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.
Whole Foods Workers in Philadelphia Vote to Form Chain’s First Union: “Workers at a Whole Foods Market in Philadelphia voted on Monday to become the first unionized store in Amazon’s grocery chain, opening a new front in the e-commerce giant’s efforts to fend off labor organizing in multiple segments of its business. Employees at the sprawling Whole Foods store, in the city’s Spring Garden neighborhood, voted 130-100 in favor of organizing with the United Food and Commercial Workers union, the National Labor Relations Board said.”
Las Vegas Hotel Workers Union Reaches Deal with Casino to End Strike: “Hundreds of workers at a Las Vegas hotel and casino who have been on strike for more than two months will go back to work after agreeing to a new contract Wednesday. The Culinary Workers Union and an affiliated bartenders union, which together represented about 700 striking workers at Virgin Hotels Las Vegas, announced the employees had unanimously approved a five-year deal. The unions and the hotel said in a joint statement that they are ‘pleased to be moving past their contract negotiations as each looks forward to fostering a positive and collaborative working relationship for the benefit of all team members at the property.’”
Healthcare Worker Union Ratifies New Contract with UM Health-Sparrow: “Nurses and healthcare professionals at University of Michigan Health-Sparrow voted to approve a new contract, the Michigan Nurses Association announced Thursday afternoon. The vote passed with 95% approval, averting a planned five-day strike. Members of the Professional Employee Council of Sparrow Hospital-Michigan Nurses Association (PECSH-MNA) began voting on Monday. Voting ended Thursday and was tallied that same afternoon. Workers would have gone on strike if the contract had not been approved.”
UAW Forces Stellantis to Keep Promises, Wins Back Thousands of Jobs: “After months of campaigns, rallies, grievances filed, and strike votes taken, the United Auto Workers have just won back thousands of jobs in a new agreement with Stellantis. The union’s ‘Keep The Promise’ campaign kicked off after the company reneged on a number of key issues that the workers and their union won in their historic 2023 Stand Up Strike. ‘This victory is a testament to the power of workers standing together and holding a billion-dollar corporation accountable,’ Shawn Fain, president of the UAW, and Kevin Gotkinsky, UAW Stellantis Department Director, said in a statement released Wednesday morning.”
Workers at Genesis HealthCare Ratify First Contract with UFCW Local 152: “Workers at the Genesis HealthCare assisted living facility in Millville voted to ratify their first union contract on Jan. 9, giving them a voice on the job and secured wages and benefits. The workers, members of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 152, voted unanimously to accept their three-year agreement.”
Justice Demands That Colorado Legislators Modernize the State’s Labor Law This Session (Fredrick D. Redmond): “Colorado’s outdated labor law is rooted in unmistakable racism. Now is the time to modernize the law to provide all workers—especially workers of color—with the freedom to organize a union so they can openly voice their opinions at work and negotiate on safety and pay. Colorado’s economy was very different 81 years ago, when our current labor law was passed. In 1943, Colorado’s total population was just over a million people. One of the biggest employers was the Denver Ordnance Plant, where almost 20,000 workers produced bullets for the World War II war effort in three shifts around the clock. And more than 7,000 Japanese-American citizens were prisoners at Camp Amache in Prowers County.”
AFT President Randi Weingarten Discusses Resistance to Trump's Education Policies: “What will resistance to Trump's education policy look like this time around? NPR hears from Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers. Randi Weingarten is the longtime president of the American Federation of Teachers. It's a union representing 1.8 million teachers nationwide. She joins us this morning by way of Skype. Randi, thanks for joining us. Now, how would the teachers you represent be affected by, say, a dismantled Department of Education if indeed he does that?”
New Labor Coalition Wants Colorado’s Unions at the Forefront of the State’s Green Energy Transit: “In a classroom full of motors and switches, Dan Hendricks is going over what goes into a 3-5-year electrical apprenticeship. ‘This is towards the end of their apprenticeship, where they would learn motor control, different switching systems, things of that nature,’ he says, showing me a piece of machinery. ‘So as they progress, right, the work gets more interesting.’ He flicks a switch and triggers a sharp buzzing noise.”
Cecile Richards, Former Planned Parenthood President, Dies at 67: “Cecile Richards, the dynamic former president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America and one of the country’s most well-known defenders of abortion rights, died on Monday at her home in Manhattan. She was 67. She was diagnosed in 2023 with glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer, her family said in a statement. A former political organizer, Richards was a daughter of former Gov. Ann Richards of Texas.”