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Michigan Democrats vote to repeal anti-union law, this week in the war on workers

Laura Clawson for Daily Kos Labor

Daily Kos Staff

Saturday March 18, 2023 · 3:55 PM PDT

2023/03/18 · 15:55

DETROIT, MI - SEPTEMBER 25: Steve Donagan with UAW Local 22 of Royal Oak, Michigan, carries his three-year-old daughter Regina on his shoulders as he walks the picket line with striking United Auto Workers (UAW) union members at the General Motors Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly Plant on September 25, 2019 in Detroit, Michigan. The UAW called a strike against GM at midnight on September 15th, the unions first national strike since 2007. This is the unions longest national strike since 1970. (Photo by Bill Pugliano/Getty Images)

This is big: During the 2012 lame-duck session, Michigan Republicans passed a so-called right-to-work (RTW) law that then-Gov. Rick Snyder had explicitly said wasn't on his agenda. Since that law went into effect, union density in Michigan has dropped from 16.5% to 13.3%. But last November, Democrats won control of both chambers of the state legislature for the first time in decades, and Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer was reelected. Repealing the anti-union law, which allows workers to freeload on their fellow workers, opting out of paying the costs of their union representation while getting the same benefits as people paying union dues—the improved contracts that are bargained, the support in case of grievances—became a possibility with that election.

And now it’s becoming a reality. Both the state House and Senate have voted to repeal RTW, and Whitmer has pledged to sign the bill into law. This is the first time a state has repealed a RTW law in nearly 60 years, according to Elise Gould and Jennifer Sherer of the Economic Policy Institute. Yet it’s also part of a trend. In 2022, Illinois voters passed a constitutional amendment banning such laws in the state, and in 2018, Missouri voters said no to an attempt by their state legislature to pass RTW.

Laura Clawson for Daily Kos Labor

Daily Kos Staff

Saturday March 11, 2023 · 3:55 PM PST

2023/03/11 · 15:55

There’s a great new trend in Virginia school districts. In 2020, the state legalized collective bargaining for public workers, but made it a decision at the local government level. This week, both Charlottesville and Fairfax County passed measures allowing collective bargaining for school district employees. They follow Prince William County, where school employees voted in February for the Prince William Education Association to be their exclusive bargaining representative.

Fairfax County and Prince William County have the two largest school districts in Virginia.

According to Fairfax County school board member Karl Frisch, the vote “is a demonstration not only of our commitment to improving school staffing, pay, and morale but also to better outcomes for students. In addition to engaged parents, there is no greater driver of student success than classroom teachers.”

Laura Clawson for Daily Kos Labor

Daily Kos Staff

Wednesday March 08, 2023 · 1:39 PM PST

2023/03/08 · 13:39

Michigan State Governor Gretchen Whitmer shows a "My Body My Decision" shirt at the 14th District Democratic Headquarters, during the US midterm election in Detroit, Michigan, on November 8, 2022. (Photo by JEFF KOWALSKY / AFP) (Photo by JEFF KOWALSKY/AFP via Getty Images) — Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

UPDATE: Thursday, Mar 9, 2023 · 2:54:02 AM +00:00 · Laura Clawson

The Michigan House voted to repeal right to work and to reinstate the prevailing wage law.

Michigan Democrats are showing what’s possible when Democrats win control of a government. After the party got a trifecta in Michigan for the first time in decades, lawmakers have not wasted time. On Wednesday, the Michigan House voted to expand the state’s Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act to include protections for sexual orientation and gender identity. The state Senate passed those bills last week, and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has said she plans to sign them. The state Supreme Court had ruled that the existing law covers sexual orientation and gender identity, but as we know, putting things in law is more permanent than relying on the courts.

So that’s one big win. Also on Wednesday, the House Labor Committee advanced bills repealing the anti-union “right to work” law put into place by Republicans in the 2012 lame duck session and restoring a prevailing wage law that would guarantee union-level wages for workers on state projects. Those bills were expected to come to a vote as soon as Wednesday afternoon.

But those were just the latest moves by Michigan Democratic lawmakers.

Laura Clawson for Daily Kos

Daily Kos Staff

Saturday February 25, 2023 · 3:55 PM PST

2023/02/25 · 15:55

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - APRIL 11: Deputy Labor Secretary Julie Su speaks during a Learn About Worker Experiences event at the Skal restaurant in Brooklynon April 11, 2022 in New York City. (Photo by Roy Rochlin/Getty Images for One Fair Wage) — Deputy Labor Secretary Julie Su

UPDATE: Tuesday, Feb 28, 2023 · 6:43:12 PM +00:00 · Laura Clawson

Presiden Joe Biden will nominate Julie Su, the current deputy labor secretary. If she’s confirmed, she’ll be Biden’s first Asian American Cabinet member.

“It is my honor to nominate Julie Su to be our country’s next Secretary of Labor. Julie has spent her life fighting to make sure that everyone has a fair shot, that no community is overlooked, and that no worker is left behind," Biden said in a statement. "Over several decades, Julie has led the largest state labor department in the nation, cracked down on wage theft, fought to protect trafficked workers, increased the minimum wage, created good-paying, high-quality jobs, and established and enforced workplace safety standards."

The White House is reportedly vetting two candidates to replace outgoing Labor Secretary Marty Walsh. Deputy Labor Secretary Julie Su has been a leading candidate from the moment Walsh’s exit was rumored—in fact, she was a leading candidate at the time he was chosen. Su, a former California labor secretary and longtime advocate for immigrant and low-wage workers, has significant support from labor unions.

Also reportedly being vetted is Sara Nelson, the president of the Association of Flight Attendants. Nelson has the backing of Sen. Bernie Sanders and is an actual longtime union member and leader, which Su is not.

Su has the advantage of knowing the Labor Department at a high level and being already involved in its ongoing work. Nelson is one of the best current spokespeople for workers in the U.S. Neither of these is a bad choice.

Laura Clawson for Daily Kos Labor

Daily Kos Staff

Thursday February 23, 2023 · 11:37 AM PST

2023/02/23 · 11:37

Smoke rises from a derailed cargo train in East Palestine, Ohio, on February 4, 2023. - The train accident sparked a massive fire and evacuation orders, officials and reports said Saturday. No injuries or fatalities were reported after the 50-car train came off the tracks late February 3 near the Ohio-Pennsylvania state border. The train was shipping cargo from Madison, Illinois, to Conway, Pennsylvania, when it derailed in East Palestine, Ohio. (Photo by DUSTIN FRANZ / AFP) (Photo by DUSTIN FRANZ/AFP via Getty Images)

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) released its preliminary report on the Ohio freight train derailment involving thousands of gallons of toxic chemicals, and the (preliminary) conclusion is what was expected: a wheel bearing that overheated. The wheel bearing, which was visible as a glow on security footage 20 miles before the derailment, measured at 253 degrees above the air temperature when it passed a sensor east of East Palestine. That triggered an alarm, and the train’s crew began trying to stop the train. But by then it was too late. At a sensor 20 miles earlier (so, not far from the location of the security footage), the wheel bearing had measured at 103 degrees above air temperature, below the 170-degree threshold for an alarm. But 10 miles before that, the wheel bearing had been just 38 degrees above air temperature, so it was rapidly heating already in addition to the visible signs of a problem on the security footage.

The NTSB’s investigation continues, and could take up to a year as the agency “will focus on the wheelset and bearing; tank car design and derailment damage; a review of the accident response, including the venting and burning of the vinyl chloride; railcar design and maintenance procedures and practices; NS [Norfolk Southern] use of wayside defect detectors; and NS railcar inspection practices.”

RELATED STORY: Workers say train in Ohio derailment had previously broken down

Laura Clawson for Daily Kos Labor

Daily Kos Staff

Thursday February 16, 2023 · 12:55 PM PST

2023/02/16 · 12:55

NEW YORK, NY - JULY 05: The inside of a Tesla vehicle is viewed as it sits parked in a new Tesla showroom and service center in Red Hook, Brooklyn on July 5, 2016 in New York City. The electric car company and its CEO and founder Elon Musk have come under increasing scrutiny following a crash of one of its electric cars while using the controversial autopilot service. Joshua Brown crashed and died in Florida on May 7 in a Tesla car that was operating on autopilot, which means that Brown's hands were not on the steering wheel. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

Like freakin’ clockwork. It took one day between a group of Buffalo Tesla workers informing the company of their intent to unionize and Tesla firing more than 30 workers in that plant, including a member of the union organizing committee.

Workers United, the union the workers are affiliating with, filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board alleging that Tesla “terminated these individuals in retaliation for union activity and to discourage union activity,” and seeking an injunction blocking the firings. According to More Perfect Union, “Tesla managers announced surprise performance reviews, then fired 8x as many workers as usual.”

This is not the first time Tesla has engaged in apparent retaliatory firing for union activity, and Tesla isn’t the only Elon Musk company to have fired workers for speaking up.

RELATED STORY: Buffalo Tesla workers announce union drive as Musk force-feeds Twitter users with his tweets

Laura Clawson for Daily Kos Labor

Daily Kos Staff

Tuesday February 14, 2023 · 12:39 PM PST

2023/02/14 · 12:39

Tesla CEO Elon Musk looks up as he addresses guests at the Offshore Northern Seas 2022 (ONS) meeting in Stavanger, Norway on August 29, 2022. - The meeting, held in Stavanger from August 29 to September 1, 2022, presents the latest developments in Norway and internationally related to the energy, oil and gas sector. - Norway OUT (Photo by Carina Johansen / NTB / AFP) / Norway OUT (Photo by CARINA JOHANSEN/NTB/AFP via Getty Images) — Elon Musk

Workers at a Buffalo, New York, Tesla factory are seeking to form the company’s first union after previous organizing efforts have run up against union-busting that in some cases came personally and publicly from Elon Musk. In 2021, the National Labor Relations Board found that Tesla had illegally fired a union activist and that a tweet from Musk had illegally threatened workers with the loss of stock options if they unionized. Tesla is appealing that ruling, which came from two Republicans and one Democrat.

The Buffalo union effort is led by workers who label data for Tesla’s Autopilot system, work that Musk has said he hopes to automate in the future. “People are tired of being treated like robots,” organizing committee member Al Celli told Bloomberg’s Josh Eidelson, citing keystroke-tracking surveillance of their work that makes some workers hesitate to take needed bathroom breaks. The starting pay for these 800 workers is around $19 an hour. They also hope to organize the 1,000 manufacturing workers at the factory, which produces solar panels and charging equipment components.

RELATED STORY: There's a genuine conspiracy at Twitter: A conspiracy between the Republican House and Elon Musk

Laura Clawson for Daily Kos Labor

Daily Kos Staff

Monday February 13, 2023 · 12:58 PM PST

2023/02/13 · 12:58

Labor Secretary Marty Walsh is expected to step down in the coming days to take a job leading the National Hockey League Players Association, and while that’s not official yet, the jockeying to replace him is already well underway.

There’s an obvious choice to replace Walsh: Deputy Labor Secretary Julie Su. She’s hugely qualified—in addition to being the current deputy labor secretary, she’s a former California labor secretary—and President Joe Biden has already faced pressure over the low representation of Asian Americans at the Cabinet level in his administration. (In addition to Vice President Kamala Harris, U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai and Office of Science and Technology Policy head Arati Prabhakar are considered Cabinet level, but there are no Asian Americans currently holding the title of secretary in a traditional Cabinet role.)

Laura Clawson for Daily Kos Labor

Daily Kos Staff

Saturday February 04, 2023 · 3:55 PM PST

2023/02/04 · 15:55

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - JULY 19: Activists participate in an event dubbed the Un-Birthday Party and picket line for Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz on July 19, 2022 in New York City. Activists gathered near Schultz's West Village home on his 75th birthday to protest the treatment of Starbucks workers attempting to unionize, as well as Schultz's recent announcement to permanently close 16 locations. The company has stated that the closing of the stores, which are mostly located on the West Coast, is due to safety concerns. However, Starbucks Workers United, the union representing the baristas, has filed a labor complaint claiming that the store closures is an act of retaliation. Over 100 of the company's 9,000 U.S. stores have voted or are in the process of voting to unionize since a Buffalo, New York location became the first to join a union at the end of 2021. (Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images) — Starbucks is making itself synonymous with illegal union-busting, but it's far from alone

Tens of millions of people who would like to be in a union aren’t. So what gives?

This: Management is alleged to break the law (labor law, so it’s treated as if it really doesn’t count) in 39% of union elections, according to an Economic Policy Institute analysis of National Labor Relations Board election data from 2019 to 2022. How so?

Depending if you use a narrow or a broad definition of illegal firings conducted during union drives, they happen in anywhere from 14% to 24% of union elections.
Employers were charged with illegally coercing, threatening, or retaliating against union supporters in 27% of union elections.

These things were more, not less, common in cases where the bargaining unit would involve 50 or more workers, which even means that it’s not mostly Starbucks management.

Laura Clawson for Daily Kos Labor

Daily Kos Staff

Friday February 03, 2023 · 12:09 PM PST

2023/02/03 · 12:09

A waiter serves food to customers dining indoors at Langer's Deli in Los Angeles, California on August 7, 2021. - The restaurant announced that proof of vaccination would be required to dine indoors at the restaurant as Covid-19 variant causes surge in the Los Angeles area. (Photo by Patrick T. FALLON / AFP) (Photo by PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images)

A Mexican restaurant in Oakland, California, is closing because it can't find enough workers. A Las Vegas restaurant needs 12 people to be fully staffed but is struggling to get by with just three or four. Some restaurants are "getting creative" to attract workers—if you count better pay and benefits as creativity.

There’s a reason for all of this, and, despite what you may have been told, it’s not that no one wants to work anymore. The leisure and hospitality industry remains 500,000 workers short of where it was before the pandemic, The Washington Post’s Abha Bhattarai and Maggie Penman report, and 2 million short of what it needs, but for the most part, those people are working. Just not in restaurants and bars.

Laura Clawson for Daily Kos Labor

Daily Kos Staff

Thursday February 02, 2023 · 11:38 AM PST

2023/02/02 · 11:38

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - JULY 14: People wear protective face masks outside Five Guys burger joint in Midtown as New York City moves into Phase 3 of re-opening following restrictions imposed to curb the coronavirus pandemic on July 14, 2020. Phase 3 permits the reopening of nail and tanning salons, tattoo parlors, spas and massages, dog runs and numerous other outdoor activities. Phase 3 is the third of four-phased stages designated by the state. (Photo by Noam Galai/Getty Images)

A journalism professor’s recent tweet highlighted the shockingly low salaries in the local television news industry—by issuing a challenge to local TV stations to pay better than a local fast food restaurant.

The tweet from Elliott Lewis, a professor in the journalism school at Syracuse University, showed a Help Wanted sign at a nearby Five Guys touting an average hourly wage of $17.85. In the responses to the tweet, dozens of people cited the low pay they’ve gotten in television and radio news. But it’s not just the media doing badly. It’s a chance to consider just how many jobs require expensive college degrees or directly affect vulnerable people’s health or education.

Laura Clawson for Daily Kos Labor

Daily Kos Staff

Saturday January 28, 2023 · 3:55 PM PST

2023/01/28 · 15:55

NEW YORK, NY - FEBRUARY 13: Protesters with NYC Fight for $15 gather in front of a McDonalds to rally against fast food executive Andrew Puzder, who is President Donald Trump's nomination to lead the Labor Department on February 13, 2017 in New York City. Puzder's fast food business, including Hardee's and Carl's Jr., have a mixed record with workers, with many claiming him hostile to workers rights. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

In September, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a landmark law to create a council with the authority to set wages and policies around working conditions in the fast food industry. That would help hundreds of thousands of workers in the industry all at once, rather than forcing them to fight for better wages and working conditions one McDonald’s or In-N-Out at a time.

The fast food companies did not like this one bit and mobilized to block it. This week, they succeeded by forcing it to a ballot vote in 2024 before the law can be implemented, if voters approve. McDonald’s and Yum Brands each put seven figures into the referendum campaign, money that went in part to hire canvassers who were caught lying about the ballot measure's purpose.

So at best, improvements for fast food workers are significantly delayed by corporate money. And it’s possible that the even greater flood of money the fast food companies will pour into the referendum will prevail and this effort to improve wages and working conditions will be pushed back.

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Michigan Democrats vote to repeal anti-union law, this week in the war on workers

More Virginia school districts to allow collective bargaining, this week in the war on workers

Michigan Democrats are putting the slogan 'elections matter' into action and it's amazing to see

Biden to nominate Julie Su as labor secretary, this week in the war on workers

Crew tried to stop train before toxic derailment, NTSB preliminary report says

Tesla fired dozens of workers in Buffalo plant the day after union campaign launch

Buffalo Tesla workers announce union drive as Musk force-feeds Twitter users with his tweets

Biden has an obvious best choice to replace Marty Walsh as labor secretary

Illegal union-busting is outrageously common, this week in the war on workers

There's a good reason restaurants are struggling to find workers

This is what it looks like to live in a country where work really isn't valued

Big money blocks California law to improve fast food jobs, this week in the war on workers