Travis Lavenski is a student at Harvard Law School.
In today’s news & commentary: Starbucks continues its anti-union agenda; New York Times workers protest push to return to the office; and Minnesota nurses officially go on strike.
Starbucks announced new benefits granting student loan relief tools and savings relief programs for workers at its non-unionized stores this week. The benefits are set to take place next Monday, September 19th. Workers’ rights advocates charge that the move is the company’s latest attempt to undermine the union effort. Just last month, the National Labor Relations Board charged Starbucks with illegally withholding proposed pay raises to unionized stores, marking the 24th NLRB charge against the coffee chain since workers organized in Buffalo last winter. Starbucks has claimed that they are not allowed to grant benefits to unionized workers unilaterally without running afoul of the National Labor Relations Act. However, Starbucks Workers United have waived their right to negotiate over such benefits awarded to other stores, suggesting an anti-union motivation for the company’s announcement.
More than 1,200 workers for the New York Times this week are working from home in defiance of the company’s push to return to in-person work. The workers, mostly journalists and tech workers, are organized with the NewsGuild and have been involved in contract renewal negotiations with the company for over a year. The company’s push to continue in-office operations was not bargained with the union, according to the union’s Twitter page. The union is calling on the Times to deliver “respect and a fair contract, without delay.”
Approximately 15,000 nurses in Minnesota officially went out on strike this week, becoming the largest private-sector nurses strike in American history. The strike is set to last for three days. As I previously wrote for the Blog, nurses organized with the Minnesota Nurses Association voted to strike last month over issues such as low pay, understaffing, and overworking. The pressure on nurses across the country has been immense since the beginning of the pandemic, and polling data has illustrated tangible detrimental effects as a result. Earlier this summer, Bloomberg reported that three-quarters of nurses surveyed reported feelings of burnout, while nearly half reported feelings of extreme stress, trauma, or PTSD. There are indications that nurses in other states may take collective action too, with nurses in Michigan overwhelmingly authorizing a strike earlier this month.
Daily News & Commentary
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September 17
A union argues the NLRB's quorum rule is unconstitutional; the California Building Trades back a state housing law; and Missouri proposes raising the bar for citizen ballot initiatives
September 16
In today’s news and commentary, the NLRB sues New York, a flight attendant sues United, and the Third Circuit considers the employment status of Uber drivers The NLRB sued New York to block a new law that would grant the state authority over private-sector labor disputes. As reported on recently by Finlay, the law, which […]
September 15
Unemployment claims rise; a federal court hands victory to government employees union; and employers fire workers over social media posts.
September 14
Workers at Boeing reject the company’s third contract proposal; NLRB Acting General Counsel William Cohen plans to sue New York over the state’s trigger bill; Air Canada flight attendants reject a tentative contract.
September 12
Zohran Mamdani calls on FIFA to end dynamic pricing for the World Cup; the San Francisco Office of Labor Standards Enforcement opens a probe into Scale AI’s labor practices; and union members organize immigration defense trainings.
September 11
California rideshare deal advances; Boeing reaches tentative agreement with union; FTC scrutinizes healthcare noncompetes.