Peter Morgan is a student at Harvard Law School.
For the first time, the United States has requested a Rapid Response Labor Mechanism (RRM) under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement. A committee chaired by the United States Trade Representative (Katherine Tai) and the Secretary of Labor (Julie Su, acting) had sent a petition to Mexico to review allegations that the Grupo Mexico had violated the labor rights of its workers at the San Martin mine. Since Mexico’s finding that Grupo Mexico had not committed such a violation, the US has now requested an RRM panel to review these abuses.
Following a slew of other successful graduate student union campaigns, graduate students at Duke University voted 1,000 to 131 to unionize. After a failed unionization campaign among the grad students in 2017, the Duke University Student Union won this election on a platform of stipend increases, improved benefits, and greater support for international students.
After a highly publicized negotiation process, the UPS Teamsters finally ratified their new collective bargaining agreement. Of the record 58% of union members who cast a ballot, 86% of members voted in favor of ratifying the five-year contract. The deal boasts a pay raise of up to $7.50 an hour, in-truck air conditioning, higher floors for part-time pay, and new restrictions on forced overtime.
Regional NLRB officials have filed a complaint against Amazon alleging the company had, at their warehouse in Albany, NY, fired a union organizer for protected activity, chilled worker speech, and harassing union advocates by calling the police against employees on them. The Albany warehouse had been the site of the Amazon Labor Union’s second major organizing campaign, and the alleged violations had occurred during that campaign.
Efforts to provide protections to Uber and Lyft drivers in Minnesota have hit another obstacle as Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey vetoed the city council’s plan to raise pay and increase transparency for gig drivers. Frey’s veto follows Minnesota Governor Tim Walz’s veto of similar measures on a state-wide bill, citing concerns of unintended consequences for riders.
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November 21
Workers at electric vehicle battery production complex in Kentucky launch campaign to join the UAW; Amazon workers at company’s largest air facility on the West Coast start union drive to join the Teamsters; and medical residents and fellows affiliated with Brown University organize to join CIR/SEIU Healthcare.
November 20
Philadelphia unions plan a joint strike, Greece faces a 24-hour general strike, and University of California unions set strikes for today and tomorrow.
November 19
Fifth Circuit hears challenges to NLRB; Democratic NLRB majority may be ending soon; building trades unions criticize Democratic party
November 18
In today’s News & Commentary, the Democratic Party Union blasts staff layoffs and Philadelphia city workers threaten mass strike. The Democratic National Committee Staff Union has criticized party leadership following several days of layoffs in the wake of the 2024 election loss. The union claims these cuts go beyond typical post-election turnover and have impacted […]
November 17
DOL overtime rule struck down; Cornell Graduate Student Union speaks on campus repression.
November 15
In today’s News & Commentary, Philadelphia’s largest city workers union authorizes a strike, video game union at Microsoft completes one-day strike, and Massachusetts teachers’ unions are fined. District 33, a union of Philadelphia city workers, has authorized a strike. The union represents 9,000 mostly blue-collar workers, including sanitation workers. Workers are dissatisfied with the city’s […]