City Workers in Virginia’s Tidewater Region Demand Collective Bargaining Rights, End to Jim Crow Legacy

In January, municipal workers in two of the largest cities in Virginia’s Tidewater Region took their demands for a real voice for safety, dignity, living wages and an end to institutional racism on the job to their city councils. UE organizing committees in both Virginia Beach and Newport News were joined by allies from the faith community as they asked their respective city councils to pass resolutions supporting collective bargaining.

A new law, effective since May of 2021, allows municipal workers in Virginia to exercise the right to collective bargaining once their city council passes a resolution supporting it. Five local governments across Virginia have passed such resolutions to date. The new law partially overturns the state’s ban on collective bargaining by public employees, a racist legacy of the Jim Crow era.

Graduate Workers Give UE Big Win in New Mexico

After more than a year of legal delays, graduate employees at the University of New Mexico finally won certification after that state’s Public Employee Labor Relations Board verified in December that a solid majority of the 1,547 bargaining unit employees had signed union cards indicating support for UE. This means that the UNM administration is legally obligated to bargain with newly-chartered UE Local 1466/United Graduate Workers.

Meanwhile, at New Mexico State University, where UE demanded recognition on behalf of approximately 900 graduate workers last spring, UE Local 1498 scored a big victory when they successfully shut down the university’s in-house “labor board” and succeeded in having their case transferred to the more objective state labor board.

First Local 1077 Contract at PTI Maintains UE Contract Protections on Former Hallcon Jobs

On January 20, members of UE Local 1077 who work for rail contractor PTI ratified a first contract, bringing a conclusion to a nearly two-year fight to maintain UE protections in the rail crew industry in central and northern California and Nevada. In January of 2020, leaders in UE Local 1077 were notified that Hallcon had lost its contract to provide rail crew services to the Union Pacific Railroad to a new company, PTI. PTI took over in March of 2020 and while UE prevailed in an NLRB election in June 2020, PTI fought for almost a year and a half to keep UE out.

UE Settles Contracts from Connecticut to California

In recent months, UE locals have settled a slew of contracts, including Local 106 members who work at Buckeye Partners in Port Reading, New Jersey; Local 222 members who work as paraprofessionals in Wallingford, Connecticut, for the Stafford Water Pollution Control Authority, at the Wethersfield Library and for the Trumbull Board of Education; Local 274 members who work at the Town and Library in Greenfield, Massachusetts; Local 279 members who work at Trillium Valves in Ipswich, Massachusetts; Local 1137 members who work for Phanstiehl in Waukegan, Illinois; Local 1161 members who work at Spartek in Sparta, WIsconsin; and Local 1421 members who work at Tree Island Wire in San Bernardino, California.

Highlights include significant wage gains won in most locations and successful rejection of employer concession demands. Local 279 won the elimination of two-tier, Local 1137 won limits on mandatory overtime, and Local 1421 won impressive pandemic sick-leave provisions.

Triumph for Independent Mexican Union

In the early morning of Thursday, February 3, workers at a General Motors factory in Silao, Mexico, learned the results of a union election that was held at their plant earlier in the week: the independent union led by workers won by a wide margin. This is a huge victory not only for these workers, but for all Mexican workers who have been struggling to improve their labor laws for decades. Read more »

UE Local 896-COGS Members Move Classes Online in Response to University Recklessness

UE Local 896 members Glenn Houlihan and Hannah Zadeh report how Local 896 members, graduate workers at the University of Iowa (UI), took action when UI announced plans for teaching spring semester classes in-person without any COVID-19 safety measures in place. “As a union, we have been steadfast in holding UI accountable during the pandemic and demanding COVID-19 protections for workers and students,” they write. Read more »

General Executive Board Reviews Organizing, Leadership Development Plans

Meeting from January 26 through 28 over Zoom, the UE General Executive Board heard and discussed a detailed organizational report from newly-elected Director of Organization Mark Meinster. In addition to reporting on a slew of organizing campaigns, many of them involving thousands of workers, Meinster laid out an ambitious plan to provide more support to locals and field staff, to ensure that UE “stays strong and true to our principles.” The board also went over a six-month report on the union’s 2021-22 budget, heard a report on the Leadership and Staff Development Program, and reviewed the union’s political action, education, and international work. Read more »

Register Today for the 2022 Medicare for All Strategy Conference

The 2022 Medicare for All Strategy Conference will be held from April 2-3, virtually. This will be an important place to meet with other labor and healthcare activists to strategize how to win this fight. This year’s conference will be held online, making it accessible to any UE member who wishes to attend. Register today »

In other Medicare for All news, UE’s Eastern Region recently endorsed the New York Health Act, legislation that would provide comprehensive, universal health coverage for every New York resident and worker, replacing existing private insurance company coverage with a Medicare-for-All-style system.

Support Indiana University Graduate Workers Organizing with UE

In December, the Indiana Graduate Workers Coalition-United Electrical Workers (IGWC-UE) submitted 1,584 union cards to the Indiana University Board of Trustees and requested that the Board set up a union election to affirm their right to bargain with IU. On February 1, Interim Provost and Executive Vice President John S. Applegate informed IGCW-UE that the Indiana University administration and Board of Trustees are unwilling to engage in discussion about improving the lives and working conditions of graduate workers at IU. IGWC-UE is committed to continuing this fight until they win and in the UE tradition of rank-and-file self-reliance are engaging in grassroots fundraising to support their organizing efforts. Support the IGWC-UE GoFundMe »

Service Contract Act Locals Set Goals at Caucus Meeting

Following a long break, the UE Service Contract Act (SCA) Caucus reconvened at the national convention in September and committed to resuming regular caucus meetings. At their first follow-up meeting on December 18, locals gave shop reports and discussed issues common across their locals. Leaders from Local 1008 (Sciolex in Laguna Niguel, CA) gave a presentation about their practices for developing new stewards and maintaining a complete, functional UE steward system. Read more »

FEATURE

“Them and Us” Unionism in the Deep South

For Black History Month, the UE NEWS takes a look at this history of Mine Mill in Bessember, Alabama. In the 1930s, as rank-and-file workers in the electrical manufacturing industry were establishing UE in workplaces like the giant General Electric plant in Erie, PA (Local 506) and Sargent Lock in New Haven, CT (Local 243), a union with a similar “Them and Us” philosophy of unionism was building militant, interracial unions in iron ore mines in an area known as “Red Mountain” near Birmingham, Alabama. Read more »

Chilean Unions Celebrate New, Pro-Worker President

On Sunday, December 19, the working people of Chile decisively elected a new president, Gabriel Boric, who has vowed to fight “the privileges of the few” and undo the right-wing, “free market” legacy of dictator Augusto Pinochet. The labor federation Central Unitaria de Trabajadores de Chile (CUT), which endorsed Boric in November, congratulated him on his victory, praising him for his commitment to workers. Read more »

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