful. I wonder how long they'll remain open. I suspect Bezos is already thinking about how to replace the entire facility. It's not like Amazon doesn't have the money.

An Amazon warehouse in New York City made history on Friday when workers said they had won a vote to form the retail behemoth’s first union, a breakthrough that represented another sign support for labor unions is resurgent in America.

Over 2,000 employees at the fulfillment center known as JFK8 voted to form a union, organizers said, after facing down months of hostile messaging that workers say included daily mandatory meetings with Amazon’s anti-union consultants.

But the victory was especially significant because employees not only appeared to unionize a facility controlled by one of the world’s most powerful companies—but also to join the Amazon Labor Union (ALU). The grassroots group is led by current and former warehouse workers who waged a hard-fought battle frequently billed as Davids battling a $1.6-trillion Goliath.

[goldenvalley]

Apr 1, 2022 17:14:12 GMT LFC said:

Apparently the unionization vote at an Amazon warehouse in NYC was successful. I wonder how long they'll remain open. I suspect Bezos is already thinking about how to replace the entire facility. It's not like Amazon doesn't have the money.

An Amazon warehouse in New York City made history on Friday when workers said they had won a vote to form the retail behemoth’s first union, a breakthrough that represented another sign support for labor unions is resurgent in America.

Over 2,000 employees at the fulfillment center known as JFK8 voted to form a union, organizers said, after facing down months of hostile messaging that workers say included daily mandatory meetings with Amazon’s anti-union consultants.

But the victory was especially significant because employees not only appeared to unionize a facility controlled by one of the world’s most powerful companies—but also to join the Amazon Labor Union (ALU). The grassroots group is led by current and former warehouse workers who waged a hard-fought battle frequently billed as Davids battling a $1.6-trillion Goliath.

Yup move it to a southern state that is resoundingly anti union.  

[LFC]

More on the Amazon votes (plural).

Workers in the JFK8 fulfillment center voted 2,654-2,131 to form a union Friday morning, according to a National Labor Relations Board vote count. Amazon has until April 8 to appeal the Staten Island results. Nearly 1,000 miles to the south, workers in a Bessemer, Alabama warehouse ended voting on Thursday evening 993-875 against forming a union, though more than 400 challenged ballots could swing the outcome in the union’s favor.

[LFC]

Will we see a rise in unionization activity?

April 1, 2022, may go down as a pivotal day in the history of American unions.

In a result that could reverberate in workplaces across the U.S., the independent Amazon Labor Union – first formed in 2020 by Chris Smalls, an Amazon worker fired for protesting what he saw as inadequate COVID-19 safety precautions – got the better of the previously successful anti-union efforts of the online retailer. It means that Smalls’ warehouse in Staten Island, New York, will be the first to have a unionized workforce.

On the same day, Starbucks Workers United – an organization affiliated with Service Employees International Union – won yet another election, making it 10 out of 11 wins for the union since first succeeding in Buffalo in December 2021. This time, it was the chain’s flagship roastery in New York City that opted to unionize. The organizing campaign has now spread to over 170 Starbucks stores nationwide. Several more Starbucks elections will take place in the coming weeks.

Meanwhile, a re-run election at a Amazon factory in Bessemer, Alabama, will depend on the outcome of several hundred contested ballots. Even if Amazon wins, the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union has – at very least – came tantalizingly close in what was deemed a long-shot union vote.

Something is definitely happening in the labor movement.

A different kind of organizing
As a scholar of the labor movement who has observed union drives for two decades, what I find almost as striking as the victories is the unconventional nature of the organizing campaigns. Both the Starbucks and Amazon-Staten Island campaigns have been led by determined young workers.

Inspired by pro-union sentiment in political movements, such as Bernie Sanders’ presidential bids, Black Lives Matter and the Democratic Socialists of America, these individuals are spearheading the efforts for workplace reform rather than professional union organizers. Indeed, one would be hard pressed to find many experienced organizers among the recent successful campaigns.

Instead, the campaigns have involved a significant degree of “self-organization” – that is, workers “talking union” to each other in the warehouse and coffee shops and reaching out to colleagues in other shops in the same city and across the nation. This marks a sea change from the way the labor movement has traditionally operated, which has tended to be more centralized and led by seasoned union officials.

[goldenvalley]

Apr 4, 2022 21:32:21 GMT LFC said:

Will we see a rise in unionization activity?

April 1, 2022, may go down as a pivotal day in the history of American unions.

In a result that could reverberate in workplaces across the U.S., the independent Amazon Labor Union – first formed in 2020 by Chris Smalls, an Amazon worker fired for protesting what he saw as inadequate COVID-19 safety precautions – got the better of the previously successful anti-union efforts of the online retailer. It means that Smalls’ warehouse in Staten Island, New York, will be the first to have a unionized workforce.

On the same day, Starbucks Workers United – an organization affiliated with Service Employees International Union – won yet another election, making it 10 out of 11 wins for the union since first succeeding in Buffalo in December 2021. This time, it was the chain’s flagship roastery in New York City that opted to unionize. The organizing campaign has now spread to over 170 Starbucks stores nationwide. Several more Starbucks elections will take place in the coming weeks.

Meanwhile, a re-run election at a Amazon factory in Bessemer, Alabama, will depend on the outcome of several hundred contested ballots. Even if Amazon wins, the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union has – at very least – came tantalizingly close in what was deemed a long-shot union vote.

Something is definitely happening in the labor movement.

A different kind of organizing
As a scholar of the labor movement who has observed union drives for two decades, what I find almost as striking as the victories is the unconventional nature of the organizing campaigns. Both the Starbucks and Amazon-Staten Island campaigns have been led by determined young workers.

Inspired by pro-union sentiment in political movements, such as Bernie Sanders’ presidential bids, Black Lives Matter and the Democratic Socialists of America, these individuals are spearheading the efforts for workplace reform rather than professional union organizers. Indeed, one would be hard pressed to find many experienced organizers among the recent successful campaigns.

Instead, the campaigns have involved a significant degree of “self-organization” – that is, workers “talking union” to each other in the warehouse and coffee shops and reaching out to colleagues in other shops in the same city and across the nation. This marks a sea change from the way the labor movement has traditionally operated, which has tended to be more centralized and led by seasoned union officials.

I'm hoping so.  The organized labor unions were mostly in manufacturing or mining.  Pink and white collar unionizing came later...but I think people developed bad attitudes about it. Not entirely sure why but the presence of women in the union may have soured some folks.  Now those folks with bad attitudes seem to be on the wane.  Young people see that trickle down of corporate profits is not happening, at least not for service employees.  The only way to try to get some sort of equity/parity is to work cooperatively with other employees.

[AnBr]

Apr 4, 2022 22:53:51 GMT goldenvalley said:

but I think people developed bad attitudes about it.

This was deliberately cultivated back in the '70s when those plotting the rise of the reich were reframing the narratives to reshape the public's view of economic/social givens. "Did you know that a UAW broom pusher makes $20 bucks an hour?" "Did you know that a union member can be fired no matter how bad a worker he is?" I remember hearing many such things back in the late '70s and early '80s. It went right along with the explosion of terms like "job creators", "tax cuts pay for themselves", "welfare queens" and yes, the revival of the old one, "trickle down".

[andydp]

Apr 5, 2022 11:04:19 GMT AnBr said:

Apr 4, 2022 22:53:51 GMT goldenvalley said:

but I think people developed bad attitudes about it.

This was deliberately cultivated back in the '70s when those plotting the rise of the reich were reframing the narratives to reshape the public's view of economic/social givens. "Did you know that a UAW broom pusher makes $20 bucks an hour?" "Did you know that a union member can be fired no matter how bad a worker he is?" I remember hearing many such things back in the late '70s and early '80s. It went right along with the explosion of terms like "job creators", "tax cuts pay for themselves", "welfare queens" and yes, the revival of the old one, "trickle down".

You forgot the usual "Teachers can't be fired". "Tenure rules".  Notice how they want to fire teachers for teaching the "wrong" stuff ?  Without getting into a very long story, tenure was established so a new political administration would not be able to fire a teacher and replace them with one of "theirs".  Sadly it morphed into a grossly bastardized protection system.  Yes teachers need protection, and yes, the tenure stuff has to be changed.

[LFC]

Apr 5, 2022 11:04:19 GMT AnBr said:

Apr 4, 2022 22:53:51 GMT goldenvalley said:

but I think people developed bad attitudes about it.

This was deliberately cultivated back in the '70s when those plotting the rise of the reich were reframing the narratives to reshape the public's view of economic/social givens. "Did you know that a UAW broom pusher makes $20 bucks an hour?" "Did you know that a union member can be fired no matter how bad a worker he is?" I remember hearing many such things back in the late '70s and early '80s. It went right along with the explosion of terms like "job creators", "tax cuts pay for themselves", "welfare queens" and yes, the revival of the old one, "trickle down".

There was definitely overblown propaganda but there was also a lot of unions who shot themselves in the foot and made multiple companies nervous of any union. We discussed that with plenty of examples, including several in my own personal experience, over at the old TRS. And of course the mob involvement didn't help.

[LFC]

Amazon is doing what they can to keep employees in line and from working toward unionization together. Of course they're tap-dancing with "if we do it" and blah-blah-blah.

Amazon will block and flag employee posts on a planned internal messaging app that contain keywords pertaining to labor unions, according to internal company documents reviewed by The Intercept. An automatic word monitor would also block a variety of terms that could represent potential critiques of Amazon’s working conditions, like “slave labor,” “prison,” and “plantation,” as well as “restrooms” — presumably related to reports of Amazon employees relieving themselves in bottles to meet punishing quotas.

“Our teams are always thinking about new ways to help employees engage with each other,” said Amazon spokesperson Barbara M. Agrait. “This particular program has not been approved yet and may change significantly or even never launch at all.”

In November 2021, Amazon convened a high-level meeting in which top executives discussed plans to create an internal social media program that would let employees recognize co-workers’ performance with posts called “Shout-Outs,” according to a source with direct knowledge.

The major goal of the program, Amazon’s head of worldwide consumer business, Dave Clark, said, was to reduce employee attrition by fostering happiness among workers — and also productivity. Shout-Outs would be part of a gamified rewards system in which employees are awarded virtual stars and badges for activities that “add direct business value,” documents state. At the meeting, Clark remarked that “some people are insane star collectors.”

But company officials also warned of what they called “the dark side of social media” and decided to actively monitor posts in order to ensure a “positive community.” At the meeting, Clark suggested that the program should resemble an online dating app like Bumble, which allows individuals to engage one on one, rather than a more forum-like platform like Facebook.

Following the meeting, an “auto bad word monitor” was devised, constituting a blacklist that would flag and automatically block employees from sending a message that contains any profane or inappropriate keywords. In addition to profanities, however, the terms include many relevant to organized labor, including “union,” “grievance,” “pay raise,” and “compensation.” Other banned keywords include terms like “ethics,” “unfair,” “slave,” “master,” “freedom,” “diversity,” “injustice,” and “fairness.” Even some phrases like “This is concerning” will be banned.

[LFC]

Excuse my crocodile tears. Would somebody please show some sympathy for the poor, little, victimized billionaire?

On his first day back as chief executive of Starbucks, billionaire Howard Schultz said during a town hall Monday that the coffee giant and other U.S. companies are "being assaulted" by unionization drives, a comment that workers took as a signal of his union-busting intentions as he takes the helm amid a nationwide wave of organizing."

Here's where it gets a little sensitive, because I've been coached a little bit," Schultz told an audience of employees in Seattle. "But I do want to talk about something pretty serious. We can't ignore what is happening in the country as it relates to companies throughout the country being assaulted, in many ways, by the threat of unionization."

"I can say this two ways," Schultz added. "I can say I'm anti-union, or I can say I'm pro-partner and pro-Starbucks."

Sounds like Starbucks may have brought Schultz back to wage war.

Schultz, now in his third stint as Starbucks CEO, has a long track record of anti-union actions and rhetoric, and employees believe he was brought back to help the company crush organizing efforts at coffee shops in dozens of states nationwide.

In response to Schultz's comments Monday, Starbucks Workers United (SWU)—an affiliate of the Service Employees International Union—tweeted that "Starbucks' best days are ahead of us because we are standing together as partners to hold Starbucks accountable to the company we believe it can be."

"At today's town hall in Seattle, Howard Schultz just said that 'there is a group—an organization—trying to take our people,'" SWU wrote. "Newsflash: Our union isn't trying to take Starbucks' people—our union is Starbucks' people!"

While Schultz's more overt anti-union comments are conspicuously absent from a round-up of the CEO's comments posted on Starbucks' website, the company's summary does include a section titled "On unionization and the need to restore trust and belief," in which Schultz characterizes unions as a divisive third party standing between management and ordinary employees.

"My job in coming back to Starbucks, is to ensure the fact that we, the collective we, co-create, reimagine a new Starbucks with our partners at the center of it all," said Schultz. "As a pro-partner company. A company that does not need someone in between us and our people."

About an hour after the town hall, Starbucks fired Phoenix-based barista Laila Dalton, a move that was seen as retaliation for her involvement in union organizing at the store where she worked.

[LFC]

One problem for some unions is that their members have guzzled too much Kool-Aid. They really can't quite grasp that the Democrats are willing to give them much more support than Republicans. Hell, if the Dems just stayed out of the way it would be a huge step up from Republicans who are actively attacking unions.

Leaning into the labor movement gives Democrats a chance not just to win over union members, but other voters they're losing.

It's also an opportunity for image reform. Democrats used to be known as the party of the working class. But Donald Trump captured a lot of those voters. The former president's blue collar appeal helped him flip states like Michigan and Wisconsin in 2016. And many union members continued to support Trump in 2020.

"He keep you working," said Mathew Wright, one of the striking Alabama coal miners. "The Democrats don't want you to work. They want you to stay home and draw a little bitty check where they can control you."

That level of ignorance and stupidity is enormously difficult to overcome.

[LFC]

Starbucks employees just went 5 for 5 in their unionization efforts. Looking at the votes working there must be pretty brutal. All but one are wildly lopsided.

The nationwide wave of labor organizing by Starbucks workers continued to bear fruit Tuesday as employees at five of the coffee chain's Richmond, Virginia stores overwhelmingly voted to unionize.

"Within 48 hours we had 70% of the store signed up for union cards."

According to More Perfect Union, the votes at the five Richmond Starbucks were 17-1, 22-3, 11-2, 13-8, and 19-0. The stores are the company's first in Virginia to unionize; workers at a Springfield location narrowly rejected forming a union last week.

[LFC]

The flagship store in Seattle just voted to unionize.

Starbucks workers at the coffee giant's flagship roastery in Seattle voted Thursday to form a union, the chain's latest location to form a collective bargaining unit.

The Seattle store voted 38-27 to unionize.

Workers United said 26 Starbucks locations have unionized nationwide. The Starbucks Reserve and Roastery in the Capitol Hill neighborhood is the business’s second to unionize in its hometown of Seattle.

“As we have said throughout, we will respect the process and will bargain in good faith. We hope that the union does the same,” Reggie Borges, a spokesman for Starbucks, said in a statement.

Starbucks has multiple flagship stores. The Seattle outlet joined the one in New York in forming a union.

CEO Howard Schultz and other Starbucks execs are on a full court press to stop the spread.

Amid a growing union drive, Starbucks founder Howard Schultz last week implored the company’s local and regional managers to more actively intervene in the organizing process and repeatedly denigrated the baristas behind Starbucks Workers United.

Schultz’s remarks came during an hour-long video conference, a recording of which was obtained by More Perfect Union. Schultz recently returned to the company to combat the organizing drive, which has won unions at 25 stores and filed for elections at over 200 more.

Seated alongside several other executives, the billionaire CEO blasted the hourly workers as “some outside force” and alleged that they are “trying desperately to disrupt our company.” Schultz grew agitated when railing against the young baristas who he claimed sought to “dictate or disrupt what we are and who [we] are.”

Schultz and other officials punctuated their complaints about the organizing workers with frequent appeals to managers to insert themselves in the organizing process. Schultz declared that “it’s an American right of workers not to unionize and to [instead] embrace the values and the culture of his or her company.”

Schultz urged managers to communicate anti-union talking points to workers in their stores — to “encourage them to understand what it would really mean to vote for a union” — and said it was “critically important” that everyone voted. Moments later, he made a vague accusation that Starbucks Workers United had tried to silence the same workers who the company has forced into countless captive audience meetings.

“Now, there are stories — I wasn’t there — but there are stories that people potentially had been bullied not to vote,” Schultz said, providing no further information before moving on.

Rossann Williams, the company’s president for North America, also spoke throughout the meeting. She informed managers that it is “your number one responsibility” to persuade store employees to vote and convey the company’s messaging. “Please do your role as a store manager, make sure your partners get balanced information about what’s going on, especially in this role of us union-busting all over the country,” she said.

Williams spent last fall in Buffalo, NY, spearheading an intensive response aimed at stopping the Starbucks Workers United union drive before it could hold a single election. At the meeting, she pleaded with attendees to ignore the frequent online posts from workers struggling under heavy-handed management.

“Please, partners, don’t believe everything you see in social media,” Williams said. “For those of you that have reached out, it’s heartbreaking. It’s heartbreaking for me to see and hear how some partners are talking about the company that I love. It’s heartbreaking to hear those that don’t know who we are saying things that I know not to be true.

[AnBr]

Amazon ridiculed for trying to motivate workers with water and a bag of chips

Amazon workers arriving at one company warehouse on Easter Sunday were greeted with a cheerful message from management.

As a holiday incentive, there would be a contest, and a raffle. Those who picked products above a certain speed would be entered into a draw to win a goody bag.

"Thank you all for coming in on Easter Sunday!" the note said. “Good Luck everyone and THANK YOU!!!”

The grand prize? Water or soda plus a candy bar or bag of chips, worth roughly $2. An amount that when compared to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’s hourly haul generated a wave of ridicule from Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and many others across social media.

[LFC]

What in the actual hell? This is pure wage theft. It's not even close.

Delta Will Start Paying Flight Attendants During Boarding, Which Apparently Wasn’t Already A Thing

Attempting to fend off a union push, Delta Air Lines announced on Tuesday that it’s going to start paying its flight attendants during boarding, which would make Delta the first major U.S. airline to do so.

• Yep, cabin crew members don’t start getting paid for their work until the plane’s doors close. It’s a total mystery why flight attendants are trying to unionize.

[LFC]

Chevron is in the midst of a 7 week strike. It is paying police overtime pay and calling them constantly to come out. This one is pretty nasty.

Officials at Chevron's Richmond refinery have called police dozens of times in recent weeks to respond to the facility during a strike that's now entering its seventh week.

The calls come on the heels of financial arrangements worth tens of thousands of dollars that the oil giant made with the Richmond and San Pablo police departments in response to the labor dispute.

In the weeks before the walkout, a group of Richmond police officers were put on standby in case they were needed at the refinery. During the first week of April, Chevron paid the San Pablo Police Department to put officers at the facility's gates. Chevron agreed to pay overtime to both departments to make officers available.

The union behind the strike calls the police contracts and the company's repeated calls to Richmond police an attempt to intimidate strikers. A top Richmond police official says the work has strained the understaffed department. And a member of the Richmond City Council says the police presence is a problematic use of public law enforcement resources at a time when staffing is strained.

"Why are we deploying our police officers to support a corporation like Chevron?" said Richmond City Councilmember Claudia Jimenez, a critic of the company.

On Friday, Chevron announced a profit of $6.3 billion for the first three months of this year, more than quadruple its earnings for the same period a year ago.

The police presence at the Richmond refinery is one element of a labor conflict that sees no signs of ending. Chevron and leaders of United Steelworkers Local 5 have met several times since the walkout began March 21. Neither the company nor the union has indicated that a resolution on the sticking points, which include worker safety as well as pay and benefits, is close.

[LFC]

A Trader Joe's just went union.

Workers at a Massachusetts Trader Joe's on Thursday voted to become the first of the supermarket chain's more than 500 locations to unionize, a historic development that comes amid a nationwide labor organizing wave.

"Our crew needs to be represented by an entity that is solely dedicated to our best interests."

Employees at the Trader Joe's in Hadley, a suburb of Springfield, voted 45-31 to form a union, according to the National Labor Relations Board.

"WE WON!!! Today, Trader Joe's Hadley became the first unionized Trader Joe's location, ever," the new union, Trader Joe's United, tweeted. "This victory is historic, but not a surprise. Since the moment we announced our campaign, a majority of the crew have enthusiastically supported our union, and despite the company's best efforts to bust us, our majority has never wavered."

Gabrielle, who works at the Hadley store, explained that she was voting for a union because "our crew needs to be represented by an entity that is solely dedicated to our best interests."

"Our worker-led union ensures that we are protected and properly compensated—on our terms," she added.

[LFC]

This is allegedly audio of an Amazon representative pulling a scare tactic to prevent people from signing union cards, spreading FUD that the union can sell their personal information to third parties and show up at their homes. All that's missing is the ominous music in the background.

[LFC]

Jul 29, 2022 19:00:46 GMT LFC said:

A Trader Joe's just went union.

And now a second one.

A Trader Joe’s in downtown Minneapolis became the second unionized location in the US on Friday, less than a month after a Massachusetts location became the first. One in Boulder, Colorado, could be next, bringing the effort to unionize the grocery chain across the country. There will likely be many more in between.

This could be the start of a mass union effort at Trader Joe’s in which victory leads to victory, and unions become a reality for America’s retail and hospitality workers, who are among the lowest paid.

In other words, Trader Joe’s could be the next Starbucks.

After a Starbucks in Buffalo, New York, became the first company-owned location to unionize last December, more than 215 other stores around the country have done the same. That initial win set off a chain reaction of Starbucks workers working together to share notes on how more locations could organize. Workers explained the unionization process, shared tips with their colleagues, and told would-be union members what anti-union tactics to expect from the company. The strategy seems to be paying off, as more Starbucks employees join union ranks every week.

“That’s our vision. That’s what we want,” Sarah Beth Ryther, a worker at the Minneapolis Trader Joe’s, told Recode last week ahead of the union vote. “We really and truly are interested in creating a larger movement because we are all going through the same things.”

I hope unionization builds but I really hope they don't blow it like they did before. The union abuses when they had more power, discussed at length with multiple examples despite what one TRS member accused me of, had even well intentioned companies scared to death of them. I recently saw a video where they had three people who had been union members in the old GM Fremont, CA plant, the one where they tried to team with Toyota. The things they admitted were going on were insane, including people simply not showing up (often they didn't have enough people to start a line on Mondays), drugs used and sold, alcohol use, and a massive "who gives a shit" attitude because the union would always protect you. There will always be corrupt, greedy, union busting CEOs but the way to counter them isn't with corrupt, greedy, unreasonable union bosses.

[AnBr]

Aug 17, 2022 19:52:05 GMT LFC said:

a massive "who gives a shit" attitude because the union would always protect you. There will always be corrupt, greedy, union busting CEOs but the way to counter them isn't with corrupt, greedy, unreasonable union bosses.

This happens in non union shops as well when when they are paid so little and management is abusive. It drives people to not giving a damn. As to greedy and corrupt, "power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely." Some like the Teamsters were corrupt to begin with since they were taken over by organized crime after prohibition looking to continue their grift. 

There has to be some kind of checks and balances between management and workers to prevent abuses by either side. Perhaps having workers on the board along with management and drawing management from the workers so they know the business from the ground up like they do in Germany. Part of it also needs to start with what business schools teach. Workers are the ones that create the wealth and management is the overhead. #HarverdBusinessSchoolDelendaEst

[goldenvalley]

Aug 17, 2022 20:33:18 GMT AnBr said:

Workers are the ones that create the wealth and management is the overhead. #HarverdBusinessSchoolDelendaEst

Blasphemy!  Management creates wealth and allows the workers to earn a living.  Everyone knows that!

[AnBr]

Aug 17, 2022 22:04:45 GMT goldenvalley said:

Blasphemy!  Management creates wealth and allows the workers to earn a living.  Everyone knows that!

#HarverdBusinessSchoolDelendaEst