Folks,
Greetings from the Burgh, where I’m finally recovering from a sinus infection.
Thanks to all of those who donated to our paid sick day fund so I could take some time off. As always, our 588 recurring donors help us the most when we get sick.
We’re just 12 away from reaching our goal of 600 by May Day, so if you can, sign up as a recurring donor today. You can always make a one-time donation, too.
$2,300 Raised for Shelby Gravett Funeral Fund
A massive thanks to all the Payday readers who donated to the GoFundMe for Shelby Gravett’s funeral costs.
Thanks to those donations, the Gravett’s have already raised $2,370.
The Gravetts were my guides to the South and helped me immensely when I first started Payday in Chattanooga in 2016. It means so much to me to see Payday readers from all over the country helping out these good folks. It’s certainly helped Lon to see such an outpouring of support from so many people he doesn’t know.
Please, if you can spare a few bucks, donate a few bucks here to help them out.
NJ Teacher Union Leaders Arrested During Contract Talks
This week, two teachers’ union leaders at Phillipsburg High School in Warren County, New Jersey, were arrested on charges that they threatened to publish damaging information on the administration of the school. (Neither the school nor the teachers union provided any context on this info.)
Union leader George Chilmonk, a beloved teacher who has been with the district since 1970, and Dave Post, who led the school’s wrestling team to six state championships, were both arrested.
The teachers are being accused of threatening the release of damaging information unless an unidentified teacher was granted tenure.
The Express-Times in Easton, PA (across the river from Phillipsburg, NJ) has the story:
Chilmonik, a longtime teachers’ union official, is charged with official misconduct, a second-degree crime that if found guilty carries a state prison sentence up to 10 years and a mandatory minimum of five years; criminal coercion, a third-degree crime that carries a state prison sentence of up to five years’ and improper influence in official and political matters, a third-degree crime that carries up to five years in state prison and a mandatory minimum of two years, Pfeiffer said.
Post is charged with conspiracy related to all three criminal counts and if found guilty faces exposure to the same maximum prison terms, but not the mandatory minimums, Pfeiffer said.
For more, check out the Express-Time.
The teachers union has yet to release a statement, but many local union supporters suspect that the charges are retaliation for the two union leaders’ outspoken advocacy on behalf of their fellow teachers’ union members.
Virginia Commonwealth University Launches Union
In January of 2019, Payday traveled down to Richmond, Virginia to cover the first teachers strike there. That energy has continued to grow as staff at the Virginia Commonwealth University announced they were forming a chapter of the United Campus Workers-CWA.
“VCU administration has repeatedly refused to pay adjuncts a living wage representative of the cost of living in Richmond,” faculty member Rose Szabo told Dogwood. “However, adjuncts are not alone in this. Many full-time faculty members do not make a living wage by our calculations either.”
The union plans to include not just faculty, but all staff at the university, which employs over 23,000 people. As Virginia hasn’t granted collective bargaining to staff employed in universities, the union plans to operate in a non-traditional organizing model, relying on mobilizing community and workplace support to achieve campus changes while also advocating for a change in the law in Virginia.
Alexandria, Virginia Gives Collective Bargaining to Its Public Employees
The movement for granting public employees the right to collective bargaining in Virginia has been steadily growing. Last year, the state legislature granted the municipalities the right to grant their employees the right to collective bargaining, which is set to take effect on May 1, 2021.
This week, the 130,000-person DC suburb of Alexandria voted to grant its public employees the right to collectively bargain.
“On behalf of the thousands of AFSCME Council 20 public employees, we commend the mayor and city council for hearing our concerns,” Robert Hollingsworth, executive director of AFSCME District Council 20, told Patch. “And we look forward to working with them on an ordinance that serves as the leading example for cities and counties across the Commonwealth.”
1st College Faculty Strike in Oregon History
In Oregon this week, faculty at Oregon Tech went on a strike to demand a first contract.
The faculty first unionized in the fall of 2019 and has spent nearly two years advocating for the union to give them a contract.
“We organized our union in record time and we’re the first faculty ever to go on strike in Oregon,” said Mark Clark, professor of history and OT-AAUP past president in a press release.
For more, check out the website of the Oregon Tech AAUP.
Independent Union Drive Launched at Staten Island Amazon Warehouse
Finally, at an Amazon warehouse in Staten Island, known as JFK8, workers, organizing under the banner of the independent union, the Congress of Essential Workers, have launched a nascent union drive.
Candice Bernd at Truthout has the story:
“We all wanted the union push to be successful in Alabama, especially with the odds being totally against them, being that Alabama is a nonunion state. But the fact that they had the opportunity to vote as a facility was historic,” JFK8 warehouse worker Derrick Palmer told Truthout. “We have to take the bruises and pick it up where they left off. If anything it started a movement. It’s going to be like a domino effect.”
Palmer says the Bessemer push inspired JFK8 workers to take their labor organizing to the next level and start their own union drive. While Palmer says they’ve spoken with officials at a handful of allied unions, TCOEW organizers are pursuing an independent union that would be led directly by the facility’s workers. The outcome in Bessemer, they say, has solidified the choice as the best option for Staten Island’s more than 5,000 workers, especially since other unions have tried and failed to unionize facilities in New York.
Alright folks, that’s all for today. Keep sending story ideas, tips, complaints, and interesting links to melk@paydayreport.com
Become one of our 588 recurring donors today to support our work covering labor in news deserts.
