February 8, 2024 news roundup
Welcome to The Local, a publication of NYC-DSA Labor reporting every two weeks. Send tips, corrections, and other feedback to thenyclocal@substack.com. In this issue, media workers are ratifying contracts and engaging in walkouts, theater production staff are unionizing, and over 900 medical professionals in Yonkers are joining 1199SEIU.
Photo Credit: Alexandra Chan
Organizing
Workers at Nitehawk Cinema Prospect Park are organizing with UAW Local 2179. [Jacobin]
A unit of professional employees at Westmed Medical Group in Yonkers voted 547-215 to join 1199SEIU.
Building Service Workers at the Lincoln Spencer Apartments in Manhattan voted 5-3 to join SEIU 32BJ.
Workers at Data Device Corporation in Whitestone (which designs and manufactures electronics for the military) are organizing with the International Union of Operating Engineers (IUOE) Local 30; another unit within Data Device Corp located in Bohemia is set for an election with an unidentified unit.
Workers at Brooklyn Renaissance Plaza and Muss Development and are organizing with the IUOE Local 30.
Workers at Care for the Homeless aka Care Found Here at multiple locations in the Bronx, Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn, and Staten Island are organizing with AFSCME DC 37.
Ballet faculty at the School of American Ballet are organizing with the American Guild of Musical Artists.
Production workers at the Vineyard Theatre are organizing with IATSE.
Atlantic Theater workers are voting on what may be the first unionized off-Broadway stage crew in history.
ACV Environmental Services has petitioned for an election as workers organize with Teamsters Local 813.
Security guards at Allied Universal d/b/a MSA Security are organizing with the Security, Police and Fire Professionals of America (SPFPA).
United Federation Law Enforcement Officers Security & Police Benevolent Association (LEOS-PBA) might be engaging in a raid of another SPFPA unit at Alante Security Group.
A petition has been filed to decertify IBEW Local 1430 as the bargaining unit rep at Bo Bo Poultry Market Inc. Another decert petition has been filed against the League of International Federated Employees Local 1032 at WHCB 2023 LLC.
WGA East has filed a petition to clarify the definition of the bargaining unit at Vox Media.
Bargaining & Action
The Onion Union with WGA East covering The Onion, The A.V. Club, Deadspin, and The Takeout, ratified a new contract on Feb 6.
The Sports Illustrated Union with NewsGuild NY filed an unfair labor practice against The Arena Group over union-busting layoffs.
Citing lack of pay equity and union busting, members of the Forbes Union with NewsGuild NY struck for three days at the end of January.
The Markup Union with NewsGuild NY ratified their first contract on Feb 1 after two years of bargaining.
The Mobilization for Justice Union with UAW 2320 went on a one-day strike against Unfair Labor Practices and to demand a fair contract.
The NYC Council Union, Association of Legislative Employees rallied at City Hall for a first contract to end at-will employment and for fair wages, hopefully winning a deal soon.
700 NYSNA workers at Northwell Health facilities Peconic Bay Medical Center and Long Island Jewish Valley Stream authorized a strike by 99.5% ahead of their contract expiration at the end of the year.
The Meredith Union with NewsGuild NY representing workers who produce People Magazine, EW, Martha Stewart Living, Shape & People TV, held a rally and practice picket at Dotdash Meredith headquarters amid slow contract bargaining.
On Feb 13, APFA, AFA and TWU flight attendants from American Airlines, United Airlines, JetBlue, Southwest, Alaska, Frontier Airlines, Air Wisconsin, Allegiant, OAI, and more will be picketing at over 30 airports in a worldwide day of action, including LaGuardia Airport from 11:00am - 1:00pm.
Airport Workers United with SEIU had a day of action at airports nationwide including JFK Airport to demand Congress include the Good Jobs for Good Airports fair wage and benefits standards under the Federal Aviation Administration reauthorization bill.
Photo Credit: Alexandra Chan
Albany
Kathy Hochul expressed support to allow migrant workers to apply for temporary state government jobs. [CBS News]
Michael Mulgrew, president of the United Federation of Teachers (UFT), is speaking out, along with many others across the state, against governor Hochul’s new proposal for state school funding. The adjusted proposal, using a ten year average of inflation rather than yearly, would result in reduced Foundation Aid for school systems across the state. Mulgrew expressed additional frustration over the governor’s sudden flip from supporting the funding method last year to now attempting this reduction. [Spectrum 1 News]
Presidents of both the New York State United Teachers (NYSUT) and AFL-CIO are siding with a number of good government groups to eliminate tax breaks by corporations through industrial development agencies that denies the state billions in tax dollars that would be invested back in schools. [New York Focus]
Legislators in Albany announced two major proposals in the past couple days. In the first, a package of bills would empower state agencies to take away liquor licenses and certificates of authority (which allow businesses to collect sales tax and conduct business in New York) as well as issue stop-work orders on businesses that owe more than $1,000 in stolen wages. [ProPublica]
In the second, Assemblymember Emily Gallagher is leading a legislative push, with the backing of building trades unions and the UFT, to create a Social Housing Development Authority to seize new affordable housing construction away from private developers. Gov. Hochul’s “New York Housing Compact,” which had relied on private developers to solve the housing crisis, failed to pass last year. [City and State]
CUNY peace officers filed a lawsuit with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York alleging that the majority of people of color are paid less than their SUNY police officer peers, who are majority white. [The Chief Leader]
RWDSU is publicly supporting the new Retail Worker Safety Act, introduced by State Senator Jessica Ramos and Assemblymember Karines Reyes which would require businesses to conduct potential violence risk assessments and implement active shooter drills and training in violence prevention and de-escalation tactics. [The Chief Leader]
City Hall
Medical residents at NYC Health and Hospitals facilities repped by CIR/SEIU ramp up actions following the expiration of their contract in December 2021. H+H residents make over $5.5k less annually than residents at comparable private sector safety net hospitals, with the gap increasing to almost $10k for fifth-year residents.
The NYC Managerial Employees Association (which is not a union, as managerial employees cannot unionize and bargain collectively under state law) has called on the city to implement retroactive pay increases for managerial employees.
The NYC Comptroller’s Bureau of Labor Law has sued private real estate developer BLDG 44 Developers LLC for $40 million in wages owed to construction workers pursuant to the terms of its 421-a tax benefit.
Photo Credit: Alexandra Chan
Miscellaneous
A Regional Director of the NLRB has ruled in a 26-page decision that male basketball players at Dartmouth College (who are currently organizing with SEIU Local 560) are employees under the protection of the National Labor Relations Act. Another NLRB regional director decided 10 years ago that football players at Northwestern University were employees under the NLRA, but due to procedural issues the question was left open by the full NLRB. Dartmouth has stated it will be appealing the decision.
A group of rank–and-file DC 37 members have petitioned the New York City Employee Retirement System (NYCERS) to divest from Israeli sovereign bonds and firms profiting from the war on Gaza.
Opinion/Analysis
NYC’s Economic Development Corporation (EDC) reported that STEM jobs grew to 323,000 in 2022, which represents a 67% increase since 2011, and places that workforce nearly equivalent to the entire finance sector. This is notable both for the salary (an average of nearly $193,000), but also for the racial and gender makeup that are often whiter and more male than the rest of the city’s population. [The City]