Skip to main content

What I’ve Been Reading This Week


Minimum wage hikes, updates (and reflections) on recent unionization votes, and a look at an oddly delayed/stalled right to work bill in North Carolina, should provide readers with a nice smattering of topics to page through heading into the long weekend.  Of note, I point readers to the Atlantic article on the recent successful unionization of the Amazon warehouse in Staten Island.  That article provides a bit of color as to the background (and perhaps motivation) for why these warehouse workers voted to unionize.

As always, below are a couple articles that caught my eye this week.



On Tuesday, the El Paso City Council approved a minimum wage hike for city workers.  The 7.2% wage hike will see hourly pay rates rise to $11.11 beginning May 22nd.  The Sun City will also provide all non-uniform city workers provided with a $500 bonus at the start of their employment along with an additional $500 bonus after a six month probation period.  (Uniformed city workers, such as police and fire, will see a $1,000 bonus).  To call this 7.2% wage hike (and bonus payout) sizable, is an understatement.



Readers will likely recall that the recent unionization of an Amazon warehouse in Staten Island was met largely with surprise, if not shock, when the results were announced.  The successful unionization marked a turning point at the company, given Amazon’s history of successfully having beaten back prior unionization efforts.  As Adam Serwer at The Atlantic notes, Amazon warehouse workers have notoriously been subjected to less than ideal working conditions:  low pay, long hours, grueling shifts walking around often hot warehouses, etc.  As a result, this unionization has been heralded as a potential turning point for workers at the company.  Will it lead to unionization of other Amazon warehouses?  Time will tell.



To call the successful unionization efforts at Starbucks one of the marque developments as of late is an understatement.  Actually, that would be quite an understatement.  With 16 Starbucks locations around the country voting to unionize (and only one voting against unionization), the efforts of Starbucks to defeat the unionization efforts is in essence an unmitigated failure.  Starbucks had recently announced that it would bring back former CEO Howard Schultz on an interim basis to replace its retiring CEO.  Amy McCarthy over at Eater recently reported on Schultz confronting workers in Long Beach recently in which he apparently told workers that wanted to unionize that if they hated the company so much, they should leave.  It is understandable that Schultz, who previously built Starbucks into the juggernaut that it is (and defeated unionization efforts before) is frustrated with the spread of successful unionization votes.  Is there a way to turn the tide?  Maybe.  However, with approximately an additional 150 locations seeking to hold a vote on whether to unionize, this is approaching a situation where it is going to become (more) difficult to defeat the unionization efforts.



Last year, Senate Bill 624 was introduced in the North Carolina Legislature in which the bill sought to enshrine the state’s right to work law into the state’s constitution.  While North Carolina’s right to work law has been in place for nearly 75 years, advocates of the law what to enshrine it in the state’s constitution to make it less susceptible to being undone.  However, as Dallas Woodhouse writes in the Carolina Journal, Senate Bill 624 has been stuck in committee with no apparent appetite among Republicans (that have a strong majority control in the Legislature) to move it along to a vote.  This is a curious development and one that I would encourage readers to review further.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

NLRB: Discussion Among Employees About Tip Pooling is Protected Concerted Activity

  This Advice Memorandum from the National Labor Relations Board’s Associate General Counsel, Jayme Sophir, addressed whether employees which discussed and complained about tip pooling at work constituted protected concerted activity. In relevant part, an employer in New York operated a chain of steakhouses.  While tip pooling was in place at these steakhouses, some of the employees objected to it on the grounds that it was not transparent and improperly divided tips among the workers.  Employees were told not to complain or talk to each other about the tip pool and were told that doing so would endanger their jobs.  Despite the employer later attempting to provide some clarity as to how the tips were being divided, rancor still existed among some employees.  At one point, the employees were told by a general manager that some employees that had been talking about the tip pool were “cleared out” and the employer would continue to do so. In the Advice Memorandum,...
Post a Comment
Read more

Breaking: Labor Secretary Rumored to Be Leaving Administration

A few hours ago, word leaked out that Labor Secretary Marty Walsh (“Walsh”) is in the midst of negotiations to head up the NHL Players Union and leave his position at the Labor Department. Walsh, who has served as the sole Labor Secretary under President Biden, has taken part in a labor renaissance of sorts as support for organized labor has increased during his term as Labor Secretary (although the number of workers that have joined a union over the past two years has not grown as mush as some expected.)  He has also overseen the ongoing negotiations with rail workers over a new contract, although that matter is still on shaky ground and playing out as we speak. As for who might step into the vacant Labor Secretary role, there are already rumblings that President Biden should nominate Deputy Labor Secretary Julie Su (a strong labor advocate) or even a progressive like Senator Bernie Sanders.  Until Walsh officially gives his notice, however, I would expect some/many potential...
Post a Comment
Read more

San Diego Rolls Back Vaccine Mandate For City Workers

Last Tuesday, the San Diego City Council voted to do away with the vaccine mandate for city employees. The city’s vaccine mandate that was in place required city workers to get the coronavirus vaccine or risk termination.  Perhaps to this surprise of no one, the city’s policy came under fire with 14 employees being terminated and over 100 other employees resigning.  With the coronavirus subsiding, including in Southern California, the San Diego City Council took action. Now, bear in mind, the repeal of the vaccine mandate does not take place immediately. With that being said, the mandate will be repealed March 8th.  I suppose the question now is, what other cities or regions follow San Diego’s lead? For additional information:   https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/politics/story/2023-01-24/san-diego-repeals-controversial-covid-19-vaccine-mandate-citing-drop-in-cases-hospitalizations
Post a Comment
Read more