The first major event was a wave of successful labor mobilizations ranging from the Teamsters’ victory at the bargaining table in June 2023 to innovative campaigns to organize high-technology and service workers such as Microsoft videogame studios, Amazon staffers, Starbucks baristas and Apple retail workers.
https://twitter.com/Teamsters/status/1683867683845021697 Teamsters for a Democratic Union
TDU is a grassroots movement of Teamster members working together to reform our union and rebuild Teamster Power. "Teamsters Helping Teamsters" -- since 1976.
https://twitter.com/Teamsters/status/1704195212480749574
Workers at Microsoft-owned ZeniMax Media voted ‘yes’ to unionize 300 QA staff positions
Roughly 300 QA workers are included in the union https://www.polygon.com/23495140/microsoft-zenimax-media-union-vote-qa-workers Jan 3, 2023, ZeniMax QA workers organizing for months ahead of the original announcement. For Microsoft to recognize the union, half (plus one) of the 300 ZeniMax QA workers had to vote in favor. A supermajority means a larger group voted yes.
https://twitter.com/ZeniMaxWorkers/status/1599873625170972674 We are the first group of workers at Microsoft to formally unionize. We are empowered to advocate for ourselves & build a future where we can thrive alongside the company
Amazon: ‘War of attrition’: why union victories for US workers at Amazon have stalled https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/apr/08/long-fight-organize-us-workers-amazon A year after a ‘historic’ victory in Staten Island, New York, hope for a wave of union victories is looking less momentous 8th Apr, 2023 A year ago, Amazon workers in Staten Island, New York won a “historic” victory – overcoming a multimillion-dollar campaign by the multibillion-dollar corporation to win the right to organize Amazon’s first-ever union.
The company has continued to aggressively oppose unionization and organizing efforts at its warehouses. ..In the last year, Amazon has opposed and fought subsequent union elections and union organizing campaigns at other sites and continues to fight charges of unfair labor practices filed by workers involved in these campaigns. .. Rebecca Givan, a professor of labor studies...“The fact employers can spend an unlimited amount to fight organizing and hide a great deal of that spending, the fact that workers who are organizing have no right to equal time, and the fact that employers can use every trick imaginable to delay, delay, delay and try to win a war of attrition. It demonstrates all of the holes in current labor law.”
https://sbworkersunited.org/non-intereference-principles
By organizing Starbucks, we add to this long history of fighting for workers’ rights and the common good. The restaurant industry has many similarities to the garment industry our predecessors organized. Back then, factory workers were considered “unskilled” and un-organizable. Only by organizing did they change those perceptions and elevate their industry. We as food service workers can do the same. We should be able to exercise our right to organize without fear of corporate interference or retaliation.
Some enlightened employers choose not to interfere with their employees’ right to decide. They may not want a union, but they respect their employees’ right to have one. They don’t run anti-union meetings. They don’t make threats. They don’t hire union-busting consultants. They show respect for this fundamental human and civil right.
US labor law does not sufficiently protect us. Labor law allows companies to bombard workers who try to organize unions with intense anti-union messages that create a climate of fear.