nlrb

[nlrb]

[nlrb]

Jeff Bezos's Amazon and Elon Musk's SpaceX are both fighting in court to have the National Labor Relations Board declared unconstitutional. Starbuck's and Trader Joe's joined them in separate lawsuits. All of these companies have a disgraceful history of worker abuse and union busting. All of them have been charged by the NLRB with hundreds of violations of workers’ organizing rights The NLRB is standing up to their union busting. That’s why they’re trying to destroy the NLRB. I'm going to do my best to keep you all informed about this case as it snakes its way through the courts. The future of unions may depend on the final verdict. http://dlvr.it/T49LM1

[nlrb]

[nlrb]

https://iww.org/membership/ :3

[nlrb]

THE PICKET LINE: A ROAD TO PAY EQUITY AND SUSTAINABILITY - WOODSTOCK FILM FESTIVAL

SPEAKERS: Neil Gaiman, Dana Weissman, Jo Miller

MODERATOR: Thelma Adams

The Creative Industry has been radically transformed in the last several years due to the pandemic, economic turmoil, advances in digital technology, and production efficiencies.

Yet, creators of content, writers, actors, and many others that are instrumental to media development are still struggling to ensure economic sustainability.

To date, over 11,000 writers and 150,000 members of SAG AFTRA have taken up protest to be heard and galvanize change.

Come hear as the experts and those on the front lines, union members from Writers Guild of America East (WGAE), and Screen Actors Guild/ Aftra, discuss what has been done to update contracts that no longer serve current working conditions, and a critical look at what the public can do to support their efforts.

New York Women in Film & Television (NYWIFT) advocates for equality in the moving image industry and supports women in every stage of their careers. An entertainment industry association for women in New York, NYWIFT energizes women by illuminating their achievements, presenting training and professional development programs, awarding scholarships and grants, and providing access to a supportive community of peers.

To learn more about NYWIFT please visit: www.nywift.org. Please become a member and join the movement of women to ensure women gain their rightful place in the media and entertainment industry.

[nlrb]

Dock strikes in the Port of London

(Mark Kauffman. 1949)

[nlrb]

Striking copper miners picketing the company store while waiting for scabs to come from day shift. Ducktowk, Tennessee. September 1939. via r/TheWayWeWere found here https://ift.tt/vZ6PA2i by @jocke75

[nlrb]

LISA ANN WALTER ✏️ WGA STRIKE 2023 UTLA PICKET [x] (June 16 2023) SUPPORT WGA: INFO / ECF / SNACKLIST

[nlrb]

NLRB rules that any union busting triggers automatic union recognition

Tonight (September 6) at 7pm, I'll be hosting Naomi Klein at the LA Public Library for the launch of Doppelganger.

On September 12 at 7pm, I'll be at Toronto's Another Story Bookshop with my new book The Internet Con: How to Seize the Means of Computation.

American support for unions is at its highest level in generations, from 70% (general population) to 88% (Millenials) – and yet, American unionization rates are pathetic.

That's about to change.

The National Labor Relations Board just handed down a landmark ruling – the Cemex case – that "brought worker rights back from the dead."

https://prospect.org/labor/2023-08-28-bidens-nlrb-brings-workers-rights-back/

At issue in Cemex was what the NLRB should do about employers that violate labor law during union drives. For decades, even the most flagrantly illegal union-busting was met with a wrist-slap. For example, if a boss threatened or fired an employee for participating in a union drive, the NLRB would typically issue a small fine and order the employer to re-hire the worker and provide back-pay.

Everyone knows that "a fine is a price." The NLRB's toothless response to cheating presented an easily solved equation for corrupt, union-hating bosses: if the fine amounts to less than the total, lifetime costs of paying a fair wage and offering fair labor conditions, you should cheat – hell, it's practically a fiduciary duty:

https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/468061

Enter the Cemex ruling: once a majority of workers have signed a union card, any Unfair Labor Practice by their employer triggers immediate, automatic recognition of the union. In other words, the NLRB has fitted a tilt sensor in the American labor pinball machine, and if the boss tries to cheat, they automatically lose.

Cemex is a complete 180, a radical transformation of the American labor regulator from a figleaf that legitimized union busting to an actual enforcer, upholding the law that Congress passed, rather than the law that America's oligarchs wish Congress had passed. It represents a turning point in the system of lawless impunity for American plutocracy.

In the words of Frank Wilhoit, it is is a repudiation of the conservative dogma: "There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect":

https://crookedtimber.org/2018/03/21/liberals-against-progressives/#comment-729288

It's also a stunning example of what regulatory competence looks like. The Biden administration is a decidedly mixed bag. On the one hand there are empty suits masquerading as technocrats, champions of the party's centrist wing (slogan: "Everything is fine and change is impossible"):

https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/10/the-courage-to-govern/#whos-in-charge

But the progressive, Sanders/Warren wing of the party installed some fantastically competent, hard-charging, principled fighters, who are chapter-and-verse on their regulatory authority and have the courage to use that authority:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/10/18/administrative-competence/#i-know-stuff

They embody the old joke about the photocopier technician who charges "$1 to kick the photocopier and $79 to know where to kick it." The best Biden appointees have their boots firmly laced, and they're kicking that mother:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/16/the-second-best-time-is-now/#the-point-of-a-system-is-what-it-does

One such expert kicker is NLRB General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo. Abruzzo has taken a series of muscular, bold moves to protect American workers, turning the tide in the class war that the 1% has waged on workers since the Reagan administration. For example, Abruzzo is working to turn worker misclassification – the fiction that an employee is a small business contracting with their boss, a staple of the "gig economy" – into an Unfair Labor Practice:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/01/10/see-you-in-the-funny-papers/bidens-legacy

She's also waging war on robo-scab companies: app-based employment "platforms" like Instawork that are used to recruit workers to cross picket lines, under threat of being blocked from the app and blackballed by hundreds of local employers:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/30/computer-says-scab/#instawork

With Cemex, Abruzzo is restoring a century-old labor principle that has been gathering dust for generations: the idea that workers have the right to organize workplace gemocracies without fear of retaliation, harassment, or reprisals.

But as Harold Meyerson writes for The American Prospect, the Cemex ruling has its limits. Even if the NLRB forces and employer to recognize a union, they can't force the employer to bargain in good faith for a union contract. The National Labor Relations Act prohibits the Board from imposing a contract.

That's created a loophole that corrupt bosses have driven entire fleets of trucks through. Workers who attain union recognition face years-long struggles to win a contract, as their bosses walk away from negotiations or offer farcical "bargaining positions" in the expectation that they'll be rejected, prolonging the delay.

Democrats have been trying to fix this loophole since the LBJ years, but they've been repeatedly blocked in the senate. But Abruzzo is a consummate photocopier kicker, and she's taking aim. In Thrive Pet Healthcare, Abruzzo has argued that failing to bargain in good faith for a contract is itself an Unfair Labor Practice. That means the NLRB has the authority to act to correct it – they can't order a contract, but they can order the employer to give workers "wages, benefits, hours, and such that are comparable to those provided by comparable unionized companies in their field."

Mitch McConnell is a piece of shit, but he's no slouch at kicking photocopiers himself. For a whole year, McConnell has blocked senate confirmation hearings to fill a vacant seat on the NLRB. In the short term, this meant that the three Dems on the board were able to hand down these bold rulings without worrying about their GOP colleagues.

But McConnell was playing a long game. Board member Gwynne Wilcox's term is about to expire. If her seat remains vacant, the three remaining board members won't be able to form a quorum, and the NLRB won't be able to do anything.

As Meyerson writes, centrist Dems have refused to push McConnell on this, hoping for comity and not wanting to violate decorum. But Chuck Schumer has finally bestirred himself to fight this issue, and Alaska GOP senator Lisa Murkowski has already broken with her party to move Wilcox's confirmation to a floor vote.

The work of enforcers like DoJ Antitrust Division boss Jonathan Kanter, FTC chair Lina Khan, and SEC chair Gary Gensler is at the heart of Bidenomics: the muscular, fearless deployment of existing regulatory authority to make life better for everyday Americans.

But of course, "existing regulatory authority" isn't the last word. The judges filling stolen seats on the illegitimate Supreme Court had invented the "major questions doctrine" and have used it as a club to attack Biden's photocopier-kickers. There's real danger that Cemex – and other key actions – will get fast-tracked to SCOTUS so the dotards in robes can shatter our dreams for a better America.

Meyerson is cautiously optimistic here. At 40% (!), the Court's approval rating is at a low not seen since the New Deal showdowns. The Supremes don't have an army, they don't have cops, they just have legitimacy. If Americans refuse to acknowledge their decisions, all they can do it sit and stew:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/05/26/mint-the-coin-etc-etc/#blitz-em

The Court knows this. That's why they fume so publicly about attacks on their legitimacy. Without legitimacy, they're nothing. With the Supremes' support at 40% and union support at 70%, any judicial attack on Cemex could trigger term-limits, court-packing, and other doomsday scenarios that will haunt the relatively young judges for decades, as the seats they stole dwindle into irrelevance. Meyerson predicts that this will weigh on them, and may stay their hands.

Meyerson might be wrong, of course. No one ever lost money betting on the self-destructive hubris of Federalist Society judges. But even if he's wrong, his point is important. If the Supremes frustrate the democratic will of the American people, we have to smash the Supremes. Term limits, court-packing, whatever it takes:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/09/20/judicial-equilibria/#pack-the-court

And the more we talk about this – the more we make this consequence explicit – the more it will weigh on them, and the better the chance that they'll surprise us. That's already happening! The Supremes just crushed the Sackler opioid crime-family's dream of keeping their billions in blood-money:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/11/justice-delayed/#justice-redeemed

But if it doesn't stop them? If they crush this dream, too? Pack the court. Impose term limits. Make it the issue. Don't apologize, don't shrug it off, don't succumb to learned helplessness. Make it our demand. Make it a litmus test: "If elected, will you vote to pack the court and clear the way for democratic legitimacy?"

Meanwhile, Cemex is already bearing fruit. After an NYC Trader Joe's violated the law to keep Trader Joe's United from organizing a store, the workers there have petitioned to have their union automatically recognized under the Cemex rule:

https://truthout.org/articles/trader-joes-union-files-to-force-company-to-recognize-union-under-new-nlrb-rule/

With the NLRB clearing the regulatory obstacles to union recognition, America's largest unions are awakening from their own long slumbers. For decades, unions have spent a desultory 3% of their budgets on organizing workers into new locals. But a leadership upset in the AFL-CIO has unions ready to catch a wave with the young workers and their 88% approval rating, with a massive planned organizing drive:

https://prospect.org/labor/labors-john-l-lewis-moment/

Meyerson calls on other large unions to follow suit, and the unions seem ready to do so, with new leaders and new militancy at the Teamsters and UAW, and with SEIU members at unionized Starbucks waiting for their first contracts.

Turning union-supporting workers into unionized workers is key to fighting Supreme Court sabotage. Organized labor will give fighters like Abruzzo the political cover she needs to Get Shit Done. A better America is possible. It's within our grasp. Though there is a long way to go, we are winning crucial victories all the time.

The centrist message that everything is fine and change is impossible is designed to demoralize you, to win the fight in your mind so they don't have to win it in the streets and in the jobsite. We don't have to give them that victory. It's ours for the taking.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/06/goons-ginks-and-company-finks

[nlrb]

The Industrial Revolution in song.

Cover image is from an 1835 print in the History of the Cotton Manufacture in Great Britain, held by the British Library.

The Weaver & the Factory Maid- Steeleye Span

The Hand-Loom Versus the Power-Loom- Harry Boardman

The Drift From the Land- The Young'uns

Four Loom Weaver- Maddy Prior & June Tabor

The Dalesman's Litany- Tim Hart & Maddy Prior

Poverty Knock- Chumbawamba

The Hand-Loom Weaver's Lament- Harry Boardman

Song on the Times- Windborne

General Ludd's Triumph- Roy Harris

Foster's Mill- The Short Sisters

Cropper Lads- Maddy Prior & the Girls

Pilgrim on the Pennine Way- Jon Boden

Factory Girl- Rhiannon Giddens

13 tracks; 46 mins. [Spotify]

[my other playlists]

[nlrb]

[nlrb]

Tens of thousands of workers, from Hollywood writers and actors to hotel workers to UPS drivers, have taken part in the “summer of strikes.” These kinds of collective actions are likely to keep going well into the fall, experts say. Over 230 strikes have been recorded this year so far, involving more than 320,000 workers, compared with 116 strikes and 27,000 workers over the same period in 2021, according to data by the Cornell ILR School Labor Action Tracker. The resurgence is due to three key factors, says Alex Colvin, dean at the Cornell School of Industrial and Labor Relations: New union leadership to push for stronger deals, new and younger union members calling for better working conditions, and a strong labor market with low unemployment. “We’re seeing a confluence of a lot of labor activity in multiple areas, coming on the back of a surge in union organizing at places like Starbucks and Amazon” during the pandemic, Colvin says. “This is a noteworthy push on the labor side.” News of strikes and their resolutions create momentum. “When you see another union succeed, you’re more inclined to push yourself for a better deal,” he adds. “There’s a contagion effect in seeing the [strike] strategy working, and you’re more likely to use it yourself.”

[Read the rest]

[nlrb]

As a spotlight shines on Hollywood’s shutdown, SAG-AFTRA and the WGA continue to battle it out with the studios.  We take a look back at how the film studios captured the struggle and victories of unions and labor throughout history. From the biographical tale of labor leader Jimmy Hoffa portrayed by Jack Nicholson in Hoffa, to classics like On The Waterfront starring Marlon Brando, and hits such as The Pajama Game, Norma Rae, and 9 to 5, featuring Lily Tomlin, Dolly Parton, and Jane Fonda. The latter film drew inspiration from the women’s movement, addressing issues of gender inequality, workplace harassment, and unequal treatment in the workforce. Take a look at the selection of films that embody labor solidarity on the silver screen.

[Read the rest]

[nlrb]

Why Do We Have Weekends?

Ladies and gentlemen…the weekend. Why do we have it? 

The short answer: unions!

In the late nineteenth century, many workers labored 7 days a week, sometimes up to a grueling 100 hours in poor conditions.

Workers were fed up. Many began to unionize and take to the streets in protest.

Violence against them at the hands of corporate union busters and law enforcement was common. Many lost their lives. But they didn’t relent. 

Organized labor kept up the pressure. Workers in the mining, printing, and railroad industries eventually won 8-hour-work days. Major corporations, most notably Ford Motor Company, began to heed calls to institute 5-day work weeks.

But most workers across the country were not guaranteed these benefits. 

Then came Frances Perkins — President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Labor Secretary and the first woman cabinet secretary.

Before agreeing to the position, Perkins met with FDR to secure a guarantee that he would support her pro-labor agenda.To her surprise, FDR backed her.

In 1938, thanks to her advocacy and the momentum built by organized labor, Congress passed the Fair Labor Standards Act — which among many things ultimately established a 40-hour work week by forcing employers to pay time and a half for any hours worked beyond this limit.

And thus, created the weekend. 

While many workers now enjoy weekends won by organized labor, the fight continues for those who don’t. 

A rising number of contract employees, sometimes known as “gig workers,” are putting in backbreaking hours without the protections afforded to full-time workers.

Now is the time to renew the historic call of unions to make sure ALL workers are afforded the dignity — and time off from work — they deserve. 

And who knows — maybe one day we’ll move to a three day weekend? 

[nlrb]

Labor unions successfully organized more than 58,000 workers through the National Labor Relations Board’s election process in the first six months of 2023, a massive influx of workers on a scale that we’ve rarely seen before—but that we’re likely to see again. The 662 NLRB representation elections won by unions in the year’s first half covered a total of 58,543 workers, according to Bloomberg Law’s just-released NLRB Election Statistics report. That’s the second-highest first-half organizing total in this century. By itself, this statistic isn’t the surest measurement of labor strength; all it takes is one freakishly large election result to make a six-month period appear a lot more impressive than it really was. (This is exactly what happened in May 2013: A bargaining unit of nearly 45,000 already-unionized workers switched representation from one union to another through the NLRB election process, raising the midyear total to 67,687.) No such anomaly is present in 2023. The sheer number of union wins so far this year, surpassing even last year’s Starbucks-studded total, makes it plain that this current wave of organized workers is no fluke.

[Read the rest]

[nlrb]

[Image description: tweet by More Perfect Union at 10:46am on August 25, 2023. “BREAKING: The NLRB has ruled that if bosses commit unfair labor practices in the run-up to a union election then the election will be canceled and the Board will order the employer to immediately recognize and bargain with the union. Union-busting just got a lot harder.” End image description.]