Gawker Media Staff Votes To Unionize

Via Gawker:

Yesterday, more than 100 Gawker Media editorial employees voted on the question of whether to be represented by the Writers Guild of America, East for the purpose of collective bargaining—that is, whether we want to form a union. The results are in. Yesterday’s votes were cast electronically and tallied by VoteNet, an independent online voting system. Out of 118 eligible voters, 107 cast votes. The results are: Yes: 80 votes—75% No: 27 votes—25%. The next steps: determining what we want to bargain for; forming a bargaining committee; and negotiating a contract. We are unionized.

Gawker Media includes its namesake site, Deadspin, Jezebel, Lifehacker, I09, Jalopnik, and Gizmodo. The Writers Guild has issued a statement:

“As Gawker’s writers have demonstrated, organizing in digital media is a real option, not an abstraction. People who do this work really can come together for their own common good,” said Lowell Peterson, Executive Director of the Writers Guild of America, East. “The WGAE, Gawker’s writers, and the company’s management share a commitment to journalistic integrity and creative freedom. We are eager for Gawker’s editorial staff to join our creative community, and we are eager to negotiate a fair contract.”

From the New York Times:

The Gawker effort is unusual in numerous ways, starting with the fact that its supporters say Gawker is currently a good place to work. Many say they want a union as a sort of insurance policy in case the next generation of managers is not so nice. “We’re in a very good place right now,” wrote Anne Merlan, a Jezebel writer, in an online debate about unionizing. “But we also exist in a bubble. When it bursts, I’d like us to have fair labor practices in place to protect everyone and provide for them in the event of ‘downsizing.'” In another twist, the company has not opposed the unionization drive; indeed, Gawker’s founder, Nick Denton, said he was “intensely relaxed” about it. The company and the Writers Guild East even issued a joint statement: “We believe the cumbersome and often fractious process of unionization is premised on an assumption of complete antagonism between management and labor. Nothing of the kind exists at Gawker Media.”

Unions Demand Apology From Gov. Scott Walker After CPAC Comparison To ISIS

Via press release:

We’re not going to stand by and let Scott Walker smear hard-working Americans, simply because the exercise their first amendment freedom to disagree with him. You don’t attack good men and women who give their time every day to make this country a better place.

Public service workers have confronted terrorism. In the aftermath of September 11, they performed search and rescue operations and helped the devastated city recover. Halloveen Brightly, an AFSCME DC37 police communications specialist, stayed on the line with those who would never make it out of the towers. Patrick Bahnken of DC37 in New York City dug by hand for victims. Leonard Benjamin, a mortuary care technician from DC37, picked up the remains of the deceased at the World Trade Center. And Father Mychal Judge, an AFSCME member, arrived on scene as the towers burned, to provide aid and comfort to the injured, before falling victim himself.

To compare the 100,000 men and women who stood up in Madison and called Governor Walker out for his attack on workers’ freedom to terrorists is disgusting. That’s the desperate act of a craven, career politician, not a leader whose values are aligned with what this country stands for. In Madison, we marched alongside military veterans, firefighters, police officers, nurses, librarians and teachers. There were senior citizens and children. College students and clergy.

This cannot stand, Governor Walker, and the nation deserves an apology.

We hope they aren't holding their breath.

Scott Walker At CPAC: If I Can Beat Union Protesters Then I Can Beat ISIS

The DNC reacted immediately: "If Scott Walker thinks that it’s appropriate to compare working people speaking up for their rights to brutal terrorists, then he is even less qualified to be president than I thought. Maybe he should go back to punting."

Tweet Of The Day - Dropkick Murphys

The band is renowned for their ardent support of unions and the working class. Scott Walker is absolutely the last person who should be using their music.

AFL-CIO: Meet The Koch Sisters

NEW YORK: Long Island Railroad Workers Union Vows To Strike By Week's End

Union officials yesterday declared that Long Island Railroad workers will walk off the job one minute after midnight on Saturday.

“I regret to report that negotiations have collapsed with the MTA, and all eight unions are now proceeding with strike plans for July 20,” said Anthony Simon, chief spokesman for the union coalition. The workers have been without a contract since 2010. Both sides in the bitter labor fight acknowledged they were far apart on terms of a potential contract that would spare the railroad’s more than 300,000 daily riders the pain of a work stoppage. Metropolitan Transportation Authority Chairman Tom Prendergast walked out of the talks 45 minutes in, and said there was a “gulf” between the sides. The MTA’s current offer is for 17% pay hikes over seven years, also retroactive to 2010. But the agency also wants new hires to work twice as long as current workers to reach top salaries for their positions, and to pay more for health care (4%) and pensions (contributions over an employee’s entire employment, as opposed to just 10 years for existing staffers).

Monday's commute should be interesting...

TRAILER: Pride

IMDB has the synopsis:

It's the summer of 1984. Margaret Thatcher is in power and the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) is on strike. At the Gay Pride March in London, a group of gay and lesbian activists decides to raise money to support the families of the striking miners. But there is a problem. The Union seems embarrassed to receive their support. But the activists are not deterred. They decide to ignore the Union and go direct to the miners. They identify a mining village in deepest Wales and set off in a mini bus to make their donation in person. And so begins the extraordinary story of two seemingly alien communities who form a surprising and ultimately triumphant partnership.

The film opens in the UK on September 12th.

(Tipped by JMG reader David)

Teabaggers Mock The Poor As Fast Food Employees Strike For A Liveable Wage

Some restaurant workers are striking today for a liveable wage and teabaggers are responding at the Twitter hashtag #EatFast where they are posting mocking photos of themselves gorging on fast food.

WA Railroad Relents On Spousal Benefits

One day after two gay couples filed their lawsuit, Washington state's BNSF Railway has agreed to provide spousal benefits to same-sex couples. Interestingly, the agreement includes other rail companies that bargain collectively with unions.

The dispute has been fast-moving. Wednesday afternoon, the rail company coalition that bargains with the 13 major unions representing rail workers said coverage would be available to same-sex spouses come January. “The nation’s largest freight carriers will provide dependent health care coverage to eligible same-sex spouses of covered railroad employees effective Jan. 1, 2014,” the National Railway Labor Conference said. “While this is not a benefit required by law or under current collective bargaining agreements, the railroads agreed with labor to provide this benefit in light of recent changes allowing same-sex couples to access the same federal tax benefits provided to other married couples.”

(Tipped by JMG reader Matthew)

Detroit Ruled Eligible For Bankruptcy, May Not Have To Pay Pension Obligations

This does not bode well for other cities. Via New York Times:

The judge, Steven W. Rhodes, dealt a major blow to the widely held belief that state laws preserve public pensions, and his ruling is likely to resonate in Chicago, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and many other American cities where the rising cost of pensions has been crowding out spending for public schools, police departments and other services. The judge made it clear that public employee pensions were not protected in a federal Chapter 9 bankruptcy, even though the Michigan Constitution expressly protects them. “Pension benefits are a contractual right and are not entitled to any heightened protection in a municipal bankruptcy,” he said. James E. Spiotto, a lawyer with the firm Chapman & Cutler in Chicago who specializes in municipal bankruptcy and was not involved in the case, said: “No bankruptcy court had ruled that before. It will be instructive.”

One union has already filed its intent to appeal the ruling and others are expected to follow.

AFL-CIO Adds Trans Protections

The nation's largest labor union yesterday added transgender employment protections to its constitution. Chris Geidner reports at Buzzfeed:

The decision to ban transgender discrimination at its 2013 convention followed the decision of several unions within the federation already to have made the addition of similar nondiscrimination policies into their own policies. The federation is made up of 57 national and international unions representing more than 12 million workers. “Very exciting,” National Center for Transgender Equality executive director Mara Keisling said. “Labor has really been stepping up, and the AFL-CIO has been stepping up.”

Here's the new language: “To encourage all workers without regard to race, creed, color, sex, national origin, religion, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression to share equally in the full benefits of union organization.”

NORTH CAROLINA: Union Organizers Stage Flash Mob At Raleigh Walmart

Their Facebook page is here.

(Tipped by JMG reader Brendon)

Fast Food Workers Strike Over Wages

Some fast food workers across the nation are striking today in demand of a living wage. It's unknown how many workers will participate.

Employees of McDonald's Corp, Wendy's Restaurants LLC, Burger King Worldwide Inc and others have pledged to walk off their jobs in 50 cities from Boston, Mass, to Alameda, Calif., organizers say. They are expected to be joined by retail employees at stores owned by Macy's Inc, Sears Holdings Corp and Dollar Tree Inc in some cities. The workers want to form unions and bargain higher wages with their employers without facing retaliation from franchisees or their parent companies. They are demanding $15 an hour, up from $7.25, which is the current federal minimum wage. The median wage for front-line fast-food workers is $8.94 per hour, according to an analysis of government data by the National Employment Law Project, an advocacy group for lower-wage workers. Virtually all private-sector fast-food jobs are non-union, and organizers say retaliation against workers who try to organize is common.

Today's action is being organized in part by Fast Food Forward in New York City.

Teamsters Endorse Christine Quinn

From Quinn's campaign site:

The 120,000 member proud Teamsters Joint Council 16 provided an enthusiastic and robust show of support for City Council Speaker Christine Quinn today, endorsing her candidacy for Mayor of New York. Citing her unrivaled record of delivering real results for New York’s hardworking families and her forward-looking vision for making the City a place where middle and working class New Yorkers can continue to live, the Teamsters lent their name to a growing number of supporters and endorsements for Quinn.

Twinkies To Return By Summer

Hostess Brands announced yesterday that they will return from bankruptcy and resume production by summer.  The company shut down last year during a union strike that became emblematic of corporate greed.

“We expect to be making and selling in July,” Michael Cramer, executive vice president of Hostess Brands LLC, told NBC News. “Probably the later half of the month before the product hits the stores.” The old Hostess company was dismantled and its assets sold off. Two hedge funds, Apollo Global & Metropoulos & Co., bought the best-known of the company’s snack brands and launched a new company, Hostess Brands LLC.

The new company will not be unionized. How utterly unshocking.

MTA Union Hands Out Bloody Cards

Members of NYC's subway workers union are handing out fake MTA cards today in a campaign urging to the city to act on the rising number of passenger deaths and injuries. Several riders have been murdered in recent months by being pushed onto the tracks by mentally ill people.

"The union is sponsoring the outreach to bring public attention to the grave dangers facing passengers every day on the tracks," said a union spokesman, who said that, while the MTA is investigating "numerous high-tech solutions that would cost billions of dollars and take decades to implement," the union already has "a quick, easy and no-cost solution." Subway deaths spiked in 2012, with 55 people killed, up from 47 in 2011 — the highest number of deaths since 2007, according to Metropolitan Transportation Authority stats.

The deaths have sparked interest in potential protections for straphangers, including calls to install pricey platform screen doors, like the ones seen in some European cities and on the JFK AirTrain, plans to rig subway platforms with “intrusion technology” that would sound alerts when someone steps onto the tracks, as well as the union's slow-down plan. The union, which is currently in contract negotiations with the MTA, also wants the MTA to put agents on crowded platforms and install emergency shut-offs to tracks in station booths.

MTA officials have said that installing platform-long barriers and doors is unworkable because the system presently uses several different models of cars, meaning that the doors would not line up for some trains. The MTA is considering testing such a system on the L line, which does not share tracks with other lines and uses only one model of train.

Morning View - Teamsters HQ

Fox Reporter Slugged At MI Union Protest

The wingnut blogosphere is going nuts tonight after Fox News reporter Steven Crowder posted the below video in which he is punched several times by a pro-union protester outside the Michigan capitol building. (The above screen-cap is from Breitbart.)  In the clip, take note of the jump-cut at 38 seconds which immediately precedes the punching.  Commenters on even some of the right wing sites are wondering what came before that edit.  You might also wonder why an alleged reporter would wade into an angry crowd and start shouting at them. Answer: To get exactly the reaction he did. Note the self-satisfied smirk as the clip ends.

MICHIGAN: Union Supporters Tear Down Koch Brothers Tent At Capitol Building

Via Breitbart:

A group of pro-union, progressive protesters leveled a large tent with people inside during Tuesday's demonstrations outside the Michigan Capitol building in Lansing against right to work legislation. The protesters shouted "scab" and "Walmart tent" as they advanced. The tent, one of many at the demonstration, had been put up by the pro-right to work group Americans For Prosperity. Breitbart News' footage shows the mob demolishes the tent in less than two minutes. The large structure appeared to be approximately 40’ x 40’ in size and was put up on the front lawn of the Michigan capital. The tent had been used by AFP to house members who were reportedly threatened at last week’s demonstration.

AFP stands for Americans For Prosperity, the Koch Brothers' astroturf anti-labor group that masquerades as a "grassroots" organization.

RELATED: This afternoon Michigan's GOP-dominated House approved its "right to work" bill which outlaws requiring union membership for employment. The bill is expected to displace thousands of automotive workers who will be replaced by lower-paid employees.

MICHIGAN: Teabaggers Battle Unions Over Pending Right To Work Law

The Michigan legislature is expected to vote today to make that state the 24th to endorse a so-called "right to work" law which will make it illegal to require union membership as a condition of employment.  Yesterday President Obama denounced the bill.

The House session has started and the Capitol has been closed because it has reached capacity. Insp. Gene Adamczyk of the Michigan State Police announced the Capitol was "way over capacity," then said police decided to let 100 more people in, but control entry closely. Ray Litt was standing on the sidelines outside the Capitol this morning, holding a sign that perfectly portrayed his feelings: "Gov. Snyder, Shame on You for Caving to the Right." Litt, owner of Litt Electrics in Detroit and a longtime union member and supporter, said the legislation attempts to undo all "the wonderful, positive things unions have done for people."

Early this morning Tea Party advocates traded screams with union supporters on the steps of the Michigan Capitol Building.  Breitbart has posted the below video.