Private Equity Captures the NFLPA?
575 Grocery workers organizing with Workers United - SEIU
The NFL Players Association is facing mounting controversy for the behind the scenes dealings of its Executive Director. Amid allegations that the NFLPA helped the NFL suppress guaranteed payouts for players, it turns out that Executive Director Lloyd Howell Jr. had a side gig consulting for the Carlyle Group, which is considering minority investments in NFL teams. The NFLPA is for now standing by their man, but hopefully this episode could start to trigger some reform efforts inside the NFLPA. Namely, the pensions negotiated by the NFLPA are pitifully low—an average of $43,000 per year, and a significant portion of NFL players never become eligible, with a requirement that players be on the roster for a minimum of three seasons (the average player in the NFL works for three seasons.) You have to wait until age 55 to get your minimum pension. All this of course is notwithstanding “Bargaining for the Common Good” demands that NFLPA could make, like union label jerseys.
News and Views
A farmworker died during an ICE raid at a California cannabis facility. Immigration enforcement actions on California farms have been devastating for farmworkers, although federal agents continue to be met by protestors.
Workers represented by AFSCME District Council 33 in Philly are voting this week on whether to ratify the contract agreement that ended their strike. DC33 President Greg Boulware, who said he was not happy with the tentative agreement, has not told members how to vote. “Their ask to me was to go up, stand up and fight and try to get as much as we could get out of this — and we did accomplish quite a bit — but if they feel like it’s unsatisfactory to their needs, then they have that voice to be able to say so,” he told the Philadelphia Inquirer.
The British Columbia labor board just certified a union at an Amazon warehouse, after ruling that the company had undertaken a "deliberate, calculated, and pervasive" anti-union campaign that undermined the possibility of a fair election.
Today’s Win
575 grocery workers in Buffalo are organizing with Workers United - SEIU.