Worker Solidarity Action Network

1 week ago

The Crisis In Heatlhcare & Nursing. NNU & The Shift Change Slate
soundcloud.com/workweek-radio/ww-4-17-24-the-crisis-in-heatlhcare-nursing-the-shift-change-slate
The ongoing and deepening crisis in healthcare and the effect on nurses is address by a National Nurses United Shift Change slate.
They discuss the use of traveling nurses and massive monopolization of the hospital industry and the failure to have a democratic process and union education so members can participate, debate and confront the challenges facing nurses and healthcare in the US.
This interview was done on 4/17/24
Additional Media:
NNU-CNA Sutter Alta Bates Hospital Nurses Fed Up & Strike Against Concession Contracts
youtu.be/TrwWdQOPxkQ
More Information:
Shift Change
www.shiftchangennu.org
Production of WorkWeek
soundcloud.com/workweek-radio … See MoreSee Less

Shift Change

www.shiftchangennu.org

Don’t forget, ballots go out to members April 5th, must be received in Oakland by May 17. Don’t forget, ballots go out to members April 5th, must be received in Oakland by May 17. SHIFT CHANGE Adv…

Worker Solidarity Action Network

2 weeks ago

S.F. reaches tentative deal with major unions, making a strike less likely
www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/s-f-reaches-tentative-deal-with-unions-strike-19404726.php
By J.D. Morris
April 15, 2024
San Francisco library workers, union members and supporters hold a rally on April 9 outside the San Francisco Main Library calling for increased security at every branch.
San Francisco library workers, union members and supporters hold a rally on April 9 outside the San Francisco Main Library calling for increased security at every branch.
Jana Asenbrennerova/Special to the Chronicle
San Francisco has reached tentative labor contracts with several of its largest unions, reducing the chances of a widespread public-sector strike as the city tries to close a huge budget deficit during a mayoral election year.
Full details of the agreements were not immediately available, but SEIU Local 1021, San Francisco’s largest public-sector union, said its contract would establish a $25 per hour minimum wage for city workers, among other provisions. The lowest hourly pay rate for SEIU members is currently $20.25, according to the union.
Django Rampley, center, holds a sign from the back of a vintage San Francisco Fire Fighters Local 798 engine as unions gather for a rally outside City Hall to kick off contract negotiations with the city on Jan. 17.
Django Rampley, center, holds a sign from the back of a vintage San Francisco Fire Fighters Local 798 engine as unions gather for a rally outside City Hall to kick off contract negotiations with the city on Jan. 17.
Stephen Lam/The Chronicle
It’s too soon to tell how much the deal will cost the city or exactly how it will impact the upcoming budget negotiations, though officials said they’ve factored the labor talks into their financial projections. Mayor London Breed previously ordered her departments to plan for 10% spending cuts in the coming fiscal year.
The city is still negotiating with some unions, including those representing nurses and transit operators. But the tentative agreements with SEIU and some other unions cover more than 20,000 of San Francisco’s 36,600 employees, according to Breed’s office. Union members still need to ratify the contracts, and they must also be approved by the Board of Supervisors.
San Francisco unions have been threatening to strike this year as they push for raises and better working conditions. City workers haven’t gone on strike in decades, but provisions in the City Charter that forbade them from doing so were recently gutted by a state employment board.
While the city appealed that ruling, the possibility of a strike created a political headache for Breed, who is trying to close a projected $789.3 million two-year deficit just months before she hopes to defeat several challengers to win another term.
“Mayor Breed has been clear that a key component of San Francisco’s ability to deliver high quality and necessary services to the public involves investing in our workforce,” Breed spokesman Jeff Cretan said in an email Monday.
Cretan said city officials are “working closely” with the unions that don’t have agreements yet, hoping to promptly “bring discussions to amicable resolution.” He said the tentative contracts already agreed to will “help ensure the stability and continuity of city services” throughout their three-year terms. He also noted that the contract negotiations were included as part of the city’s budget planning process and promised that Breed will deliver a balanced budget to supervisors this summer.
Kristin Hardy, San Francisco regional vice president for SEIU 1021, said in a statement that the $25 minimum wage her union secured in the deal would “immediately help bring over 1,000 of the City’s lowest-paid employees out of poverty.” Hardy said the union also secured “new protections against contracting out in this agreement that we believe can start to disrupt this disturbing pattern of throwing taxpayer dollars to outside companies with little to no oversight.”
“We believe the agreement will help us protect and improve the public services S.F. needs as it rebuilds post-pandemic,” Hardy said in her statement.
But she said SEIU’s work isn’t finished yet, noting that the nurses and transit workers who don’t have tentative agreements with the city yet “face huge challenges around staffing and contracting out, among other issues.”
“We hope to reach agreements with the City for them, too, but all options up to and including a strike are still on the table until we do,” Hardy said.
Rudy Gonzalez, secretary-treasurer for the San Francisco Building & Construction Trades Council, said his members also don’t have a deal with the city yet, nor do plumbers, engineers and electricians — and a strike remains possible for them, too.
“We aren’t playing some game for fun,” Gonzalez said in a text message. “We are fighting for the city we love. Let’s hope it comes together.”
Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin, who’s running for mayor against Breed, said he thought “cooler heads prevailed” as leaders of the major unions and the mayor’s office negotiated.
“The leadership and the rank and file of San Francisco’s largest employee organizations care about the city’s financial position and are realistic about it, and I think that we dug as deep into our pockets as we reasonably could,” Peskin said. “It’s still gonna be a tough budget season, but I think we will make it work.”
Reach J.D. Morris: jd.morris@sfchronicle.com; X/Twitter: @thejdmorris … See MoreSee Less

S.F. reaches tentative deal with major unions, making a strike less likely

www.sfchronicle.com

S.F. reaches tentative deal with major unions, making a strike less likely as mayoral election looms

Worker Solidarity Action Network

2 weeks ago

Teamsters union, which led strike against Post-Gazette, accepts settlement and agrees to dissolve
www.wesa.fm/economy-business/2024-04-11/post-gazette-strike-teamsters-union-settlemnt-dissolve

90.5 WESA | By Oliver Morrison
Published April 11, 2024 at 12:50 PM EDT

Building that reads Pittsburgh Post-Gazette along the top
Katie Blackley

90.5 WESA
The settlement by Teamsters Local 211/205, which represents Post-Gazette truck drivers, has set off a firestorm among the four other unions who remain on strike, including the Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh.
The local Teamsters union that has led a more than year-and-a-half-long strike against the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has voted to accept payment and dissolve itself as part of a settlement with the parent company, Block Communications.

The settlement by Teamsters Local 211/205, which represents Post-Gazette truck drivers, has set off a firestorm among the four other unions who remain on strike, including the Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh. The Guild represents the editorial staff, including reporters and photographers, and was pressured to join the strike in support of the Teamsters and the two other newspaper production unions at risk of losing its own union charter.

"After 18 months on strike, standing on the picket lines all day and late into the nights with Teamster drivers represented by Local 211/205, it's extremely disappointing to see this unit fall for the company's divide and conquer strategy," said Zack Tanner, Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh president, in a press release.

Tanner estimated that the new settlement agreement would decrease the total number of workers on strike at the Post-Gazette from between 80 and 90 to just over 60 members, including 31 active members from the Newspaper Guild.

Joe Barbano, a trustee and business agent for the local Teamsters 211/205, said his union was backed into a corner. The union’s membership had fallen from around 150 when the Post-Gazette was still publishing seven days a week (the Post-Gazette cut publication to five days in August 2018 and three days in fall 2019), to just 30 in 2022 when the union first went on strike. Barbano said only 23 members were left as of this week and a majority of them voted to accept a severance payment and dissolve itself.

“A majority of them said we would take some type of a settlement, we'll move on with our lives,” Barbano said. “And that's what we did.”

Barbano denied the accusation that the Teamsters had let down the Newspaper Guild, which voted to go on strike and support the Teamsters two weeks after Teamsters announced their strike in 2022. Barbano said it was the Guild’s membership that had undermined the strike.

“To be honest with you, the Guild, [around] 50% of their membership crossed the picket line,” Barbano said. “And they wrote for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, and they were able to get a paper out because of that.”

Tanner said the members who did go on strike have been fully supportive. “I can say that personally on Teamster picket lines, I was bear-sprayed. Cops have physically dragged me around on the picket line,” he said. “There was a fight that a News Guild member broke up famously where a member had his jaw broken last year.”

Barbano said that there were rumors the Post-Gazette will cut its delivery schedule to one day a week. “We have no future if they cut another day of print, which they were hinting that they are,” he said. “We are out of business.”

The four unions still on strike chafed at how the local Teamsters negotiated a settlement on their own. “By selling out in secret, the Teamsters have not only damaged their own credibility but have also jeopardized the possibility of a fair settlement for all the unions involved,” said Mike Davis, the vice president of CWA District 2-13, one of the unions still on strike.

Barbano said that the local Teamsters union had presented the idea for this settlement about six months ago to the other unions but the other unions didn’t move on it, so the Teamsters decided to move forward on their own. The reason the Teamsters negotiated in secret from the other unions on strike was because that was a requirement made by the Post-Gazette, he said.

“The Post-Gazette wanted to keep it that way,” he said. “And in order for us to get a deal done, we needed to do that.”

Barbano said it was a local decision to settle but that his boss agreed. He didn’t share details of the amount each member would be paid but said it would be based on their years of service and would differ from member to member. The settlement agreement is not yet official, he said.

The Post-Gazette and Block Communications didn’t issue a press release. However, a business reporter for the Post-Gazette who chose not to go on strike with the majority of the Guild in 2022, wrote an article about the settlement, saying he received a statement from Post-Gazette management.

“The Post-Gazette and Teamsters Local Union 211/205 have amicably settled their strike, which began October 6, 2022,” the reporter wrote, saying it came from a Post-Gazette statement. “The parties ended the strike by executing a Labor Dispute Settlement Agreement. The Labor Dispute Settlement Agreement resolves, to the satisfaction of the Local Union and the Post-Gazette, substantially all strike-related issues and health care, including any outstanding National Labor Relations Board actions.”

Allison Latcheran, the director of marketing for the Post-Gazette, said the paper did not have any comment beyond what was published in the Post-Gazette story.

The Post-Gazette has hired replacement employees during the more than 18-month strike. Some local politicians, including Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey, have chosen not to give interviews to the Post-Gazette until its labor dispute is resolved.

Tanner said the union membership was extremely disappointed by the Teamster’s decision but that they were positive they would reach a successful outcome to the strike.

“This is a fight for the workers and this is a fight for the community,” he said. “And we are in this, and I think we're going to see a win, a big win soon.” … See MoreSee Less

Teamsters union, which led strike against Post-Gazette, accepts settlement and agrees to dissolve

www.wesa.fm

The local Teamsters union has voted to accept payment and dissolve itself as part of a settlement with Post-Gazette parent company, Block Communications.

Worker Solidarity Action Network

2 weeks ago

CWA and NewsGuild react to dissolution of Teamsters local; strike continues for four other unions

www.unionprogress.com/2024/04/11/cwa-and-newsguild-react-to-dissolution-of-teamsters-local/

by Pittsburgh Union ProgressApril 11, 2024
The Communication Workers of America sent out the following press release Thursday about the Pittsburgh news workers strike as it continues for four other unions:

On Wednesday, Teamsters Local 211/205 voted to accept severance payments from Pittsburgh Post-Gazette management in exchange for dissolving their union and ending their strike against an employer that has violated federal law with several unions.

“It’s beyond disappointing that the Teamsters would abandon their fellow strikers at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette,” said NewsGuild-CWA President Jon Schleuss. “We stood with the Teamsters: in the cold, in the rain, in the snow and in the face of violent scab truck drivers and aggressive police. We will continue to strike and hold the employer to account. And we will never give up on our union or our members.”

“We’re very disappointed with what the Teamsters did,” said CWA District 2-13 Vice President Mike Davis. “By selling out in secret, the Teamsters have not only damaged their own credibility but have also jeopardized the possibility of a fair settlement for all the unions involved. We will not forget who stayed in this fight to the end, but right now we’re focused on sticking together because we’re stronger together. And we’re going to get the best possible deal for our members.”

“After 18 months on strike, standing on the picket lines day and late into the nights with Teamster drivers represented by Local 211/205, it’s extremely disappointing to see this unit fall for the company’s divide and conquer strategy,” said Zack Tanner, Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh president. “Newsroom workers won’t be broken, though. We will always stand strong against the company’s union busting tactics, just as we’ve stood strong against the bosses, cops, and scabs that have tried to break us.” … See MoreSee Less

CWA and NewsGuild react to dissolution of Teamsters local; strike continues for four other unions – Pittsburgh Union Progress

www.unionprogress.com

The Communication Workers of America sent out the following press release Thursday about the Pittsburgh news workers strike as it continues for four other unions: On Wednesday, Teamsters Local 211/205…

Worker Solidarity Action Network

2 weeks ago

Freight railroads ask courts to throw out new rule requiring two-person crews on trains
www.detroitnews.com/story/business/2024/04/11/two-person-train-crews-federal-rules/73291247007/
Josh FunkAssociated Press

Four railroads have asked federal appeals courts to throw out a new rule that would require two-person train crews in most circumstances, saying the mandate is arbitrary, capricious and an illegal abuse of discretion.

The identical challenges of the Federal Railroad Administration's rule were all filed this week in different appellate courts on behalf of Union Pacific, BNSF and two short line railroads — the Indiana Railroad and Florida East Coast Railway.

The new federal requirement, announced last week, was a milestone in organized labor’s long fight to preserve the practice and came amid increasing scrutiny into railroad safety, especially in the wake of the fiery February 2023 derailment in eastern Ohio.

More:Freight railroads must keep 2-person crews, according to new federal rule 2 years in the making

Most of those railroads didn't immediately offer additional explanation for why they don't like the rule, but the industry has long opposed such a regulation and the Association of American Railroads trade group said last week that the rule was unfounded and not supported by safety data. The Indiana Railroad — like many short lines across the country — already operates with one-person crews, but the major freight railroads all have two-person crews that their union contracts require.

Union Pacific said in a statement that “this rule, which lacks any data showing two people in a cab are safer than one, hinders our ability to compete in a world where technology is changing the transportation industry and prevents us from preparing our workforce for jobs of the future.”

BNSF deferred comment to AAR, and the two smaller railroads didn't immediately respond to messages Thursday morning.

The regulators who announced the rule last Tuesday and the unions that have lobbied for the policy for years all argue there are clear safety benefits to having two people in the cab of locomotives to help operate the train because they can keep each other alert and the conductor can respond immediately to any problems they encounter, including serving as the initial first-responder to a derailment.

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has said the need to improve railroad safety was made glaringly clear last year when a Norfolk Southern train derailed on the outskirts of a town on the Ohio-Pennsylvania border and spilled an assortment of hazardous chemicals that caught fire. That East Palestine derailment inspired calls for reform that have stalled in Congress.

But Buttigieg and the Federal Railroad Administration declined to comment Thursday on the legal challenges to the new rule that is set to take effect in early June.

Railroads have long argued that the size of train crews should be determined by contract talks, not regulators or lawmakers, because they maintain there isn’t enough data to show that two-person crews are safer. Current safety stats can't show how safe one-person crews are because all the major railroads have two-person crews now.

The new rule does include an exception that would allow short line railroads to continue operating with one-person crews if they have been doing it for more than two years and have a plan to ensure safety. But the rule would make it difficult for any railroads to cut their crews down to one person.

The railroads have often challenged states when they tried to require two-person crews, so it's not a surprise that they went to court over this new federal rule.

The major freight railroads have argued that automatic braking systems that are designed to prevent collisions have made the second person in the locomotive cab unnecessary, and they believe a conductor based in a truck could adequately respond to any train problems. Plus, they say taking that conductor off of the train would improve their quality of life because he or she would no longer have to work unpredictable hours on the road. … See MoreSee Less

Freight railroads ask courts to throw out new rule requiring two-person crews on trains

www.detroitnews.com

Four railroads have asked federal appeals courts to throw out a new rule that would require two-person train crews in most circumstances.

Worker Solidarity Action Network

3 weeks ago

Two years after its historic win, a divided Amazon Labor Union lurches toward a leadership election
www.detroitnews.com/story/business/2024/04/08/two-years-after-its-historic-win-a-divided-amazon-l…

Haleluya HaderoAssociated Press

Two years after clenching a historic victory at a warehouse in New York City, the first labor union for Amazon workers in the United States is divided, running out of money and fighting over an election that could determine who will lead the group in the near future.

Despite campaigns at several facilities in the past few years, the warehouse on Staten Island still is the only site in the U.S. where the retail giant's workers have voted in favor of union representation. Cracks emerged within the Amazon Labor Union ranks after it lost the votes at a second Staten Island warehouse and at one in upstate New York, spurring disagreements about the group's organizing strategy.

Letters representing Amazon Labor Union adorn a fence adjacent to the Amazon distribution center on Staten Island in New York on Oct. 25, 2021.
Some felt Chris Smalls, the union’s president, spent too much time traveling and giving speeches instead of focusing on Staten Island, where the union still does not have a contract with Amazon. Prominent members resigned quietly or left to form a dissident labor group, which sued the union in federal court last summer to force an election for new leadership.

Although many of the union’s problems are internal, it also continues to face roadblocks from Amazon, which has resisted efforts to come to the bargaining table despite pressure from federal labor regulators to do so.

The company, for its part, has accused the National Labor Relations Boardand the ALU of improperly influencing the outcome of the successful unionization vote. Amazon also claims the results – 2,654 in favor and 2,131 against – do not represent what the majority of employees want. About 8,300 people worked at the JFK8 Fulfillment Center at the time of the April 2022 vote.

“When the law allows management to drag out negotiations over years, and to use legal arguments to delay the progress that the workers have begun, it’s just an enormous hurdle,” said Benjamin Sachs, a labor law professor at Harvard University.

In January, months after the splinter group called A.L.U. Democratic Reform Caucus filed its lawsuit, the union agreed to a court-brokered plan to allow rank-and-file members to vote on whether to hold an election for a slate of new officers. For five days that ended in early March, tables with ballots were set up outside the doors of the massive Staten Island warehouse. Smalls and other union leaders campaigned against the election, but the vote didn’t go their way.

In court documents, Arthur Schwartz, an attorney who represents the dissident caucus, said that of the roughly 350 union members who voted, 60% favored having an officer election in June or July.

The referendum, which had a low turnout rate, didn’t settle the legal back-and-forth and internal power plays. Last week, Jeanne Mirer, an attorney for the union, argued in a legal filing that the federal court in New York should reopen the court-brokered plan. She called it a “flawed” agreement that violated the union’s constitution.

According to Mirer, the current ALU governing document requires members to pass an amendment or arrange a constitutional convention if they want to hold an officer election before a collective bargaining agreement is negotiated with Amazon. The current leaders also say the union has run out of money, which makes it challenging for them to conduct an election.

“It doesn’t matter who’s in the chair,” Mirer said during an interview. “Anybody who is a leader has to get Amazon to the table, and working against each other isn’t going to do it.”

Schwartz, the attorney for the dissidents, called the union’s legal claims “totally baseless,” arguing that the constitution at issue was imposed by Smalls – without a vote – in late 2022. He noted that the neutral monitor overseeing the implementation of the court-brokered plan – labor attorney Richard Levy – has scheduled candidate nomination meetings for May, which could allow an internal election to be held as early as June 11.

Smalls, a former Amazon worker who co-founded the union during the coronavirus pandemic, did not respond to multiple requests for an interview. Last year, he told the New York Times that he traveled to help raise money for the union. He also told financial news website Business Insider in December that he would not seek reelection as ALU president.

Meanwhile, two other prominent organizers, Connor Spence, the union’s co-founder and former treasurer, and Michelle Valentin Nieves, the union’s former vice president, have thrown their hats in the ring. Amazon fired Spence last year for violating a company policy that forbids workers from accessing company buildings or outdoor work areas when they’re off the clock, a policy critics say is designed to hinder organizing. He's leading the A.L.U. Democratic Reform Caucus, while Valentin Nieves is running her own independent campaign.

Valentin Nieves, who helps run the conveyor belts at the warehouse that unionized, said she felt frustrated during her time as an ALU officer by how much Smalls traveled, alleging that he missed weekly financial meetings for five months straight. She said she spoke with him about reducing his time away and encouraged him to periodically go to public bus stop near the warehouse, where many workers gathered after their shifts ended. But she said Smalls didn’t take her advice.

“We need someone that is here. We need a contract and we need to organize the building,” Valentin Nieves said. “If we’re not able to do this, it’s going to have a domino effect, and a lot of Amazon workers are going to lose hope.”

One Amazon worker on Staten Island, Keanu Rivera, 28, said he voted in favor of the union two years ago and sometimes reads the emails he receives from the labor group. Rivera said he used to see organizers talking to workers all the time before the representation vote two years ago.

These days, he says there’s not much of that, a problem exacerbated by the Amazon policy restricting off-duty activity in work areas.

“It’s all Amazon,” Rivera said. “Amazon got the money to stall them.”

In addition to the vigorous legal pushback against the union’s win, the company has continued to spend millions on labor consultants who often try to persuade workers against joining a union. In 2023 alone, Amazon spent more than $3 million on such consultants for its delivery network, a target of the Teamsters union.

Last month, the National Labor Relations Board filed a complaint against Amazon, alleging the company illegally attempted to disrupt organizing efforts by an independent union associated with the ALU at an air hub in Kentucky. Amazon spokesperson Mary Kate Paradis said that complaint was “without merit.”

“We will continue to defend our position as the legal process continues,” Paradis said.

Back in New York, organizers pushing for the internal election have their work cut out for them. They still need to secure a new mailing list for all the workers at the Staten Island warehouse, which has high turnover. Schwartz, the attorney for the dissidents, has asked the court to intervene so candidates whom the NLRB determined were illegally fired, such as Spence, can campaign in non-work areas of Amazon's property.

“The hope of the caucus," he said, “is that we really use the election process to reenergize people in the plant.” … See MoreSee Less

Two years after its historic win, a divided Amazon Labor Union lurches toward a leadership election

www.detroitnews.com

The first labor union for Amazon workers in the United States is divided, running out of money and fighting over an election.