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Hudson Valley Nursing Home Workers Stage One-Day Strike Over Contract Violations
Workers at the Campbell Hall Rehabilitation Center in Campbell Hall, New York staged a one-day strike last week after the owner of the facility, Jerry Wood, refused to sign a contract guaranteeing wage increases for all workers. Instead of signing the wage increase into a new contract, Wood had begun paying employees more directly out of his own pocket in order to circumvent having to guarantee the agreed-upon raises for workers in writing. The Campbell Hall nursing home is the only nursing home out of the 249 facilities in the New York City metropolitan area to not sign on to a new contract negotiated by SEIU local 1199.
In addition to wage increases, the new contract provides better healthcare and pension benefits than the previous contract which workers at the Campbell Hall Rehabilitation Center do not currently receive because Wood refuses to sign the new contract.
California Bakery Workers Strike Continues in Second Month
Workers at Jon Donaire Desserts in Santa Fe Springs, California in Los Angeles County have been on strike since November 3 as they demand higher wages, better pension benefits, and more sick leave. As of now most workers at the confectionery plant make between $15 and $17 an hour and are provided with only three days of sick time during the year. According to one worker interviewed by the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers’ International Union’s (BGTCM) Voices podcast, the pace of work at the bakery is much higher than at similar plants: “conveyors are running at about 38 cakes per minute… Of course, when we were understaffed, [ownership] would sort of lower the conveyor speed. But it was still relatively fast, where anything that takes two people to do, one person would do it.” This pace of work only worsens already bad working conditions caused by the combination of forced overtime and low pay imposed by the owners of the bakery.
Alabama Farm Workers Vote to Reject Contract, Demand Higher Pay
Workers at Wayne Farms in Albertville, Alabama voted down a new collective bargaining agreement last week proposed by the union and owners at the farm which would provide a tiered wage increase system where workers would receive different wage increases depending on which shift they were on. Workers on the first shift were especially frustrated that they only received a $1 raise under the proposed contract and staged a walkout at the plant on December 1, ahead of the contract vote. Ownership told local monopoly news media outlet News 19 that they had expected a majority of workers to approve the contract, and would schedule new bargaining sessions with the union given the rejection of the proposed contract.
Buffalo Starbucks Workers Vote to Form Union
On Thursday, workers at a Starbucks in Buffalo, New York voted to form a union, known as Starbucks Workers United, making it the first unionized store run by the corporation out of 9,000. Two other locations in Buffalo also voted, with one voting against and the other having its results contested with both the union and company challenging ballots.
The vote comes after a several week long campaign from Starbucks to intimidate workers out of unionizing, including sending outside executives and managers into the Buffalo area. Starbucks in the Buffalo area closed stores early to allow one of the company’s co-founders and its largest stockholder Howard Schultz to give a speech against the union effort. The pro-union workers filed grievances that the company had engaged in intimidation and threats, with one worker saying, “My store was turned on its head by the union-busting tactics of Starbucks.” Although the vote only covers a small fraction of the approximately 200,000 Starbucks workers across the country, at least three more stores are holding similar votes in the Buffalo area and another in Mesa, Arizona.
Seattle-Area Sand, Gravel, Cement Workers Strike Grows to 330
Approximately 330 workers from six different construction companies represented by Teamsters Local 174 have gone on strike in response to deteriorating contract negotiations, in which the group of companies have refused to negotiate in good faith. The workers on strike now include dump truck drivers from Gary Merlino Construction, concrete mixer drivers from Stoneway Concrete, as well as workers from Cadman, CalPortland, Lehigh Cement, and Salmon Bay Sand & Gravel.
The contract agreement in question has already been approved by all other regional construction employers in the area, however the six companies represented by Gary Merlino Construction continue to hold out. The picket lines have caused many other workers to refuse to enter job sites, and with 24-hour pickets across 12 different locations in the Seattle area the six companies in question have warned that production may be hampered into 2022.
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