Still strike summer | Voters’ rights | Organizing surges

Friday, August 30, 2024

STRIKES

► From KING 5 (August 29) – Mount Vernon paraeducators, district reach tentative agreement after 2-day strike – A spokesperson for the paraeducators’ union, Public School Employees of Washington SEIU Local 1948, confirmed Thursday that the parties reached a deal. The agreement includes a 5.2% raise for all paraeducators this year, along with other perks.

► From The Olympian (August 28) – Yelm teachers vote to strike on first day of school if no agreement is reached – Members of the Yelm Education Association, a teacher’s union, voted on Tuesday to authorize the strike if no tentative agreement is reached. The motion passed with 97.5% of the vote. The first day of school is Tuesday, Sept. 3.

► From the Portland Mercury (August 28) – Thousands of Fred Meyer Employees Go On Strike Through Labor Day Weekend – Nearly 5,000 employees at 28 Fred Meyer stores in and around Portland went on strike early Wednesday morning. The employees, represented by United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 555, plan to continue the strike for almost a week. Unless a deal is reached with Fred Meyer management, the grocery store workers won’t return to work until 8 am Tuesday, September 3.

► From Oregon Live (August 27) – New Seasons workers plan 1-day strike at 10 Portland-area locations – The New Seasons Labor Union, which said it represents 1,100 employees at 11 locations, characterized the action as a “warning strike,” accusing New Seasons of bargaining in bad faith in the months since employees first voted to form a union.

► From the Ithaca Voice (August 28) – UAW and Cornell reach tentative contract agreement, strike could end next week – The union said it was able to reach a deal on over 40 demands with Cornell leadership, including an average wage increase of 21% to 25.4% over the life of the four-year tentative agreement. Workers in positions with the lowest pay grades in the bargaining unit will receive significant pay raises in the first and second year of the contract, according to the UAW. The union said workers will remain on strike until a contract is ratified. The soonest Cornell employees could return to work is Sept. 3.

LOCAL

► From The Seattle Times (August 26) – Seattle-area union hotel workers vote to authorize strike amid lengthy bargaining – “The hotels currently are offering cents and we need dollars in order for people to keep up with the costs of living,” said Anita Seth, president of Unite Here! Local 8, the union representing the hotel workers.

► From The Stranger (August 29) – Workers Shut Down a Cherry Street Coffee House Location After Owner Advocates For Subminimum Wage – The workers argued that the subminimum wage is “not just a question of morals or emotional integrity, but one of livelihood” given the exorbitant cost-of-living in Seattle, which crushes service workers. Ghambari’s actions at City Hall, among previous behavior, proves that he does not care about his workers or their livelihoods, the workers said in their letter. 

► From the Seattle Times (August 29) – Washington ferries brace for busy Labor Day weekend after rocky summer – Preparation can only go so far, as the troubled ferry system’s busy summer shows. Crew shortages led to canceled sailing after canceled sailing. Terminal workers reported an increase in verbal abuse from delayed and angry passengers. Engine room workers went public with their demands for better pay.

Previously at The STAND – Ferries workers fight for fair pay. Sign the workers’ petition here. 

► From The Washington State Standard (August 29) – Feds giving West Coast states $100 million to create zero-emission truck fueling network – Officials from Oregon, Washington and California transportation agencies pitched the idea of the West Coast zero-emission truck fueling corridor on I-5 to the U.S. Department of Transportation last year. They proposed to use federal money to build at least 34 medium and heavy-duty electric vehicle charging stations and five hydrogen fueling stations primarily along 1,400 miles of I-5 connecting highways to major freight hubs in San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland and Seattle.

AEROSPACE

► From MSN (August 30) – Boeing, Union ‘Really Far Apart’ Weeks Ahead of Possible Strike – “It’s a tough slog,” Holden said in an interview. “We’re very aggressive in our proposals on wages, retirement, health care, job security, paid time-off. We’re not close on the big issues.” 

Today at The STAND: Machinists bargain for Boeing’s future 

► From Jalopnik (August 28) – Boeing May Never Know What Really Went Wrong With Starliner – One thing that could complicate the investigation into the thruster problem is that the control jets are located on the Starliner service module, which jettisons from the crew section of the spacecraft before reentry. The service module will burn up over the Pacific Ocean, so engineers won’t have a chance to get their hands on the suspect hardware.

ORGANIZING

► From The City (August 29) – More Workers Are Filing For — and Winning – Union Elections Than in Any Year in the Past Decade –  Workers are petitioning for more elections for union representation — and winning more of them – than any other year in a decade, with more than 75% of all private-sector organizing attempts from mid-2023 to mid-2024 resulting in union victories. Nationally, the growth in election petitions with the federal National Labor Relations Board reversed a decade of decline, according to the report, reaching “a level not seen since 2015,” and the current win rates “outpace any since 2005.”

CONTRACT FIGHTS

► From The Hill (August 29) – United Airlines flight attendants approve strike authorization – Over 99 percent of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA members who took part in the vote did so in favor of the authorization. Some picketed after the vote Wednesday to get the word out about their demands. “We are the face of United Airlines, and planes don’t take off without us. As Labor Day travel begins, United management is reminded what’s at stake if we don’t get this done.”

► From Game Developer (August 28) – Microsoft and Activision Blizzard accused of ‘bad faith bargaining’ by Raven Software union workers – “After Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard, our members were optimistic that they would progress quickly to a first contract at Raven Software,” said Communications Workers of America president Claude Cummings Jr., in a statement sent to Game File. “Unfortunately, that has not happened. We encourage Microsoft to address the concerns raised in the Unfair Labor Practice charge and make reaching a fair agreement a priority.”

NATIONAL

► From Axios (August 29) – Labor union disapproval hits 57 year low, per Gallup survey – Why it matters: Unions have seen a resurgence in recent years, with an uptick in strikes and organizing efforts, helped along by more positive public sentiment and, until recently, a strong labor market that emboldens workers to push for more from their employers. 70% of Americans said they approved of unions, per Gallup’s most recent poll, conducted in August. 

► From the Washington Post (August 25) – Flight attendants speak out about low pay, debt and homelessness – “I have to supplement my income. But then I’m also not sleeping,” said Kay, who spoke on the condition that she be identified only by the name she uses outside of work, because she fears retaliation from her employer. “We’re expected to save people on the plane … and we’re not getting paid a living wage.”

► From Inside Higher Education (August 29) – Higher ed unionization bucks labor trends, surged since 2012 –  Some union organizers said they withdrew their petitions during the Trump presidency, but the organizing push at private universities surged forward after his successor named labor-friendly appointees to the NLRB and the pandemic abated. The report finds roughly 64,000 grad workers newly unionized between 2021 and 2023, nearly triple the number “during the prior eight years combined.”

► From Newsweek (August 28) – Kroger Executive Admits Company Gouged Prices Above Inflation – While testifying to a Federal Trade Commission attorney Tuesday, Kroger’s Senior Director for Pricing Andy Groff said the grocery giant had raised prices for eggs and milk beyond inflation levels. “This is not at all surprising,” Drew Powers, the founder of Illinois-based Powers Financial Group, told Newsweek. “Companies across multiple industries have been posting record profits since the COVID-19 crisis while consumers have faced the highest inflation in recent history. The math can only point to companies raising prices above the general level of inflation. As the old saying goes, ‘Never let a good crisis go to waste.'”

► From Northwest Labor Press (August 27) – CEOs now paid 268 times what an average worker makes – The average CEO made 268 times the pay of the average worker last year at America’s 500 largest publicly traded companies. It wasn’t always the case that CEOs were paid hundreds of times what workers made. In 1965, the era of America’s greatest industrial might, the typical U.S. CEO made 21 times the pay of the average worker, according to research by the Economic Policy Institute.

POLITICS & POLICY

► From Cascade PBS (August 28) – A 2014 Yakima case sparked a push in WA for voting rights reform – [Dulce] Gutiérrez said that while some organizations have helped with door-knocking and other campaign activities, Latino candidates in the region still don’t have consistent support — neither organizers or funding — especially for local elections. Despite the challenges, Gutiérrez says what matters is that there is always an opportunity for Latinos and Latinas in Yakima to take action and elect representatives who can advocate for their communities’ needs. 

► From Tacoma News Tribune (August 27) – Donald Trump campaigned in Lynden in 2016. Here’s how much he still owes Whatcom County – Former President Donald Trump still owes Whatcom County $53,000 for a hastily organized May 2016 rally during his first bid for the nation’s highest office. 

► From the Seattle Times (August 26) – After budget disclosure decision, WA ballot measure campaigns to ramp up – “Right-wing Republicans are truly desperate to keep voters from getting factual, nonpartisan information about the deep funding cuts their ballot measures would require, which is why they keep filing these cynical lawsuits,” said Aaron Ostrom, the executive director of the progressive group Fuse Washington.

► From The New York Times (August 28) – Voting Rights Leaders Step Up Election Initiatives After Texas Raids – “It is just shocking the efforts that are being made to cause fear and chaos with people who are just trying to help their fellow neighbors being able to vote,” Ms. Jones said. Still, she added, the raids in Texas had made her members “more determined not to be intimidated.”

Editor’s note: in one of these police raids, a 87 year old volunteer was told that her house was being searched because she filed a complaint that seniors weren’t getting their mail ballots. No one was arrested as a result of these searches, and the Republican AG Ken Paxton won’t comment on them. These raids all targeted Latine voter advocates.

INTERNATIONAL

► From The Hill (August 30) — Canadian rail union says it has filed lawsuits challenging back-to-work orders — The lawsuits were filed Thursday afternoon, the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference said. But they won’t stop the trains because the government has ordered the union to stay on the job while the arbitration process plays out.

JOLT OF JOY

JD Vance showed up to the IAFF convention, claiming he and the former President represent the most pro-labor Republican ticket in modern history, a bar so low that Satan could trip over it. Some union firefighters had a different perspective:

BREAKING: Firefighters’ Union Members wearing “Trump is a Scab” shirts to welcome JD Vance today #UnionsForAll pic.twitter.com/6nzfKuB9Ku

— Scott Dworkin (@funder) August 29, 2024