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The nature and power of organized labor in the United States is the outcome of historical tensions among counter-acting forces involving workplace rights, wages, working hours, political expression, labor laws, and other working conditions. Organized unions and their umbrella labor federations such as the AFL–CIO and citywide federations have competed, evolved, merged, and split against a backdrop of changing values and priorities, and periodic federal government intervention.
The United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE), is an independent democratic rank-and-file labor union representing workers in both the private and public sectors across the United States.
The Young Democratic Socialists of America (YDSA) is the youth section of the Democratic Socialists of America. The organization was known as Young Democratic Socialists (YDS) until 2017.
Gimme! Coffee is a coffee roaster and third-wave coffee shop, based in New York, US, with espresso bars in Ithaca and Trumansburg. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Gimme! in 2020 closed the Manhattan and Brooklyn-based locations, and began an Ithaca-area delivery service. Gimme! Coffee also has a wholesale service that caters to coffee and espresso establishments. In January 2020, Colleen Anunu replaced founder Kevin Cuddeback as CEO after he had served 20 years in the role; Anunu then made the company into a worker-owned cooperative, which it remains in July 25, 2022. Gimme says that it forms relationships with farmers who grow coffee; farmers may receive a price premium which can help them improve their operations.
New Seasons Market is a chain of neighborhood grocery stores operating in the Portland, Oregon metro area, and southwestern Washington. Some of the products offered are organic and produced locally in the Pacific Northwest, but conventional groceries are also sold.
Socialist Alternative is a Trotskyist political party in the United States. SAlt formed as Labor Militant in 1986, when members of the Committee for a Workers' International created a US branch.
Workplace democracy is the application of democracy in various forms to the workplace, such as voting systems, debates, democratic structuring, due process, adversarial process, and systems of appeal. It can be implemented in a variety of ways, depending on the size, culture, and other variables of an organization.
Emma Kinema is an American labor organizer and the senior campaign lead of CODE-CWA, the Communication Workers of America's Campaign to Organize Digital Employees. In the late 2010s, while working as a quality assurance tester, Kinema volunteered as a games industry organizer and co-founder of Game Workers Unite. She was hired by the CWA union in 2020 to lead their initiative to organize video game and tech workers, the first American initiative of its kind in those sectors.
On December 31, 2019, China announced the discovery of a cluster of pneumonia cases in Wuhan. The first American case was reported on January 20, and Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar declared a public health emergency on January 31. Restrictions were placed on flights arriving from China, but the initial U.S. response to the pandemic was otherwise slow in terms of preparing the healthcare system, stopping other travel, and testing. The first known American deaths occurred in February and in late February President Donald Trump proposed allocating $2.5 billion to fight the outbreak. Instead, Congress approved $8.3 billion with only Senator Rand Paul and two House representatives voting against, and Trump signed the bill, the Coronavirus Preparedness and Response Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2020, on March 6. Trump declared a national emergency on March 13. The government also purchased large quantities of medical equipment, invoking the Defense Production Act of 1950 to assist. By mid-April, disaster declarations were made by all states and territories as they all had increasing cases. A second wave of infections began in June, following relaxed restrictions in several states, leading to daily cases surpassing 60,000. By mid-October, a third surge of cases began; there were over 200,000 new daily cases during parts of December 2020 and January 2021.
Christian Smalls is an American labor organizer known for his role in leading Amazon worker organization in Staten Island, a borough in New York City. He is a co-founder and the former president of the Amazon Labor Union (ALU) (2021-24).
Some warehouse workers of Amazon, the largest American e-commerce retailer with 750,000 employees, have organized for workplace improvements in light of the company's scrutinized labor practices and stance against unions. Worker actions have included work stoppages and have won concessions including increased pay, safety precautions, and time off. There are unionized Amazon workers in both the United States and Europe.
The Campaign to Organize Digital Employees or CODE-CWA is a project launched by the Communications Workers of America to unionize tech and video game workers in January 2020. It sprung out of conversations with Game Workers Unite (GWU) and employed at least two full time staff, including GWU co-founder Emma Kinema and veteran SEIU organizer Wes McEnany. In 2022, Jessica Gonzalez joined, a former Activision Blizzard QA tester.
Apple Inc. workers around the globe have been involved in organizing since the 1990s. Apple unions are made up of retail, corporate, and outsourced workers. Apple employees have joined trade unions and or formed works councils in Australia, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States.
The Amazon Labor Union (ALU) is a labor union specifically for Amazon workers, created on April 20, 2021. On April 1, 2022, the Amazon workers at a warehouse in Staten Island, JFK8, backed by the ALU became the first unionized Amazon workers recognized by the National Labor Relations Board. In June 2024 the union became affiliated with Teamsters.
As of June 2024, over 10,000 workers at over 400 Starbucks stores in at least 40 states in the United States have voted to unionize, primarily with Workers United. As of March 2023 none have yet enacted a collective bargaining agreement. This unionization effort started at a store in Buffalo, New York. About a third of Starbucks' Chilean workforce is already unionized, as well as 450 workers in New Zealand and eight stores in Canada. The longest Starbucks strike lasted 64 days, took place in Brookline, Massachusetts in September 2022 and resulted in the unionization of the employees at that location.
ABK Workers Alliance is a group of organized workers from video game company Activision Blizzard. Formed in response to a July 2021 state lawsuit against the company for harassment and discriminatory work practices, the worker advocacy group A Better ABK organized walkouts and demonstrations against the company's policy and practices. The quality assurance workers of subsidiary Raven Software went on strike in December after part of the team was fired. The striking workers announced their union as the Game Workers Alliance in late January 2022 and offered to end the strike pending their union's recognition.
Travis E. Nelson is an American politician and nurse serving as a member of the Oregon House of Representatives from the 44th district. He assumed office on February 1, 2022. He is the first openly LGBTQ+ man of color and the first openly LGBTQ+ African American to ever serve in the Oregon Legislature.
Jaz Brisack is an American barista. They're also known for leading unionizing efforts at Starbucks, namely at a Buffalo, New York store.
Workers at Recreational Equipment, Inc. (REI), an American retail and outdoor recreation services co-op, have one recognized trade union. The company has faced accusations of being anti-union. In 2016, REI workers went public with organization efforts that had been growing over concerns about wages and working conditions in the Pacific Northwest, and the company has since faced increasing public criticism from its employees nationwide over issues including living wages, hourly worker policies, and safety protocols during the COVID-19 pandemic. Workers have organized at least five petitions since 2016. REI has maintained that it is committed to adjusting and improving working conditions for its employees.
Starting in 2022, workers from several Trader Joe's grocery stores have voted on whether to unionize. A store in Hadley, Massachusetts, became the first to unionize and created Trader Joe's United, an independent union unaffiliated with national unions. Stores in Minneapolis, Louisville, and Oakland joined them. Other workers have organized with the United Food and Commercial Workers. Trader Joe's, a chain with over 500 locations and over 50,000 employees, is known for its neighborhood store vibe and over-the-top customer service, which has sometimes clashed with its working conditions. Corporate management has a history of resisting staff unionization efforts. Driven by COVID-19 pandemic working conditions, American service sector organization increased, and Trader Joe's worker concerns over safety, pay, and benefits contributed to their union drive.
References
- ↑ "Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee". EWOC. Retrieved 2024-02-06.
- ↑ "With a Little Help from My Friends: How Taco Bell Workers and Many More Are Self-Organizing in the Pandemic". Labor Notes. 2020-06-05. Retrieved 2024-02-06.
- ↑ Shapiro, Emily (March 8, 2021). "Texas service workers demand vaccine access, protest end to mask order". ABC News. Retrieved 2024-02-06.
- ↑ "Democratic Socialists Are Fueling a Hot Labor Summer". In These Times. 2023-08-04. Retrieved 2024-02-06.
- ↑ "Barboncino Workers Are Forming New York City's First Unionized Stand-Alone Pizzeria". jacobin.com. Retrieved 2024-02-06.
- ↑ Morales, Christina (2023-07-26). "Barboncino, a Brooklyn Pizza Restaurant, Becomes a Union Shop". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331 . Retrieved 2024-02-06.
- ↑ "Checkmate! Board Game Cafe Workers at Hex Flex and Win Union Recognition Vote" . Retrieved 2024-02-06.
- ↑ "Kansas Chipotle Workers Latest to Launch Union Drive". Labor Notes. 2022-10-21. Retrieved 2024-02-06.
