Working people across the United States have stepped up to help out our friends, neighbors and communities during these trying times. In our regular Service + Solidarity Spotlight series, we’ll showcase one of these stories every day. Here’s today’s story. The arts, entertainment and media unions affiliated with the Department for Professional Employees, AFL-CIO, (DPE) …
Thousands of warehouse workers at an Amazon plant in Bessemer, Alabama, are at the center of a potentially game-changing union vote taking place right now. On February 8, the warehouse workers were sent ballots by mail to decide over the next seven weeks if they want to join the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU). Just …
Why Amazon Is Fighting So Hard to Stop Warehouse Workers From Unionizing Read More »
When workers at Orchid Orthopedic Solutions tried to form a union, the company quickly brought in five full-time union-busters to torment them day and night. The hired guns saturated the Bridgeport, Michigan, plant with anti-union messages, publicly belittled organizers, harangued workers on the shop floor and asked them how they’d feed their families if the …
Why U.S. Labor Laws Need a Major Update—The PRO Act Is a Great Start Read More »
Including a minimum wage increase in a bill passing the Senate under budget reconciliation got a procedural boost on Monday. The Congressional Budget Office responded to Sen. Bernie Sanders’ queries with an assessment that the minimum wage would have broader budgetary effects than some other measures that have passed the Senate through reconciliation. That means the minimum …
Medium is the latest digital media outlet to unionize, with that news coming Thursday after a “strong majority” of 140 workers signed cards to join the Communications Workers of America. “I think a lot of people perceive media as this white-collar profession, but the reality of working in a lot of media jobs was really low salaries, …
Digital media workers continue to organize, this week in the war on workers Read More »
The National Employment Law Project (NELP) applaudsCongressman Hank Johnson, along with 155 cosponsors, for introducing the Forced Arbitration Injustice Repeal (FAIR) Act of 2021. The FAIR Act would end corporations’ imposition of forced arbitration and class/collective action waivers in employment and civil rights cases, restoring the rights of workers to seek accountability from their employers for …
Sen. Ron Wyden, the top Senate Democrat overseeing unemployment issues, is calling on Congress to give the Labor Department $500 million to shore up the bewildered state unemployment system. Hobbled by antiquated computer systems, state agencies responsible for paying out unemployment benefits have struggled to administer new emergency aid programs created for the millions of …
Democrats call for UI system fix as millions face another lapse in benefits Read More »
Union-busters who traveled from other states to fight a union organizing drive at a Maine hospital got an extra-special bonus from hospital management: COVID-19 vaccinations. State officials are calling out MaineHealth over that violation of state vaccination policy and basic decency. “Vaccinating out-of-state contractors who came here to disrupt a union-organizing effort was an insult to the …
After defying an order to return to school buildings they deemed unsafe, the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) has voted to approve a significantly revised plan to reopen elementary schools next month. On Tuesday, 13,681 CTU members (68% of those who participated) voted to approve the agreement, while 6,585 members voted against it. Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Chicago Public Schools (CPS) had …
How many of you dealt with that chaos when it came to wrestling with the unemployment insurance system last year? Some of the rhetoric we heard was, “well that chaos was just the pandemic crush overwhelming the system”. Yes, that’s true in a very narrow sense—the system collapsed in many places, meaning people who were …
Unemployment Money Chaos Redux?; Clawing Back Dough From the Rich Read More »
Madeline Messa is a 3L at Syracuse University College of Law. She graduated from Penn State with a degree in journalism. With her legal research and writing for Workplace Fairness, she strives to equip people with the information they need to be their own best advocate.
