The Local: May 16, 2024 news roundup

Welcome back to The Local, a publication of NYC-DSA Labor Working Group reporting every two weeks. In Labor Working Group news: tonight there will be a Legislative Roundtable to discuss the Taylor Law at the NYC-DSA offices (14 Jefferson St.) and the Emergency Worker Organizing Committee will be hosting a book launch at Starr Bar (214 Starr St.) Send us any tips, corrections, and other feedback to thenyclocal@substack.com. In this issue, workers at the American Folk Art Museum are organizing with the UAW, budget cuts continue to hit the FDNY, and the city’s workforce increased for the first time since the pandemic.

Photo Credit: Alexandra Chan

Organizing 

• Workers at Weill Cornell Medicine voted 38-2 to join the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 30.

• Workers at Dairyland USA Corporation voted 72-33 to decertify IBEW Local 1430 as their bargaining unit representative. The union has filed objections to the decert election.

• Two different units of workers at Metroexpress, Inc. are organizing with Laborers Local 1010 (Highway, Road, and Street Construction).

• UAW Local 2110 has filed a petition to clarify the bargaining unit at the Jewish Museum.

• Workers at the American Folk Art Museum are organizing with UAW Local 2110.

• Workers at federal government contractor CGI Federal Inc. are organizing with the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers.

• Workers at a Starbucks location in Brooklyn are organizing with Workers United.

• Someone has filed a decert petition for a unit of workers repped by UFT at the KIPP Academy Charter School in the Bronx.

• Lieutenants and sergeants of the Co-op City Police are organizing with Local 1013, United Security Officers of America.

• Workers at Uncommon Preparatory Charter High School in Brooklyn appear to be organizing as an independent union, Uncommon Teachers Association.

• Workers at Timberlake Studios are organizing with Theatrical Wardrobe Union Local 764 (IATSE).

• Another potential raid, this time by Construction Council Local 175 (Utility Workers Union of America) on a unit at New York Paving repped by Laborers Local 1010.

• Drivers at Banner Smoked Fish in Brooklyn are organizing with UFCW Local 342.

Bargaining & Action 

• AFSCME DC 37 rallied against city parks budget cuts with the Play Fair Coalition at Union Square. 

• Independent student workers at Columbia called for a sickout to demand cops off campus and amnesty for students arrested. 

• The Conde Union with NewsGuild NY won a tentative agreement with Conde Nast on the eve of the Met Gala and ratified the contract by a 97% vote. 

• PSC-CUNY calls for a protest outside the CUNY Trustees’ meeting on May 20 4pm at CUNY Central. 

• Tabletop Workers United rallied at Union Square. The unit’s members working at the three Hex&Co locations, the BK Strategist, and the Uncommons, briefly paused work to share bargaining updates.

• The Bird Union rallied for a fair contract May 8 outside Audubon’s annual Women in Conservation fundraiser, highlighting how women staff are paid less than their men counterparts. 

• UAW Local 259 at South Shore Kia went on strike. 

• NYT Wirecutter workers with NewsGuild NY unanimously ratified a new three-year contract. 

• 1199 In House Staff Union with Washington-Baltimore NewsGuild holds a ULP picket May 16 outside 1199 headquarters as an organizing committee member was fired without cause.   

• The Forbes Union with NewsGuild NY calls for a “bio strike” in relation to insufficient negotiations over editorial integrity. 

• Unionized editorial workers with NewsGuild NY at People, People video, Entertainment Weekly and Martha Stewart Livinghave reached agreements with Dotdash Meredith and also unanimously ratified their three-year contracts on May 6. 

• Fordham Graduate Student Workers-CWA ratified their first contract.

• Musicians of “Severance” on Apple TV+ won a contract with AFM Local 802. 

• Sesame Workshop writers with WGA East ratified a new five-year contract after a unanimous strike authorization.

Photo Credit: Alexandra Chan

Albany 

• The New York Department of Labor is reportedly being overly punitive with unemployment payment clawbacks according to legal aid advocates. The agency is far more aggressive about charging people with fraud than any other state, which hurts working New Yorkers who often don’t know they’re doing anything illegal. Brad Hoylman-Sigal, a Manhattan state senator, wrote a bill that would provide clearer definitions of fraud and create a waiver program for forgiveness, but so far hasn’t made it beyond the Assembly. [New York Focus] 

• Under the name New Yorkers for Local Business, McDonald’s franchise owners are lobbying to stop a bill that would make it easier to bring claims of wage theft to the state. Lawmakers are working to pass it but facing resistance from this group and the Public Employees Federation, a union representing state workers, who are advocating for a different bill. The bill drafters disagree with the union’s concerns that it would “privatize” state work and say it would help secure funding for the Department of Labor, which repeatedly says it needs more staff to properly function. [New York Focus]

City Hall 

• The effects of FDNY budget cuts continue. The department sheds firefighters and EMS workers, including one probationary firefighter who was fired before reaching eligibility for death benefits for surviving family members. The probationary firefighter later died of a heart attack, leaving behind his wife and two children. [The Chief Leader]

• Another summer, another lifeguard shortage. Eric Adams proposes filling the positions with migrants and asylum seekers because they are “excellent swimmers.” [NBC4].

• Meanwhile, the Adams administration struggles to comply with a 2022 law setting stricter classroom size limits in schools. [Gothamist]

• The Department of Consumer and Worker Protection found that Starbucks, Cava, a Burger King location and several other employers did not comply with the city’s Fair Workweek and paid sick leave laws. The businesses must pay $2.5 million in restitution to 3,000 workers and more than $230,000 in civil penalties. [The Chief]

Miscellaneous 

• The New York State Comptroller published a report saying that NYC government employment grew for the first time since the pandemic. The headcount inched up to 284,000, a less than 1% increase from 2023. The report notes that attrition rates have returned to pre-pandemic levels but certain agencies (Probation, Buildings, FDNY) are still struggling to retain staff while others (Social Services, Department of Environmental Protection) are growing. 

• The Independent Budget Office published a brief report looking at the process of creating new mayoral offices. A familiar pattern of community organization or social crisis promoting a response from the state can be seen throughout the report.  

• Right now there are three looming internal elections with the UFT. Educators of New York put together a brief rundown on the emerging fight being waged by reformers against the entrenched Unity Caucus, lead by current president Michael Mulgrew.

• After winning a historic landslide victory at the Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, UAW’s southern campaign goes down I-59 to the Mercedes-Benz plant in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Ballots are set to be counted on Friday, May 17. [AL.com]

• The NLRB ruled that Apple illegally interrogated World Trade Center retail store staff about a union drive. [Reuters]

Job Listings 

• Organizer - Columbia Postdoctoral Workers and Sinai Postdoctoral Organizing Committee (Salary: $72,500 - $80,000)

• Union Representative - UFCW Local 2013 (Salary: Unlisted) 

• Research Analyst (Level 1, 2) - SEIU Local 32BJ (Salary: $68,21, $75,461) 

A complete list of local union jobs can be found at unionjobs.com, alongside here is the complete list of NYC civil service exams. Additionally if you’re interested in taking a job in a strategic industry and want to be connected through the Labor Working Group, check out this form here.