Search Results for 'NLRB'
Organizing & Bargaining |
Oct 28 |
Rite Aid Workers Win Big Victory from NLRB
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Robert Masciola in the AFL-CIO Organizing Department writes about a victory in the three-year struggle by Rite Aid workers to join a union.
In March 2008, nearly 700 workers at Rite Aid’s distribution center in Lancaster, Calif., overcame a vicious two-year anti-union campaign to gain a voice on the job by voting for International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) Local 26.
The workers sought union representation to put an end to punishing production quotas and mandatory overtime piled on top of 10-hour shifts. They work in hot desert summers with no air conditioning in their work areas, with no job security.
As we enter the fall of 2009, workers are still fighting hard to win a first contract. But it has been hard given the employers’ conduct.
Organizing & Bargaining |
Oct 26 |
L.A. Carwash Workers Celebrate Law Preventing Wage Theft, Spread the Word
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Chloe Osmer of the Clean Carwash Campaign in Los Angeles took part in a rally to celebrate a new law that protects workers from wage theft and later helped spread the word to carwash workers across the area.
Carwash workers and their community supporters celebrated passage of A.B. 236, a bill to renew the state’s Carwash Worker Law on Friday. Carwash workers, legal services, community organizations and unions announced the launch of an outreach campaign to raise awareness about the law to the roughly 10,000 workers in the Los Angeles-area carwash industry.
The Carwash Worker Law was one of only a handful of labor bills signed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger this legislative session. Manuel Zuniga, who worked at Florence Carwash in Los Angeles for more than three years, told the crowd:
Carwash workers helped pass this law, and now we want all workers in this industry to know it exists. We have found our voice and we are saying, “Ya basta” (”We’ve had enough”) to exploitation!
In the States, Legislation & Politics, Organizing & Bargaining |
Oct 14 |
California Carwash Workers Win Another Victory
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Carwash workers in California are fighting for justice and an end to the exploitation many workers suffer at the hands of abusive carwash owners. One of the workers’ major protections—the Carwash Worker Law—was set to expire this year. But the workers and unions supporting them mobilized for its renewal. Chloe Osmer, of the Clean Carwash Campaign sent us this update.
This week, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) signed into law AB 236, a bill to renew the state’s “Carwash Worker Law” and extend it to 2014. The California Labor Federation and the Community-Labor-Environmental Action Network (CLEAN) Carwash Campaign worked hard to win the bill’s passage.
Sponsored by Assembly member Sandre Swanson (D), the law requires all carwashes to register with the state, enabling the state to prevent employers who have violated labor laws in the past from continuing to do so. It also requires that carwash employers purchase a surety bond as wage insurance and contribute to the Carwash Worker Restitution Fund, both of which provide workers with a means to collect owed wages.
Organizing & Bargaining |
Oct 9 |
Red Cross Cost-Cutting Endangers Blood Supply, Workers, Donors
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Millions of Americans contribute blood and money to the Red Cross with the belief that the organization is well run and the blood supply is protected. But a new Jobs with Justice report raises serious concerns about donor safety and the security of the nation’s blood supply.
During a Jobs with Justice telephone press conference yesterday, Mary McDougal, who has worked for a decade at the Red Cross in Buffalo, N.Y., said the Red Cross must improve the way it treats workers and donors.
Red Cross headquarters in Washington, D.C., thinks it can run a blood drive like you run a McDonald’s. [They need to] hire the right people, give them proper training and listen to us.
The Missouri Jobs with Justice Workers’ Rights Board released the report, “Labor Relations at the American Red Cross and Its Impact on Employee and Donor Safety,” after hearing from front-line Red Cross workers across the country. The investigative report outlines practices that jeopardize blood donors’ safety and the integrity of the blood supply, including long work hours that lead to fatigue and mistakes; sharp pay cuts that cause dramatic increases in employee turnover and hiring non-qualified workers instead of certified nurses.
Organizing & Bargaining |
Oct 7 |
AT&T Workers, Flight Attendants and Writers Win Union Victories
More than 300 workers at AT&T Mobility have chosen a voice with the Communications Workers of America (CWA) in the past five weeks, providing more proof that workers want the Employee Free Choice Act. If enacted, the bill would give workers the option of choosing whether to join a union through the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) process or via majority sign-up or “card-check.” AT&T workers used the majority verification process to join CWA.
Most recently, in Vermont, 81 AT&T Mobility retail store workers voted for CWA Local 1400 through majority sign-up. Since Aug. 21, some 230 workers gained CWA representation at AT&T Mobility in Washington State, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Idaho, and at the online website, truthout.org, which operates in five states and Washington, D.C.
Organizing & Bargaining |
Oct 6 |
Line Clearance Workers Choose IBEW
The workers at Guzman Garden Line Clearance voted to join Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 47 last month after their bosses reneged on promises to make changes and give workers a voice.
Guzman Gardens is a line clearance contractor that works on Los Angeles Department of Water and Power property. This summer, Guzman workers contacted Local 47 and inquired about joining the union and 22 of the 24 workers signed cards seeking representation by the union.
Legislation & Politics |
Oct 5 |
Union-Busting Hotel Ordered to Rehire Fired Workers, Return to Bargaining
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Last week in Hawaii, a federal judge ordered the Pacific Beach Hotel to rehire at least seven workers fired during contract negotiations. The illegal firings were part of 15 findings of unfair labor practices by the hotel. Hotel management’s behavior here is another sign that we need to pass the Employee Free Choice Act, to restore the freedom to bargain to all workers.
Pacific Beach workers voted more than four years ago to form a union with the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) Local 142, but hotel management used the all-too-common tactics of delay and worker intimidation, in the process denying employees the freedom to bargain for a contract. The findings of abuses by hotel management by the federal court include interrogation of employees about union support, threats of job loss or punishments for union support and targeting of contract negotiators for firing.
Corporate Greed, Organizing & Bargaining |
Oct 2 |
NLRB Orders Coal Co. to Rehire 85 Mine Workers
The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ordered Mammoth Coal Co., a subsidiary of Massey Energy, to recognize and bargain with the Mine Workers (UMWA) as the exclusive representative of the workers at its Mammoth Mine in Smithers, W.Va.
The Sept. 30 ruling also orders Mammoth to rehire 85 former workers at the mine who were not hired when Massey bought the operation in 2004. Says UMWA President Cecil Roberts:
This tremendous victory affirms what we have been saying all along. Mammoth Coal had an obligation to recognize the union when it bought this mine out of bankruptcy, and it had an obligation to rehire the miners who were working there at the time the board found were discriminated against because of their union membership.
Legislation & Politics, Organizing & Bargaining |
Sep 30 |
Justice Dept. Asks Supreme Court to Decide on NLRB Rulings
For nearly two years, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has been hearing cases and issuing rules with just two members. While many of those decisions were accepted by the parties involved, dozens have been appealed to federal courts citing the two-member status of the NLRB and arguing that a two member board did not constitute a quorum that could act under the National Labor Relations Act. The five-member NLRB is staffed by presidential nominees who must be approved by the Senate.
Today, on behalf of the National Labor Relations Board, Solicitor General Elena Kagan asked the U.S. Supreme Court to settle the question of whether the board is authorized to issue decisions while three of its five seats remain vacant.
Organizing & Bargaining |
Sep 29 |
Help Keep Stella D’Oro Jobs in the Bronx
It’s down to the wire for workers at Stella D’oro Biscuit Co. The North Carolina-based snack maker Lance Inc., wants to buy Stella D’Oro and move production from its 78-year home in the Bronx to a nonunion bakery in Ohio.
The sale will not be finalized until October. Jobs with Justice is urging all of us to take action now by signing an online petition urging Lance CEO David Singer to keep Stella D’oro and its good union jobs in the Bronx.
In July 2009, 136 Stella D’oro workers, members of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers (BCTGM) Local 50, returned to work after an 11-month strike to maintain family-supporting wages and health care.
