Every week, we bring you a roundup of the top news and commentary about issues and events important to working families. Here’s the latest edition of the Working People Weekly List.
Fairfax Connector Suspends Bus Service as Workers Go on Strike: “Fairfax Connector workers have launched a strike after months of negotiations for a new labor contract with Transdev, the company that operates Fairfax County’s bus service. Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 689, which represents about 638 bus operators and mechanics for Fairfax Connector, announced the strike just after midnight Thursday. Workers began hitting picket lines at garages in Herndon, Lorton and on West Ox Road in the Fairfax area at 2 a.m. In a news release, the union said there remains ‘a vast divide’ between its demands and Transdev’s, and a strike became ‘unavoidable’ after 12 bargaining sessions due to ‘Transdev’s unfair labor practices and regressive bargaining.’”
Another Major Hollywood Union, the IATSE, Is Heading Into Studio Negotiations. Here's What To Know: “IATSE represents more than 150,000 below-the-line entertainment workers, from costume designers to motion picture editors. About 60,000 workers are affected by the two contracts coming up for negotiation. In 2021, IATSE threatened to go on strike, producing an overwhelming 98% authorization vote (with a whopping 90% turnout). But the worst was averted with an October agreement. This time around, the talks come on the heels of last year’s historic WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes.”
Southwest Airlines Reaches Tentative Agreement with Transport Workers Union: “Southwest Airlines has reached a tentative agreement with a local unit of the Transport Workers Union that represents nearly 18,000 operations, provisioning, ramp and cargo agents, the company said on Thursday. The carrier did not provide any details about the agreement signed with TWU 555, which will communicate details of the deal directly to its members.”
Major Strikes in 2023 Set 20-Year Record, Labor Department Says: “American workers led 33 major strikes in 2023, the most in more than two decades, the Labor Department reported Wednesday, as a booming labor market fueled a strong year of activity for unions. In total, 458,900 workers participated in major strikes, defined as involving 1,000 or more workers, according to the Labor Department. That’s more than three times the number of strikes in 2022, according to the agency’s data, which excludes a lot of strikes at smaller workplaces.”
Vanderbilt Graduate Students Push for Official Campus Union: “Vanderbilt University graduate students have collected hundreds of union authorization cards from colleagues, leaders say—a major step in winning official recognition from the school before the end of the year. Late last year, campus organizers officially associated with the United Auto Workers, which claims more than 400,000 active union members, in hopes of unionizing an estimated 2,200 graduate student workers.”
Atlantic Theater Workers Vote to Join IATSE: “178 crewmembers of the Atlantic Theatre Company have voted in favor of joining The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE). This makes them the first group to unionize with IATSE in a major non-profit theater off-Broadway. Two weeks ago, workers at the off-Broadway musical ‘Titanique’ voted unanimously in favor of IATSE representation.”
UChicago Medicine Nurses Vote Authorize Strike as Negotiations Continue: “Nurses at UChicago Medicine gave union leaders the green light to call a strike. This comes as they continue to negotiate with management. Tuesday's 97% strike vote allowed union leaders to call a one-day strike over what they say are understaffing and patient safety concerns. No actual strike has been announced.”
Barnes & Noble on Manhattan's Upper West Side Files for Union Election: “Workers at the Barnes & Noble on West 82nd St. in the Upper West Side neighborhood of Manhattan filed for a union election with the National Labor Relations Board on February 20. Workers are seeking representation with the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU). This marks the third unionization effort launched at a Barnes & Noble location in New York City in the past year. The move is only the latest in a series of labor efforts across many sectors of the book business in recent years, but especially in bookselling. In that sector, the RWDSU has been a big player, including leading successful organizing efforts at McNally Jackson and Greenlight Bookstore.”
Faith Leaders Call Out Racial Disparities in Pay for Sky Harbor Workers: “Public pressure is mounting on the city of Phoenix to address complaints against the company it uses to manage concessions at Sky Harbor International Airport as workers raise concerns about racial inequities in pay, discriminatory discipline and unsanitary conditions. Religious leaders sent a letter to Phoenix City Council on Thursday asking for officials to investigate allegations of racial disparities by airport contractor SSP America. The letter, signed by a diverse coalition of 31 clergy members from across the Valley, was received by Vice Mayor Yassamin Ansari during a press conference across the street from Phoenix City Hall. Workers and labor organizers from the Unite Here Local 11 joined the religious leaders at the media event.”
Sixteen Months on Strike at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: “Bob Batz, Jr., thought it would end quickly. ‘It's kind of cute now, that we thought getting into last December [2022] and January was a long time,’ Batz said. ‘Little did we know. [We said] ‘Oh, it’s Christmas and we're still on strike. We can't believe it.’’ Batz is one of 31 Newspaper Guild workers striking the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, owned by the family company Block Communications, Inc. Journalists at the Post-Gazette have been on strike since October 2022—making this strike the longest of the digital age—along with four other units: mailers, advertising workers, and Teamster truck drivers and pressmen.”
Unions Launch Crash Drive Against GOP Commission to Cut Social Security: “The AFL-CIO will play a big role in the fight, as it did, one speaker said, when it led the successful assault on GOP President George W. Bush’s 2005 plan to privatize Social Security, thus turning over its billions of dollars in annual revenue—taken from workers’ payroll taxes—to wolves of Wall Street. Federation President Liz Shuler called Johnson’s commission scheme ‘a terrible idea.’ Though she could not attend the press conference, Shuler added the Republican commission’s cuts ‘would push older Americans into poverty, take away people’s health care and end up costing the government more.’”
U.S. Unions Target the Housing Affordability Crisis as Their ‘Biggest Issue’: “As housing has become a top issue in strikes and protests in recent months, U.S. unions are pushing for change and backing innovative solutions for the housing affordability crisis. With U.S. house prices and rents rising in recent years, and high interest rates and inflation taking their toll, housing affordability has become a major issue at the bargaining table for U.S. labor unions. Many workers are facing 60-, 90-, even 120-minute commutes to work because they cannot afford to live near their jobs.”
Nonunion Restaurants Along the Vegas Strip are Fueling a Campaign to Organize Them: “For all the glitz of the Las Vegas Strip—home of the Bellagio’s fountain and several faux Wonders of the World—one of Vegas’ true wonders often goes unremarked: It is a union town, with 60,000 hospitality and restaurant workers represented by the Culinary Workers Union. But as the city has come back after the pandemic, hosting this year’s Super Bowl and swing-state campaign workers, that wonder is showing signs of stress. Nonunion restaurants have crept onto the Strip over the last decade, and the union estimates that today there are 10,000 nonunion jobs. ‘It’s a huge problem for us,’ said Ted Pappageorge, secretary-treasurer of the Culinary Workers Union, also known as UNITE HERE Local 26. Local 26 last summer took on one of organized labor’s monumental tasks: protecting and expanding union strongholds. The task is simple and immense. Immense, because it requires organizing those 10,000 workers across dozens of workplaces in an industry notoriously difficult to unionize. Simple, because so many nonunion workers now labor inside the same complexes where unions are already present.”
ABC6 Workers Announce Union Campaign: “Rhode Island and Southeast Massachusetts workers at local news station ABC6 are launching union organizing efforts, according to two employees with the unit’s organizing committee. The workers, who want to join the Communications Workers of America’s broadcast arm, The National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians (NABET), say they are calling for a union because of their concerns about understaffing, low and unequal wages, and outdated equipment. They also say their leadership may be empowering amateur community members to replace the jobs of their photographers in exchange for gift cards. On Friday would-be union members presented their leadership with a petition explaining their reasons for desiring to form a union, and, simultaneously, filed for an election with the National Labor Relations Board.”