Folks,
We’re pulling an all-nighter here in the Burgh as we get caught up on all the labor news happening.
Be sure to check out the special Writers’ Guild update we released earlier tonight.
$660 Raised in Late Night Fundraising Blitz
Good news, we put out a special Writers Guild strike email update around 2:40 (Pittsburgh Time), and already we have raised $660.
In crowdfunding, nothing is more important than to keep the momentum going. Please, donate if you can.
Donate to help us pay off the laptop. Please, sign up as one of our 749 recurring donors today.
Florida Strips Public Employees of Union Rights
Yesterday, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed a bill that removes vital union rights from public employees in the state.
The new law signed by DeSantis forbids the state from allowing unions to deduct union dues from public employees’ paychecks directly. Instead, unions will be forced to set up a costly and time-consuming system to collect union dues through recurring credit card charges.
Previously, in the “right-to-work” state of Florida, unions could maintain a presence in workplaces even if only a minority of the public employees in a workplace were union members, allowing unions to exist in many areas of Florida’s public sector that otherwise would not have them.
Now, the bill, signed by DeSantis, would require all unions to have at least 60% of all public workers in a workplace in order to be certified by the state as a union.
“The school unions have become very partisan. That’s not what school is about,” DeSantis said Tuesday in signing the bill.
Railroads Union Say Recently Won Sick Leave Agreements Are Deceptive
Over the past several months, nearly ⅓ of all railroad workers have won the right to paid sick leave. The unprecedented wins come after the Biden Administration unilaterally imposed a contract that most railroad union members rejected.
While the railroad unions have won much praise for giving workers the right to paid sick leave, railroads unions say that they still aren’t able to use their promised sick time. From Fortune:
One of the key remaining concerns for the BLET is that even where the railroads seem willing to give engineers sick time, the railroads generally still want to hold workers accountable for missing work under their strict attendance policies. So even if workers do get sick time, they may not feel free to use it because they would still be penalized for missing work, although CSX has said it won’t punish workers for taking sick time.
“We’re going to have locomotive engineers and conductors making a choice of whether to work sick and handle some of the most dangerous items that any transportation group handles, but they’re going to work sick or be subject to attendance policies,” said Mark Wallace, BLET’s second-highest official.
Indiana Childcare Workers Strike Statewide
Across Indiana, childcare workers have gone on strike to protest low pay and demand that the state legislature provide more money to support them.
“We know that child care in this country is in a crisis. Providers, parents and child care workers can no longer shoulder this burden on our own,” child care worker Kelly Dawn Jones told WVPE. “We’re subsidizing child care for our communities.”
Penn Medical Resident Vote to Unionize 892-110
In a sign of the growing strength of the resident physician unionization movement, residents at the University of Pennsylvania have voted to unionize by a margin of 892-to-110. Their win marks the first union by resident physicians here in Pennsylvania.
“Winning by such a strong majority is a testament to how hard everyone on the organizing committee has worked, but also how badly a union is needed at Penn Medicine,” Jackson Steinkamp, a third-year internal medicine resident, told Daily Pennsylvania.” We’re definitely celebrating this milestone, but we need to keep looking forward, toward negotiating a first contract.”
For more, check out the Daily Pennsylvanian,
News & Strikes Happening Elsewhere
- Apple store workers are organizing for the right to receive tips from customers.
- 500 Battery Workers Strike in Toledo
- St. Helena, Louisiana, workers organized a strike to protest the failure to pass a needed tax increase
- Coca-Cola workers across West Virginia Go on Strike
- Amid Grad Worker Strike, 91% of grades submitted at the University of Michigan
- Rutgers teaching unions vote 93% to ratify contracts following the historic strike
- In Mexico, workers at Goodyear plant vote to throw out their old-guard union
- Finally, the Georgia Sun has an in-depth look at Jacob Elias, who helped found the labor movement in Georgia in the late 1800s
Alright, yinz, I’m gonna go to bed before the madness starts all over again in a few hours.
We raised $660 so far today. Donate to help keep the crowdfunding momentum going. Please, if you can, sign up as one of our 749 recurring donors today.
Again, email cooking recipes, party invites, funny stories and tips to [email protected]
See yinz later,
Melk
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