LaborUnionNews.com has quickly become the “Drudge Report of Labor News”; the largest aggregator of news about unions on the web, boasting that it links to over 50 news articles a day and has posted links to more than 34,000 labor news articles since it started in 2023.

Among labor movement activists, LaborUnionNews.com quickly amassed a large following mainly due to its daily posting of NLRB union election petitions and prolific aggregation of labor news.

As a veteran labor reporter, I signed up for a subscription a few months ago to help prepare our labor newsletter. I thought it was a low-budget labor news aggregator; they even solicited crowdfunding from labor readers, as a site like my own Payday Report does.

Now, I have discovered that LaborUnionNews.com is run by a notorious union buster named Peter List, who runs a multi-million dollar union-busting empire.

A decade ago, I exposed that List had previously worked with Senator Bob Corker to help anti-union forces narrowly defeat the UAW in 2014.

Now, the website uses its mass following to spread fake news about anti-the UAW in the run-up to the historic UAW election at Volkswagen in Chattanooga, which could confuse many local reporters and activists.

On the surface, LaborUnionNews.com could appear similar to other popular lower-budget labor news sites and aggregators like Labor Press, Labor Tribune, Northwest Labor Press, On Labor, How Things Work, and maybe even Payday Report.

However, mixed among links to mainstream labor news about real labor struggles and even links to left-wing websites about the UAW election in Chattanooga (including links to Payday Report), List has begun subtly mixing in anti-UAW articles that could confuse and trick many readers.

read more: https://paydayreport.com/anti-uaw-union-buster-secretly-behind-hit-labor-news-site/

Potbelly Sandwich Shop in downtown Portland paid almost $100,000 for about a month of union-busting. That’s according to mandatory disclosures the anti-union consulting firm filed March 23 with the U.S. Department of Labor.

According to the disclosures, Potbelly hired Optimal Employee Relations of Henderson, Nevada, on May 10, 2023, about a month before workers voted 9-6 on June 15 to join the independent union Restaurant Workers of Portland. Optimal’s contract with Potbelly ended in June 2023. Potbelly paid Optimal $97,722 on June 15 — the same day as the union election.

At Potbelly, workers still don’t have a first contract. Mark Medina, a Portland Jobs with Justice staff person who helped with the campaign, said shortly after the election the company fired three workers who led the union campaign. An unfair labor practice charge is still pending review by the National Labor Relations Board.

link: https://nwlaborpress.org/2024/04/potbelly-sandwich-spent-100k-to-fight-union/

Major League Soccer (MLS) and union referees have finalized a new collective bargaining agreement (CBA), ending a month-long labor lockout that saw union referees on the sidelines.

The new CBA, which the union voted to ratify on March 25, expires in early 2031 and includes adjustments to salaries and travel accommodations. After the union, the Professional Soccer Referees Association (PSRA), rejected a tentative agreement with the league’s Professional Referee Organization (PRO) in February, PRO locked out officials from league matches, impacting about 100 union referees during grueling months of negotiations.

PRO General Manager Mark Geiger said in a press release that PSRA referees would be back on the pitch right on time for that weekend’s slate of games after negotiators from both parties reached a tentative agreement the week of March 18.

“This seven-year term provides enhanced pay and benefits for all officials and the stability that will support the growth of the professional game in the U.S. and Canada,” he said.

Negotiations between both parties reached an impasse last month after PSRA referees overwhelmingly voted down a PRO proposal. Before that, negotiations necessitated the presence of a federal mediator, and both sides have since filed unfair labor practice claims with the National Labor Relations Board.

Now, both parties are moving forward.

“On behalf of PRO, I would like to thank the PSRA negotiating team and the federal mediator for their commitment to finding a mutually agreeable conclusion to these negotiations and their hard work in finalizing the terms,” Geiger added.

In a press statement, PSRA President and lead negotiator Peter Manikowski thanked the union’s negotiating team. He said the union hopes to build on the agreement in years to come as soccer continues to grow in North America.

“Standing strong with each other, we have been buoyed by the support of players, fans, supporters clubs, and other unionized workgroups during our employer-imposed lockout,” he said. “Together, we have won much-needed improvements demonstrating the value of having the best referees in MLS on the pitch.”

read more: https://prismreports.org/2024/04/03/major-league-soccer-referees-end-labor-lockout/

Workers at America’s largest chain of bookstores are gearing up for a nationwide union drive after six Barnes & Noble outlets voted to organize over the past year.

“Many more” stores will unionize, according to booksellers demanding better pay and conditions.

At locations that already have, employees accuse the chain’s management of dragging their heels during contract negotiations. James Daunt, the CEO, is said to have embarked upon a months-long campaign to dissuade employees from voting in favor.

read more: https://portside.org/2024-04-02/barnes-noble-workers-plan-union-drive-largest-us-bookstore-chain

The reality of the way that the institutions of organized labor, meaning the AFL-CIO, and the big unions, generally speaking, have mostly, in modern times, pursued a relationship with electoral politics [is] along the lines of, “We are an adjunct to the Democratic Party.” In some ways, it’s a natural sort of trap for unions to fall into, because we have a two-party political system and the Republicans want to destroy unions altogether. So it’s very easy for the Democrats to take labor for granted because they have the attitude of “Where else are you gonna go?” And you’ve seen, just in my lifetime, I think of the Clinton administration, the Obama administration, both administrations that got huge economic and other support from organized labor and didn’t really give that much back.
“By organizing workers, you naturally grow your own political power in a way that writing checks to politicians never does.”

What it means is that you change your focus from electoral politics to building labor power through worker organizing. And by organizing workers, you naturally grow your own political power in a way that writing checks to politicians never does.

If we can get working people and also unions and the institutions in the labor movement to turn their primary focus to building labor power and organizing new workers, what we will find is that political power naturally comes along with that. We can make the politicians come to us by making the labor movement strong. We don’t have to beg and cater to politicians in order to do nice things for the labor movement, you know. It’s really a shift in perspective and a shift in emphasis that I think if people would just focus more on building labor power, they’re going to get better political results in the long run.

ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — Nigeria's government employees and other union workers began a new nationwide strike Tuesday that threatened to shut down key services while people are angry about soaring inflation and growing economic pain.

Since assuming office in Africa's most populous country last year, President Bola Tinubu has enacted policies that include doing away with fuel subsidies and unifying the country’s multiple exchange rates, leading to a devaluation of the naira against the dollar.

Gasoline prices have more than doubled and inflation has shot up as a result, reaching close to 30% last month, the highest in nearly three decades, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

“We are hungry. There is nobody that doesn’t know this,” said Joe Ajaero, president of the Nigerian Labor Congress.

Others said the protest was the only way to get the government’s attention.

“Things are getting out of hand,” said Christian Omeje, a shop owner in the capital, Abuja. “Prices keep soaring, the aid the government said it would dole out has not been provided.”

This is just the latest strike action. In October, government labor unions reached a deal with the government to end strikes in return for monthly stipends and subsidies to cushion the blow of the new policies. Still, the unrest continued.

Unions say the government has failed to deliver on promises that included a monthly wage increase of approximately $20 for all workers for six months and payments of approximately $15 for three months to millions of vulnerable households.

A pledge to roll out gas-powered buses for mass transit last year also failed to materialize.

Most services appeared to continue Tuesday with a reduced workforce.

link; https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/nigerias-union-workers-strike-nationwide-011802119.html

The UAW, in a news release on Feb. 21, said it plans to spend $40 million on organizing workers in non-union auto plants and battery facilities. They also emphasized that their target area will be the South. The impetus for the push comes from the huge wins in Detroit, when the union coordinated strikes and successfully negotiated for their demands with Ford, General Motors, and Stellanis. Wage gains, cost-of-living adjustments, and other improvements were wins for the union.

Read the full story by Eric D. Lawrence for the Detroit Free Press, published here: https://www.freep.com/story/money/cars/2024/02/21/uaw-spending-millions-organizing-southern-nonunion-auto-plants/72687415007/

link: https://www.laborpress.org/uaw-commits-to-pouring-millions-into-organizing-non-union-workers/

9 British oil workers went on strike for almost a year. Now they get a collective agreement and pay rises. The LO union IE&FLT has now won a long-term strike on the Norwegian continental shelf. This happens on the evening IE&FLT was supposed to step up with sympathy strikes in several oil companies. This is not only an important victory for the nine, but for everyone who works on the Norwegian continental shelf! This was about something as fundamental as collective agreements and the right to organize.

Nine members, employed by a foreign company, demanded Norwegian wages and working conditions on the Norwegian continental shelf. After almost a year on strike, they have now won. The nine workers usually work with well stimulation on the Ekofisk field, from the vessel "Island Captain". It is this work that Industri Energi has demanded to be covered by Norwegian wage and working conditions. During the strike, three of the members were dismissed, and six ordered to work around the world.

The background for the strike was that Industri Energi believes SLB UK is engaging in social dumping on board the vessel "Island Captain", which is under contract for ConocoPhillips on the Ekofisk field. The workers here carry out work according to the oil service agreement, but both wages and working conditions are far from the level in the industry. Therefore IE&FLT demanded a collective agreement for its members, which the company refused to comply with.

While the workers have been on strike, the company has used strike breakers as replacements for the striking workforce.

read more: https://www.svenssonstiftelsen.com/post/oil-workers-prevailed-in-a-historic-strike-in-norway

I know this is going to sound really dumb, but I want to help unionize my state, and I am aware of two heavily exploited and under-represented groups.

I am qualified to work in entry-mid level positions in both of these fields but.. I want to unionize them from the outside instead of dealing with the shit from the inside. I can’t work those places because they are pretty abusive and I have an exceptionally low tolerance for that crap at this point, plus I’m kinda very much a communist, and this whole model we have doesn’t work for me.

Instead, I want to form/expand an organization for at least one of them. The one I’m looking to focus on is lab workers, and if that works, go from there. What would I need to do for that to happen in Wisconsin? Is it even possible to form an external workers union? I know there’s some limits to public sector bargaining in Wisconsin, and while I don’t think that applies to private sector, I don’t know whether a private company with government contracts (which a lot of them have) would count as public.

Are there any resources for this sort of thing? Maybe national unions that would want to expand if there’s enough interest? I’m super serious about doing this, so I’m really soliciting information.

Union-busting companies know how to deal with walkouts, sickouts, boycotts — and even limited strikes — pretty handily under existing labor law. But how in the world do they confront a theatrical production that puts their exploitation and worker abuses center stage?

How do they contend with art?

New Yorkers are gonna find out very shortly how the bosses at REI’s flagship store in Soho deal with it because the green vests there are developing a new play in conjunction with the Working Theater aimed at an eventual Off-Broadway production — and it dramatizes the workers’ ongoing fight to secure a first contract — as it happens.

“I knew I was gonna write a play about my day job — but I thought it was gonna be a comedy about greenwashing or actors having day jobs, something a little bit lighter than what I ended up with,” Foot Wears House playwright Laura Neill tells Work-Bites. “When I was hired, I was told REI is unionized. I was like, ‘Oh, great, this is amazing; I love being part of the unionized workforce.’”

As such, Neill anticipated a good contract with solid union protections would soon follow.

“And then I realized, of course, that REI is not bargaining in good faith at all,” she says. “And so, this play came out of that.”

Neill and some of her REI co-workers performed an excerpt of Foot Wears House at a special Working Theater showcase held earlier this week in Manhattan. A full reading of the developing production is slated for Saturday, February 24, at the Hudson Park Library. The event is free and starts at 2 p.m.

REI management is on record saying it doesn’t believe “union representation is the best path to improving work situations for REI employees” and that it is instead committed to “creating an employee experience that is so compelling that the need for union is not necessary.”

Cue the violins.

read more: https://www.work-bites.com/view-all/otpaccp787zdb9wwd1ralu11lhd47d

New Trades Union Congress (TUC) analysis reveals Women’s Pay Day – the day when the average woman stops working for free compared to the average man – is today, Wednesday 21 February. In some industries and in some parts of the country where the gender pay gap is wider, women effectively work for free for even longer

Women’s Pay Day: 52 days of working for free

New TUC analysis published on 21 February reveals that the average woman effectively works for free for nearly two months of the year compared to the average man. This is because the gender pay gap for all employees currently stands at 14.3%.

This pay gap means that working women must wait 52 days – nearly two months – before they stop working for free on Women’s Pay Day today.

And the analysis also shows that at current rates of progress, it will take 20 years – until 2044 – to close the gender pay gap.

read more: https://www.thecanary.co/uk/analysis/2024/02/21/womens-pay-day/

The union of 3,500 workers said, “our Union members have collectively decided to refuse handling all types of weaponised cargoes. Loading and unloading these weapons helps provide organizations with the ability to kill innocent people.”

New Delhi: The Water Transport Workers Federation of India, representing 3,500 workers at 11 major Indian ports, has declared that it will refuse to load or unload weapons to Israel on any ships it may be asked to do so, carrying armaments and bound for Israel.

The press release issued by them, dated February 14, says they have “decided to refuse to load or unload weaponized cargoes from Israel or any other country which could handle military equipments and its allied cargo for war in Palestine.”

The union says that as “Port workers, part of labour unions would always stand against the war and killing innocent people like women and children. The recent attack of Israel on Gaza plunging thousands of Palestinians into immense suffering and loss. Women and children have been blown to pieces in the war. Parents were unable to recognise their children killed in bombings which were exploding everywhere.”

Seeing any role in enabling ship to carry armaments which may aggravate the war in Gaza and particularly in Rafah, they have said “our Union members have collectively decided to refuse handling all types of weaponised cargoes. Loading and unloading these weapons helps provide organizations with the ability to kill innocent people.” The trade union has also called “for an immediate ceasefire”.

The press release further says, “as responsible trade unions, we declare our solidarity with those who campaign for peace. We call upon the workers of the world and peace-loving people to stand with the demand of free Palestine.”

read more: https://www.lemkininstitute.com/single-post/india-s-water-transport-workers-union-says-won-t-help-ships-carrying-arms-bound-for-israel

Nearly 500 Starbucks stores have filed for union representation so far.

Starbucks workers in 21 locations across 14 states are filing to unionize on Tuesday, marking the highest number of stores petitioning to join Starbucks Workers United (SWU) on a single day in the union’s history, the group says.

The stores filing for a union Tuesday are located across the country, from Long Island, New York, to San Jose, California, with other filings coming from Arkansas, Colorado, Louisiana, Nevada, North Dakota, Ohio, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Wisconsin, Washington, and elsewhere in California and New York.

In a joint letter sent to CEO Laxman Narasimhan signed by representatives from each of the 21 stores, workers cited similar problems as other stores that have filed for representation, including understaffing, cuts to hours and insufficient wages and benefits.

“We have worked through violent threats from customers, unsafe weather conditions, and a global pandemic. Despite our willingness to work regardless of this disregard for our health and safety, we have been met with higher and higher expectations without being given the resources to meet them,” the workers wrote.

“Starbucks’ profit driven behavior makes doing our jobs impossible,” they continued. “We cannot keep up with constant promotions, dilapidated equipment, and unclean stores. It’s clear to us now more than ever that this one-sided relationship is no longer working.”

read more: https://truthout.org/articles/starbucks-union-unveils-largest-1-day-filing-with-21-stores-joining-effort/

New data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics documents a significant jump in on the job deaths in the US.

Current workplace fatality figures, released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) in December 2023, show that on-the-job deaths in the United States have jumped significantly, reaching their highest level in ten years.

The results, obtained as part of the Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries (CFOI), analyzed information collected over the course of 2022 — and documented a notable 5.7 percent increase in workplace deaths in the U.S. during the relevant 2021-2022 census period.

The toll represented a 10-year high for fatal work injuries. Nearly 6,000 U.S. workers died on the job — and, another BLS survey found, a startling total of 2.8 million were injured or sickened.

Worker safety in the U.S., while comparing favorably to industrializing postcolonial states, is not commensurate with the nation’s wealth, nor with the standards of other developed capitalist countries. The grim results of 2022 are the consequences of collapsing regulatory oversight and the degradation of worker power in the U.S. — two hallmarks of the neoliberal era and its consolidated corporate dominance.

read more: https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/1-us-worker-dies-on-the-job-every-96-minutes-latest-data-shows/

Costco bosses basked in praise for making union-friendly statements but have yet to commit to bargain in good faith.

Last December, a group of 238 Costco workers in Norfolk, Virginia, voted to unionize and join Teamsters Local 822. The local declared the vote “the union’s first organizing victory at the wholesale retailer in two decades.” The voices of the pro-union workers who won this contested election — the vote was 111-92 — were quickly overshadowed, however, by a letter from Costco’s leadership that garnered much attention beyond the shop floor.

Outgoing Chief Executive Officer Craig Jelinek and incoming CEO President Ron Vachris stated in a letter addressed to all Costco employees, that “we’re disappointed by the result” of the union election. But, they added, “We’re not disappointed in our employees; we’re disappointed in ourselves as managers and leaders.” In their view, the employees voted for a union because management failed to satisfy its “core value of ‘taking care of our employees.’”

For an HR letter, it went viral. Much praise was lavished onto Jelinek and Vachris for their “graceful” and “classy” response. CNN described the letter as “surprising” and in “stark contrast” to “other companies, such as Starbucks, [which] have pushed back hard against union organizing.” Others praised Costco’s “emotional intelligence” and ability to look “inward.”

During the early 1990s, Costco competed with Price Club, another retailer that already had unionized workers. When Costco merged with Price Club in 1993, many of the union warehouses (mostly located in California) remained union. In the early to mid-2000s, the Teamsters expanded the number of union warehouses with some successful campaigns in New Jersey, New York, Maryland and Virginia. But it was always a challenge.

read more: https://truthout.org/articles/costco-says-its-not-anti-union-unionized-workers-are-putting-that-to-the-test/

Fans of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade may have noticed one glaring omission in its cast of charismatic balloons and floats: Scabby the Rat, who for some reason, has never been invited.

But what employer wouldn’t want a reminder from Scabby—“an imposing 12-foot inflatable rat, replete with red eyes, fangs, and claws,” as the National Labor Relations Board puts it—to stay on its best behavior?

Macy’s workers in northwest Washington rectified this last year by prominently featuring Scabby when they launched a strike and boycott campaign against the retailer over low wages and safety issues. Scabby was also the star of their own mock Thanksgiving Parade.

Members of Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 3000 had been working under an expired contract since last March.

“What many shoppers may not realize is that a lot of us store workers can barely afford to cover our health care premiums, on top of housing, food, gas and other basic needs on the low wages we are paid,” said Nicole Hardin, a 17-year Macy’s employee who works at the cosmetics counter and who served on the local’s negotiating team.

Hardin was one of over 400 Local 3000 members who went on a three-day unfair labor practice (ULP) strike in November. They walked out of Macy’s stores at three area malls on Black Friday, the infamously busy shopping day.

read more: https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/strikes-and-a-boycott-win-a-better-deal-from-macys/

Grocery and retail workers helped win critical tenant protections for the 100,000 renters in the city of Tacoma.

Grocery and retail workers helped win the strongest tenant protections in Washington state last November for the 100,000 renters in the city of Tacoma.

First we had to beat the mayor’s and city council’s attempt to bring a competing watered-down ballot measure. And then we had to overcome a vicious and deceptive landlord opposition that smashed all previous political spending records in Tacoma.

“We’ve created incredible goodwill in the community just as we gear up for a tough contract fight,” said Michael Whalen, who helped initiate the campaign as a dairy clerk and shop steward at Fred Meyer.

“Members were inspired to take on this fight not only because we have co-workers sleeping in cars; not only because rent hikes keep eating away at bargaining table gains,” said Whalen, a member of Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 367’s executive board and now on union staff. “Solidarity goes both ways, and we’re going to need all of Tacoma to stand with us as we get strike-ready.”

read more: https://truthout.org/articles/ufcw-local-leads-campaign-to-win-strongest-tenant-protections-in-washington/

Syndicat des Travailleurs et Travailleuses du Jeu Vidéo (STJV), a French video game workers union, organised a strike of nearly 700 Ubisoft employees across Paris, Montpellier, Annecy, Lyon, and Bordeaux participated in a national strike. The workers aren't satisfied with their inadequate pay that doesn't take inflation into account, and they are taking action.