union busting

By Union Jake and Adam Keller - Valley Labor Report, May 8, 2024

By Union Jake and Adam Keller - Valley Labor Report, May 7, 2024

By Union Jake and Adam Keller - Valley Labor Report, May 3, 2024

By Avalon Edwards and Thomas Birmingham - In These Times, May 3, 2024

It had been just two weeks since Emily Lark gave birth to her second child. Her partner, Eva Lark, was already at the office, getting back into the groove of their grueling 70-hour work week as a public programs manager. In the middle of the day, while bouncing from one Zoom call to the next, Eva received a phone call from Emily. Something was off.

“I’m dizzy. I can’t catch my breath,” said Emily. At first, she had chalked it up to residual stress in the aftermath of an intense pregnancy. But the dizziness and shortness of breath wouldn’t go away, and when Emily called Eva, she was scared. ​“We need to go to the hospital now.” 

At the hospital, Emily was promptly diagnosed with postpartum complications — preeclampsia, which, if untreated, can cause seizures, organ damage and high blood pressure. She was then admitted for an extended stay. 

But Eva, an employee of the National Audubon Society for more than nine years, had already used up their allotted two weeks of paid parental leave. To look after Emily and their two young children, they were forced to use accrued vacation time. 

“The stress on both of us was very severe,” said Lark. “[Audubon] even had the gall to say, ​‘We’re so excited you’re expanding your family.’ I was like, ​‘Don’t be excited. Give me equal benefits.’”

If Eva had been a non-union employee, however, they would have been on paid parental leave for another four weeks. 

Eva’s crisis represents just one of many ongoing battles between the Audubon Society, an environmental nonprofit that pledges to ​“stand up” for birds, and the nonprofit’s roughly 250-person Bird Union, formerly known as Audubon For All. In March 2021, news broke about a union drive inside the organization — an effort that had been in the works for more than a year. In the roughly three years since, Audubon management has responded by refusing to voluntarily recognize the union, hiring union-busting consultants and granting unequal benefits between unionized and non-unionized staff.

By Erica Dodt, Emma Brown, Noah Rott, Z Gerdes, and Frank Houston - Progressive Workers Union, May 1, 2024

By Union Jake and Adam Keller - Valley Labor Report, April 30, 2024

By Jessica Corbett - Common Dreams, April 26, 2024

Since six Southern Republican governors last week showed "how scared they are" of the United Auto Workers' U.S. organizing drive, Tennessee Volkswagen employees have voted to join the UAW while GOP policymakers across the region have ramped up attacks on unions.

The UAW launched "the largest organizing drive in modern American history" after securing improved contracts last year with a strike targeting the Big Three automakers—General Motors, Ford, and Stellantis. The ongoing campaign led to the "landslide" victory in Chattanooga last week, which union president Shawn Fain pointed to as proof that "you can't win in the South" isn't true.

The Tennessee win "is breaking the brains of Republicans in that region. They're truly astonished that workers might not trust their corporate overlords with their working conditions, pay, health, and retirement," Thom Hartmann wrote in a Friday opinion piece.

"The problem for Republicans is that unions represent a form of democracy in the workplace, and the GOP hates democracy as a matter of principle," he argued. "Republicans appear committed to politically dying on a number of hills that time has passed by. Their commitment to gutting voting rolls and restricting voting rights, their obsession with women’s reproductive abilities, and their hatred of regulations and democracy in the workplace are increasingly seen by average American voters as out-of-touch and out-of-date."

By Tomm Hartmann - The Hartmann Report, April 25, 2024

The UAW’s successful unionization effort last week at a Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee — the first successful unionization effort at a car factory in the South since the 1940s — is breaking the brains of Republicans in that region. They’re truly astonished that workers might not trust their corporate overlords with their working conditions, pay, health, and retirement.

Tennessee’s Republican Governor Bill Lee — along with Governors Kay Ivey (AL), Brian Kemp (GA), Tate Reeves (MS), Henry McMaster (SC), and Greg Abbott (TX) — issued a joint statement last Tuesday condemning the vote:

“We the Governors of Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas are highly concerned about the unionization campaign driven by misinformation and scare tactics that the UAW has brought into our states. …

“In America, we respect our workforce and we do not need to pay a third party to tell us who can pick up a box or flip a switch. No one wants to hear this, but it’s the ugly reality. … The experience in our states is when employees have a direct relationship with their employers, that makes for a more positive working environment. They can advocate for themselves and what is important to them without outside influence. …

“[W]e have serious reservations that the UAW leadership can represent our values. They proudly call themselves democratic socialists and seem more focused on helping President Biden get reelected than on the autoworker jobs being cut at plants they already represent.”

Southern autoworkers, though, aren’t listening to the GOP’s BS any more: a unionization vote is set for the week of May 13th at a Mercedes plant in Alabama and more than half the workers there have already signed a card indicating their desire for union representation.

The problem for Republicans is that unions represent a form of democracy in the workplace, and the GOP hates democracy as a matter of principle. It’s why conservatives have opposed every effort to expand voting rights from the Jim Crow era, through fighting woman’s suffrage, to opposing voting rights legislation from 1965 to this day.

Corporations, on the other hand, are not democracies: they’re organized along the lines of feudal-era kingdoms with a big boss (CEO), a small society of Lords and Ladies (senior executives and the board of directors), and a large number of serfs whose continued employment is up to the whims of the Boss and the Lords and Ladies.

By Jane McAlevey, Amy Goodman, and Juan Gonzales - Democracy Now!, April 23, 2024

By Jane McAlevey, Amy Goodman, and Juan Gonzales - Democracy Now!, April 23, 2024