National Audubon Society Workers Announce 3-Day Unfair Labor Practice Strike Amid Continued Union-Busting and Discrimination

August 21, 2024

Members of The Bird Union/CWA Build Nationwide Solidarity as Audubon Leadership Continues Stalling Two and a Half Years Into Bargaining

Bird Union to Audubon CEO Dr. Gray: “We will not back down.”

NATIONWIDE – National Audubon Society workers with The Bird Union have announced a three-day Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) strike to start on Tuesday, September 10, in response to the nonprofit’s continued violation of workers’ rights under federal labor laws. The strike comes as members of The Bird Union, represented by Communications Workers of America (CWA) Local 1180, approach their third year of contract negotiations with the national nonprofit. On Tuesday, negotiations stalled once again, with Audubon refusing to address union members' concerns.

Earlier this month, after years of workers sounding the alarm on Audubon’s toxic culture, the National Labor Relations Board issued a complaint against Audubon for violating federal labor laws in contract negotiations with the Bird Union-CWA Local 1180, including by refusing to bargain over minimum salaries and making unilateral changes to healthcare, which raised costs for union members.

In announcing their strike, The Bird Union/CWA released the following statement:

“For two and a half years, Audubon workers with The Bird Union have sat at the bargaining table with the goal of implementing just policies for workers of all backgrounds and securing good pay and benefits that allow us to live balanced lives and do our jobs protecting birds to the best of our ability. In turn, Audubon has broken the law by illegally union-busting and refusing to bargain with us in good faith. On Tuesday, negotiations stalled once again, with Audubon’s negotiators failing to remedy our outstanding ULPs.

“We want to be clear when we say: We will not back down. On Saturday, we held our largest national day of action to date, with support from elected leaders, labor allies, and colleagues across the environmental nonprofit space. We are building solidarity like never before, and on September 10, we will be bringing our movement to the picket line.

“For more than two years, we chose not to strike, but it’s become increasingly clear that we have no other option if we truly want to reform Audubon’s toxic culture from the ground-up. On September 10, we will be walking off the job for us, for our families, and for the birds.”

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About CWA: The Communications Workers of America represents working people in telecommunications, customer service, media, airlines, health care, public service and education, manufacturing, tech, and other fields.

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Press Contact
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(202) 434-1168
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From The Front Lines

 

Workers hit the bricks at Cornell University in a historic strike.

The photo is from The Cornell Daily Sun.

A crowd of Cornell workers sing and chant as they march around

the university’s campus on Friday, August 16, days before the union called

 a strike. (Photo: Aaron Fernando) See this article in The Nation.

Starbucks workers continue to organize and win.

AT&T technicians, customer service representatives, and others who

install, maintain, and support AT&T’s residential and business wireline

telecommunications network in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky,

Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee

walked off the job at 3 p.m. ET on Friday, August 16, in response to

AT&T’s failure to bargain in good faith.

The workers have set up a petition for supporters to sign.

Please do so at cwa.org/attse-support.

UNITED MINE WORKERS OF AMERICA PRESIDENT

ROBERTS SPEAKS AT A PRESS CONFERENCE FOR

THE PROPOSED SILICA RULE AT UMWA’S DISTRICT 2

OFFICE IN UNIONTOWN, PENNSYLVANIA.

Photo Credit: Department of Labor

Shawn T Moore

New Silica Rule Funding Challenged---

A DIRECT ATTACK ON THE HEALTH AND SAFETY OF COAL MINERS

The U.S. House Appropriations committee voted on July 10, along party lines, to advance a bill that would defund the Department of Labor’s efforts to enforce the new silica rule. The bill, which directs funding for the DOL and MSHA, explicitly states that no money can be used to enforce the silica rule limiting allowable levels of silica dust in mines.

Republican-controlled U.S. House Appropriations Committee approved the fiscal year 2025 funding bill in a 31-25 vote, setting up a vote on the appropriations package by the full House.

“This is an insult to the coal miners who have risked their lives and their long-term health to power our factories and heat our homes,“ said Senator Bob Casey (D-PA). “I am going to make damn sure we continue this funding so that we may keep our promise to miners suffering from black lung disease.

“MSHA’s silica standard was put into place to reduce the amount of deadly silica dust in mine atmospheres, which is crucial for combating the worsening epidemic of black lung disease. It is difficult to understand how certain members of Congress could possibly be supportive of more miners dying a suffocating death as a result of being forced to breathe silica dust,” said President Roberts.

“The actions of those in Congress who support defunding for the new silica rule is a direct attack on the health and safety of coal miners,” Roberts said. “The epidemic of black lung disease is a critical issue that demands immediate action. The union urges all members of Congress to reject this dangerous provision and stand up for the health and safety of our nation’s coal miners.”

“Miners with black lung disease have been fighting for protections from deadly silica dust for decades. The union is grateful MSHA finally took action formulating the new silica standard,” said Secretary-Treasurer Sanson.

“It is disturbing, to say the least, that a handful of politicians, who are supposed to be for the people, have taken actions that are a slap in the face to every coal miner in our nation,” Sanson said. “If this policy becomes law, it will put thousands of miners at even greater risk. Congress needs to do better, and our miners deserve better.”

Text taken from the United Mine Workers of America.

Support Growing Seeds Workers

Last month I made passing mention of union organizing at the Growing Seeds North preschool in Portland on this blog. I sought to put that good work in a larger context and pose some questions for us to think about.

The Northwest Labor Press is running an article on the plight of the families and workers at Growing Seeds as the preschool has shut down and paychecks have bounced. The article by Cameron Crowell says the following:

The Growing Seeds North preschool at 6505 NE MLK Blvd. shut its doors July 18 after owner Nashae Lightbourn stopped paying bills, leaving its 16 teachers without final paychecks and around 50 families scrambling to find childcare. Teachers, who are represented by International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) Local 5, told parents of the schools’ dire financial situation after their July 12 paychecks bounced.

Growing Seeds became the first preschool to join ILWU Local 5 when workers at its three locations voted to join in March 2020. But in March 2022, owner Kyrie Eppley sold off each location as an independent business. The Crystal Springs location at Reed College became Wander in Wonder, Growing Seeds Irvington was renamed Flouriche, and the Northeast MLK Jr. Blvd location was dubbed Growing Seeds North.

After Lightbourn took ownership of Growing Seeds North in 2022, teachers noticed common areas at the school getting dirtier, plants dying, and trash overflowing. Late or short paychecks became a regular occurance, says ILWU Local 5 Childcare Organizer Nat Glitsch. Then on May 31 staff were told the school was downsizing after getting evicted for not paying rent at one of the buildings on campus. The union says workers discovered the owners had stopped paying bills to janitorial contractors, healthcare premiums and workers’ comp insurance, along with the rent for their main facility for months.

“We are NOT asking you to work for free,” said Growing Seeds manager L.T. Lightbourn, the owner’s spouse, in a July 18 all-staff email that was shared with the Northwest Labor Press. “We are simply saying if you still believe in (Growing Seeds) and would like to help us keep moving forward please help. We will inevitably have to close our doors if we are unable to provide care. The truth is I can not give you a firm date on when funds will be released.”

Lightbourn did not respond to requests for comment before going to press.

The preschool hasn’t opened its doors since. On July 26, an email signed “Growing Seeds North,” informed staff they were laid off. Teachers have not received their last paychecks. Local 5 is helping workers file wage claims with Oregon’s Bureau of Labor and Industries, and collecting online donations to help the laid off teachers at gofundme.com/f/help-gsn-teachers- recover-unpaid-wages.

Union preschools

ILWU Local 5 represents workers at seven Portland pre-schools.

* Wild Lilac 3829 SE 74th Ave.

* Wander in Wonder (formerly Growing Seeds Crystal Springs) – 2808 SE Steele St.

* Joyful Noise Downtown – 333 SW 1st Ave., Suite A

* Joyful Noise CityKids – 138 SW Clay St.

* Joyful Noise Metro – 600 NE Grand Ave.

* Joyful Noise East – 911 NE 11th Ave.

* Flouriche (formerly Growing Seeds Irvington) – 2808 NE MLK Jr Blvd.

KOIN TV ran a report by Ariel Salk and Aimee Plante on Growing Seeds on August 2 under the headline Teachers, families in financial ‘scramble’ from preschool’s abrupt closure that quoted teachers and parents speaking about the sudden closure of the center and also gave the gofundme information. One of the parents is quoted in that story as having said, “To disrespect us in such a way, to like, just refuse to communicate, refuse to apologize, refuse to be transparent is just – I mean – it’s angering. It’s disappointing." Those words no doubt cover much of what the workers are thinking and feeling as well.

The Growing Seeds owners and management look terrible here no matter how we slice the bread. Securing help and redress for the affected workers and families is the immediate task. I hope that readers will donate to the gofundme account. The bigger task is to sort out how, or if, unions can organize workers in preschools of this kind and what that unionism might look like and how it might relate to the communities that those schools serve. I can't help but think that what has happened with Growing Seeds makes for a strong argument for government contracting in of daycare and education.   

IBEW Local 280 raising funds for injured member

This important request to help a badly injured union brother comes to us by way of the Northwest Labor Press:

Bill Mize, a journeyman electrician and member of IBEW Local 280,

has summited most of the major West Coast mountains. But in the pre-dawn

light on the slope of North Sister July 6, he was unlucky.

Aug 16, 2024
ByDon McIntosh

Bill Mize was just 150 feet from the summit of North Sister mountain in the Central Cascades when a watermelon-sized rock came off the lip of a ledge right above him and hit him in the head, knocking him down a steep incline 60 feet. Regaining consciousness after what he thinks was half an hour, he realized his left leg was badly injured. Then another rock fell and struck him on the right shoulder, sending him down another 40 feet.

Mize, a 28-year-old union electrician in Prineville, is an experienced mountaineer and had summited North Sister three times before. He had left the Pole Creek Trailhead solo around midnight July 6 in order to reach the peak by sunrise. Now he was alone on the side of the mountain without the use of his legs. He tried to use his cell phone to call 911 but couldn’t get reception. So he crawled — he thinks about 40 feet — to the other side of a ridge, and was able to get a signal.

Not long after, a rescue helicopter landed a Lane County Sheriff’s Office search and rescue team on a glacier below, and after hours of effort, they were able to get him off the steep slope where he landed, onto a stretcher, and into the helicopter. At St. Charles Medical Center in Bend, he learned the extent of the damage: a kneecap broken, and all the ligaments in his left knee torn. Six surgeries — and some surgical complications — later, he still doesn’t know whether he’ll be able to use the leg again.

“I never took my legs for granted,” Mize says. “I was always very appreciative of them.”

Mize joined IBEW Local 280 in 2018, and completed his apprenticeship last September. At the time of the accident, he was working for Aspen Ridge Electric at a remodel project at Redmond High School.

Reached by phone a month after the accident, he relates what happened that day without a trace of self-pity. Mountaineering is inherently dangerous, and looking back Mize doesn’t think anything he did or didn’t do made the rock decide to tumble when it did.

“I pride myself on being safe,” Mize said.

He also declined a suggestion by friends that a GoFundMe page be created to help him.

“Things are tight, but I had a savings account for a reason. I wanted to be prepared.”

Mize’s union brothers and sisters at Local 280 are raising funds anyway, to help him with lost income. The union is raffling off a Blackstone 36-inch propane-fueled outdoor griddle. Tickets are $10; Taunia Blakely, 541-220-3570, is coordinating sales.

Mize doesn’t know what the future holds, but has no regrets. “I really like the trade, and I really like the guys in the trade,” Mize said. “It’s been a great experience.”

My Thoughts On The Remarks Made By Shawn Fain and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez at the DNC

I found the remarks offered by UAW President Shawn Fain and Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez at the Democratic National Convention last night to be historic. That a militant union leader and a democratic socialist Congresswoman both addressed the convention and spoke one after the other signals a progressive shift in the Democratic Party and a change in our national political scene. Moreover, both support a ceasefire in Gaza, national healthcare, and a break with what gets called "neoliberalism." They were given enough time to make their cases, which they both did quite well, and their talks were scheduled close enough to the remarks made by Hillary Clinton and President Biden that listeners could not put Fain and Ocasio-Cortez in silos and forget about them or take the line that progressives and labor are being taken for granted at this point in the Democratic Party.

The lessons here are not that the Democratic Party gives us enough or is enough or that it can't move backward. What we're seeing is coalition politics and an exceptional level of unity against Trump and the far-right. So-called "Bidenomics" slowly and almost surreptitiously has begun to take us away from the worst aspects of globalization and neoliberalism, and the political expression of this philosophy has given the working-class in the United States the ability to make or win limited advances. I want to stress "limited" because progress has been uneven and has not gone deep enough or far enough and depends to some extent on a foreign policy and relations that risk world war, more famines, increasing global warming, and a deeper global and corporate fascist reaction. And---let's face it---some of the existing limits have been imposed by conservative and fascist forces here at home and through cave-ins by Sinema and Manchin and some others. 

I'm stressing "limited advances," but I also want to stress the potential in the current moment. If we can elect more pro-labor progressives in November, do much better at supporting progressive unions and union leadership at all levels, extend the unity and good vibes that many of us are feeling right now, build on the successes won under the Biden administration, make our movement younger and darker and women- and LGBTQIA+-led, and break the systemic drives to war, globalization, increasing exploitation we will be storming heaven, as the saying goes. And I do believe that we can do that.

Support Reed College housing advisors and OPEIU Local 11!

Reed College housing advisors (HAs), who are represented by OPEIU Local 11, help, counsel, and support hundreds of students every academic year. They are the frontlines of helping ensure student success. And last year, Reed College added new job duties that required HAs to perform security rounds without offering additional compensation for the added work. Instead, during contract negotiations for their first contract, Reed College administrators have said it’s compensation enough that HAs receive a room on campus, which is a requirement for their job, and a meal plan.

Working for a room and food is not enough, and Reed College must step up to compensate its HAs fairly. HAs are asking for a $4,000 annual stipend to pay them for their hard work. This request is reasonable and recognizes the value of their work. It would cost Reed less than $200,000 per year, and it is similar to the stipends that other institutions on the East Coast have agreed to pay their student workers (many who are represented by OPEIU Local 153).

Help support the HAs’ fight for fair compensation at Reed College sending letters to the college president, vice president of student life, director of residence life, dean of students, director of human resources and vice president of finance. Many of these administrators are sitting across from the union at the bargaining table! You can send a digital letter with the press of a button – or customize your own – online at https://actionnetwork.org/letters/reed-housing-advisors-deserve-more-than-room-and-food/

 

A 22-month strike journey: From staring sleepless into the darkness at 3 a.m. to finding hope

The following comes to us from the Pittsburgh Union Progress, a valiant effort that needs our full solidarity. This piece speaks in a very meaningful way to what happens when workers are forced out on a prolonged strike. Please donate to help the strikers. 

A 22-month strike journey: From staring sleepless into the darkness at 3 a.m. to finding hope

by Steve Mellon

August 18, 2024

Striking photojournalist Steve Mellon speaks surrounded by other striking

workers and supporters in front of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette building on

the North Shore for a news conference, Thursday, Aug. 15, 2024, after the 

National Labor Relations Board filed for a temporary injunction that would

return strikers to work. (Alexandra Wimley/Pittsburgh Union Progress)

At noon on Sunday, journalists on strike at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette hit another milestone: the start of their 23rd month on strike. That’s one day closer to two years of fighting against unfair labor practices. The strikers, in four unions, had some rare good news this past Wednesday, when the National Labor Relations Board filed in U.S. District Court for an injunction that could put them back to work. At a Thursday news conference/rally, striking photojournalist and Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh member Steve Mellon spoke about what it’s like to be on strike for so long.

Last night, Region 6 of the National Labor Relations Board filed to enjoin the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette for its many violations of federal labor law.

Here’s a reminder: The Post-Gazette could’ve settled this dispute at any point — even before the strike — by respecting us and our rights as workers and simply following labor law. Failure to do so has consequences.

We’ve fought for 22 months for this moment. Ours is the longest-running strike in the U.S., the longest strike in our union’s history, and the longest strike in the history of this great city of labor. We’ve been proud to stand up for ourselves and each other, but while we’ve waited for the law to be enforced, we’ve borne many costs.

This is what the fight has entailed:

• Twenty-two months of no paychecks.

• Twenty-two months of putting the career you love on hold.

• Twenty-two months of getting in your crappy old car in the morning and praying to God the red “check engine” light doesn’t come on because you don’t have the money for repairs.

• Twenty-two months of waking up at 3 a.m. and staring into the darkness and asking yourself some disturbing questions. “If I’m not a working journalist, then who am I? If I can’t provide for my family, for my partner, for myself, then what am I worth?”

• Twenty-two months of continually telling your spouse, your partner, your kids, “This strike won’t last forever; life will return to normal soon.”

• Twenty-two months of telling your family, “Let’s just get pizza tonight instead of going to a restaurant” because your bank account is at a low point.

• It means getting together with your family, your partner, and saying, “Look, we’re going to have to change our vacation plans again this year.”

When you go on strike, your spouse, your partner, your kids — they go on strike with you. They, too, feel the shattering of family routine, they feel and experience the anxiety that hits when your income plummets. They see the anger you express when people you thought you knew, people who you considered friends, betray all of those progressive principles they’ve spoken about in the past and cross a picket line.

• Striking has meant standing on picket lines in the cold rain at 1 a.m., tired and stressed, getting yelled at and pushed around by police, standing inches from the grill of a rumbling truck, with a PG manager telling the driver to go ahead, “Go ahead and put it into gear, these shitheads will move.” And of course we didn’t move.

OK, enough about the costs. Let’s talk about what we’ve accomplished. It’s a long list:

• We’ve learned how to take care of each other. The day the strike began, a handful of us got together to anticipate strikers’ needs — financial needs, transportation needs, physical and mental health care needs. And then we organized ourselves and worked together to meet those needs.

• We organized to raise money so people could pay their rent, make their college loan payments, keep food in the refrigerator. We organized fundraising events at Bottlerocket in Allentown, with music from the Pittsburgh Labor Choir, the extraordinary vocalist Phat Man Dee and our own Rick Nowlin.

• With the help of supporters like Allie Petonic and our great friends at the United Steelworkers headquarters, we held bake sales. We spent hours texting supporters and making phone calls. And when people sent donations, we wrote hundreds and hundreds of thank-you notes.

• When we saw that mental health was becoming an issue several months into the strike, we reached out to mental health experts and asked their advice. How do we help these people we’ve come to love and respect in this difficult time?

• We’ve learned how to talk to our families about the strike and the sacrifices it has entailed. Those have been difficult conversations. How do you explain to your children and your partner the importance of taking painful blows now so that you and your colleagues, and those who follow you, can have a better future? How do you convince yourself to keep up the fight as the days and weeks and months drag on?

We remind ourselves: Our children, our partners, our families and our friends are watching us, they’re listening to what we say and weighing it against what we do. How we square those two things in this moment will be our legacy.

• We’ve made so many good friends, people who understand what it means to take a stand, to pay a price to hold onto something you believe is so important: having a voice in the workplace. These are people who know that the only reason workers in this country have decent pay and health care, time off and safe workplaces is because workers have fought for those things.

I mentioned standing on picket lines in some very uncomfortable circumstances. We have done this, over and over, and when we’re standing on the line and look to our right and then to our left, we see our steadfast allies. Baristas, environmental activists, members of other unions, members of the LGBTQ+ community, musicians, and some people who simply have balls and like standing with others who are taking a stand.

This is a great city, folks. It’s filled with people of great courage, people willing to sacrifice their time and their money and their energy to stand by us, knowing that they themselves will get nothing tangible out of it. All they’ll gain is the knowledge that they’re giving a little juice to a cause and a people they believe in. These are people who reject the transactional nature that defines a lot of relationships in this country. I know no better people. And this gives me hope.

RELATED STORY: ‘We’ll see them in jail potentially if we have to’: PG unions hold news conference about injunction filed in their strike

RELATED STORY: A start to the end of the strike? Feds file for temporary injunction to return Pittsburgh news unions to work

From The Valley Labor Report: Is Tim Walz a Sign that Organized Labor's Political Influence is Growing?

I frequently repost videos from The Vallry Labor Report. I appreciate their great work, but I will say that when they dig in on an issue they stay dug in. With that in my mind I think this clip from them is significant and helpful because it goes a little closer to making progress on our need to win over people who are in the middle and then hold their support and attention:

And remember:
 

Dramatic And Compelling Messages From Members Of UE local 150

Straight from the hearts and minds of working-class people: 

The United Mine Workers of America Endorses Senator Tim Kaine

Here are two videos for context: