Steve Smith, California Labor Federation | Organizing/Bargaining
A central theme of this year’s convention is building a broader, more inclusive labor movement to better support all workers, both union and nonunion. As attendees of the action session “Anyone Can Join and Everyone Should: Models for Alternative Membership” learned this afternoon, associate membership can be a powerful tool to achieve that goal.
We don’t use the term “viral” lightly, but these guys earned it. This note written by Journeys’ workers to their boss “Jamie” was posted to Reddit on Saturday and has zipped across the Internet today. “Niki, Jess and TJ” can now see their note in The Huffington Post , Gawker , msn.com and Yahoo! News , as well as thousands of posts, tweets, pins and tumbls.
Overtime, Over State Lines? is a cross-post from Working America ’s Dear David workplace advice column .
My son works part-time at a shipping/receiving business. He was hired by an outside trucking company to work there. His co-workers who are actual employees of the shipping/receiving business are full-time. They are told that they cannot receive time and a half for overtime because the company is from Tennessee and the contract (not a union contract) was signed under Tennessee rules. The company is in Georgia. (My son is not affected because he is hired from the outside and only gets about 32 hours at most per week.) I’ve never heard of this before. Is that true, or is the employer ripping them off?
—Concerned Parent, Georgia
Train in Vain is a cross-post from Working America ’s Dear David workplace advice column .
Question:
At the company I work for, employees are expected to attend training, usually four hours per day, Monday to Friday, for 30 days (without pay). Once training is completed, they may or may not get a chance to work, because the company has brought on so many people that most of the time only 10 percent can be on the schedule at one time. There are over 3,000 of us with the same job title working for this company all over the country. So many people are getting taken advantage of every day by this company. I know at least 90 percent of us feel the same way. A lawsuit has already been started, but I feel we need to organize and create a union to stop the abuses and manipulation of this company in its tracks. Where do I go from here?
It's hard to argue with fairness. Pointing out the injustices for dancers in the music video industry is exactly how choreographer and chair of the Dancers' Alliance Galen Hooks found momentum around gaining basic workplace safety and benefits. Something as simple as a water break during an eight-hour video shoot (sometimes in the desert) and access to chairs were workplace safety and health basics dancers simply did not have. But that all changed when the power of collective action spread across the dancer community, which often was hard to organize because of the nature of the business: multiple employers, different jobs every day and competition from fellow dancers who'll take any job (even if it's unpaid).
Bully Bosses originally appeared on Working America's Dear David workplace advice column :
The managers and directors at my office threaten to fire employees for things that are personal and nonwork-related. I’ve been called stupid and had something thrown at me by my boss. The president of the company travels 99% of the time, so these higher-ups do not have to answer to anyone. I've looked up workplace bullying to find that it does not fall under Title VII, nor is it acknowledged at all. How can employees defend themselves against these threats? Why is bullying not allowed in schools but is allowed in the workplace? What gives managers and directors the right to viciously attack employees? Can you help? Thanks so much.
—Standing Up, Connecticut
10) If you’re not getting paid what you deserve. Whether you see money disappearing from your paycheck or you’ve just never gotten a raise , that’s a problem that you don’t just have to accept.
Read the rest of the reasons after the jump.
Ten Good Reasons You Should Use FixMyJob.com originally appeared on Working America's Main Street blog .
Does your boss switch your schedule at the last minute without warning? Not ask for your input? Working America , AFL-CIO's community affiliate, launched an interactive web tool for workers who don't have union representation to help them with job-related problems and guidance and solutions for dealing with those concerns. The site, Fix My Job , is part of a collaboration with AFL-CIO's Organizing Department and includes resources from organizers, workplace experts and specialists, as well as more advanced step-by-step instruction, tasks and tactics.
After watching the continued decline in the number of Oregon workers winning a voice at work, the Oregon AFL-CIO “decided to do something different,” says state federation President Tom Chamberlain. That something different was unions working together. Since late 2011, Oregon unions have been able to craft a number of significant victories for workers who want a voice on the job. Says Chamberlain:
By working together, we have achieved something phenomenal.
Lawmakers in Michigan are still pushing a bill that would keep cities and towns from making their own decisions about paid sick days laws. We call them “preemption bills”— restaurant lobbyists and their allies call it the “kill shot” to paid sick days.
It’s been four years since low-wage workers got a raise. Sign the petition to tell Congress it’s time to raise the minimum wage.
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