Workers at 100-plus Starbucks stores nationwide have said they’re unionizing, including ones in Peoria, and that’s more than 1% of the coffee chain’s standalone locations (as opposed to counters inside retailers). Workers United says 968 more workers in 33 Starbucks sites have filed for elections with the National Labor Relations Board.
Union leaders praise President Joe Biden’s United States Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson, a judge on the D.C. federal court of appeals. Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants, said, “America needs more judges who understand and support the rights of workers. For too long, the courts have sided with corporations over labor, fundamentally and perniciously reshaping American law, life and liberty.
“Judge Brown Jackson has a long record of protecting the constitutional rights of workers and everyday people.”
Teamster “ghost worker” quits as State Senator: Based on prosecutors’ allegations that Illinois State Senator Tom Cullerton was on the payroll of Teamsters Joint Council 25 but did no work, the Villa Park Democrat last month resigned from the Senate. Accused of collecting more than $273,000 over four years, he faces 39 counts of embezzlement and other charges.
Alabama Amazon workers file ULP in rerun: The Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union-UFCW on Feb. 22 said they’d filed Unfair Labor Practice charges against Amazon, claiming that the online retail giant has engaged in misconduct during the rerun election at the Amazon facility in Bessemer, Ala. The ULP alleges that Amazon limited workers’ access inside the facility outside of work hours, which the National Labor Relations Board had demanded.
Women’s soccer players achieve pay equity: After a six-year legal fight about equal pay, a group of women professional soccer players and U.S. Soccer agreed to a $24 million settlement of a class-action lawsuit, including a pledge to equalize pay with the men’s team.
Texas National Guard unionizes: In January, the Department of Justice granted the right to unionize to National Guard members called to active duty, so now Texas National Guard troops stationed along the U.S.-Mexico border are the first in the nation to organize, according to the Army Times newspapers.
Eaton forces Iowa plant workers to walk: The wave of worker activism nicknamed “Strike-tober” continued this winter, as some 365 Machinists members at Eaton’s factory in Davenport, Iowa, were forced to walk February 18.
Members of Machinists Lodge 388 and Local 1191 at the plant, where they manufacture aerial refueling systems, overwhelmingly rejected management’s last offer; then 98% voted to authorize a strike; a third vote called for a work stoppage when the previous expired. Eaton bought the plant from Cobham Mission Systems the year before for $2.6 billion. Key issues at Eaton are management’s demands to hit workers with higher costs of health care, an inadequate wage proposal and an outright cut in the company’s contribution to workers’ 401(k) plans, which were already reduced under the prior contract. One worker told Davenport’s News8 that the firm’s offer also killed cost-of-living hikes.
Iowa Machinists business representative John Herrig said the workers “refuse to accept sub-standard wages or the erosion of our health care and retirement benefits.”
News briefs courtesy of The Labor Paper.