Jacqueline Rayfield is a student at Harvard Law School.
In today’s News and Commentary, striking Los Angeles hotel workers reach a deal with a third hotel, and the United Automobile Workers celebrate nonunion autoworkers as future union family amid expanding strike at General Motors.
Striking union hotel workers in Pasadena reach a tentative agreement with Loews Hollywood, marking the third hotel to reach an agreement after four months of work-stoppages. This latest hotel employs 300 members of UNITE HERE Local 11. Both Loews representatives and union leadership celebrated this tentative agreement. Local 11 president, Kurt Petersen called on the rest of the industry to follow suit and share their prosperity with workers. This win for Local 11 members comes just days after reports of hotels hiring unhoused migrant workers to replace striking staff.
The United Automobile Workers expanded their strike effort on Tuesday to General Motors’ largest U.S. factory just a day after striking at Stellantis’ RAM truck plant. This move expands the unions strategy to strike all big three automakers’ largest and most profitable plants. G.M.’s 23 percent increase in wages over the next four years is still far apart from the union’s original proposal of 40 percent raises for its members.
U.A.W. president Shawn Fain has suggested that these talks with big three automakers are the first step towards a broader effort to organize workers at Tesla, Toyota, Honda, and others U.S. auto factories. Executives at the big three automakers have suggested that higher wages for their own workers would put them at a competitive disadvantage with nonunion automakers. But Fain insists that “nonunion autoworkers are not the enemy. Those are our future union family.”
Daily News & Commentary
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August 29
Trump fires regulator in charge of reviewing railroad mergers; fired Fed Governor sues Trump asserting unlawful termination; and Trump attacks more federal sector unions.
August 28
contested election for UAW at Kentucky battery plant; NLRB down to one member; public approval of unions remains high.
August 27
The U.S. Department of Justice welcomes new hires and forces reassignments in the Civil Rights Division; the Ninth Circuit hears oral arguments in Brown v. Alaska Airlines Inc.; and Amazon violates federal labor law at its air cargo facility in Kentucky.
August 26
Park employees at Yosemite vote to unionize; Philadelphia teachers reach tentative three-year agreement; a new report finds California’s union coverage remains steady even as national union density declines.
August 25
Consequences of SpaceX decision, AI may undermine white-collar overtime exemptions, Sixth Circuit heightens standard for client harassment.
August 24
HHS cancels union contracts, the California Supreme Court rules on minimum wage violations, and jobless claims rise