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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January 29
Texas pauses H-1B hiring; NLRB General Counsel announces new procedures and priorities; Fourth Circuit rejects a teacher's challenge to pronoun policies.
January 28
Over 15,000 New York City nurses continue to strike with support from Mayor Mamdani; a judge grants a preliminary injunction that prevents DHS from ending family reunification parole programs for thousands of family members of U.S. citizens and green-card holders; and decisions in SDNY address whether employees may receive accommodations for telework due to potential exposure to COVID-19 when essential functions cannot be completed at home.
January 27
NYC's new delivery-app tipping law takes effect; 31,000 Kaiser Permanente nurses and healthcare workers go on strike; the NJ Appellate Division revives Atlantic City casino workers’ lawsuit challenging the state’s casino smoking exemption.
January 26
Unions mourn Alex Pretti, EEOC concentrates power, courts decide reach of EFAA.
January 25
Uber and Lyft face class actions against “women preference” matching, Virginia home healthcare workers push for a collective bargaining bill, and the NLRB launches a new intake protocol.
January 22
Hyundai’s labor union warns against the introduction of humanoid robots; Oregon and California trades unions take different paths to advocate for union jobs.