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☆ Starbucks U.S. workers at 100 stores hold one-day walkout
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-17 | by ( Hilary Russ | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

NEW YORK, Nov 17 (Reuters) - Workers at more than 100 U.S. company-owned Starbucks locations are striking for one day on Thursday to protest what they say is illegal retaliation against their union organizing. The walkout comes on the one day each year that Starbucks gives away reusable, red, holiday-themed cups to customers with coffee purchases. The workers say they are underpaid and don't have consistent schedules. They are also protesting firings, store closures and other actions they say are illegal retaliation by Starbucks against them for unionizing. The union handed out its own version of the red cups, but with its Starbucks Workers United design.

☆ Starbucks union to strike at more than 100 locations on Red Cup Day, one of the chain’s busiest days of the year
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-17 | by ( Amelia Lucas | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +2 min

Workers at more than 100 unionized Starbucks locations plan to strike on Thursday, one of the chain’s biggest sales days of the year. The giveaway on the coffee chain’s Red Cup Day has become a must-have for collectors, and this year’s event marks its 25th anniversary. It’s the largest collective action Starbucks Workers United has taken so far in its organizing push over the past year. Over the past 12 months, roughly 260 company-owned Starbucks locations have voted to unionize under Workers United, an affiliate of Service Employees International Union. But Starbucks Workers United contend the company hasn’t been bargaining in good faith.

☆ Starbucks U.S. workers at 100 stores plan one-day walkout
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-17 | by ( Hilary Russ | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

NEW YORK, Nov 17 (Reuters) - Workers at more than 100 U.S. company-owned Starbucks locations plan to strike for one day on Thursday to protest what they say is illegal retaliation against their union organizing. The walkout comes on the one day each year that Starbucks gives away reusable, red, holiday-themed cups to customers with coffee purchases. The workers say they are underpaid and don't have consistent schedules. They are also protesting firings, store closures and other actions that they say are illegal retaliation by Starbucks against them for unionizing. After they walk off the job on Thursday, the unionized employees plan to hand out their own version of the red cups - but with their Starbucks Workers United design.

☆ About 2,000 Starbucks workers stage one-day strike at more than 100 stores
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-17 | by ( Chris Isidore | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

New York CNN Business —More than 2,000 employees at 112 Starbucks locations are set to go on a one-day strike Thursday, according to the union which has been organizing stores for the last year. The union says it is striking to protest the retaliation taken against union supporters nationwide. It’s not clear how many of the stores affected by Thursday’s action will be able to stay open during the strike. The union is calling its strike a “Red Cup Rebellion” and is handing out red Starbucks Workers United union cups to customers instead. The NLRB filing said that there had been a “number and pattern of Starbucks’ unfair labor practices … particularly discharges” against union supporters at it stores.

Nov 17 (Reuters) - Eight former employees of SpaceX have filed unfair labor practice charges with a U.S. labor board against the rocket maker, alleging they were let go for speaking up against founder and Chief Executive Elon Musk. Reuters reported in June that SpaceX fired at least five employees who were involved in drafting the letter, which called Musk a "distraction and embarrassment" to the company. The charges filed on Wednesday with the National Labor Relations Board allege that SpaceX fired five employees the day after the letter was revealed, and four others in the two months after. While two of the employees filed charges on their own, attorneys filed charges on behalf of six others who are proceeding anonymously. read moreThe letter sent to SpaceX executives in June focused on a series of tweets Musk had made since 2020, many of which were sexually suggestive.

☆ Former SpaceX employees file labor complaints alleging retaliatory firings by Elon Musk's company
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-17 | by ( Michael Sheetz | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Former employees of SpaceX have filed federal complaints against the company, alleging Elon Musk's venture illegally fired them in response to the concerns they expressed, including about sexual misconduct allegations directed at the CEO. Eight complaints, filed on Wednesday with the National Labor Relations Board, say the company conducted a "campaign of retaliation and intimidation" in response to employees who internally circulated an open letter to executives. The former employees allege that SpaceX violated the National Labor Relations Act of 1935 by firing them after they spoke up. The complaints also allege that SpaceX terminated four others in July and August "in retaliation" for either drafting or sharing the letter internally. The additional firings followed meetings and interviews with "dozens of employees" where SpaceX "falsely" said "the conversations were attorney-client privileged and could not be disclosed to anyone," according to the complaints.

☆ Starbucks union to strike at more than 100 locations on Red Cup Day, one of the chain's busiest days of the year
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-17 | by ( Amelia Lucas | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

It's the largest collective action Starbucks Workers United has taken so far in its organizing push over the past year. On Thursday, organizers at 113 striking locations are planning to protest and distribute a version of the red cup featuring the Grinch's hand holding an ornament with the logo of the Starbucks union. Workers at more than 100 unionized Starbucks locations plan to strike on Thursday, one of the chain's biggest sales days of the year. Over the past 12 months, roughly 260 company-owned Starbucks locations have voted to unionize under Workers United, an affiliate of Service Employees International Union. But Starbucks Workers United contend the company hasn't been bargaining in good faith.

☆ SpaceX fired 9 employees who organized an open letter describing Elon Musk's tweeting as a 'distraction and embarrassment,' report says
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-17 | by ( Kate Duffy | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

SpaceX fired nine employees who shared an open letter in June, criticizing Elon Musk, per the NYT. Musk has recently fired Twitter employees for openly criticizing him on the platform. It's now understood that nine SpaceX employees were fired over the letter, The Times reported on Thursday, citing workers and lawyers. Two SpaceX employees told the newspaper that the company held a meeting for 20 engineers the day after the firings. "SpaceX is Elon and Elon is SpaceX," Edwards said, according to the two employees who spoke to The Times.

☆ Ford working to build its own parts for electric vehicles to offset job losses
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-15 | by ( Michael Wayland | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

DETROIT – Ford Motor is attempting to build as many of its own parts as possible for its electric vehicles to offset an expected 40% reduction in workers needed to build such cars and trucks, CEO Jim Farley said Tuesday. In addition to making sense for the business, he said retaining the jobs and workforce is another reason Ford wants to build more parts in-house rather than purchasing them from suppliers. Ford is building twin lithium-ion battery plants in central Kentucky through a joint venture with South Korea-based SK Innovation, called BlueOvalSK, as well as a massive 3,600-acre campus in west Tennessee. Farley said the company would be "thrilled" to have union representation at its upcoming battery plants. The comments come as the United Auto Workers union is attempting to organize a joint-venture battery plant between General Motors and LG Energy Solution in Ohio.

"Protected activities" are actions that workers can take without fear of employer retaliation under U.S. labor law. Musk in a series of tweets on Friday said Twitter workers who were laid off were offered 90 days of severance pay, which could satisfy Twitter's obligations under the notice laws. Cornet in the complaint said that late last month, amid rumors of mass layoffs at Twitter, he developed a Google Chrome extension to allow employees to download emails from their Twitter accounts. That would ensure workers could save important documents such as statements reflecting their stock in Twitter, performance reviews, and other human resource documents, he said. Cornet says he was fired on the same day that he published the extension and posted a link to it on an internal Twitter messaging channel.

☆ Union vs. Union Dispute Stalls West Coast Port Labor Talks
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-08 | by ( Paul Berger | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +4 min

A dispute between two unions over which workers get certain jobs at a cargo-handling terminal at the Port of Seattle is holding up labor talks between West Coast dockworkers and their employers. West Coast port labor talks are often fraught. Importers are already diverting some goods to Gulf Coast and East Coast ports because of the risk of labor strife. The port talks are taking place against a backdrop of global freight labor unrest. West Coast dockworkers have been working without a contract since the most recent labor agreement expired in early July.

☆ A laid-off Twitter employee filed an NLRB complaint alleging he was fired for helping fellow staff 'protect themselves'
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-08 | by ( Grace Dean | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

A software engineer laid off by Twitter said in an NLRB filing that he was illegally targeted. Emmanuel Cornet claimed he was laid off for trying to help Twitter staff preserve work documents. Just hours before being fired, he had shared a browser extension that made downloading emails quicker. Cornet then published this extension on the Chrome Web Store and shared it on a Slack channel for Twitter staff on November 1, per the complaint. But later that day, Twitter both fired Cornet and removed the link to his extension from the Slack channel, per the complaint.

☆ Vice President Harris is wrapping up her midterm campaign push by meeting with union leaders a day before the elections
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-07 | by ( Juliana Kaplan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Vice President Kamala Harris will meet with union leaders on Monday in California. Along the way, according to a White House official, she is prioritizing meeting with local labor leaders. In May, Harris — along with co-chair Marty Walsh, Biden's Secretary of Labor — welcomed union organizers from the likes of Starbucks and Amazon to the White House. The Biden administration has made clear its intentions to embrace organized labor. Harris "has been focused on reaching women, young people, and communities of color," a White House official said.

NEW YORK, Nov 6 (Reuters) - Home Depot Inc (HD.N) retail workers voted against forming a union at a location in Pennsylvania, the U.S. National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) said late on Saturday. More U.S. companies including Starbucks Corp and Amazon.com and grocer Trader Joe's Inc have seen some workers petition to form unions. Home Depot did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for a comment regarding the outcome of the voting. Home Depot Workers United sought to unionize to address concerns regarding wages, staffing and training, said Vincent Quiles, interim president of Home Depot Workers United and a receiving associate at Home Depot. The independent union in mid-October filed an unfair labor practices charge against the retailer for engaging in unlawful surveillance and interrogating workers at the Philadelphia location, according to Home Depot Workers United.

☆ Worker complaints alleging anti-union shutdowns rise as organizing surges
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-04 | by ( Eli M. Rosenberg | Eli Rosenberg Is An Investigative Tech Reporter For Nbc News. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +13 min

The company, G&D Integrated, had closed the factory, saying it had suddenly lost its decade-old contract with a Japanese company, workers said. Starbucks closed multiple stores this year following union activity. Trader Joe’s, for example, abruptly closed a wine shop in the center of New York City where workers had been organizing. Demonstrators protest outside a closed Starbucks in Seattle on July 16. More than 40 percent of the stores had union campaigns, according to data from Starbucks Workers United, the union that has been organizing the workers.

☆ Gen Z's not lazy — they're just refusing to put up with the toxic work culture that Boomers created
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-03 | by ( Kim Kelly | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +12 min

"And I personally think that all of us in Gen Z, when we experienced that with our parents, we were like, 'Fuck that. And now, Gen Z is turning to organizing as a way to stand up to corporate bosses. But she and her Gen Z peers are not ready to accept that mode of thinking. Put simply, young workers want something better than their parents had and aren't afraid to seek it out. Because if there is one quality that Gen Z has in spades, it is audacity — and no mass movement has ever succeeded without it.

☆ The federal government wants to stop your boss from spying on you
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-03 | by ( Jacob Zinkula | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Companies are using surveillance technologies to keep tabs on remote workers. Under current law, some level of employee surveillance is generally allowed. Some experts have called this "productivity paranoia" a sentiment that's led some companies to expand the use of various surveillance technologies. These are among the reasons Abruzzo's memo called on the NLRB to review companies' surveillance technologies and assess whether they restrict workers' rights. While the emergence of remote work has brought this surveillance into the spotlight in recent years, the legal landscape remains murky.

☆ These baristas are leading a nationwide campaign to unionize Starbucks. It came at a cost
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-02 | by ( Chris Isidore | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +13 min

Since then workers at 243 other stores spread over 38 states have voted to join Starbucks Workers United — that’s more than five stores a week. Still, most of the fired workers nationwide remain off the job, including Tambellini. “The pizza place next door [to the Starbucks store I worked at] offered me a job almost immediately,” said Tambellini. Starbucks employees and supporters react as votes are read during a union-election watch party in Buffalo, New York. The Starbucks workers are really demonstrating that it’s possible to unionize in an industry where it was thought of as impossible to organize, due to high turnover and a large percentage of young people,” he said.

☆ UAW seeks election to represent GM battery joint venture workers
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-31 | by ( David Shepardson | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

REUTERS/Jonathan ErnstOct 31 (Reuters) - The United Auto Workers on Monday said it was seeking an election to represent workers at a General Motors (GM.N)/LG Energy (373220.KS) battery cell manufacturing joint venture in Ohio after the companies refused to recognize the union. In August, the Warren, Ohio Ultium plant began production, the first of least four planned U.S. battery factories by the joint venture. In May, President Joe Biden, in a trip to South Korea, expressed support for workers seeking to unionize joint venture battery plants. "For every joint venture that manufactures electric vehicle batteries would be made stronger by collective bargaining relationships with American unions," Biden said. GM and LG Energy are considering an Indiana site for a fourth U.S. battery plant expected to cost about $2.5 billion.

☆ Employees took advantage of the Great Resignation. Now employers are about to take revenge.
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-31 | by ( Jake Rosenfeld | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +11 min

The 2008 financial crisis spared no one — income gains halted for nearly everybody as the economy plunged into the worst recession in almost a century. A tight labor market is good for workersThe main culprit behind these gains in worker power has been the tight labor market. A tight labor market also means companies have to offer higher wages to attract new employees or get people to switch jobs. And the iconic coffee maker isn't the only big-name corporation to raise pay in the face of rising worker unrest. So without a contract to lock in economic gains, workers may have won a series of battles, but they risk losing the long-term war.

☆ Starbucks Union Expansion Slows a Year Into Labor Drive
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-30 | by ( Heather Haddon | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

A drive to unionize new Starbucks Corp. cafes is slowing as the coffee chain doles out more pay and expanded benefits to nonunionized cafes. Twelve Starbucks stores petitioned for representation by the Starbucks Workers United union in September, down from a peak of 71 in March, National Labor Relations Board records show. The eight petitions filed in August marked the smallest number since December, when the first Starbucks cafe voting to unionize led to a wave of other locations seeking elections.

☆ Amazon CEO Andy Jassy violated labor laws with union remarks, federal agency alleges
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-27 | by ( Annie Palmer | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy violated federal labor laws when he remarked in recent interviews that employees could be negatively affected by unions, a federal labor agency said. He echoed those comments in the Bloomberg interview, saying workers would be "better off without a union." The complaint also requests that Amazon mail and email workers a notice informing them of their labor rights. Last week, Amazon workers at a fulfillment center near Albany rejected unionization. WATCH: Watch CNBC's full interview with Amazon CEO Andy Jassy on his first annual letter to shareholders

☆ Amazon workers in California withdraw petition for union vote after defeat in New York
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-25 | by ( Catherine Thorbecke | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

Workers at a California Amazon facility withdrew their petition late last week to unionize with the ALU, just days after the labor group failed to win enough votes to unionize an Amazon facility in upstate New York. The move to withdraw comes roughly two weeks after the petition was submitted, per the NLRB’s docket of the case. In an email to CNN Business, ALU President Chris Smalls played down the significance of the withdrawn petition. Since the watershed union win at JFK8, the ALU hasn’t seen success with organizing efforts at other Amazon facilities. Moreover, Amazon has refused to recognize or meet with the union at JFK8 — and continues to challenge the union’s election win.

☆ Amazon has changed how warehouses work in America. Some unions are using it as a chance to organize.
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-19 | by ( Sindhu Sundar | Juliana Kaplan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +11 min

Amazon has said warehouse workers can take breaks for activities like using the bathroom, talking to coworkers and managers, and grabbing snacks. A worker on an Amazon warehouse floor can be tasked with packing hundreds of boxes an hour. A worker on an Amazon warehouse floor can be tasked with packing hundreds of boxes an hour. But the Amazon Labor Union, a new union led by current and former Amazon workers, said its Staten Island victory had energized other workers. "There's one Amazon facility that's being built right behind the Victorville facility as we speak," he said.

☆ Why Amazon employees near Albany were divided about joining a union
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-19 | by ( Annie Palmer | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

Brendan Mcdermid | ReutersFor the past few months, an Amazon warehouse near Albany has hosted the latest labor battle between the retail giant and its workers. Employees at the warehouse near Albany voted overwhelmingly against joining a union, delivering a blow to the Amazon Labor Union, the group behind the Staten Island victory. Following the vote, an Amazon spokesperson said "Amazon as we think that this is the best arrangement for both our employees and customers. Michael Verrastro said he also feels a union is necessary to keep Amazon from unfairly disciplining its workers. "They're a fresh union, and they're trying to tackle something as big as Amazon," Caldwell said.

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