Greetings from the Burgh, where I have been battling a nasty sinus infection.
$1,640 Short of Monthly Goal
Payday is in a tight spot this month as we are $1,640 short of our monthly budget with a week to go. This budget covers my full-time salary, part-time staff, healthcare, and tax preparation.
Your support allows us to cover the stories that most publications don’t cover.
UNITE HERE Refusing to Work Where ICE Is Present
Across the United States, immigrant rights protesters have been targeting the hotels where ICE is staying. Now, UNITE HERE Local 11, the union that represents 32,000 workers in Southern California and Arizona, is instructing union members not to work at locations where ICE is present.
Using workplace safety contract provisions, UNITE HERE Local 11 is arguing that members can refuse to work when ICE is present because ICE represents “unusually dangerous conditions.”
"Our members should not be forced into the middle of heavily armed enforcement operations," UNITE HERE Co-President Kurt Petersen wrote in a letter to union members this week. "Our contracts guarantee a safe workplace, and if hotels and stadiums choose to allow ICE onto their properties, our workers have the right to walk out."
Navy Shipyard Workers Strike
As the US Navy is under pressure in the war on Iran, more than 600 workers employed by the military contractor General Dynamics are on strike at the Navy’s main repair facility, Bath Iron Works in Maine.
“General Dynamics continues to make record profits off our labor and gives away BILLIONS every year through stock buybacks and dividends while many of our members live paycheck to paycheck,” union president Trent Vellella said in a statement. “With this company proposal, General Dynamics is continuing to show that corporate earnings per share are more important than our members’ earning per pay period.”
For more, check out the Maine Morning Star.
NC Farmworker Win Wage Theft Lawsuit
With many farmers complaining about a shortage of immigrant farmworkers, the Trump Administration is proposing to allow more guest workers into the country. Guestworkers, whose visas are tied to their employers, have long been exploited.
However, in North Carolina, the North Carolina Justice Center just won a major victory on behalf of H-2A guestworkers. Workers there won $315,000 in a wage theft case against Rhodes Farming.
“I just want to remind all workers that they have rights and not to be afraid to call [legal] helplines,” said one of the workers, Flores Lozano, in a statement put out by the North Carolina Justice Center.
For more, check out The News & Observer.
92% of ProPublica Reporters Vote to Strike Over AI Protections
This week, 92% of ProPublica reporters voted to strike. During two years of bargaining, ProPublica has failed to agree to basic union protections including cost-of-living adjustments, seniority in layoffs, and union security language.
The union is also calling out ProPublica for refusing to accept regulations on the use of AI in the newsroom. The union says it’s willing to strike.
“We have tried for 27 months to be reasonable, to compromise, to hear the company’s opinion about what they need in terms of operational flexibility, and to change our own contract language to assist with that,” ProPublica reporter Mark Oadle told the Neiman Lab. “If it’s not going to work at the bargaining table, we need to increase the pressure.”
For more, check out the Neiman Lab.
Minneapolis Mayor Vetoes Eviction Protection
Finally, in Minnesota, tens of thousands of renters are preparing to go on rent strike to support immigrant workers, who were unable to work and pay rent during ICE’s blitz on the city.
However, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey has vetoed legislation that would extend eviction notices from 30 days to 60 days.
“As someone who spent every day trying to protect my community from ICE, to the point where I was personally assaulted by them, I’m so disappointed,” City Council President Elliot Payne told KMSP. “Mayor Frey vetoed this bare-minimum policy that would show that he could move beyond cuss words and take real action to provide material support for our neighbors. This is a veto rooted in cowardice, not the livelihoods of our residents."
News & Headlines Elsewhere
- REI abandons union contract talks
- Little progress as 4,000 JBS workers continue to strike
- Starbucks to resume bargaining with SBWU union
- Wisconsin saw steepest decline in union membership over 40-year period
- Virginia faculty and graduate workers left out of collective bargaining expansion
- 5,000 Penn State faculty to vote on unionizingzing
- Trump strips commercial driver’s licenses from 200,000 legal immigrants
- North Korean workers deployed to Russia face labor exploitation
- Finally, workers who fall for ‘corporate bullshit’ may be worse at their jobs, study finds
Alright, folks, that’s all for today. Keep sending tips, story ideas, and comments to melk@paydyreport.com
