The Local: Feb 22, 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, Workers United files for a few dozen Starbucks shops, NYSNA wins tentative agreements and settlements, and off-Broadway productions form new units.
Photo Credit: Alexandra Chan
Organizing
Crew members of Iceberg Ahead LLC, the off-Broadway production Titanique, voted unanimously 6-0 to join IATSE.
Off-Broadway Atlantic Theater workers in Chelsea also voted 129-1 to join IATSE.
21 Starbucks stores nationwide filed for elections on Feb 20, with three from New York in Park Slope, Garden City, and Old Westbury.
Workers at SheWolf Bakery organizing with RWDSU won their election 17-5.
A unit of Middletown truck drivers with Teamsters Local 445 won an election 21-13.
Surveillance operator employees at Empire City Casino voted 2-9 against joining IBEW Local 1430.
Nurse Practitioners at Good Samaritan Hospital voted 9-1 to join the Registered Nurse bargaining unit already represented by 1199SEIU.
1199SEIU also filed petitions to represent Nurse Practitioners at Bon Secours Medical Group and non-professional workers jointly employed at Rockland Pulmonary and Medical Associates and Good Samaritan Hospital Community Medical Care.
Workers at MNG New York Holdings, LLC d/b/a CBD Kratom stores voted 7-8 against joining UFCW Local 2013.
Workers at music distribution company Distrokid are organizing with The National Association of Broadcast Employees & Technicians CWA.
Workers at the Upper West Side Barnes & Noble have filed for an election with RWDSU.
Workers at CBS News Digital organizing with WGA East demanded voluntary recognition, and CBS Interactive Inc. filed a petition calling for an election in response.
Dance Theatre of Harlem called for an election for its employees organizing with the American Guild of Musical Artists.
Workers at Inter-Con Security Services Inc. represented by 32BJ SEIU filed to decertify.
11 nurse educators are seeking to join the existing registered NYSNA nurses unit at The Brooklyn Hospital Center.
13 drivers at Mor 1 Corp.’s Brooklyn facility are seeking to join UFCW Local 342.
Workers at Everyday Mechanical Corp. in Glendale are organizing with Plumbers Local Union No. 1.
In what might potentially become an election with multiple unions over a bargaining unit of over 100 workers, security guards at the Alante Security Group in Jamaica are organizing with United Federation LEOS-PBA. 32BJ SEIU, SPFPA, and the Federal Contract Guards of America are intervening.
Bargaining & Action
Workers organizing with Trader Joe’s United at Essex Crossing walked out of two shifts in one day in protest as the store has fired multiple worker organizers.
REI SoHo Union walked out in an Unfair Labor Practice strike on Feb 17 after REI announced they would withhold annual raises from unionized stores.
Starbucks Workers United at the latest unionized Starbucks in Brooklyn marched on management to demand fair scheduling practices and an end to chronic understaffing.
NYSNA reached tentative agreements with Peconic Bay Medical Center and Long Island Jewish Valley Stream, and also won $2 million from Mount Sinai hospitals in penalties for chronic understaffing.
The Daily News Union with NewsGuild NY filed three Unfair Labor Practice charges against owner Alden Global Capital over policies on holidays, metrics and quotas, and discipline.
32BJ SEIU building cleaners at a Chelsea condominium went on a 24-hour strike after the building owner canceled workers’ healthcare without warning, and the union filed an Unfair Labor Practice charge.
Mobilization for Justice Union with UAW voted by 96% to authorize a strike by Feb 23 if a deal is not reached.
The National Council of the Actors' Equity Association unanimously authorizes a strike on The Broadway League for development work.
On Feb 29 noon UUP, NYSNA, AFT, PEF, NYSUT, and more will rally at SUNY Downstate in protest of multiple planned hospital closures in the city.
Photo Credit: Alexandra Chan
Albany
Unions across New York City are making their voices heard in the fight over housing policy. 32BJ SEIU received recent coverage in New York 1 for trying to rally the Hotel & Gaming Trades Council and District Council 37 to get behind pushing the governor to pass housing legislation. However, last fall New York Focus reported how 32BJ were already more sympathetic towards the governor’s housing proposal because it allowed union wages for work that’d be covered by the union, but left out the same protections to the building and trade unions.
City Hall
The Adams administration grants paid family leave, extended parental leave, raises, and bonuses to non-union city employees — mostly at the management level — as the retention crisis continues. [Politico]
The Comptroller’s Office issues a report calling for an expansion and reform of the City’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development (which has been hampered in its mission to finance affordable housing construction and preservation). [Gothamist]
Fired city workers and Republican lawmakers rallied at City Hall in support of a bill that would reinstate them for refusing the COVID vaccine mandate. [The Chief Leader]
A lawsuit brought by a city lifeguard against his union, Local 461 of DC 37, will go to the state’s highest court. The member alleges that the union breached its own constitution by barring seasonal (i.e., nearly all) lifeguards from running in a leadership election held in February 2021. [The Chief Leader]
Photo Credit: Alexandra Chan
Miscellaneous
Workers at the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA), which is unionized with UAW 2110, wrote an open letter to the Museum to follow the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI). This follows from the national UAW calling for a support of a ceasefire in the ongoing genocide against the Palestinian people by Israel. [Hyperallergic]
Jacobin profiled organizing efforts in upstate New York by the United Farm Workers (UFW) that are being challenged by a lawsuit from farm owners that explicitly targets recipients of H-2A visas. [Jacobin]
The Independent Budget Office, at the request of city councilman Chi Ossé, did a study that found the city could offer free transit access for seniors with disabilities and severely under the poverty line for only $67 million a year. [Gothamist]
Amazon joins Trader Joe’s and SpaceX in arguing — amidst legal proceedings arising out of their labor practices — that the structure of the National Labor Relations Board is unconstitutional. Two individual Starbucks baristas have made similar arguments in their efforts to decertify Starbucks Workers United at their shops. [Reuters]