Guitar Center Workers Ratify New Agreement Maintaining Commission Structure

Workers at the Guitar Center New York flagship store celebrate their new

 contract. Photo from RWDSU.

Guitar Center Workers Ratify New Agreement Maintaining Commission Structure

Retail Wholesale & Department Store Union (RWDSU) members at six Guitar Center locations recently ratified a new three-year agreement! The new contract is chock full of worker wins! The deal includes an increased minimum wage rate for every position, which continues to go up every year of the agreement. Tenured employees received an additional seniority wage adjustment. The contract also maintains the union health plan, with the addition of a short-term disability benefit.

Other highlights include an updated attendance policy that changes the grace period for lateness from 5 minutes to 15 minutes and the ability to call additional labor-management meetings during the year. The deal also gives current workers a leg up on moving positions within Guitar Center; going forward, when new part-time and full-time positions become available in the bargaining unit, the manager will be required to share the listing with current workers five days ahead of advertising the job to the public.

Importantly for sales associates and repair technicians, the contract maintains the current commission structure – unlike the non-union Guitar Center stores, where commission payouts have been slashed across the company. That’s the union difference!

Congratulations to all the Guitar Center workers for sticking together for a fair deal! You can visit unionized employees at the Guitar Center stores in Boston, MA; Chicago, IL; Danvers, MA; Las Vegas, NV; New York, NY; and Queens, NY.

Note: The post above comes from RWDSU. We have several Guitar Center stores ion our region, including one in Keizer, one in Beaverton, one in Clackamas, and one in North Portland. RWDSU is also organizing workers at REI.

Postdocs OHSU STRIKE AVERTED!

The following communication was issued by the bargaining team of OHSU Postdoc Workers United. I believe that this signals a victory for the union and is a testimony to how efective labor solidarity is. The pizza party is for the Postdoc Workers United members.

Postdocs STRIKE AVERTED!

We are extremely proud to announce that after a bargaining session lasting until 12:45am, your bargaining team has reached a tentative agreement with OHSU management on a contract, which avoids a strike.

We repeat: THE STRIKE HAS BEEN CALLED OFF!

Instead, join us from 11am-1pm for a celebratory pizza party at Rood Hall, Room A1217.

This has been an incredibly hard-fought bargaining campaign and despite being physically and emotionally exhausted, we have found energy and strength in all of you, our colleagues, and union siblings.

We are still dotting our Is and crossing our Ts on the tentative agreement, but will send another email shortly with a breakdown of everything your bargaining team has agreed to. In the next week or two, we’ll provide information on how we’ll vote to ratify our contract.

Thank you for showing up, standing united and making your voices heard. Together, we stood toe to toe with OHSU and got a fair contract. We are proud of the substantial gains we made in this historic first contract and look forward to building upon this victory in future negotiations.

Please join us tomorrow for pizza and stay tuned for more information on what’s included in our TA and our next steps.

In Solidarity,

OHSU Postdoc Workers United Bargaining Team

The NewsGuild-CWA Racks Up Impressive String of Wins

(The following post comes from The NewsGuild. It demonstrates what good union organizing can accomplish. Most of the victories mentioned were hard-fought and won. All of them will make a tremendous difference in the lives of the workers immediately involved and in the lives of their families and communities. We want to constantly remind people to support the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Strikers and their Pittsburgh Union Progress effort.)   

August 1, 2024

The NewsGuild has been working hard, and this month, they are celebrating a milestone—more than 90 first contracts won in the last three years!

Recent first contract wins include Repair the World, a non-profit dedicated to service, Jewish engagement, and social change represented by The Washington Baltimore News Guild (TNG-CWA Local 32035). Last week, workers ratified their first contract and won improved floating holidays for religious and cultural observances, extended parental leave, and wage increases. TNG-CWA Local 32035 also celebrated fresh contracts for workers at Common Cause, Duke University Press, and RAICES, including guaranteed wage increases, grievance and arbitration procedures, enhanced benefits, and more.

Journalists at The Salt Lake Tribune, another non-profit newsroom, received voluntary recognition from management one week after going public with their campaign. Workers at the Tribune are represented by the Denver Newspaper Guild (TNG-CWA Local 37074).

Workers at The Palm Beach, The Palm Beach Daily News, The News-Press, and Naples Daily News (TNG-CWA Local 3108) won their first collective bargaining agreements with owner Gannet after nearly four years of negotiations. The agreements guarantee raises for every member in each newsroom. The agreements also freeze healthcare premiums and lock in existing 401(k) matches for members at a time when healthcare costs are skyrocketing.

Congratulations to our newest members, dedicated organizers, and skilled negotiators!

Members of The Palm Beach News Guild and Southwest Florida News Guild, represented by TNG-CWA Local 3108, are celebrating reaching a tentative agreement after four years of negotiating with owner Gannet.

AFSCME wins a historic union contract that equalizes protections across University System of Maryland campuses

We have a few major and ground-breaking union wins to report today that may impact Oregon even if the wins are won in other regions.

The union win reported below comes from Maryland, but I believe that it speaks to a problem we're facing here in Oregon. Over the years our Oregon higher ed system has centralized and decentralized and downsized. Campus administrations have had high turnover, and it feels as if the presidents or other leadership of the institutions have often descended on Oregon as if they were locusts, bled the instiutions dry as they appointed their friends to top positions, and then moved on after a time to their next targets. Some of these institutions have been led by people who either encourage or tolerate unconscionable levels of corruption and whose goals seem to be either privatization of highr ed or personal enrichment. Students, workers, and the public all get ripped off as this occurs. We do not have a unified higher ed system that treasures developing and modeling critical thinking skills and that fosters or models democratic and people-centered education for Oregonians. Workers in the campuses are represented by many unions yet still lack a unified voice, and there is an absence of on-going student-worker and student-worker-community solidarity.

The American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) has won a victory in Maryland that points in a different direction than the one we're going.

The folowing post comes from radio station WYPR and the Metropolitan Washington Labor Council, AFL-CIO.

 

Members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal

 Employees union and university leaders gathered at a signing ceremony

 Friday to mark the official start of the standardized protections.

Workers at nine of 12 schools in the University System of Maryland are now protected under the first-ever system-wide union contract.

The new agreement raises wages, establishes health and safety protections, and guarantees permanent salaried positions for contractual employees after two years of service. The changes affect around 5,700 employees, from Frostburg to the Eastern Shore.

Members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees union and university leaders gathered at a signing ceremony Friday to mark the official start of the standardized protections. Before, each campus had different contracts, and therefore different working conditions.

“It shouldn't be that somebody at one school has designated water when it's 100 degrees outside, but yet on the Eastern Shore, you may not,” said Quiana Tilghman, director of student outreach and leadership development at University of Maryland Eastern Shore. “This makes sure that everybody gets the same equal, equitable and fair treatment.”

Melanie Lombardi, who runs the cable channel at Frostburg State University, said securing these protections was only possible through the collective power of multiple campus workers.

“It's finally giving equal footing for large and small campuses,” she said. “And with the voices of everyone together, we were loud, and we were able to get it completed.”

From the other side of the bargaining table, USM Chancellor Jay Perman also praised the new contract, saying in a statement that it “supports the University System’s employees, values their hard work and contributions, and stewards our resources responsibly.”

This change has been years in the making, with union advocacy leading to a law passed in June 2021 greenlighting the joint contract model. The USM Board of Regents approved the contract in a special meeting on July 31, according to AFSCME.

“While Maryland is considered to be a rather progressive state, collective bargaining and public labor unions are really only a recent development in the state's history,” said Todd Holden, president of the AFSCME local that represents workers at the University of Maryland College Park and University of Maryland Global Campus. “It was really appropriate to look at this for what it is, as being really a first contract, and first contracts take a long time.”

Holden said implementing the new contract’s provisions will be another uphill climb.

“When it comes to proactively notifying workers of dangerous heat and dangerous air quality, that's something that's actually going to require work to do,” he said.

The contract increases the minimum wage for workers from $32,000 to $38,000, and gives a 5.5% minimum raise to all covered staff.

AFSCME members and leaders called the gains “historic.” But they also said there’s more work to do.

Under the new contract, some conditions will still vary by university, including telework availability and work hours.

That variability leaves the door open to favoritism, Lombardi said, with some workers approved to telework while others are not..

Tilghman said she wants to see a childcare subsidy included in the next contract. And Sally Davies, a retired worker from University of Maryland College Park, said staff also need transportation assistance.

“How do you get to the campuses? What do you pay for when you get there?” she said. “Right now, all of that costs a lot of money, and sometimes the public transportation is inconvenient.”

The new contract expires June 2027.

Organizing Gets The Goods: Durham and Charlotte, North Carolina Chapters of UE Local 150 Win Largest Wage Increases in Years

I frequently post about the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE), and I pay particular attention to the progress being made by that union's locals in the South. This is an Oregon-based blog, so why do I do that?

I run this posts in order to make a point. The UE is what they say they are---"a democratic national union representing tens of thousands of workers in a wide variety of manufacturing, public sector and private service-sector jobs. UE is an independent union (not affiliated with the AFL-CIO) proud of its democratic structure and progressive policies." The union has a great history and is experiencing new growth in sectors that onservors might not expect the UE to find a base and growth in. But there are large numbers of workers who want to be union members and who want democratic, militant, progressive, and member-run unions and UE can be their union. I also run these posts because I want to make the point that workers can organize and win under very difficult circumstances. If municipal workers in Durham and Charlotte, North Carolina can fight and win, workers in Oregon can do the same.

Read about some great and long-term organizing and union victories:

Durham City Workers Union/UE Local 150 members rally for fair pay.

Photo from UE.

August 2, 2024

Durham and Charlotte, North Carolina

After over a year of organizing and turning members out to actions, city worker chapters of Local 150 successfully pressured Durham and Charlotte City Councils to approve millions in raises for public workers in the 2024-2025 fiscal year. On average, full time workers in Durham on the general step plan will receive a raise of over $8,000. Workers with more years of service will receive higher wage increases with some totaling over $15,000. In Charlotte, members won a six percent raise and an increase in the minimum starting salary, which is now $23 dollars an hour.

“This raise is a first step in recognizing the dilemma we face as city workers,” said Durham City Workers Union chapter Vice President Willie Brown, a crew leader in the Public Works department.

These raises come after a long fight to increase sanitation workers’ wages. Durham solid waste workers conducted a six day long “stand down” last September, which won $6.5 million in bonuses for city workers. The Durham City Workers Union held many rallies in 2023 and throughout 2024. Members also met with several council members and the mayor of Durham in order to build support for the proposals.

In Charlotte, UE members followed a similar strategy. “We do not have collective bargaining here, it is illegal, so one of the things we have been able to do over the past three years is a ‘multi-pronged pressure tactic,’” said UE Local 150 Charlotte chapter Vice President Robert Davis, who is Crew Chief One in Charlotte Water. “We have gone to city council meetings, met with city council members individually, had meetings with the Charlotte city manager, and had several actions at Marshall park where we have brought out as many members as possible to march to city council. With this multi-pronged pressure tactic, we have been able to mount community support and build a coalition of business leaders and other leaders around the city to gather around what we are demanding. We have made the wants and needs of our members clear.”

Charlotte City Workers Union/UE Local 150 packs the city council chambers.

In North Carolina, public-sector unions do not have the right to collective bargaining. When asked how union members get around this disadvantage, Davis said, “We have had to build a pretty wide coalition with the members of our union, community, and business leaders. We have been able to get their support and make our needs known as we go to city council.” Brown said, “While we don’t have collective bargaining, we have a collective agreement that we are all underpaid.” In the absence of collective bargaining, workers in the Durham and Charlottechapters of Local 150 use direct action to pressure the boss.

“We learned that we can still negotiate our pay”

In both Charlotte and Durham, public workers have been outspoken about their low wages. Many members are unable to afford to live in the cities that they keep functioning and clean. In September, the situation came to a head in Durham when members organized a “stand down,” refusing to load their trucks for six days.

Workers were being overworked because of the enormous amount of open positions. Over the course of the pandemic, sanitation workers’ step pay plans were essentially frozen. These issues were at the forefront of members’ minds as the stand down action started on September 6. Less than a month later, the city council voted to approve $6.5 million in additional bonuses for the city workers. Once that demand was met, members continued to push for an increase in their base wages.

Durham city workers held rallies, marches, and meetings in order to make their voices heard. In October 2023, George Bacote, a solid waste operator and Local 150 member, said during the public comment period of a city council meeting, “The truth of the matter is that there are a handful of guys in my department that are homeless, that are living in hotels with their wife and children.”

Brown explained how they are fighting back. “We understand that collective bargaining is illegal in North Carolina. But we learned through this process that we can still negotiate our pay. The actions that we took unearthed the reality of our situation that we didn’t even know. We have a much more educated workforce out of this struggle. Now we are learning more about how to move and take collective actions.

“Our actions have opened doors for other cities like Raleigh, Rocky Mount, and Chapel Hill. The raises mean a lot to me and my family. It means I will have more time to work with my family after I work my hard job instead of going to my second job to earn $100-200 per week. The raises ease the pain of the high expenses. Gas ain’t getting cheaper, and because we can’t afford to live in Durham, it helps ease expenses to commute.”

More Than Just a Raise

In Charlotte, members have won more than just a raise. The city council also passed an increase to the home ownership program, totalling $2 million in assistance, where workers can now get up to $80,000 for a down payment and housing counseling for improving their credit. Improvements have also been made to the education program so members no longer have to rely on reimbursements for tuition but can get money for college upfront from the city. Davis explained, “We have been able to do all of that without collective bargaining and we still have a seat at the table. We are invited to these meetings and with members from different departments to get our demands heard and get them met.

“The raise is something that everyone is celebrating in the area.” Davis continued, “We are fighting uphill but we are winning. Unlike Sisyphus we have been able to reach the summit with each boulder our members asked us to fight for. There is nothing special about Charlotte but what we have been able to win is absolutely unheard of. When I started here six years ago, my starting wage was $15.05 an hour and now the starting wage is $23 an hour.”

Members of Local 150 are partnering with the firefighters to push for a “Workers’ Bill of Rights” that would guarantee even more protections for members. “We have built a collaborative network,” said Davis. “We are getting our message out there, and making the city listen and respond.” Local 150 members in both Charlotte and Durham have proved that they can still win without the right to collective bargaining by working together and taking strategic action.

The SEIU Local 503, OPEU Announcement On The Tentative Agreement Covering State Higher Ed Workers

We are proud to announce that classified staff at Oregon’s public universities have reached a Tentative Agreement (TA) with management! We are proud of this hard-fought win and want to thank you for your support in making it happen. More than 1,500 community members signed our support petition, hundreds of you showed up to our rallies, and dozens of you called or emailed university presidents to voice your support. Folks from all walks of life across Oregon took the time to let management know you stand with the people who make our universities work. We can assure you that your impact was felt at the bargaining table. On to the details...

We secured a 15% cost of living adjustment (COLA) paid over the next two years and a one-time $1,500 payment to each worker prorated on a full-time employee on April 1, pending ratification. This is in addition to step increases and a longevity differential for workers at the top step. In short, this contract helps higher education workers catch up with the historic inflation experienced over the last several years. We were also able to get management to drop language that would have made it easier to contract out union jobs. This win took as much effort as the economics, but we did it – with your help.

Ratification will happen on an expedited timeline to get money into workers’ pockets as quickly as possible. It’s been over a year and a half since our last COLA and these increases will make a tremendous difference – especially for our nutrition services and custodial workers. We’ll update you on the progress but wanted to share the good news.

On behalf of the 4,600 classified staff at Oregon’s public universities, thank you for making a difference and helping us win a fair contract. It was a tough fight and your contributions truly mattered. We are grateful for your solidarity and support and remain committed to helping other workers win the contracts they’ve earned.

Keep up to date with us at our SEIU 503 Higher Education website here: https://www2.seiu503.org/e/171302/-involved-bargaining-highered-/2ynrxz/677344214/h/zk_ioPYRkGNy1kk4RTE2wfFaNG8Wux_AG37g_Nwqrrs

With much gratitude,

SEIU 503 Higher Ed Bargaining Team

Ashley Wase (PSU), Colleen Martin-Low (SOU), Darryn Stevens (OIT), Jo Hickerson (EOU), Johnny Earl, Chair (UO), Louie Vidmar (UO), Mark Dunbar (OSU), and Samantha Brubaker (WOU)

The Salem-Keizer Education Association Gives Their Side Of The Story

Union Density in 2023---A report from the Oregon AFL-CIO

The following report has been issued by the Oregon AFL-CIO. This is an important and short read. Perhaps the messages from the numbers given here are that the enthusiasm we're feeling is justified but that this is not a moment to rest and that there are systemic barriers to building our labor movement that have to be---and can be---overcome.

Yesterday, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released its annual report on union density. The report shows that national union membership grew by 139,000 in 2023. Union membership in the private sector increased by 191,000 members, and the majority of new members are under the age of 45. The increases in membership are part of a strong resurgence of organized labor which also resulted in over 900,000 union members winning double-digit wage increases through new contracts last year.

In Oregon, we saw a decrease in our density numbers as well and it’s important that we understand and communicate clearly about what impacts these figures:

We are seeing higher rates of vacancies in public sector employers, with nearly one-fifth of state positions vacant as of April 2023.

We have a high rate of employment in Oregon, with July 2023 seeing Oregon’s non-agricultural employment surpass 2 million workers for the first time in state history.

While union organizing efforts were 10% higher in Fiscal Year 2023 than the previous year, the rate of workers joining labor unions was not as high as job growth and numerous vacancies in the public sector.

Additionally, the BLS report does not include workers who have yet to bargain a first contract which discounts a significant portion of newly organized workers.

As Oregon Labor, we know that numbers are only one part of a complicated story. We have seen a resurgence of support and enthusiasm for unions that has not been seen in generations. With organizing and collective bargaining victories already stacking up in 2024, the Oregon Labor Movement is poised and ready to carry the momentum we built last year to make this year even stronger for working people.

In 2023, unions in Oregon garnered attention and fueled inspiration among workers statewide through a series of strikes, successful organizing drives, and victorious contract negotiation campaigns. These efforts, which President Trainor acknowledged, not only bolstered the labor movement across the state but also established a precedent for solidarity and collective action, leaving a lasting impact on the workforce. The achievements of Oregon unions sparked a renewed sense of empowerment among workers, fostering a culture of activism and advocacy for improved working conditions.

To learn more about the annual BLS data, as well as see statistics and high water marks that the report does not include, please visit our website to read our latest press release on this topic.

In Solidarity,

Graham Trainor
President, Oregon AFL-CIO
He/Him/His

A historic win for immigrant and agricultural workers & an ask for solidarity

The Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC), with support from the Campaign for Migrant Worker Justice (CMWJ), just concluded a two-year organizing campaign resulting in a collective bargaining agreement covering workers at an agricultural packing shed at Battleboro Produce in North Carolina! This is an unprecedented win for immigrant workers in the deep South.

The contract guarantees overtime pay, an 8% wage increase, union business paid leave, bereavement pay and more. Workers are now officially part of the Farm Labor Organizing Committee, AFL-CIO and will have union representation and a collective voice.

“We have benefits now, we have rights and representation!”-a new FLOC union member at Battleboro Produce

This is a historic victory extending union representation to a workforce that is predominately immigrant women. Our strategy and mission is to build immigrant power, fight for workers’ rights, and hold those in power accountable. This requires being both a community and labor union. By organizing the women at Battleboro Produce, we are not only strengthening workplace protections and directly increasing wages, but we are organizing households and entire communities.

Read more in-depth about the innovative methods we're using to organize immigrant workers in the deep South and how this worked at Battleboro Produce.

Thank you for your continued support in the fight for justice. Donate today to support us in building worker power.

The Progressive Workers Union requests our solidarity. Please help.

The following comes from the Progressive Workers Union:

I'm writing to you on behalf of my union, Progressive Workers Union, which represents nonprofit workers at some of the largest environmental organizations in the country, including Sierra Club, 350.org and Greenpeace USA. Our bargaining team is currently negotiating our collective bargaining agreement with Sierra Club management, and the stakes are extremely high.

Our current contract with the Sierra Club, ratified in 2018, set the bar for workers in the non-profit sector, and beyond, guaranteeing some of the strongest benefits and highest pay for advocacy jobs anywhere in the country. Yet now management is trying to weaken many of the key provisions in the contract, focusing on gutting progressive discipline and provisions that provide relative job security to our members, even after they laid off over 100 employees earlier this year. Meanwhile, we're pushing to hold our executive director, a self-proclaimed "pro union progressive,” Ben Jealous, accountable to his promise to come up with the "most progressive" contract in the nation, putting forward proposals to create a contract that:

creates a safe and dignified workplace;
ensures pay equity, pathways to promotion and family sustaining wages;
protects jobs;
disrupts burnout; and
takes care of our community.

So far, management has rejected all of our major proposals, and most of our minor ones as well. They have also rejected our proposals to extend the contract for three months as we continue negotiating, setting us up for contract expiration on January 1, 2024.

We're asking our partners in the environmental and intersecting movements to sign on to a positive letter to Jealous and the Board of Directors, asking them to live their values and support the union's efforts to negotiate a fair contract. We also have a letter specifically for other unions and organized labor groups along the same lines, which you can sign here.

Finally, please consider posting on social media and tagging Ben Jealous:

The @sierraclub and @benjealous have an opportunity to be progressive champions and collaborate with @Pwunion1 to write one of the strongest contracts in the nation, and set the bar for workers everywhere. Let’s get it done! #1u

We need your help to ensure Sierra Club invests in their staff, and the communities that they serve.

Please feel free to reach out if you have any questions, or contact union leadership at excom@progressiveworkersunion.org.


Thanks,

Dylan Plummer
he/him
PWU Trustee
Sierra Club Unit Bargaining Team

What companies should NOT do in union contract negotiations (but they do it anyway)

Communications Workers of America (CWA) Local 7250 in Minneapolis is in union contract negotiations with the Rove Pest Control company. I believe that this is the worker's first union contract. Bargaining reports issued by the union document that the company has done the following over five recent negotiations sessions:

* The Company refused to allow a CWA bargaining team alternate into the negotiation session in the absence of one of the core team members.

* The Company rejected the Union’s ground rules counter-proposal on bargaining team wages.

* The Company passed proposals on Management Rights, Probationary Period and the Union's Seniority proposal. The Union rejected proposals on Management Rights, and the company’s counter to recognition as both completely eliminated rights to every protection as represented workers.

* The Company has been slow to respond to Union requests for information.

* The Company finally removed the anti-union material posted on a bulletin board in the break room during a bargaining session after the Union and the Company reached a tentative agreement on mutual respect.

* The Union and the Company reached an agreement on a portion of the bargaining rules that the Union team presented. 

* The Company showed up at one early negotiating session with no new proposals to introduce, and instead presented counter-proposals to three proposals that the Union had offered previously. The Company rejected the Union's proposal on card check neutrality.

* The Union and the Company reached a tentative agreement on two of the proposals passed by the Union team on Mutual Respect and Union Representation.

The Union's response has been to say "Bah-Humbug!...Our team remains focused on achieving our first contract for the Union Represented workers at Rove Pest Control."

I think that our blog readers will agree that the company is using delay tactics and stonewalling and not negotiating in good faith. This is a textbook example of what many, or most, companies will do after workers vote for a union, put together their goals for negotiations, elect a negotiating committee and do their part. It's no big deal in most situations for companies to agree to mutual respect, ground rules for negotiations, and management's rights clauses in contracts---and then violate of not the letter of what has been agreed to, then the spirit of what has been agreed to. 

I hope that readers will agree with me that this demonstrates the need for changing the laws that block and frustrate union organizing and achieving union contracts. I also hope that folks will take a lesson here: we have to continually bring people along as we go through these processes and struggles, and the daily work of the union is to build the capacity for workers to fight back. The union is taking the high road where others might be bitter, go behind closed doors or not issue bargaining reports after every session or not take the fight to social media. Perhaps we should all resist or refuse to sign off on management's rights and no-strike contract language and insist that the one-page summary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights provided by the United Nations be added as an addendum to every contract.

Local 7250 and CWA District 7 both know how to fight, and both are taking on some big fights right now. They need our solidarity.

Please join me in contacting the employer with a positive message supporting Local 7250.

This photo and most of the bargaining report text was

 taken from the CWA Local 7250 Facebook page. 

   

The opinions expressed here are not those of the Marion-Polk-Yamhill Central Labor Chapter or the Oregon AFL-CIO. 

A holiday reminder from SEIU Local 49