Folks,
Greetings from the Burgh, where it’s a beautiful 60 degrees outside.
SEIU vs. CWA on Organizing Apple Retail Workers
With retail workers at Starbucks and Verizon beginning to organize in larger numbers, the next target may be Apple retail workers.
Apple workers, associated with SEIU’s Workers United, have already begun organizing in New York City. Now, a group backed by CWA has filed for the first union election at an Apple store in Atlanta with more than 70% of the 100-person workforce signing up. If the union drive is successful, it would mark the first time that an Apple store in the US has unionized.
“A number of us have been here for many years, and we don’t think you stick at a place unless you love it. Apple is a profoundly positive place to work, but we know that the company can better live up to their ideals and so we’re excited to be joining together with our coworkers to bring Apple to the negotiating table and make this an even better place to work,” said Derrick Bowles, Apple Genius worker in a statement.
For more, check out CWA’s website
In LA, Strippers Locked Out After Organizing
In Los Angeles, strippers at Star Garden in North Hollywood have been locked out after demanding that something be done about safety.
“I’ve seen girls get fired for literally no reason, mainly girls feeling unsafe, which is the common dialogue at this club. Girls have been getting fired for standing up for their safety,” one stripper told Star Garden.
Be sure to also check out their Tik Tok of OSHA violations at the Strip Club
Kansas City Painters Win Largest Wage Increase in 17 Years
Painters in Kansas City, on strike for the past week, have won wage increases of 2.5% to 3%. It is their largest increase in 17 years.
“When workers fight together, they can achieve their goals,” said their union spokesperson Jessica Podhola in a statement. “[D]irect action works. We also wouldn’t have achieved this contract without the solidarity from other trades and their commitment to their brothers and sisters in the IUPAT. We can’t say thank you enough.”
For more, check out the union’s Facebook page
Wall Street Backs Away as Starbucks Union Battle Gets Expensive
Today, Starbucks’ flagship roastery in Seattle has officially voted to unionize. It is a further sign of the changes coming to the company.
As nearly 250 Starbucks locations have moved to unionize, Starbucks stock is tanking as Wall Street backs off. Both Wedbush and Citi Research have downgraded their stock to neutral citing the labor organizing and other firms may follow.
“It’s hard to avoid the reality of the situation – that addressable problems in the near term are probably much more expensive and time consuming to bear results,” JP Morgan analyst John Ivankoe wrote in a note to clients on April 11.
News & Strikes Happening Elsewhere
- Oregon Gov. Brown signs farmworker overtime pay bill
- Nurses at Barrett Hospital & Healthcare (BHH) in Dillon, Montana have voted to unionize
- U of Kentucky union calls for better pay, health care for graduate workers
- Staff members at Pittsburgh’s Urban Pathways K-5 charter school vote to form union
- NYC family court lawyers are refusing new cases until pay rises; pay has remained the same since 2004
- Finally, labor law scholar and ethnographer Veena Dubal has an in-depth look at how app-based drivers organized during the pandemic
Alright, folks, that’s all for today.
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Love & Solidarity,
Melk
