The Local: Nov. 14, 2024 news roundup

Welcome back to The Local, a publication of NYC-DSA Labor Working Group reporting every two weeks. As always, send any tips, corrections, and other feedback to thenyclocal@substack.com. In this issue,  the union organizing drive at Mount Sinai and Weill Cornell Medicine rolls on, The New York Times Tech Guild goes out on strike through the presidential election, and the NLRB bans captive audience meetings as the country awaits changes to the agency under a new Trump administration.

Organizing

• Workers at Weill Cornell Medicine vote 81-2 to join the Transport Workers Union of America.

• Workers at the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema in Staten Island voted in a tie, 19-19, regarding unionizing with UAW Local 2179 in a rerun election, which means that unionization will not happen for now.

• Researchers at Mount Sinai are organizing with the UAW.

• Technicians at the Porsche dealership in Brooklyn are organizing with the United Service Workers Union, Local 355 (IUJAT).

• Building service workers at the 257 West 17th Street Condominium are organizing with 32BJ.

• NewsGuild NY has filed a petition to clarify the tech bargaining unit at The New York Times.

• A decertification petition has been filed at Equity Residential, where RWDSU Local 670 currently represents the unit.

• Workers at the Frick Collection are organizing with the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 30.

• Starbucks Workers United is organizing three more stores in Manhattan.

• Intimacy Coordinators voted 100% to join SAG-AFTRA.

Bargaining & Action

• 10/30: 1199 SEIU laboratory staff picketed at Northwell Health’s Little Parkway facility. 

• 11/04: IAM District 751 Boeing machinists vote for their new contract by 59%, ending their strike. [CNBC]

• 11/09: UAW Staff United announces strike deadline of Dec. 2nd. 

• 11/10: Broadway musicians with Local 802 AFM ratified a new agreement.  

• 11/11: McGee Media workers with WGA East ratify their first contract.

• 11/11: NYT Tech Guild workers with NewsGuild NY return to work after striking through the election without an agreement.  

• 11/12: The ACLU Union with NPEU ratifies their first contract. 

• 11/13: Academic student workers SENS-UAW 7902 at The New School won grievance settlements over denial of ratification bonuses. 

• 11/14: Strand Workers United will hold an informational picket at 6:30pm in response to the offer of a 50 cent raise. 

Albany

• Kathy Hochul announced a pay wage increase for professional trainees across New York state agencies that raises level 1 trainees to $52,198 and level 2 to $58,247. This is meant to target the decrease in state government workers since the pandemic. [The Chief Leader]

City Hall 

• Due to a new Federal Transit Administration rule, the MTA is among rail transit agencies across the country that must now institute a workers protection program by October 2025 for tracks-related work. 

• Councilmember Christopher Marte previously introduced legislation to preserve former city workers’ Medicare, but a week later, the leadership of the Municipal Labor Committee argued it is unlawful and undermines public sector unions’ rights. [Work Bites, The Chief Leader]

• Councilmember Carmen De La Rosa introduced The Construction Justice Act in the City Council to mandate wages and benefits worth at least $40 per hour on certain housing projects financed with city subsidies, drawing ire from Eric Adams and REBNY. [The Real Deal] 

• A city council hearing finds that young people want to work for the city but are met with limited openings, while older civil service workers continue to retire in large numbers. [The Chief Leader] 

Miscellaneous 

• The National Labor Relations Board alleges that Grindr fired employees who were organizing with the CWA around the company’s return-to-office policy, and the NLRB’s general council is seeking to cite Cemex so that the company is forced to bargain with the union. [Bloomberg]

• An intra-union fight is playing out in Long Island, where the leadership of CSEA Local 830 (representing Nassau County workers) is being replaced by statewide union leadership after the local accepted a deal from Republican Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman that would jack up health insurance deductibles for members. [Long Island Press]

• Catch Scabby the Rat’s gallery show in Brooklyn this month! [The Chief Leader]

• Now that we are looking at another Trump administration, the NLRB is in peril. Some analysis on what exactly might happen in the coming months and years. [Bloomberg Businessweek; NLRB Edge]

• Nonetheless, the current NLRB continues to issue important new worker-friendly decisions, for example one banning captive audience meetings, and another making it harder for bosses to make veiled threats against unionizing.

• An interview with IUPAT general president Jimmy Williams Jr. on the state of working class politics. [Jacobin]

Job Listings 

• Data Scientist – Workers’ Rights - Department of Consumer and Worker Protections (Salary: $84,981 - $97,728) 

• Deputy Political Director - SEIU 32BJ (Salary: $100,000 - $119,000)

• Director, Nursing Education & Practice - New York State Nurses Association (Salary: $145,000 - $165,000)

A complete list of local union jobs can be found at unionjobs.com, alongside here is the complete list of  New York City’s 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.