United Public Workers for Action

6 days ago

NYC Workers Lose Jobs With Immigation Checks
… See MoreSee Less

At least 100 workers at NYC's Tin Building lose jobs after employment authorization check

gothamist.com

“I was out for two days, and when I got back half the building was gone,” said one current employee of the South Street Seaport food hall’s sudden document check.

United Public Workers for Action

6 days ago

‘They just got my uncle’: Immigration arrests spark fear among farmworkers in Central Valley
www.latimes.com/politics/story/2025-01-11/they-just-got-my-uncle-mass-immigration-arrests-spark-f…
Immigrants get information about their constitutional rights
Immigrants get information about their constitutional rights after a presentation by a consortium of attorneys, organizations, and community experts at the Robert F. Kennedy High School Auditorium in Delano, Calif. (Tomas Ovalle / For The Times)
By Rachel Uranga and Andrea Castillo
Jan. 11, 2025 3 AM PT

BAKERSFIELD — Maria Casarez was washing dishes at noon Tuesday in her three-bedroom duplex, tidying up before her four children arrived home from school when her husband’s nephew called.

“Acaba de agarrar a mi tío — inmigración,” he said. They just got my uncle, immigration.

The two had been talking at a Home Depot parking lot, less than a mile down the road from their home in Bakersfield when Border Patrol agents showed up and began asking questions.

Casarez dashed to the scene, where she said she saw a dozen agents. “It was ugly,” she said. They had already taken her husband away.

The Border Patrol operation near Bakersfield lasted for several days and netted 78 arrests this week, raising alarm bells across the Central Valley, where a largely immigrant workforce helps harvest a quarter of the food grown in the U.S.

Immigrant advocates say it was the largest enforcement operation in the Central Valley in years and fear that it could be a prelude of what’s to come under President-elect Donald Trump, who has promised mass deportations — a move that many fear will wreak havoc on the region’s agricultural and processing industries.

Border Patrol confirmed that agents conducted a targeted enforcement operation in Kern County, saying it was aimed at dismantling transnational criminal organizations. U.S. Border Patrol Chief Agent Gregory K. Bovino said in statements on social media that dozens of agents had detained two child rapists and “other criminals,” as well as retrieved 36 pounds of narcotics, as part of Operation Return to Sender.

Bovino, who leads the agency’s El Centro sector that spans 71 miles of the Imperial Valley along Mexico border, said agents arrested others encountered during the course of the operation who were in the U.S. unlawfully.

In the small farming towns outside Bakersfield, at gas stations and in the miles and miles of fields, everyone seemed to know about the arrests that had quickly spread across social media, sowing fear among migrant families, many of whom had children or spouses that were born here. And in the panic, even routine law enforcement presence at strip malls and freeway off-ramps was, at times, conflated online with immigration roundups.

It’s unclear how long the enforcement actions could last; Bovino said agents are planning additional operations in Fresno and Sacramento.

“With our border under control in El Centro, we go where the threat is,” Bovino wrote in response to someone on Instagram who said they were puzzled as to why Border Patrol was conducting operations so far north of the border.

The enforcement has perplexed local immigrant advocates, who questioned why the Biden administration was using its final weeks to target Central Valley migrant workers for deportation.

“I understand you’ve got to protect the border,” said Manuel Cunha Jr., president of Nisei Farmers League, which represents agricultural employers and their workers. “Stay out of our farms. Go after the cartels — do your raids on those people.”

Growers reported that workers had stayed home out of fear of being arrested, he said.

The consequences of the operation, he fears, could ricochet across the economy that powers farms, dairies and food processing plants. Grape vines and trees will lose their crop if they aren’t pruned in time. Cows could die if workers don’t show up to milk them.

“It does have effects on the food chain, without any question,” Cunha said. “But it has the greatest effect on those families because they can’t feed their children if they can’t work.”

Casarez said she knew many people afraid to leave their house. A friend’s daughter hurt her arm at school. The woman was so scared to take her to the hospital that Casarez offered to accompany her.

Just a day before her husband was detained, she had met with a lawyer so that they could fix his legal status. He had been in the country for more than a decade working in construction.

The attorney, Parvin Wiliani, spent the next three days searching for him. She asked not to share his name out of fear of retaliation.

“He is the sole provider for the family and nobody knew his whereabouts,” she said. When she called the local field office for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which usually holds detainees, she was told he wasn’t there. She then called at least half a dozen ICE processing centers along with Customs and Border Patrol detention centers. Nothing. It took three days before his name even popped in the system.

Wiliani said she only learned then that he was being held in “an unknown location” near the border. “That’s very unusual. I can normally locate my clients within 24 hours.”

Other immigration attorneys reported similar issues, adding to the collective anxiety. Throughout the week immigrants filled community rooms as advocates held packed sessions with attorneys and offering legal support in case they were pulled over or detained by agents.

Carina Sanchez, attended one of those meetings in Delano, with her 5-year-old son. As a counselor at a nearby elementary school, she said many of the students or their parents don’t have legal status.

“It makes me think about my kids, my students.”

It’s not clear exactly how many people have been detained, where they were held or why agents from El Centro were conducting operations so far away from the border. And Border Patrol would not provide details.

Border Patrol has authority to conduct vehicle searches within 100 miles of the U.S. boundary. Bakersfield is more than 200 miles from the border but about 100 air miles from the coast.

Elected officials from both sides of the political aisle expressed concern about the enforcement action.

Bakersfield Mayor Karen Goh, a Republican, said that cartel members engaging in criminal activity — whom she understood to be the focus of the operation — should fear arrest. But she expressed concern for “persons who are unnecessarily in fear.”

“I am extremely concerned that these arrests may have taken place at random, or based on racial profiling,” said state Assemblymember Joaquin Arambula (D-Fresno). “Everyone in our state and nation deserves to be treated with dignity and respect — everyone is entitled to due process and constitutional rights.”

U.S. Rep. David Valadao (R-Hanford) said Customs and Border Protection had told him they were apprehending criminals or those with ties to criminal organizations.

“I urge the Biden administration to ensure CBP is prioritizing criminals and not those responsible for producing our nation’s food supply,” he said. “We urgently need common-sense immigration reform that creates a pathway to earned legal status for hardworking individuals contributing to our economy and removes those who threaten the safety of our communities.”

The United Farm Workers Foundation urged residents, if detained, to exercise their right to remain silent before they speak with an attorney. Ambar Tovar, directing attorney for the organization, said the community was reeling from days of mounting fear and uncertainty.

Tovar questioned whether border agents were meeting the legal standard for reasonable suspicion required for such stops without a warrant and said she plans to investigate whether Border Patrol officers had jurisdiction as far inland as some of the stops they conducted.

“There’s no reason to stop a car full of farmworkers on their way to work,” she said.

Late Thursday, a border agent called Wiliani.

“He told me he got an order to call me and then he let my client talk to me,” she said. He was still in a processing center somewhere in Imperial County but would be released the next day, when he called Casarez to tell her that he had a bus ticket to come home.

“He was free,” she said. “It was such a joy.” … See MoreSee Less

'They just got my uncle': Immigration arrests spark fear among farmworkers in Central Valley

www.latimes.com

Dozens have been arrested in the heavily agricultural Kern County during a multiple-day operation by U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

United Public Workers for Action

1 week ago

‘Shocking’: Canadian union fund part owner of a Vegas luxury hotel accused of union busting

www.thestar.com/business/shocking-canadian-union-fund-part-owner-of-a-vegas-luxury-hotel-accused-…
The LiUNA pension fund is part owner of Virgin Hotels Las Vegas, which has been embroiled in a bitter strike for weeks. It says it has no role in the collective bargaining process.
Updated 42 mins ago
Jan. 10, 2025
3 min read
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Vegas.jpg
Striking workers with the Culinary Workers Union Local 226 are seen outside LiUNA Local 506 in December after arriving in Toronto to talk to Fengate and LiUNA executives regarding the threat of permanent replacements.
Courtesy Culinary Workers Union
Ana-Pereira
By Ana PereiraBusiness Reporter
A massive Las Vegas casino resort and its owners — among them a Canadian union pension fund — are being accused of union busting by threatening to replace striking workers south of the border.

Since mid-November, 700 workers from housekeeping, food and beverage departments, and unionized restaurants at Virgin Hotels Las Vegas have been in an increasingly bitter fight with their employer and two of its owners, Ontario-based Fengate Asset Management and the Labourers’ International Union of North America (LiUNA) Central and Eastern Canada Pension Fund.

The strikers, many of them immigrants in the U.S. demanding better wages and benefits, are represented by the Culinary Workers Union Local 226, which covers workers in downtown Las Vegas and the Las Vegas Strip — the famous road lined with dozens of Nevada’s grand and dazzling casinos, including Caesars Palace and MGM.

It’s surprising that a hotel owned in part by LiUNA — an organization whose purpose is to protect the rights of Canadian construction, waste management and health-care workers — is opposing improvements for Las Vegas service industry jobs, said Ted Pappageorge, secretary-treasurer for the Culinary Workers Union Local 226.

He also believes that Fengate’s approach in some negotiations with the Culinary Workers Union contradicts the company’s claims that it is socially aware and community involved.

“Canada actually does have a reputation of upholding strong labour standards,” said Pappageorge. “But when Canada comes to Vegas, our standard is getting attacked and we have our first strike in 27 years. It is shocking. And we want answers.”

The LiUNA pension fund says it has no role in the collective bargaining process, according to a statement, while a Fengate spokesperson said the money manager has a “proud history with organized labour across Canada and the United States.” Virgin Hotels Las Vegas is committed to its “track record of good faith, successful collective bargaining with culinary union leadership,” the Fengate spokesperson added.

A statement by Virgin Hotels Las Vegas said that it is “seeking a fair contract that reflects the economic reality of an off-Strip property and positions us to ensure continued employment stability across our property.”

It said the workers’ demands are not “financially sustainable” for them and could lead to future layoffs, going on to explain that “off-Strip” hotels tend to bring in less revenue than those “on-Strip.”

Still, the Culinary Workers Union says all employers, except Virgin Hotels Las Vegas, have signed their standard contract after the previous one expired in summer 2023.

While average workers with the Culinary Workers Union will see an hourly wage and benefits increase of $9.21 at the end of five years under the new standard contract, Virgin Hotels workers would get a wage and benefits raise of $1.50 per hour in that same period under the alleged offer by the employer, according to a union spokesperson.

“When you come to Las Vegas and you bring hundreds of millions of dollars to invest in concrete and steel and glass and buildings, you also have to invest in the workers,” said Pappageorge. “It’s pretty clear that Fengate and their Virgin Las Vegas management team have decided that they’re not going to do that.”

The Culinary Workers Union is blaming the Canadian owners for pressuring Virgin Hotels to hire “scabs,” or non-union temporary workers, to sub in for picketing bartenders, servers, porters, laundry and kitchen staff. Hotel management has also warned that employees who do not report to work because they’ve joined the strike could be permanently replaced, according to the union.

So far, there have been no permanent replacements. But that threat alone led nine strikers on a trip to frigid Canada in mid-December in an attempt to talk to Fengate and LiUNA management at their headquarters. While it didn’t go as they hoped — they were turned away by security at both places — Pappageorge believes they were able to communicate to the owners that the workers are committed to their cause.

With some exceptions, U.S. employers can permanently replace strikers, meaning they can hire someone to do a striker’s work without having to eventually fire that person to create a vacancy for the returning striker, says David Doorey, professor of work law and labour relations at York University. If a vacancy later comes up, the striker has a first right of return to their old job, Doorey added. The strike has no end in sight. LiUNA pension fund spokesperson Victoria Mancinelli claims some hotel guests are being “abused” and “harassed” by strikers, while the Culinary Workers Union charges that Virgin Hotels has attempted to forcibly remove signs on the strike line. Virgin Hotels declined to comment on those allegations.

Recently, standup comedian Steve Hofstetter cancelled a show scheduled at the resort in solidarity with the workers.

There have been no bargaining sessions since the walkout more than 50 days ago and the Culinary Workers Union rejected Virgin Hotels Las Vegas’ latest request for an arbitrator to decide the terms of the new collective agreement.

It believes this would “take the power away” from the workers, union spokesperson Bethany Khan said in an interview.

“The idea that this massive Canadian fund would come to the U.S., to Las Vegas, to wreck our standards is just unacceptable,” said Pappageorge. “It’s unacceptable in Canada, so it’s unacceptable here.” … See MoreSee Less

‘Shocking’: Canadian union fund part owner of a Vegas luxury hotel accused of union busting

www.thestar.com

The LiUNA pension fund is part owner of Virgin Hotels Las Vegas, which has been embroiled in a bitter strike for weeks. It says it has no role in the

United Public Workers for Action

1 week ago

Who will rebuild Los Angeles? Immigrants.
And many of them will be doing it under threat of family separation.
www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/01/09/los-angeles-reconstruction-immigrants-deportation/
Opinion
León Krauze
January 9, 2025 at 3:51 p.m. ESTToday at 3:51 p.m. EST

People return to their home after it was burned down by wildfires in Altadena, California, on Thursday. (Ringo Chiu/Reuters)
Watching the fires raze Los Angeles, a city I called home for years, has been devastating. Santa Ana winds, blowing through the mountains at speeds exceeding 80 mph, have caused catastrophic damage. The west side of the city is barely recognizable. The Pacific Coast Highway, one of the most iconic stretches of the American landscape, lies in ruins. The surrounding area, home to the equally renowned Sunset Boulevard — celebrated in countless dreams and a witness to innumerable Californian sunsets — has been reduced to ashes.
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The full scale of the devastation will be hard to tally for some time. What is clear, however, is the immense challenge that reconstruction will pose. This wildfire is already among the most destructive in the region’s history. Rebuilding will be a monumental task fraught with uncertainty. Building in Los Angeles is notoriously difficult because of complicated permitting and regulations. The city will have to untangle a bunch of its bureaucratic knots — and quickly.
One thing, however, is certain: the rebuilding of Los Angeles will rely heavily on immigrants.

A significant proportion of the region’s construction workforce consists of immigrants. According to a 2020 report by the American Immigration Council, 43 percent of construction workers in California are immigrants. Among these, a majority are of Mexican origin, reflecting a long history of Mexican labor contributing to the city’s development.

The global immigrant shortage is almost here
“Immigrants are the engine of construction in Los Angeles,” Santiago Ortiz, a local designer and building consultant told me. “Without immigrants working the most critical trades in the industry, we won’t be able to rebuild what we have lost over the last three days.”

Immigrant labor has already been vital in the recovery of other U.S. cities devastated by natural disasters. For example, after Hurricane Harvey struck Houston in 2017, more than half of the construction workers involved in rebuilding efforts were immigrants. Thousands of undocumented immigrants worked long hours under grueling conditions, often without proper safety protections, and some were even exploited through wage theft. Despite the challenges, immigrants alleviated a labor shortage in Houston, allowing it to recover more rapidly than anticipated.

Similarly, immigrant workers were instrumental in rebuilding Floridaafter Hurricane Ian hit in 2022. In Southwest Florida, which suffered extensive damage, immigrants made up a large part of the cleanup and construction workforce. Their efforts were particularly significant in areas such as Fort Myers Beach, where entire neighborhoods were leveled. Without immigrant labor, the rebuilding timeline would have been significantly delayed, leaving more residents displaced for longer periods.
Immigrant construction workers are not just vital in emergencies. In California alone, immigrants make up 40 percent of the state’s overall construction workforce. The entire U.S. construction industry depends on their labor year-round. According to the National Association of Home Builders, 31 percent of workers in construction trades nationwide are foreign born. Most plasterers, ceiling tile professionals and most roofers are immigrants. About 23 percent of those workers are undocumented. Almost 40 percent of drywall installers, for example, lacks a permanent legal status in the country.
Immigrants will be the ones bringing Los Angeles back from the ashes. Without them, the city will struggle to recover.

As Trump takes power, vowing to implement punitive immigration policies to vigorously go after the undocumented, it is crucial to acknowledge who truly builds America. It will be a moral failure that as immigrants work to get Southern California back on its feet — cleaning up mountains of debris, erecting wooden beams, installing drywall and wiring electrical systems — they will be doing so under threat of family separation. Their children will be going to school terrified that their parents could disappear at any moment.
As during the covid-19 pandemic, the United States is asking its immigrant workforce to perform essential tasks. The least it can do in return is to grant them peace and security instead of subjecting them to persecution and discrimination. … See MoreSee Less

Opinion | Who will rebuild Los Angeles? Immigrants.

www.washingtonpost.com

And many of them will be doing it under threat of family separation.

United Public Workers for Action

1 week ago

Column: California employers wrap themselves in the 1st Amendment to kill a pro-worker law
www.latimes.com/business/story/2025-01-09/column-california-employers-wrap-themselves-in-the-1st-…

A line of workers outside an Amazon warehouse
Amazon workers gather outside the company’s warehouse in Staten Island, N.Y., to vote on unionization in 2022. They eventually affiliated with the Teamsters. (Robert Bumsted / Associated Press)

By Michael Hiltzik
Business Columnist

Jan. 9, 2025 3 AM PT

It’s always heartening to see the business establishment stand up for constitutional principles.

Well, almost always. Among the exceptions is when business leaders wrap themselves in the Constitution to secure their own privileges at the expense of the public interest.

That’s the case with a curious little lawsuit the California Chamber of Commerce and California Restaurant Assn. dropped in Sacramento federal court on New Year’s Eve. Their target is Senate Bill 399, otherwise known as the California Worker Freedom from Employer Intimidation Act, which was signed by Gov. Newsom on Sept. 27 and took effect on New Year’s Day.

It should be clear…that a captive-audience meeting is an extraordinary exercise and demonstration of employer power over employees.
— National Labor Relations Board
The law is straightforward. It bans “captive audience meetings,” which are those scheduled by employers to ply workers with religious, political and (especially) anti-union propaganda. Nothing in the law bars employers from holding such meetings when worker attendance is voluntary. The “captive” part, the law specifies, is when employees face “discharge, discrimination, retaliation, or any other adverse action” for failing to attend.

As my colleague Suhauna Hussain has reported, 10 other states have implemented similar bans. So far, they’ve survived legal challenges. Bans on captive meetings are under consideration in at least five other states. They also were outlawed by the National Labor Relations Board with a ruling on Nov. 13, overturning an anti-union policy dating from 1948. The 3-1 ruling, with the board’s Democratic members in the majority and its sole Republican in dissent, involved Amazon.com’s campaign against a union organizing drive at New York-area facilities. Amazon has said it will appeal the ruling.

Captive audience meetings are among “the most pernicious and coercive tactics an employer can use to browbeat and intimidate workers into voting against a union,” says William B. Gould IV, an emeritus professor of law at Stanford and a former chairman of the NLRB and the California Agricultural Labor Relations Board.

The NLRB’s November ruling applied to captive meetings involving unionization drives, which fall within the board’s jurisdiction. The California law goes further by bringing meetings involving political and religious matters into the mix. But the state laws and the NLRB’s ruling make the same distinctions between meetings at which attendance is voluntary, and those that workers are required to attend on pain of discipline. The first are legal, the second illegal.

Since they were seemingly blessed by the NLRB in 1948, captive audience meetings have become “a common feature” of corporate anti-union campaigns, the board observed in the Amazon case. A 2009 study of 1,004 NLRB-supervised union representation elections cited in its ruling found that captive audience meetings had been held in 89% of cases; more than half of the employers had held more than five “in the runup to an election.”

The Amazon campaign is a good example. In opposing the unionization drive, which was ultimately successful, Amazon scheduled mandatory meetings every 45 minutes, six days a week at the Staten Island, N.Y., warehouse where the drive originated. At these meetings, company representatives delivered speeches attacking unions in general and the Amazon union drive specifically.

The NLRB found that “managers personally notified employees that they were scheduled to attend, escorted them to the meetings, and scanned their ID badges to digitally record attendance.”

Amazon’s activities prompted the board to reconsider the 1948 policy, which was set forth in a case involving the boiler company Babcock & Wilcox. The board noted that the 1948 finding that captive audience meetings didn’t violate labor law was “largely unexplained” and “flawed” under the law. So it was bound to be overturned.

In its detailed analysis of the topic, the board cited numerous past board rulings and Supreme Court decisions that say that employers have the right to express their opinions about unions and unionization, but not to compel employees to listen.

“It should be clear,” the board found, “that a captive-audience meeting is an extraordinary exercise and demonstration of employer power over employees,” especially when the employees’ decisions on whether to join the union is at issue.

That brings us back to the lawsuit the Chamber and Restaurant Assn. filed in Sacramento federal court. The lawsuit asserts that any ban on mandatory meetings infringes the employers’ free-speech rights as enshrined in the 1st Amendment. (State officials haven’t yet filed a response.)

“Because of SB 399,” the plaintiffs say, “employers in California are now subject to liability, penalties, and other administrative action when they exercise their federal constitutional and statutory rights to talk to employees.”

We think the plaintiffs do protest too much, to quote Shakespeare. The California law does nothing of the kind.

President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference in the Rose Garden of the White House, Friday, June 5, 2020, in Washington. White House chief economic adviser Larry Kudlow, left, and Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia, top right listen. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
BUSINESS

“Under the bill, employers are not prevented from speaking to employees in any way on any subject, including about religious and political matters,” the AFL-CIO stated in a legal memo for the California Labor Federation, which supports the law.

It’s worth remembering that employers — notably restaurant owners — aren’t above using dubious claims to attack pro-worker initiatives. Back in June, I reported that fast food franchise owners asserted that California’s $20 minimum wage for fast food workers had cost the state 10,000 jobs in that sector, going back to September 2023, when Newsom signed the law.

I documented that the statistic was false; it was the product of a misinterpretation of government employment statistics that appeared initially in the Wall Street Journal and was repeated by UCLA economics professor Lee Ohanian for an essay on the Hoover Institution website. (Hoover subsequently retracted Ohanian’s essay, which had been specifically cited by the fast food camp for a newspaper ad.)

The plaintiffs may have a stronger argument in their assertion that California’s law governing employer rights in unionization cases is preempted by federal law, namely the 1935 National Labor Relations Act.

The AFL-CIO memo argues that California, like any state, has the right to set “minimum employment standards” for workers in the state. The examples it cites, however, are matters such as child labor laws, minimum wages and occupational safety and health standards, though it also maintains that since states can bar the firing of workers for improper reasons such as race, it can bar discharges for failing to attend a mandatory meeting.

Gould, for one, thinks the plaintiffs may have a point, based on a 1959 Supreme Court ruling that gave the NLRB exclusive jurisdiction over unionization issues unless the board disavows an interest. The issue might well be headed for the Supreme Court for another look.

That might not matter if the NLRB’s decision in the Amazon case stands. But a Trump-dominated labor board, which appears to be preordained, could overturn the Amazon ruling, just as the Biden board overturned Babcock & Wilcox. That might not be the worst change in labor policy for workers as Trump succeeds Biden, who may have been the most pro-union president in history. But it won’t be good. … See MoreSee Less

Column: California employers wrap themselves in the 1st Amendment to kill a pro-worker law

www.latimes.com

Ten states and federal regulators already ban ‘captive meetings’ in which bosses ply workers with anti-union propaganda. Bosses are trying to kill the same ban in California.

United Public Workers for Action

1 week ago

ILA union and port owners held secret meeting on automation as new strike looms
“All of these decisions are controlled by the Daggett’s in the end,” said the terminal operator.
www.cnbc.com/2025/01/06/ila-union-ports-held-secret-meeting-on-automation-as-new-strike-looms.html
PUBLISHED MON, JAN 6 20254:58 PM ESTUPDATED TUE, JAN 7 202510:28 AM EST

Lori Ann LaRocco

A secret meeting between representatives of the International Longshoremen’s Association and the USMX port ownership group was held on Sunday to make headway on the issue of port automation that needs to be resolved by Jan. 15 to avoid a new East and Gulf Coast ports strike.
A document produced from the meeting and reviewed by CNBC indicates ports willing to pair any new technology with new union jobs, but it could also introduce new risks to a deal, with added labor costs threatening terms agreed to in October for a 62% pay hike for union workers.
Formal talks are set to resume on Tuesday, and it remains unclear if the full port ownership group will support the new language on automation.
A truck picking up a container at the Norfolk International Terminals at the Port of Virginia. NIT is the largest terminal at the port with more than 90 semi-automated stacking cranes..jpeg
A truck picking up a container at the Norfolk International Terminals at the Port of Virginia. NIT is the largest terminal at the port with more than 90 semi-automated stacking cranes.
Lori Ann LaRocco | CNBC
A secret meeting between key members of the International Longshoremen’s Association and the United States Maritime Alliance was held on Sunday in an effort to help the dockworkers’ union and ports ownership find common ground on the heated issue of automation and semi-automation. A document produced out of the meeting indicates a focus on the creation of new human jobs to complement any new port technology.

CNBC has learned that the eight-hour meeting took place ahead of the highly anticipated resumption of formal bargaining, and with a January 15 deadline to avoid a new strike by dockworkers. According to sources close to the talks who were granted anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the negotiations — talks had recently broken down over the issue — language on automation was drawn up to assist the full bargaining committee review process slated for Tuesday.

But the sources added that the language could lead to new concerns about added labor costs, and new risks to getting a comprehensive deal on wages and automation completed.

The meeting included individuals from port terminals where the technology at issue is already used, including rail-mounted gantry (RMG) cranes at container terminals in Bayonne, New Jersey, part of the Port of New York and New Jersey, and the NIT Terminal, part of the Port of Virginia. Among executives at the meeting were Paul Demaria, CEO of USMX; Kevin Price, president of Gateway Terminals; Joe Ruddy, chief operations officer of the Port of Virginia; John Atkins, president of GCT USA; and Anthony Ray, executive vice president of operations at Maher Terminals. Representing the union were ILA president Harold Daggett and his son Dennis, who is executive vice president of the ILA, and Virgil Moldonado, president of the NY/NJ chapter of the ILA 1588.

According to a document reviewed by CNBC, the agreement states that the ILA reserves the right to add union workers in the future to complement any new technologies and “there is a commitment by the parties to research and utilize all technology that would assist an operator in being more efficient and productive.”

The document specifies that skilled human crane operators have proven their ability to work with the aid of modern crane control systems to handle port tasks where precision is required. The crane technology includes cameras and alignment guides, anti-sway technology for precise container placement, and motion-dampening controls.

The document refers to semi-automated rail-mounted gantry crane operations “where humans control complex tasks while automation handles repetitive motions.”

It also cites manual RMG operations in which union workers operate the cranes manually without automation. Loading positioning sensors, obstacle detection systems, and real-time feedback systems were also cited as tools that “enable human operators to achieve precision comparable to automation.”

Even with the proposed language on automation suggesting that the USMX is willing to give in to some union concerns over jobs, port sources say critical details still need to be worked out.

Sources within the USMX are concerned about new labor costs that do not accurately reflect port needs and economics, and which will ultimately ripple through the supply chain and reach the consumer.

“The rub is, what are deemed as necessary jobs?” said a terminal operator. “Is the job truly necessary or is it a job being created for the sake of adding a worker?”

“These extra jobs are paid by increasing the price of services paid by the shipper,” the terminal operator said. “These costs are then passed onto the consumer by the shipper. It’s the definition of inflation.”

The ILA declined to comment on the meeting.

It remains unclear if the full USMX bargaining team will agree to document language on automation or risk another strike.

“We are at an inflection point,” said a member of the USMX. “If either side cannot come to an agreement and there is a strike, it is a roll of the dice for either side to see if a better agreement could be carved out if there was government intervention.”

President-elect Donald Trump recently voiced strong support for the union position on automation.

The USMX member said that if the proposed terms on automation, requiring any new port technology to be matched by new jobs, are accepted by the full USMX, then the tentative 62% wage increase that the USMX agreed to in October to end the first strike “should be off the table.”

“Keeping automation at status quo arguably eliminates the ability to pay for the increase,” the USMX member said. “So this is part of the internal discussion and will be part of the carriers’ consideration on whether to accept the deal discussed yesterday.”

The working document states that if a mutual agreement cannot be reached on the use of what is defined as “Operator Assisted Technology,” the subject would be referred to what is known as a technology committee process used by the union and ports — which consists of a co-chairmen and five additional members from each side, as well as Harold Daggett, along with his two sons, Dennis and John. That is the final step before arbitration, if necessary.

While the personnel additions tied to new technology would be subject to local union chapter bargaining, the final approval would come from the ILA’s national office.

“All of these decisions are controlled by the Daggett’s in the end,” said the terminal operator. “This contract continues to increase Daggett’s leverage in the union by deciding how many people get hired and which one of those lucky enough to be hired gets the biggest paycheck.” … See MoreSee Less

ILA union and port owners held secret meeting on automation as new strike looms

www.cnbc.com

The dockworkers union and port owners held a private meeting ahead of resuming formal talks to help with the heated issue of automation.

United Public Workers for Action

2 weeks ago

Project 2025 & AFT Fighting Fascsim?
AFT Fighting Fascism?
WHEREAS, historically the AFT has fought against fascism here and abroad, participated in the great battles of all of our civil rights movements and worked to maintain a strong, democratic union movement; and
AFT Resolution
Project 2025
www.aft.org/resolution/project-2025

WHEREAS, the AFT and our 1.8 million members believe that preserving our democracy is a defining principle of our work as educators, healthcare professionals, and state and local government workers and a core value of who we are as unionists and citizens; and

WHEREAS, historically the AFT has fought against fascism here and abroad, participated in the great battles of all of our civil rights movements and worked to maintain a strong, democratic union movement; and

WHEREAS, AFT members know that far-right forces’ beliefs are antithetical to the AFT’s as they work to undermine:

Democratic institutions and norms of our government and civil society, including the rule of law;
An independent judiciary and free press;
Equality under the law, including the rights of people of color, believers in minority religious faiths, members of our LGBTQIA+ community and immigrants; and
The right to freely organize and associate for working Americans; and
WHEREAS, the enemies of democracy have written down exactly what they intend to do: Project 2025 is a 900-page road map for how a new, far-right, anti-democratic presidential administration can concentrate power and authority and override the checks and balances outlined in our Constitution without congressional approval; and

WHEREAS, Project 2025 is funded by the Heritage Foundation and other similar organizations and was written by former Trump Administration officials, current Trump advisers and other anti-democratic extremists to provide guidance for the first 180 days of a Trump administration; and

WHEREAS, while many of the suggested plans and actions in Project 2025 would be considered illegal, we know from recent decisions that the judiciary no longer operates independently of the executive branch offering no guarantee of impartiality; and

WHEREAS, Project 2025 will cut and privatize Social Security and Medicare, allow employers to stop paying overtime, strip healthcare protections for people with pre-existing conditions, call for a nationwide abortion ban, dismantle the Department of Education, increase costs on the middle class while giving a tax break to the ultra wealthy, attack academic freedom, dismantle civil rights protections, end efforts to combat climate change, and weaponize the National Labor Relations Board against workers; and

WHEREAS, Project 2025’s plans for public education are draconian and would end public education and public higher education as we know it:

RESOLVED, the AFT will activate our 1.8 million members and oppose Project 2025 and any related legislation; and

RESOLVED, the AFT opposes candidates who support Project 2025 and any related legislation.

(2024)

Please note that a newer resolution, or portion of a resolution, may have superseded an earlier resolution on the same subject. As a result, with the exception of resolutions adopted at our most recent AFT convention, resolutions do not necessarily reflect current AFT policies. … See MoreSee Less

Project 2025

www.aft.org

WHEREAS, the AFT and our 1.8 million members believe that preserving our democracy is a defining principle of our work as educators, healthcare professionals, and state and local government workers an…