Unionization - Gains and Losses

[Bact PhD]

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

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

(Bold mine)
It wasn’t all that long ago that that was the case, at least in some time industries. A family friend worked her way up at a major chemical company from bench chemist to the C-suite. Yet even by the ‘aughts that was pretty rare—now it’s all salespeople and bean-counters in the management positions, and the warm bodies are more-or-less interchangeable, the industry is irrelevant.

[pnwguy]

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

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

Mob infiltration is the major difference between European unions, that grew from trade guilds, and the US organized labor movement.  I suspect that was partly because of the difference between how US companies reacted at unionization, with violence and unlawful threats.  So it's understandable that mob offerings of opposing muscle was embraced or tolerated. But like the GOP became after tolerating Trumpism, they found it wasn't easy to rid themselves of an ugly alliance after the unions used them to gain power.  

[goldenvalley]

Aug 18, 2022 15:32:05 GMT pnwguy said:

Mob infiltration is the major difference between European unions, that grew from trade guilds, and the US organized labor movement.  I suspect that was partly because of the difference between how US companies reacted at unionization, with violence and unlawful threats.  So it's understandable that mob offerings of opposing muscle was embraced or tolerated. But like the GOP became after tolerating Trumpism, they found it wasn't easy to rid themselves of an ugly alliance after the unions used them to gain power.  

Is this a geographic thing?  I never saw unions as mobbed up except for Teamsters and that probably stems from the media coverage of Jimmy Hoffa's disappearance.  The only union perception I had is from my grandad who was a UMW member and local leader in coal mines in Central Illinois.  I never had the perception of mob influence from him. (not that he would tell me.) I always saw UMW members as the guys who worked underground.  Maybe if I lived in the Chicago area.  Grandad was very impatient with UMW asking for what he saw as stupid things after he retired. They'd already achieved good benefits by then.

PS Grandad voted D in local elections but was a staunch Eisenhower Republican in national and statewide elections.  I don't think he was unusual in that regard in that era.

[pnwguy]

Aug 18, 2022 18:15:46 GMT goldenvalley said:

Is this a geographic thing.  I never saw unions as mobbed up except for Teamsters and that probably stems from the media coverage of Jimmy Hoffa's disappearance.  The only union perception I had is from my grandad who was a UMW member and local leader in coal mines in Central Illinois.  I never had the perception of mob influence from him. (not that he would tell me.) I always saw UMW members as the guys who worked underground.  Maybe if I lived in the Chicago area.  Grandad was very impatient with UMW asking for what he saw as stupid things after he retired. They'd already achieved good benefits by then.

PS Grandad voted D in local elections but was a staunch Eisenhower Republican in national and statewide elections.  I don't think he was unusual in that regard in that era.

Probably it is a factor in whatever geographic strongholds the mob already had.  In the Northeast, Chicago, Florida, and Vegas, it's been a factor.  If you were a Soprano's fan, you'll recall storylines where projects were allotted so many "no work" jobs that mob soldiers could do to keep money coming in.  The more physical the work of a union trade, and construction ones were typically populated with burly dudes, the more physical violence was part of the union ways of settling contract disputes.

[andydp]

Not related to mob control of unions.

Our local Amazon Warehouse is beginning to unionize.  The good part is NY has pretty strict rules on unionization.  (If you talk to some, they'll tell you the Teacher's Union is running the state.)

I was in a union environment for most of working career whether it was as a Corrections officer or in the USPS I was happy to have a union around.  Biggest reason ? Bosses can be real schmendricks.

[goldenvalley]

Aug 18, 2022 18:31:48 GMT pnwguy said:

If you were a Soprano's fan, you'll recall storylines where projects were allotted so many "no work" jobs that mob soldiers could do to keep money coming in. 

Yeah that is along the lines of what I'm thinking of.  As far as I know that didn't happen.  

There was a fair amount of violence in Central Illinois in the late 1890s but that was the result of strike busting and racism was tied in because mine owners brought in black men from the South as strike breakers.  Not mob related.

[AnBr]

The mob infiltration of the Teamsters started with the repeal of Prohibition when they no longer had a use for the fleet of the trucks that they had accumulated to run their bootleg booze, so they tried to take over the trucking industry and weaseled their way into the union.

[LFC]

Landmark Union Expansion

A Michigan Chipotle became the first of the fast food chain’s stores to unionize.

[LFC]

Approval of unions hits a 57-year high. It stands at 71% while just 10 years ago it was 52%. Corporations became too greedy and kept pushing for more, more, more while paying less. This is a natural backlash.

Story Highlights

- 71% of Americans now approve of labor unions
- 40% of union members say their membership is "extremely important"
- Employee engagement higher among nonunion workers

[AnBr]

Labor board rejects Amazon’s objections to union victory

[LFC]

TPM has some more reporting on the shift in unionization.

Labor Day 2022 comes smack bang in the middle of what is increasingly looking like a pivotal year in the history of American unions.

The summer has seen a steady stream of workforce mobilizations. Employees at Trader Joe’s locations in Massachusetts and Minneapolis both voted to unionize. Meanwhile, restaurant chain Chipotle saw the first of its stores unionize, following a vote by workers at an outlet in Lansing, Michigan.

It comes on the back of a wave of successful efforts to mobilize at Starbucks and Amazon. The growth of unionized stores at Starbucks in particular has been stunning. Since baristas in Buffalo, New York, became the first at the chain to unionize in December 2021, colleagues at a further 234 outlets have followed suit in recent months.

Likewise, the success of an independent Amazon Labor Union – formed in 2020 by Chris Smalls, an Amazon worker fired for protesting what he saw as inadequate COVID-19 safety precautions – in forming the first plant of the retail giant to have a unionized workforce has inspired others to do likewise.

It comes as polling shows that public support of unions is at its highest since 1965, with the backing of 71% of Americans. Something is definitely happening in the labor movement in 2022.

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.

Workers at Amazon and Trader Joe’s are setting up independent unions, whereas at Starbucks and Chipotle, employees are teaming up with established unions. But that difference apart, the dynamics at play are remarkably similar: The campaigns are being led by determined young workers. For the most part, it is bottom-up unionizing, rather than being driven by official, seasoned union representatives.

Inspired by pro-union sentiment in political movements, such as Bernie Sanders’ presidential bids, Black Lives Matter and the Democratic Socialists of America, 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.

[LFC]

Petco now has a union in Seattle.

[LFC]

This is the exact type of shit that unions were created to fight.

28 Freight Rail Workers Tell Us What They Want You to Know About Their Lives
In threatening to disrupt the nation’s economy, freight rail workers are seeking basic dignities every other worker takes for granted.

In the hours immediately before the tentative agreement was announced, Motherboard spoke to 28 freight rail workers and wives of freight rail workers—the workforce is overwhelmingly male—over the phone and email. Motherboard asked them what they wanted the American public to know about their jobs. These people work for different companies in different jobs in different parts of the country. But they all told a remarkably similar story, one of desperation, exhaustion, anger, and resentment towards management for years of having basic dignities taken away from them. The unifying message was this is not about pay, or even about sick leave per se. It is about having a life outside the railroad, not missing out on their kids growing up, being able to attend to one’s basic personal needs. For some of them, it is about the basic concept of restoring hope that their lives can be about anything more than the railroad.

Nearly all of them referenced a quote from the Presidential Emergency Board recommendations meant to broker an agreement that only fanned the flames: “The Carriers maintain that capital investment and risk are the reasons for their profits, not any contributions by labor.” They see this as a slap in the face after years of being told to show up to work during a pandemic because they are “essential.”

One worker named Andrew quit his job at one railroad company, BNSF, about a year ago. “By the end of my 10 years it didn't matter how much money they threw at me,” he told Motherboard. “That job changed me. I didn't feel as if I was even a person anymore. I'd lost my hobbies, my friends, and my fiancée. More importantly I'd lost any reason to live.”

Motherboard granted the workers anonymity so they could speak freely as there is a widespread culture of retaliating against workers for speaking to the press. The testimonials below have been lightly edited for clarity and brevity.

This is one example of the insane on-call policies.

Conductor, BNSF

One thing people fail to realize is a day off is not an off day. My call time is from 5 am to 8 am and then from 2 pm to 4 pm and then 9 pm to 12 pm. So say I make it through. That’s a day wasted where I sat around instead of taking care of everyday life, because I have to be in position if that phone rings.

Apparently this is legal if you're a railroad worker.

Conductor, BNSF

I wish people knew that we don't get weekends off and can, and frequently do, work up to 276 hours a month by law.

[LFC]

Chipotle may be next.

Chipotle Borrows From Starbucks’ Playbook As Workers Push To Unionize
The Biden administration's National Labor Relations Board has repeatedly gone after Starbucks for its union-busting efforts.

The push to unionize Chipotle branches — and the claims of management-orchestrated union busting — have inevitably drawn comparisons to another unionization success story that has defined the current, resurgent labor movement: Starbucks. 

The Starbucks union push has been fairly unique. Unlike many other union movements right now — like Amazon, for example — the Starbucks effort is on a store-by-store basis. Like Chipotle, some of these Starbucks locations may have only a dozen or so employees, compared to Amazon warehouses that employ thousands. The unionization push at the coffee chain saw its first success in Buffalo, New York in 2021, and now encompasses hundreds of Starbucks locations nationwide.

Starbucks’ union busting efforts are also fairly unique. Howard Schultz, who served as the CEO of Starbucks from 2008 to 2016, built a reputation during that time for successful union busting. Amid rumblings of the renewed union efforts, Schultz returned to Starbucks as an interim CEO earlier this year. 

As the coffee chain tried to quash union efforts, it flew in managers from all over the country to branches that were in danger of voting in a union. At one point, organizers said, senior-level executives showed up in Buffalo to perform basic tasks, like mopping the floor. Organizers at Chipotle restaurants say the chain has taken that play from Schultz’s book, attempting to flood union-curious restaurants with more senior employees. 

The first location to successfully unionize in Lansing, Michigan is a prime example.

“When we filed, the company brought a whole bunch of people from everywhere and told them they were managers-in-training — which they weren’t,” Scott Quenneville, President of Teamsters Local 243, who helped the Lansing store unionize, told TPM.

In speaking with these managers-in-training, workers discovered that they were actually managers from other stores elsewhere in the Midwest, Quenneville said. 

“There were basically two managers for every crew member,” said Atulya Dora-Laskey, a worker at the Lansing restaurant. Dora-Laskey said the managers told him they had no idea why they were brought there.

[LFC]

In 2022 more and more workers decided they had been squeezed enough. If corporate America doesn't like it they only have themselves to blame. They pushed too hard and were too greedy.

Workers organized and took to the picket line in increased numbers in 2022 to demand better pay and working conditions, leading to optimism among labor leaders and advocates that they’re witnessing a turnaround in labor’s sagging fortunes.

Teachers, journalists and baristas were among the tens of thousands of workers who went on strike — and it took an act of Congress to prevent 115,000 railroad employees from walking out as well. In total, there have been at least 20 major work stoppages involving at least 1,000 workers each in 2022, up from 16 in 2021, and hundreds more that were smaller.

At the same time, workers at Starbucks, Amazon, Apple and dozens of other companies filed over 2,000 petitions to form unions during the year — the most since 2015. Workers won 76% of the 1,363 elections that were held.

Historically, however, these figures are pretty tepid. The number of major work stoppages has been plunging for decades, from nearly 200 as recently as 1980, while union elections typically exceeded 5,000 a year before the 1980s. As of 2021, union membership was at about the lowest level on record, at 10.3%. In the 1950s, over 1 in 3 workers belonged to a union.

As a labor scholar, I agree that the evidence shows a surge in union activism. The obvious question is: Do these developments manifest a tipping point?

Signs of increased union activism

First, let’s take a closer look at 2022.

[LFC]

Some Tesla employees are looking to unionize. How long before Musk fires them all or shuts down the plant out of spite. At this point I don't put any rash, childish, self-destructive action past him.

Today, Tesla Autopilot workers in the company’s Gigafactory in Buffalo, New York have officially kicked off the union push with a letter to management, formally announcing their bid to unionize.

According to a report from Bloomberg, the employees behind the union push sent an email to Elon Musk and management today. The employees work on Tesla’s Autopilot project, and claim that the company actively tracks keystrokes to gauge how long employees spend on various work tasks, which some employees told Bloomberg prevents them from taking bathroom breaks. The union is pushing for better pay, job security, and protections that the company will not retaliate against union members.

“Tesla has demonstrated that as a company, it stands out among the rest in the industry,” Tesla Workers United wrote on its website. “As workers, we are proud to contribute to making this the case. We are organizing a union, with Workers United Upstate New York, that looks to be as innovative as the company we work for and to build an even more collaborative environment that will strengthen the company.”

[LFC]

Feb 14, 2023 16:08:13 GMT LFC said:

Some Tesla employees are looking to unionize.

Well that didn't take long. Between Twitter and Tesla, Musk clearly doesn't believe labor laws should apply to him.

In the wake of a union push that began to pick up steam this week, Tesla Workers United working with the company’s Autopilot function at Tesla’s Buffalo Gigafactory are claiming that they were fired by the Elon Musk-owned company in retaliation for their unionization efforts.

Bloomberg says that the complaint was made by Tesla Workers United in a filing with the United States National Labor Relations Board. The fledgling union claims that dozens of its members were fired in retaliation by the company for the collective effort to push for better pay and job security.

Tesla Workers United told Gizmodo in an email that over thirty employees were fired on February 15, one day after the union sent its email to management describing the intent to organize. The union also told Gizmodo that Tesla implemented a new policy that forbids employees to record meetings at the company unless all attendees agree. Workers were notified of this policy on Wednesday evening.

“We’re angry. This won’t slow us down. This won’t stop us. They want us to be scared, but I think they just started a stampede. We can do this. But I believe we will do this,” said Sara Costantino, current Tesla employee and organizing committee member, in a press release emailed to Gizmodo.

[LFC]

It looks like Michigan will be the first state in 60 years to repeal its "right to work" law.

Democratic lawmakers in the state Senate passed legislation Tuesday to repeal Michigan's right-to-work law opposed by labor advocates who argue that the law allowing those in unionized jobs to opt out of paying union dues and fees has led to stagnant wages and weakened protections for workers in the state.

Most states in the U.S. have right-to-work policies in place. Michigan could become the first in nearly 60 years to repeal its law.

"Today, we are showing the world that Michigan is not only where we make things and build things, it's where the people who do so are respected," said state Sen. Darrin Camilleri, D-Trenton, who introduced Senate Bill 34 repealing Michigan's right-to-work law for private sector workers that passed on a party-line vote.

House Democrats passed their own bill last week, so the two chambers will have to agree on which version to send to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer for her signature. But both chambers have now passed House Bill 4004, which would repeal right-to-work for public sector workers in the event that the U.S. Supreme Court reverses a previous decision barring public sector unions from requiring employees covered by collective bargaining agreements to pay union dues.

[LFC]

Having a history of very mixed personal interactions with unions, I have very mixed feelings about this.

U.S. Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., is introducing legislation today that would allow workers on strike to collect SNAP benefits, formerly known as food stamps.

The Food Secure Strikers Act comes amid a summer wave of union organizing activity — from locomotive plant workers in Erie to Hollywood writers and actors. A strike by newsroom workers at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Fetterman’s hometown newspaper, has been going on for nearly a year.

“Every union worker who is walking the picket line this summer needs to know that we have their back here in Washington,” Fetterman said in a statement. “The union way of life is sacred. It’s what built Pennsylvania and this nation. It is critical for us to protect workers’ right to organize, and that includes making sure they and their families have the resources to support themselves while on strike.”

Fetterman is chair of the Senate nutrition subcommittee, and said workers should not have “to choose between fighting for fair working conditions and putting food on the table for their families.”

Under current federal law, workers on strike and their households can only collect SNAP benefits if they qualified for the program before going on strike. The law took effect in 1981, and the U.S. Supreme Court upheld it in 1988. It has remained largely unchanged since.

[goldenvalley]

Jul 27, 2023 18:33:08 GMT LFC said:

Having a history of very mixed personal interactions with unions, I have very mixed feelings about this.

U.S. Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., is introducing legislation today that would allow workers on strike to collect SNAP benefits, formerly known as food stamps.

The Food Secure Strikers Act comes amid a summer wave of union organizing activity — from locomotive plant workers in Erie to Hollywood writers and actors. A strike by newsroom workers at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Fetterman’s hometown newspaper, has been going on for nearly a year.

“Every union worker who is walking the picket line this summer needs to know that we have their back here in Washington,” Fetterman said in a statement. “The union way of life is sacred. It’s what built Pennsylvania and this nation. It is critical for us to protect workers’ right to organize, and that includes making sure they and their families have the resources to support themselves while on strike.”

Fetterman is chair of the Senate nutrition subcommittee, and said workers should not have “to choose between fighting for fair working conditions and putting food on the table for their families.”

Under current federal law, workers on strike and their households can only collect SNAP benefits if they qualified for the program before going on strike. The law took effect in 1981, and the U.S. Supreme Court upheld it in 1988. It has remained largely unchanged since.

My grandad was a UMW member (operating engineer at coal mines).  I believe he said the union had a strike fund that helped people out while on strike.  Of course that was in the 40's and 50's when unions like UMW had many members and some power.  Perhaps that doesn't exist anymore or only exists in industrial based unions.

[goldenvalley]

In the midst of the UAW strike Ford has stopped constructing a battery manufacturing plant in Michigan.  Mixed motives for this:

It was unclear whether the halt was related to negotiations with the union, or to other issues. Ford has come under attack from Republican lawmakers because it plans to manufacture batteries at the plant in Marshall, Mich., using technology licensed from CATL, a Chinese company that is the world’s largest maker of batteries for electric cars.

At the same time, Ford has warned that increases in pay and benefits sought by the U.A.W. would undermine its efforts to ramp up manufacturing of electric vehicles.

If unions got all that they were asking for, “we would have to cancel our E.V. investments,” Jim Farley, Ford’s chief executive, said in an interview this month.

What is this about?

The plan for the Marshall factory was to produce batteries whose main ingredients are lithium, iron and phosphate. The technology is an alternative to batteries made from lithium, nickel and cobalt, which raise environmental and human rights concerns. Lithium-iron-phosphate batteries, or LFP, are heavier than batteries made with nickel and cobalt but cost less.

LFP batteries are not currently mass produced in the United States. Automakers, including Tesla, sell cars with LFP batteries imported from China. Ford has argued that making the batteries in the United States with Chinese technology is better than importing them.

The Biden administration is formulating rules that could prevent U.S. companies from working with some Chinese firms. Uncertainty about the regulatory climate is probably a factor in Ford’s decision to halt work on the plant, but the company could also be trying to put pressure on the union.