NLRB officer: Amazon union election should be rescheduled. Amazon improperly pressured workers to vote against joining the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU), and a new union election should be held, a National Labor Relations Board hearing officer recommended last month.
April’s fiercely contested election at a Bessemer, Ala., warehouse ended in defeat for the union, with a 2-to-1 vote against unionizing. Oddly, however, out of almost 6,000 warehouse workers, only 3,117 cast ballots.
The NLRB’s regional director in Atlanta is expected to agree or not in coming weeks.
Amazon reportedly threatened workers with layoffs or closing the warehouse, fired a pro-union worker and installed a Post Office mailbox on Amazon property where management allegedly had access to it and could monitor who voted.
With union backing, Hyde Amendment dropped. The House-passed bill for the Labor, Health & Human Services and Education Departments funding increased budgets for enforcement in the fiscal year starting Oct. 1. But while Republicans squawked over DOL spending, the big battle was over abortion, again. This time, pro-choice supporters won, as the 45-year-old Hyde Amendment (banning use of Medicaid funds for abortions) was repealed.
The Coalition of Labor Union Women has backed reproductive rights for years; the AFL-CIO since 2012.
“The AFL-CIO believes all women should have universal access to quality health care at a reasonable cost that is not determined by political agendas,” an AFL-CIO resolution stated. “It is crucial that we, as the labor movement, continue to defend the rights of all women and all employees against any effort to allow employers to dictate the quality of women’s health care.”
Nexstar broke labor law: appeals court. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit found that management at Nexstar Broadcasting – which operates Peoria-area TV stations WMBD and WYZZ – committed Unfair Labor Practices by unilaterally changing terms of an expired NABET-CWA contract at Portland’s KOIN-TV.
Nexstar is the nation’s largest television station operator, with 197 stations, also including WGN TV and radio in Chicago, WCIA and WCIX in Champaign/Urbana, WQRF and WTVO in Rockford, and WHBF, KLJB and KGCW in the Quad Cities.
This decision upheld a ruling by the National Labor Relations Board.
“The company thought they could wear us down and that we wouldn’t fight back,” said NABET-CWA Local 51 President Carrie Biggs-Adams. “But they’ve underestimated our union at every turn, and the courts have sided with us yet again.”
Women and union groups march for voting rights. Honoring the suffragists, hundreds of women and prominent supporters adorned with white sashes all marched on Capitol Hill in July, demanding lawmakers protect and strengthen voting rights, raise the minimum wage, and end the Senate filibuster that blocks legislation.
Like suffragists on a similar march during World War I, 70 got arrested for stepping into the street. Among those arrested were Poor People’s Campaign leaders Liz Theoharis and William Barber II, and Communications Workers Secretary-Treasurer Sara Steffens.
Others in the demonstration included members of the Service Employees (SEIU), Unite Here, Code Pink, and Indivisible, plus people from the Quakers, Pax Christi and other faith groups.
“Millions of working people delivered a message at the ballot box last year: We need a new normal, so families no longer struggle to make ends meet every day because corporations and self-interested politicians treat workers as sacrificial, not essential,” said SEIU President Mary Kay Henry.
Presbyterian pastor Jimmie Hawkins added, “Millions of American workers are overworked, underpaid and denied benefits. The needs of this nation are not partisan.”
Sierra Club backs PRO Act. Working people’s allies continue to announce support for labor law reform, and this summer the Sierra Club said, “The PRO Act recognizes that all workers deserve the fundamental right to form a union. Fighting for a voice at work is an essential step towards worker power and broader democratic power in our communities and our country. When workers’ rights are protected, whole communities are uplifted.”
Biden backs educators. Telling teachers, “You deserve a raise, not just praise,” President Joe Biden said his spending plans target that goal and more.
“We are doing things that will fundamentally change the trajectory of this country. It’s about building America from the middle up and middle out, not trickling down,” the president told the centennial convention of the nation’s largest union, the National Education Association.
“My budget invests $20 billion more in Title I schools,” Biden said – a 40% increase for those schools with the greatest numbers of kids from low-income families. “No student’s education should depend on their ZIP code.”
Biden also wants to invest $9 billion in teacher education to diversify the teaching workforce and replace its constant turnover.
“And one of the first things that funding will be used for is to help educators in those schools get the raises they deserve and the resources they need,” he said,
Between listening to Biden, First Lady Dr. Jill Biden — a community college English professor and NEA member — delegates heard NEA President Becky Pringle say, “We’ve done a lot of difficult, inspirational and truly impactful work – electing President Biden, voting in a new Senate, securing historic investments in our schools, [and] winning court and legislative battles against attacks on our students’ rights to safe and equitable schools, our rights as educators to organize, our right to exist as a union.
“We have fought for democracy, but we’re not done yet,” she continued. “With renewed strength and unwavering determination, we will lead through this attack on truth and democracy…We will fight for honesty in education.”
News briefs courtesy of The Labor Paper