#Unionization

[destielmemenews]

"Members of the Teamsters union went on strike at Amazon early Thursday in a labor action at seven facilities in four states coast to coast just ahead of the holiday gift-giving rush.

Amazon said that its operations will not be affected by any of the union’s actions. Although the Teamsters claim to represent 7,000 Amazon workers nationwide, that accounts for less than 1% of the company’s US workforce."

"Amazon shows no indication it is willing to reach a deal with the Teamsters or even recognizes that the union speaks for any of its workers, despite the union declaring that employees at numerous Amazon facilities have signed cards asking to join."

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[destiel-news-network]

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"The Tech Guild is asking readers to honor the digital picket line and not play popular NYT Games such as Wordle and Connections as well as not use the NYT Cooking app."

[thegoodmorningman]

Good Morning!!! Happy Labor Day!!!

Enjoy Capitalism! There is no escape!!!

[tmninjagirl]

“Give them bread and circuses, and they will never revolt.”

— Juvenal, Satires

[commie-leatherfemme]

Have you ever stopped to think about how if you work for a publicly traded company you should definitely unionize. Not just for the the better pay, benefits and working conditions, but because with careful planning, you could hold that company hostage with increasingly expensive demands. Once profits drop as a result, the company's stock starts being seen as a liability and shareholders start selling en masse. The union uses its funds to buy up that stock at pennies on the dollar, and voila, the proletariat now controls the means of production

[grackleink]

Being in a union is fucking amazing in theory, but in practice you actually have to do all the work. You have to organize within your union, you have to engage in politics and deal with difficult personalities. You have to manage funds and get the membership involved. Otherwise you end up with a boomer union president acting as a despot refusing to use the union's money - your money - for anything valuable and hoarding it instead. Refusing to step up and demand better pay and working conditions because he got his. You can't just join a union and then assume everything is fine. You have to join a union and then get involved in the union. You have to fight for it.

[whatbigotspost]

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Some very good news out of Austin today!

APA is an important org here—my own clowder of kittens came from them. They are an inextricable part of how the city maintains “no kill” status, and a lot of their work is “good……”

AND that particular nonprofit organization has a VERY VERY BAD reputation for treatment of employees in the most basic ways. Being in the sector for 15 years here, I have friends and professional acquaintances who work there now who helped champion this victory and many more who have worked there in the past who report that leadership “openly admits to caring more about animals than people.”

So yeah, this victory is big for lots of reasons.

[emuanon34]

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Dave Jamieson at HuffPost:

Amazon delivery drivers at several of the retailer’s hubs went on strike Thursday demanding the company bargain a union contract, according to the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. The Teamsters said the walkouts hit seven facilities in New York, California, Georgia and Illinois less than a week before Christmas. It was unclear how many workers took part or how much the strikes disrupted deliveries. Sean O’Brien, the union’s president, said in a statement that Amazon had “pushed workers to the limit.” “If your package is delayed during the holidays, you can blame Amazon’s insatiable greed,” O’Brien said. “We gave Amazon a clear deadline to come to the table and do right by our members. They ignored it.” Kelly Nantel, an Amazon spokesperson, said the company hadn’t seen “any impact on our operations” due to the walkouts. She also accused the Teamsters of “threatening” and “intimidating” workers into joining the union.

“For more than a year now, the Teamsters have continued to intentionally mislead the public — claiming that they represent ‘thousands of Amazon employees and drivers,’” Nantel said in a statement. “They don’t, and this is another attempt to push a false narrative.” The Teamsters have been trying to organize the nonunion drivers who work out of Amazon’s hubs. Those drivers technically work for outside contractors — “delivery service partners,” in Amazon-speak — but the union argues the world’s largest online retailer is the one that controls the working conditions.

[...] Amazon has insisted it doesn’t legally employ the drivers, although the drivers wear Amazon uniforms, drive Amazon-branded vans and deliver Amazon packages. Prosecutors at the National Labor Relations Board have challenged Amazon’s position, asserting that the retailer is really a “joint employer” of delivery drivers at a hub in Southern California. But such cases take years to litigate, and Amazon is likely to find a more employer-friendly NLRB under President-elect Donald Trump.

Amazon drivers at several plants have gone on strike to demand union contracts of its drivers. #AmazonStrike

[offsidenewsco]

"Gordie Howe was the best player in the world, not just great but a full step above whoever dared to beg for second place."

Read the second installment of @sergeifyodorov's history of the #NHL here.

[destielmemenews]

The strike comes after the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers announced that 94.6% of union members voted to reject a proposed contract from Boeing. The deal would've included a 25% pay raise over four years, much lower than the requested 40%.

This is expected to halt the production of aircraft in Washington state, where most of the union members are located.

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[destiel-news-network]

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[redditreceipts]

amazon telling their workers to not join a union because they are concerned about *checks notes* privacy

[thegoodmorningman]

genuinely i send these to my coworkers so often i love them, thank you

Good Morning Vampire G Won, Don't Mourn. Organize!!! Your friend until the ends of Time, Bud☀️🧙🏼‍♂️✌🏼

[justinssportscorner]

Andrea Hsu at NPR:

Hours before their final game of the season, the Dartmouth men's basketball team has voted to join a union, becoming the first unionized college sports team in the U.S. and opening many thorny questions about the future of college sports. Led by Dartmouth forward Cade Haskins and guard Romeo Myrthil, the 15 players announced their intent to unionize last September, arguing that the business of college sports is different that it was a few years ago. Tuesday's vote was 13 to 2 in favor of joining SEIU Local 560. "Today is a big day for our team. We stuck together all season and won this election," wrote Haskins and Myrthil in a statement. "Let's work together to create a less exploitative business model for college sports." The election was held over the objections of the Trustees of Dartmouth College, which last week filed a motion asking the National Labor Relations Board to halt the election pending further review. The NLRB denied that request. On Tuesday, Dartmouth asked the NLRB to overturn the decision by the agency's regional director to hold the election in the first place, setting the stage for a protracted legal fight.

Are college athletes employees?

At the heart of this election was the issue of whether college athletes should be considered employees and therefore have to the right under federal labor law to form unions and collectively bargain over pay and benefits. In the student newspaper, Haskins and Myrthil said they believe they should be compensated the same as other student employees. Being paid for the time they spend on the sport "would alleviate the need for second jobs and enhance our experience as part of the Dartmouth community," they wrote. A union would also allow them to negotiate better health care benefits, to cover out-of-pocket costs incurred as a result of injuries sustained while playing for the school, the players argued.

In a ruling last month, NLRB regional director Laura Sacks concluded that an employer-employee relationship does exist between the Dartmouth basketball players and the college. She found that the players perform work that benefits their school through things like alumni donations and publicity, that the players are compensated for that work in nonmonetary ways, and that Dartmouth exercises a lot of control over that work. Her ruling paved the way for Tuesday's election.

Dartmouth College's men's basketball team is the first college basketball team to be unionized, as they voted to join SEIU Local 560.

See Also:

Daily Kos: Dartmouth men's basketball team makes history by becoming first US college sports team to unionize