Workers Seek Union Following Trump Takeover
And New York unions announce a major workforce housing agreement
News and Views
Staff at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts are seeking to unionize – after Trump took over the institution earlier this year, cut funding, and fired 37 staff.
New Jersey Transit engineers are on strike with the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen/IBT for the first time since 1983.
New York’s Hotel Trades Council and the Building Trades announced a major agreement to build 50,000 workforce housing units in NYC.
Louisiana nurses strike for the third time for a contract as their employer seeks to test the limits of the Trump NLRB to crack down on unions.
Trump’s Labor Department is making it easier for businesses to classify workers as independent contractors (and corporations are clamoring for him to go even further). It comes as many employers – upwards of a third – are already misclassifying employees as contractors. Independent contractors miss out on key protections and rights that workers classified as “employees” enjoy, including collective bargaining rights.
Since he took office in January, Trump has stripped legal protections from millions of immigrants – including by ending Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for people from numerous countries. Not only does that impact their immigration status, but it also means those individuals will lose their legal authorization to work. “Losing work authorization will leave many immigrants with highly circumscribed employment opportunities, escalated job instability, and wage suppression. It will also leave them without a way to assert their rights as workers,” the OnLabor blog reports.
Colombian President Gustavo Petro’s allies are organizing for a general strike to force the country’s right wing legislature to pass labor law reform.
Today’s Win
Sesame Street workers won their union election with OPEIU Local 153.