#union busting

[b3aches]

Companies That Union-Bust Must Now Automatically Recognize Union, NLRB Rules

The National Labor Relations Board issued a ruling on Friday that changes the framework for unionizations, making it easier for workers to organize and harder for companies to fight back against them. The new process comes as part of a decision in the case between Cemex Construction Materials Pacific, LLC and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, where the Board found that the employer had committed over 20 “instances of objectionable or unlawful misconduct” between the filing of the union election petition and the election itself, intending to dissuade workers from organizing.

[whatbigotspost]

Lil update (11/28/22) on Amazon and union busting…

From Instagram

[dispatchesfromtheclasswar]

[reasonsforhope]

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"Hot Labor Summer just became a scorcher.

[On August 25, 2023], the National Labor Relations Board released its most important ruling in many decades. In a party-line decision in Cemex Construction Materials Pacific, LLC, the Board ruled that when a majority of a company’s employees file union affiliation cards, the employer can either voluntarily recognize their union or, if not, ask the Board to run a union recognition election. If, in the run-up to or during that election, the employer commits an unfair labor practice, such as illegally firing pro-union workers (which has become routine in nearly every such election over the past 40 years, as the penalties have been negligible), the Board will order the employer to recognize the union and enter forthwith [a.k.a. immediately] into bargaining.

The Cemex decision was preceded by another, one day earlier, in which the Board, also along party lines, set out rules for representation elections which required them to be held promptly after the Board had been asked to conduct them, curtailing employers’ ability to delay them, often indefinitely.

Taken together, this one-two punch effectively makes union organizing possible again, after decades in which unpunished employer illegality was the most decisive factor in reducing the nation’s rate of private-sector unionization from roughly 35 percent to the bare 6 percent at which it stands today...

“This is a sea change, a home run for workers,” said Brian Petruska, an attorney for the Laborers Union who authored a 2017 law review article on how to effectively restore to workers their right to collective bargaining enshrined in the 1935 National Labor Relations Act, which was all but nullified by the act’s weakening over the past half-century. Taken together, Petruska added, last week’s decisions recreate “a system with no tolerance for employers’ coercion of their employees” when their employees seek their legal right to collective bargaining...

Since the days of Lyndon Johnson, every time that the Democrats have controlled the White House and both houses of Congress, they’ve tried to put some teeth back into the steadily more toothless NLRA. But they’ve never managed to muster the 60 votes needed to get those measures through the Senate. The Cemex ruling actually goes beyond much of what was proposed in those never-enacted bills."

-via The American Prospect, August 28, 2023

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Note: I didn't include it because the paragraphs about it went super into the weeds, but the reason all of this is happening is because of the NRLB's general counsel, Jennifer Abruzzo, who was appointed by Biden. In fact, according to this article, this "secures Abruzzo’s place as the most important public official to secure American workers’ rights since New York Sen. Robert Wagner, who authored the NLRA in 1935." Voting matters

[allthecanadianpolitics]

Indigo is closing a beloved Chapters bookstore in Scarborough in a move that has employees and regulars alike accusing them of union busting. The Chapters at Kennedy Commons is not only the largest bookstore in Scarborough and one of the best Indigo locations in the city, it's one of three unionized Chapters locations in Toronto. According to Indigo (which owns Chapters), the decision to shutter the business was merely a fiscal one. In a statement to CBC Toronto, they suggested that the location's profitability wasn't up to par. But employees of the location, as well as some locals, aren't buying it. For some, the company's decision to close this specific location doesn't add up, leading to accusations of union busting from the store's employees and supporters.

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Tagging @politicsofcanada

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Half-Price Books, stop jerking your union around!

The booksellers at Half Price Books achieved union recognition in January 2022, but their employer still won't give them a contract.

That's a scummy way for a "family business" to treat hardworking booksellers, who are seeking a living wage - and are being offered a real-terms pay cut instead.

Booksellers can't live on love of literature - they need to pay rent, buy groceries and support their families. Half Price, give HPB Workers Unite the contract they deserve!

[robertreich]

It’s Time to Roast Starbucks For Union Busting

Starbucks should be getting publicly roasted for union busting and refusing to even negotiate with unionized workers.

You see, if there’s one thing I love more than coffee, it’s unions. Because unions perk up pay.

And if there’s one thing I hate more than corporations who try to bust unions, it’s having to make my own coffee every morning.

I may be known for a lot of things, but making a good cup of coffee isn’t one of them.

I was thrilled to hear about workers in Starbucks’ stores across the country exercising their right to unionize.

A cup of solidarity brewed by a unionized barista? What could be better than that?

Definitely not me being my own barista.

Starbucks is a multibillion dollar company. Its new CEO will start with a pay package estimated to be worth over $28 million dollars. That’s roughly 800x the pay of the workers who actually brew and serve the coffee the business is built on — and who barely earn a living wage.                                            

That’s why those workers have begun to unionize.

Since December 2021, Starbucks Workers United has won union elections in more than 300 Starbucks stores, covering more than 8,000 workers and counting.

And most of the union campaigns in individual stores won by overwhelming margins, gaining more than 70% of the total votes — and in parts of the country where private sector unions rarely win.

The Starbucks union campaign has inspired young workers across the country and breathed life into a U.S. labor movement that has been stagnant for decades.

It’s been so successful that Starbucks briefly brought its former CEO, billionaire Howard Schultz, out of retirement to bust the union, and still refuses to even sit down at the bargaining table.

That’s why I’ve been boycotting Starbucks.

As part of its campaign to tamp down further unionization, Starbucks corporate has fired scores of pro-union workers, closed stores that have unionized, threatened to withhold wage and benefit improvements from stores considering unionizing, and packed stores with outside managers to undermine organizing efforts.

The National Labor Relations Board, which oversees all union elections in the U.S., has issued more than 93 complaints covering 328 unfair labor practice charges against Starbucks — and ordered reinstatement of at least 23 fired workers so far.

Yet Starbucks is unwilling to change its anti-union ways — even though Schultz was grilled in front of Congress 

Starbucks claims to be a “progressive” company.

But based on the way it’s broken labor law and put unionized workers in the percolator, that couldn’t be further from the truth.

Now is an opportunity for all of us to make our voices heard and to tell Starbucks to stop UNION BUSTING and bargain in good faith with Starbucks Workers United.

And it’s time for Joe Biden, who calls himself the “most pro-union president in American history,” to send a powerful message: we won’t tolerate union-busting by Starbucks or any other corporation — including Elon Musk’s Tesla and Jeff Bezos’s Amazon.

Otherwise, my boycott will continue — and perhaps you’ll consider joining me.  

If we want to brew a future where workers have power and dignity, then we need to show solidarity with unions…

And stand up to corporate bullying.

[scavengedluxury]

“This was a criminal offence, now it’s an option for business”.

What a disturbing sentence. The Tories legalising scabs.

Join a union.

[msfbgraves]

Seeing a lot of: "The selfish strikers are hurting the crew members 😥😫😭" takes on Tumblr suddenly.

Well hello AMPTP PR team!

If the retraction of your labor did not hurt anyone, strikes would be absolutely useless. An industry is supposed to suffer from a retraction of labor, to show the value of that labor. And that is exactly why nobody ever starts a negotiation there. Every negotiation goes: "I offer something against fair compensation. When not fairly compensated, I will retract my labor, with us both knowing full well that people are going to suffer. So let's not. Pay me fairly for all our benefits. You reap huge rewards from this labor. That comes with the responsibility of good stewardship." If they say: "Nope, I am unwilling to compensate you fairly," the "and I don't care who the hell suffers for it" goes without saying.

That suffering is supposed to be a pressure on the bosses, as their refusal to pay fairly is what causes it. What they're now doing is saying the strikers cause it, as if that action wasn't a response to them not taking responsibility.

Do you honestly think that the same people who want to squeeze writers and actors care a single fuck for the wellbeing of the crew?! The AMPTP is causing that pain and could end it with a 10th of what WB alone has already lost in revenue. But no they want to alleviate the pressure of the collatoral damage of their refusal by scabbing (lessening the pain for their consumers), and setting the workers against each other. Oh, it's not my fault for screwing my workers over, which hurts you! It's their fault for not letting me do it without a fight! They're so mean!

When this could all be resolved - already is being resolved! - by simply giving in to very reasonable demands! People, including crew, who have made agreements with the unions are in fact working!

Say some footballer was harassing someone and got kicked back so hard they couldn't play. If the game is cancelled because of that, do you say: well, they should have just let themselves be hurt so I don't suffer? Or do you say: that asshole footballer is letting us all down by not taking responsibility that comes with their position and being an awful person? Even a toddler knows who is at fault in that situation. But if I have to spell it out: it's the person that starts being awful when it is in their power not to be, and when in fact they had every chance not to be. It's the footballer kicking someone for no reason. It is the AMPTP who wants to exploit and underpay people and screw over consumers by only giving them AI crap, which was trained on stolen work, the copyright of which they don't own and never offered to pay for.

People suffer because the AMPTP won't agree not to hurt people. This stops - and has already stopped in some cases - the second they agree to a reasonable deal with inbuilt protections.

The AMPTP knew in rejecting these terms that they would throw the crew under the bus. They didn't give a shit as long as they could retain the power to exploit people.

I bet they are paying the PR people more than they're refusing to pay the unions to not have to come to an agreement, knowing full well how much that is costing not just the crew but the entire economy of California.

If I were a Californian representative, I would call Zaslav, Iger and Lombardini and pressure them to stop fucking over the entire state!

[wgaaudio]

Mailchimp is union busting! If you have a second to send them a quick email (this form will write it for you), it would be deeply appreciated!

[odinsblog]

🗣️ Please pay attention

Amazon argues that national labor board is unconstitutional, joining SpaceX and Trader Joe’s

Amazon is arguing in a legal filing that the 88-year-old National Labor Relations Board is unconstitutional, echoing similar arguments made this year by Elon Musk’s SpaceX and the grocery store chain Trader Joe’s in disputes about workers’ rights and organizing.

The Amazon filing, made Thursday, came in response to a case before an administrative law judge overseeing a complaint from agency prosecutors who allege the company unlawfully retaliated against workers at a New York City warehouse who voted to unionize nearly two years ago.

In its filing, Amazon denies many of the charges and asks for the complaint to be dismissed. The company’s attorneys then go further, arguing that the structure of the agency — particularly limits on the removal of administrative law judges and five board members appointed by the president — violates the separation of powers and infringes on executive powers stipulated in the Constitution.

The attorneys also argue that NLRB proceedings deny the company a trial by a jury and violate its due-process rights under the Fifth Amendment. (source)

ICYMI, this is a case of corporations going, “7th Amendment Protections for me, but not for thee.”

It is strongly worth noting that in 2018 the John Roberts Court ruled 5-4 that companies can use forced arbitration clauses to stop people from joining together to fight workplace abuses - in effect denying individuals their 7th Amendment protections.

Subsequently, binding arbitration clauses used by corporations has proliferated; sneaking into all manner of common legal documents: personal banking applications, ordinary car loan applications, furniture purchases, and more. This is, unsurprisingly, a direct violation of the 7th Amendment that guarantees HUMAN BEINGS AND PEOPLE the right to a jury trial in certain civil cases and inhibits courts from overturning a jury's findings of fact. Republicans and SCOTUS are perfectly okay with corporations having more rights than workers and using forced arbitration to block people from having access to jury trials—but God forbid if corporations don’t have their right to a jury trial.

This legislative push to bestow corporations with more rights than people, while simultaneously taking away rights from human beings, has been nothing if not thoroughly and methodically done. At this rate, no corporation will ever need to fear a class action lawsuit again.

Amazon, SpaceX and Trader Joe’s are union busting.

But this latest case against the NLRB isn’t just an attack on labor and worker’s rights, it’s a fascistic attack on the very heart of fairness and democracy itself.

[whatbigotspost]

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Used to buy this brand but haven’t in while and won’t be 🙅‍♀️

[aquitainequeen]

Ashley Nicole Black, on AI and union busting. Background acting is one of the best ways to get into SAG-AFTRA, so if the studios remove that opportunity, there'll be far fewer new members...

[porterdavis]

That would be Musk and Bezos

[iww-gnv]

Amazon was accused of violating federal law multiple times to obstruct unionization efforts at a warehouse near Albany, New York, last year, according to a new complaint filed by a regional director at the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), first reported by Bloomberg. The complaint, filed yesterday (Aug. 21), reportedly accuses the retail giant of illegally firing an organizer prior to a union ballot last year, calling the police on employees, barring discussion of unions at the workplace, and seeking to limit employee interaction at the warehouse before and after hours to thwart organizing.

[Read the rest]

[newsfromstolenland]

Dozens of Toronto residents are now boycotting Home Hardware due to the company's "engagement" with a specific advertising company that advocates claim "lock out unionized performers." 

In a recent post to a local community Facebook group, one Toronto resident informed other members that the home improvement retailer was one of the companies named on ACTRA's (Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists) boycott list.

"Did you know that Home Hardware is on a boycott list issued by ACTRA, the union of Canadian performers on TV and film? Why? Because they buy their ads from a company that has locked out unionized performers for the last year in an attempt to break the union," the post reads.

[...]

Other companies listed on the ACTRA lockout include H&R Block, Canadian Tire, Rogers, Wendy's, and Sleep Country.

Full article

Tagging: @allthecanadianpolitics