Minor leaguers ratified their first collective bargaining agreement with Major League Baseball ahead of the season’s start on Friday.
Players and league officials Wednesday agreed to a five-year deal. MLB owners are expected to vote on the agreement next week.
The Major League Baseball Players Association, which in September began representing players with minor league contracts, said Friday that more than 99% of minor leaguers who cast ballots approved the deal. About 5,500 players are in the bargaining unit.
“It’s a historic day for these players,” union head Tony Clark said in a statement.
Under the agreement, minimum salaries for minor league players will rise by tens of thousands of dollars, and, for the first time, players will be paid in the offseason.
For rookies, the salary will rise from $4,800 to $19,800. At Low Class A, salaries will grow from $11,000 to $26,200 while High Class A will grow from $13,800 to $27,300. Triple-A players will go from $17,500 to $35,800.
The contract comes as welcome news for minor leaguers who have historically been underpaid relative to their professional brethren in the major leagues. Some minor league players said they took odd jobs — like mowing lawns — to make ends meet during the off season. Other players have taken up part-time landscaping gigs or moonlighted as athletic trainers.
Minor league players will receive four weeks of retroactive spring training pay this year. They will get $625 weekly for spring training and offseason training camp and $250 weekly for offseason workouts at home.
Most players will be guaranteed housing, and players at Double-A and Triple-A will be given a single room. Players at Low A and High A will have the option of exchanging club housing for a stipend. Players who sign for the first time at 19 or older can become minor league free agents after six seasons instead of seven.
MLB agreed not to reduce minor league affiliates from the current 120. Beginning in 2024, teams will be allowed a maximum of 165 players under contract during the season and 175 during the offseason, down from the current limits 190 and 180.
Players will gain rights to second medical opinions, a 401(k) plan and arbitration to contest discipline under a just cause standard. The union agreement also includes policies barring domestic violence and performance-enhancing drugs.
The union will take over group licensing rights for players.
Former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz is set for a showdown with Senator Bernie Sanders and other lawmakers on Wednesday at a congressional hearing focused on allegations of union-busting at the coffee chain.
Sanders, who chairs the Senate’s Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee, has been calling for months for Schultz to publicly respond to worker complaints, even threatening to subpoena Schultz after Starbucks tried to send a subordinate in his stead.
Sanders offered a taste of the hearing in its title: “No Company Is Above the Law: The Need to End Illegal Union Busting at Starbucks.” Schultz is scheduled to testify at 10 a.m. Wednesday.
“Starbucks has become the most aggressive union-busting company in America,” the HELP committee wrote this week, decrying what Democrats on the panel called the company’s “scorched-earth approach” to labor relations.
Since the first Starbucks store voted to unionize in late 2022, nearly 300 Starbucks stores have taken that step, although none has yet negotiated a collective-bargaining contract and the company has closed some pro-union stores. Judges have ruled that Starbucks repeatedly broke labor laws, including by firing workers, interrogating them, threatening to rescind benefits if employees organized and threatening to call the police on a worker, according to a spokesperson from the National Labor Relations Board.
Earlier this month, a judge found that Starbucks engaged in “egregious and widespread misconduct demonstrating a general disregard for the employees’ fundamental rights,” ordering Schultz to personally read the employees a recitation of their rights under the law. The company has faced more than 500 complaints of unfair labor practices filed by workers and labor officials, according to the NLRB.
Schultz blames union for slowing talks
In prepared testimony released ahead of the Senate hearing, Schultz said that Starbucks has tried to negotiate with unionized stores but has been thwarted by unnamed pro-union individuals.
“We have been arranging more than 350 bargaining sessions,” Schultz said, noting that Starbucks officials have physically attended 85 sessions. “However, union representatives have improperly demanded multi-store negotiations, delayed or refused to attend meetings, and insisted on unlawful preconditions such as ‘virtual’ bargaining and participation by outside observers, among other things,” he said.
Schultz also highlights benefits Starbucks offers to employees, including paid sick leave, paid parental leave, some child care benefits, a paid-for online college degree and, added in the past year, a minimum wage of $15 an hour at company stores and the option for customers to tip on credit-card orders.
But Schultz omits that Starbucks rolled out credit-card tipping — a key demand of pro-union workers — only in stores that were not represented by a union. The NLRB filed a complaint this week alleging that Starbucks illegally withheld these benefits from union workers, as first reported by More Perfect Union. Previously, the labor board also charged that Starbucks broke the law when it raised pay and benefits for non-unionized stores only.
Schultz has served three terms as Starbucks’ CEO, most recently between April 2022 and March 20, 2023, which he ended two weeks ahead of schedule. According to Politico, when Schultz first bought out the coffee chain in 1987, he inherited a unionized workforce at the shop’s roasting plant and store — those workers had secured health care coverage for part-timers, a Starbucks benefit that Schultz often touts. After his takeover, Schultz pushed for major concessions from the workers and was instrumental in the move to de-certify the union, Politico reported.
When the New York Times’ Andrew Ross Sorkin asked Schultz last year if he could ever accept a union at Starbucks, the CEO answered quickly, “No.”
Paris — Massive protests across France against President Emmanuel Macron’s national pension reforms have delayed the first state visit by Britain’s new monarch, King Charles III. Charles had been set to visit Bordeaux on Tuesday next week as part of a four-day visit to France, but that city was one of many across France hit by massive unrest on Thursday, with the entrance to its city hall being set alight during a demonstration.
France’s presidency announced Friday that the visit had been postponed after French labor unions announced a new day of strike and protest action for the very day Charles had been scheduled to visit Bordeaux. The two countries decided to wait, promising a new visit would be organized soon. Macron later said it would likely take place in “early summer.”
Anti-riot police are seen during a demonstration against pension reforms in Bordeaux, France, March 23, 2022.
Fabien Pallueau/NurPhoto/Getty
The British prime minister’s office said the decision to postpone Charles’s visit “was taken with the consent of all parties” involved after Macron’s administration requested the delay.
“Given yesterday’s announcement of a new national day of action against pension reform on Tuesday March 28 in France, the visit of King Charles III, initially scheduled for March 26 to 29 in our country, will be postponed,” the Élysée Palace, France’s presidential office, said in a statement.
The significant rescheduling of the king’s state visit came after more than a million demonstrators took to the streets in France Thursday to protest against government’s plan to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64. It was the ninth day of national action, and it was again marred by outbreaks of violence and vandalism.
Riot police scuffle with protesters during a rally in Paris, France, March 23, 2023.
Christophe Ena/AP
There were protests in more than 200 towns and cities across France. As well as Bordeaux’s City Hall, other symbols of power were targeted, including police stations and courthouses.
There were more people on the streets and more violence on the sidelines of the marches as people vented their anger at Macron, whose televised interview two days ago served only to make them more convinced that the president is out of touch with strong public sentiments against his reforms.
In Paris and other places, riot police used tear gas to clear groups of troublemakers who threw firecrackers and ripped up paving stones to hurl at officers.
Macron has made it clear that his reforms will go ahead and will begin to roll out next September as planned. Despite the unrest that has continued since January, there’s been no indication that the government or the labor unions driving the strikes and protests are about to back down from their positions.
Anger at Macron’s reforms has in fact been building, not abating. Many workers feel it’s unfair that they will be forced to alter their plans for the future. Women, in particular, have been angered because they were promised the reforms would improve the situation for those who take time off work to look after children, but along with the age raise, the reforms mean people will now have to work 44 years to get a full pension — which means many women will still be worse off than men.
The bill is now with the Constitutional Council, which has to vet it and either approve it or send it back to parliament to be amended. That process will take a month.
A federal labor judge has ordered Starbucks to reinstate seven fired workers, reopen a shuttered location and stop infringing on workers’ rights after finding that the company violated labor laws “hundreds of times” during a unionization campaign in Buffalo, New York.
The decision issued late Wednesday by Administrative Law Judge Michael Rosas of the National Labor Relations Board requires Starbucks to post a 13-page notice listing its labor violations and workers’ rights in all U.S. stores.
The order also requires Starbucks’ interim CEO Howard Schultz to read or be present at a reading of employees’ rights and distribute a recording of the reading to all of Starbucks’ U.S. employees.
Rosas cited Starbucks’ “egregious and widespread misconduct” in his 200-page decision, which consolidated 35 unfair labor practice complaints at 21 Buffalo-area stores filed by Starbucks Workers United, the labor union organizing Starbucks’ stores. Rosas found that Starbucks had threatened employees, spied on them and more strictly enforced dress codes and other policies.
The order requires Starbucks to reinstate seven workers who were fired for their union activity and provide financial restitution for 27 other workers for violations like refusing to grant time off. It also requires Starbucks to bargain with the union at multiple stores and reopen a location in Cheektowaga, New York, that was closed amid significant union activity.
Starbucks said Wednesday it believes the decision and the remedies ordered are inappropriate and is considering its legal options. The parties in the case have until March 28 to file an appeal to the full National Labor Relations Board.
“Tireless organizing”
Starbucks claimed the workers in the case were fired for clear violations of the company’s policies, and not because of union activities.
But union supporters were elated with the ruling, saying it will help energize their campaign.
“This decision results from months of tireless organizing by workers in cafes across the country demanding better working conditions in the face of historical, monumental, and now deemed illegal union-busting,” said Michelle Eisen, a Starbucks barista and union organizer in Buffalo.
Eisen’s store voted to unionize in late 2021, the first Starbucks in decades to take that step. At least 289 of Starbucks’ 9,000 company-owned U.S. stores have voted to unionize since then.
Workers are seeking better pay, improved training and more consistent schedules, among other things. The company says it already provides industry-leading benefits and believes its stores function best when it works directly with employees.
The ruling came on the same day that U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, a Vermont Independent, announced an upcoming vote that could force Shultz to testify about the union campaign before the Senate’s labor committee.
For Sean Miller, a warehouse worker at a food distribution company, being called essential during the pandemic “was one of the most terrifying times of my life.”
“Everybody was scared, whether it was workers or employers,” recalled Miller, who works near Syracuse, New York, for Sysco — a major food distributor for restaurants, schools and nursing homes.
But two years later, when it came time to negotiate a new contract, Miller said the company had forgotten about its “essential” workforce and wasn’t willing to increase pay or curb what the workers called excessive overtime.
“You talk about being essential, a hero, and ‘you guys are the best,’ and when it comes time to shine — nothing,” he said.
So Miller and 230 of his coworkers, members of Teamsters Local 230, went on strike, declaring nearly three weeks later that the company had met their major demands.
Miller is one of thousands of workers who went on strike last year — many for the first time. Newly released figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that large work stoppages increased nearly 50% between 2021 and 2022, continuing a trend of renewed labor activism in the wake of the pandemic.
“It does take courage for any worker to go on strike, so the fact that we’re seeing an increase, compared to what we saw during the pandemic, is a win,” said Margaret Poydock, a policy analyst at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute.
“Throughout 2022, strikes provided workers critical leverage to bargain over fair pay, safe working conditions, and a fair share of the economy,” the EPI said in a blog post.
More than half of the strikes last year involved health care workers or educators. And while pay was a major reason for strikes, with last year seeing the hottest inflation in 40 years, it wasn’t the only one. Workers also struck for safer working conditions, lower patient-to-nurse ratios and smaller class sizes, Poydock noted.
The Labor Department’s report is far from a complete picture. The report only counts work actions involving over 1,000 people, leaving out most of last year’s strikes. A report released this week from the Cornell Institute of Labor Relations paints a fuller picture, showing nearly a quarter of a million workers went on strike last year, an increase from the year before.
Cornell counted 279 strikes last year, up 50% from the year before — a trend in line with the government’s findings. Nearly half of those were in small workplaces, with fewer than 50 employees. That includes more than 100 strikes and walkouts at Starbucks stores across the country.
The uptick in strikes wave coincides with a surge of public approval for labor unions, which are the most popular they’ve been since 1965, according to Gallup. Still, despite the increase in worker activism last year — including a historic six-week strike among 48,000 University of California workers — strike activity is far below historic levels.
Could be short-lived
“In the ’70s and ’60s we saw a million workers striking each year, so the level today is nowhere near pre-pandemic levels,” Poydock said.
The surge in worker militancy could be short-lived. The Supreme Court appears poised to curtail workers’ right to strike further when in Glacier Northwest v. Teamsters. The court will issue a decision in the case, in which a company is suing concrete workers over a strike that made some concrete unusable, sometime before June.
Many observers believe the conservative-dominated court will rule in favor of the employer, opening the door for businesses to sue workers over any strike that causes economic damage to the company.
Tesla workers at a plant in Buffalo, New York, announced a campaign to form what would be the electric car company’s first union, setting up a potential clash with CEO Elon Musk.
Workers in Tesla’s Autopilot division emailed a letter Tuesday to management announcing their intent to unionize and asking the company to stay neutral in the campaign.
The Autopilot union has roughly 800 workers, who analyze data to help the car’s self-driving software, and about 1,600 in the Buffalo plant overall, according to an organizer with the campaign.
“This is really only a fight to make a good job better,” Keenan Lasch, one of the campaign’s organizers, said in a statement announcing the union drive. “We are paid far less than the national average for our job title and have next to no sick time. We are only asking for a seat in the car that we helped build.”
Claims of excessive monitoring
Other organizers said workers in Tesla’s Buffalo facility face heavy monitoring and sometimes skip bathroom breaks because they feel pressured to keep their metrics up.
Will Hance, who started working at Tesla in October, said he was one of a group of new hires who were promised raises to $20.40 an hour after three months of work — raises that never materialized. Many workers were also disillusioned when Tesla delayed a decision to close its facility during the historic snowstorm that hit Buffalo in December, Hance said.
In an online company forum, “people were complaining about the policy, and people had begun to react to some of the posts with union emojis, and that’s where I first heard about it,” he said.
“It’s about the ability to just have a say in how we operate —how policies affect me, and my relationship to my work,” he said.
The Tesla workers are seeking to join Workers United, a new union that has organized hundreds of Starbucks stores in the past year, starting with a Starbucks in Buffalo — a few miles from the Tesla store. The workers are being helped in the effort by Jaz Brisack, one of the leaders of the Starbucks union who resigned last fall, saying the coffee chain forced her out in retaliation for her union activity.
Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Musk not a fan
The effort is likely to face an uphill battle at Tesla, where Musk has made clear his disdain for unions.
“A union is just another corporation” the billionaire CEO tweeted last year, claiming at the time that if workers at the California plant unionized they would lose stock options.
A union is just another corporation. Far better for many companies to compete for your skills, so that you have maximum optionality.
The National Relations Labor Board’s chief prosecutor in 2022 charged that Tesla illegally silenced workers in Florida by telling them not to discuss pay or another worker’s firing, which would be against federal labor law.
A previous effort to organize the Buffalo facility and a union drive in Tesla’s factory in Fremont, California, both fizzled. Tesla was found by the labor board to have illegally coerced some Fremont workers, although the company is appealing that ruling.
Tesla workers at a plant in Buffalo, New York, on Tuesday announced a campaign to form what would be the electric car company’s first union, setting up a potential clash with CEO Elon Musk.
Workers in Tesla’s Autopilot division emailed a letter Tuesday to management announcing their intent to unionize and asking the company to stay neutral in the campaign.
The Autopilot union has roughly 800 workers, who analyze data to help the car’s self-driving software, and about 1,600 in the Buffalo plant overall, according to an organizer with the campaign.
“This is really only a fight to make a good job better,” Keenan Lasch, one of the campaign’s organizers, said in a statement announcing the union drive. “We are paid far less than the national average for our job title and have next to no sick time. We are only asking for a seat in the car that we helped build.”
Claims of excessive monitoring
Other organizers said workers in Tesla’s Buffalo plant face heavy monitoring and sometimes don’t have time for bathroom breaks because they are tracked so closely.
“We give so much of ourselves and our lives to our workplace, and for as much as we provide for the company, we deserve to have the company provide for us, too,” another worker, Alexis Hy, said in the announcement.
The Tesla workers are seeking to join Workers United, a new union that has organized hundreds of Starbucks stores in the past year, starting with a Starbucks in Buffalo — a few miles from the Tesla store. The workers are being helped in the effort by Jaz Brisack, one of the leaders of the Starbucks union who resigned last fall, saying the coffee chain forced her out in retaliation for her union activity.
Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Musk not a fan
The effort is likely to face uphill battle at Tesla, where Musk has made clear his disdain for unions.
“A union is just another corporation” the billionaire CEO tweeted last year, claiming at the time that if workers at the California plant unionized they would lose stock options.
A union is just another corporation. Far better for many companies to compete for your skills, so that you have maximum optionality.
The National Relations Labor Board’s chief prosecutor in 2022 charged that Tesla illegally silenced workers in Florida by telling them not to discuss pay or another worker’s firing, which would be against federal labor law.
A previous effort to organize the Buffalo facility and a union drive in Tesla’s factory in Fremont, California, both fizzled. Tesla was found by the labor board to have illegally coerced some Fremont workers, although the company is appealing that ruling.
Several thousand workers at CSX will soon get one of the things that pushed the U.S. railroad industry to the brink of a strike last fall: paid sick time.
CSX announced a deal Tuesday with two of its 12 unions, becoming the first major railroad to offer that benefit that most U.S. workers take for granted.
About 4,000 track-maintenance workers in the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes Division union and another 1,000 mechanical workers in the Brotherhood of Railway Carmen union will get four days of paid sick leave as part of the agreements. The workers will also be able to convert three of their personal leave days into sick-leave days.
Quality-of-life concerns about the lack of paid sick time and demanding schedules that keep many rail workers on call 24-7 dominated contract talks with all the major railroads last fall. More than half of the roughly 115,000 rail workers involved voted to reject five-year contracts that included 24% raises and $5,000 in bonuses because of those concerns.
Ultimately, that contract was imposed on all the workers at CSX, BNSF, Norfolk Southern, Union Pacific and Kansas City Southern railroads after Congress and President Joe Biden stepped in to block a strike because of concerns about its potential economic consequences.
Tuesday’s deal is especially welcome to rail workers who remained frustrated after the contract was imposed because the new contract didn’t resolve most of their quality-of-life issues. Many workers say their jobs became unbearable after railroads retooled their operations, eliminating more than one-third of all railroad jobs over the last six years.
“It’s a beautiful thing because that’s what we’re fighting for,” said Matt Weaver, a BMWED member based in Toledo, Ohio. “Things are moving in the right direction. We just have to keep the momentum going.”
“On call every day”
Joe Hinrichs, CEO of Jacksonville, Florida-based CSX, said the agreements show that the railroad “is committed to listening to our railroaders and working with their representatives to find solutions that improve their quality of life and experience as employees.”
But the head of the union representing engineers said the deal doesn’t do enough to help railroad workers, especially for train crews.
“This agreement is a good start; however engineers are on call every day of the year and four paid sick days per year does not fulfill their needs,” said Eddie Hall, the newly elected president of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen. “Railroaders are essential workers, essential to keeping the supply chain moving; it’s essential that they be provided with adequate sick leave by all of the carriers.”
The major freight railroads refused to offer paid sick time last fall because they said the unions had agreed over the decades to forgo paid sick leave in favor of strong short-term disability benefits and higher pay. Railroad officials also claimed it was too late in the yearslong negotiations to work sick time into the deal.
“This paid sick leave agreement with CSX is certainly welcome but long overdue,” said Greg Regan, president of the AFL-CIO’s Transportation Trades Department labor coalition that includes all the major rail unions. “We look forward to other rail crafts reaching similar agreements with CSX and other railroads following suit.”
All the other freight railroads promised to negotiate further with the unions about finding ways to improve their quality of life. Tuesday’s announcement is the first significant result of those talks.
There have been a couple other small encouraging signs of progress this year, with CSX announcing that workers would no longer be penalized for missing work for medical appointments, and Union Pacific launching a small scheduling pilot that’s giving a handful of engineers regularly scheduled days off.
BMWED spokesman Clark Ballew said the union expects the other major freight railroads to reach similar agreements on sick time, “otherwise, they look especially greedy now.” He said this agreement appears to be an effort by CSX to address the simmering concerns of its workers and sinking morale at the railroad.
Over 200,000 Americans went on strike in 2022, making it the hottest year for work stoppages since 2005. But a case argued before the U.S. Supreme Court this week could make striking, a right enshrined in labor law for nearly a century, much riskier for workers.
The case, Glacier Northwest v. Int’l Brotherhood of Teamsters, centers on construction workers in Washington who went on strike for a week five years ago, which among other things led to the physical destruction of some of the company’s concrete as well as the loss of $100,000 fee from a client. After the strike, the company, CalPortland, sued the union for those losses. A lower court dismissed the case, saying the strike was a matter of federal labor law for the National Labor Relations Board, but the company appealed all the way to the Supreme Court.
Yet a decision from the high court could go beyond looking at whether the CalPortland workers who joined the strike and who were represented by the Teamsters, are liable for the company’s financial losses. If the court rules in favor of Glacier, the ruling would give the green light for employers to sue their employees for striking, potentially chilling workers’ willingness to challenge management on pay, safety and many other issues.
“It’s like allowing employers to put a tax on the right to strike,” Sharon Block, executive director of the Labor & Worklife Program at Harvard Law School, told CBS MoneyWatch.
“Right now, the general rule is that an employer cannot sue for damages for the result of a strike, except in limited circumstances,” said Dan Altchek, a management-side labor lawyer at Saul Ewing.
Those limited circumstances include deliberate property destruction and violence. For instance, taking over a company facility and vandalizing it is against the law, as the Supreme Court ruled in 1939 after a group of Chicago metalworkers staged a sit-down at their employer’s factory.
The strike at Glacier Northwest seems like hundreds of others. On Aug. 11, 2017, construction workers frustrated with the pace of their contract negotiations walked off the job. As they stopped work, they returned trucks loaded with concrete to the company’s headquarters. Because concrete hardens as soon as it stops moving, the workers left the trucks’ drums turning. Non-union workers at the company scrambled to empty the drums and save the trucks, which escaped damage. The strike ended a week later.
CalPortland alleges that, far from a standard strike, the workers’ action was “deliberately timed to destroy [the] employer’s property” and that the company should claim damages from the union representing the workers, just as it would be able to in a case of vandalism.
“The intentional destruction of an employer’s property in the course of a labor dispute is not protected,” former U.S. Solicitor General Noel Francisco told the justices on Tuesday as he argued for CalPortland. “Federal security guards can’t leave their posts in the middle of a terrorist threat … A ferryboat crew can’t drive their boat out into the middle of the river and abandon ship.” The concrete workers should not have been permitted to walk out, either, Francisco claimed.
The problem with this argument is that the term “property damage” could encompass any damage that occurs during a strike. As Harvard’s Block explained, that means Starbucks baristas who stage a walkout could suddenly face the prospect of being sued over milk that goes bad or coffee that goes stale during the stoppage. And supermarkets could sue striking deli workers for cold cuts that expire before the sell-by date.
“You’re saying, ‘You as an employee have to continue an employment duty with me until all of my profits are safe.’ That’s what I see you arguing,” Justice Sonia Sotomayor said in questioning Francisco.
Staging a strike is a challenging proposition, even without the threat of such lawsuits.
“Already, when you go out on strike, you’re saying, I’m willing to risk not getting paid, to give up my paycheck, to try to get a better deal. But to say, I’ll give up my paycheck and I’m willing to risk a massive payout to these corporations? You could imagine a lot of workers not wanting to take on that risk,” Block told CBS MoneyWatch.
A ruling by the Supreme Court against the union — which is widely expected given the court’s ultra-conservative makeup — will affect all employees, not just those who work in manufacturing or those represented by unions, said Block and other labor experts.
Many workers who don’t belong to a formal union engage in activism on the job: One-third of the work stoppages in 2021 were led by non-union employees, according to research from Cornell University. And, if companies can turn to state courts in cases of “destruction of property,” that means states will not only be interpreting federal labor law, but defining what counts as “property,” Block said.
Property “doesn’t just mean your physical structure — it’s defined by state law,” she explained.
The lawyer for the Teamsters made a similar observation in his argument Tuesday. “Property could be anything,” he told the Supreme Court. “Property could be goodwill. Property could be money. Property could be intangibles.”
A nursing strike that has disrupted patient care at two of New York City’s largest hospitals entered its second day Tuesday, with a union official saying progress was being made toward a possible settlement at one of the institutions.
The two hospitals, Montefiore Medical Center and Mount Sinai Hospital, were postponing nonemergency surgeries, diverting ambulances to other medical centers, pulling in temporary staffers and assigning administrators with nursing backgrounds to work in wards in order to cope with the walkout of as many as 7,100 nurses.
The New York State Nurses Association, which represents the workers, said yesterday it had been forced into the drastic step because of severe understaffing that leaves nurses caring for too many patients.
Nurses and health care workers enter Day 2 of strikes at Montefiore Medical Center and Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City.
Jeenah Moon/Bloomberg via Getty Images
“Nurses don’t want to strike. Bosses have pushed us to strike by refusing to seriously consider our proposals to address the desperate crisis of unsafe staffing that harms our patients,” the union said in a statement late Sunday.
Progress was being made toward a settlement at Montefiore, Judy Sheridan-Gonzalez, a union official and a nurse at the Bronx hospital system, said Tuesday.
On the picket line outside, nurses said they had to strike because chronic understaffing leaves them caring for too many patients.
“We’re tired now — overwhelmed. Nurses are burned out,” said Saffie Sesay, an emergency room nurse at the hospital. “It’s just getting worse.”
“Truly moving to hear from frontline nurses and our supporters about the conditions that have led to this strike,” the NYSNA tweeted Tuesday afternoon.
Meanwhile, as of midday, negotiations hadn’t yet resumed at Mount Sinai Hospital, on Manhattan’s east side. Hospital spokesperson Lucia Lee expressed hope that talks could soon resume with the union, the New York State Nurses Association.
“The impact is being felt,” she said of the walkout.
Last holdouts
Montefiore and Mount Sinai are the last of a group of hospitals with nursing contracts that expired simultaneously. The union initially warned that it would strike at all of them at the same time, but the other hospitals reached agreements as a Monday strike deadline approached. All include raises of 7%, 6%, and 5%, respectively, over the next three years.
Nurses on the picket lines stressed that staffing levels are a bigger issue than pay. New York City’s nurses were hailed as heroes in the spring of 2020 when the city was an epicenter of deaths from COVID-19. Now, they say they are being burned out by poor staffing levels that have been a problem for years.
“Remember, even prior to (the) pandemic we’re already short of staff,” said Mount Sinai nurse Nagie Pamphil. She said nurses in her unit are now expected to care for twice as many patients as they can safely handle.
“That’s impossible,” she said.
Montefiore said it had agreed to add 170 more nurses. Mount Sinai’s administration said the union’s focus on nurse-to-patient ratios “ignores the progress we have made to attract and hire more new nurses, despite a global shortage of healthcare workers that is impacting hospitals across the country.”
The New York Times is bracing for a 24-hour walkout Thursday by hundreds of journalists and other employees, in what would be the first strike of its kind at the newspaper in more than 40 years.
Newsroom employees and other members of The NewsGuild of New York say they are fed up with bargaining that has dragged on since their last contract expired in March 2021. The union announced last week that more than 1,100 employees would stage a 24-hour work stoppage starting at 12:01 a.m. Thursday unless the two sides reach a contract deal.
Negotiations lasted for more than 12 hours into late Tuesday and continued Wednesday, but the sides remained far apart on issues including wage increases and remote-work policies.
“It’s looking very likely that we are walking on Thursday,” said Stacy Cowley, a finance reporter and union representative. “There is still a pretty wide gulf between us on both economic and a number of issues.”
It was unclear how the day’s coverage would be affected, but the strike’s supporters include members of the fast-paced live-news desk, which covers breaking news for the digital paper. Employees are planning a rally for Thursday afternoon outside the newspaper’s offices near Times Square.
New York Times spokesperson Danielle Rhoades Ha told The Associated Press that the company has “solid plans in place” to continue producing content, including relying on international reporters and other journalists who are not union members.
“While we are disappointed that the NewsGuild is threatening to strike, we are prepared to ensure The Times continues to serve our readers without disruption,” Rhoades Ha said in separate statement.
In a note sent to Guild-represented staff Tuesday night, Deputy Managing Editor Cliff Levy called the planned strike “puzzling” and “an unsettling moment in negotiations over a new contract.” He said it would be the first strike by the bargaining unit since 1981 and “comes despite intensifying efforts by the company to make progress.”
Union: Management “dragging its feet”
But in a letter signed by more than 1,000 employees, the NewsGuild said management has been “dragging its feet” bargaining for nearly two years and “time is running out to reach a fair contract” by the end of the year.
The NewsGuild also said the company told employees planning to strike they would not get paid for the duration of the walkout. Members were also asked to work extra hours to get work done ahead of the strike, according to the union.
The New York Times has seen other, shorter walkouts in recent years, including a half-day protest in August by a new union representing technology workers who claimed unfair labor practices.
Pension plan preserved
In one breakthrough that both sides called significant, the company backed off its proposal to replace the existing adjustable pension plan with an enhanced 401(k) retirement plan. The Times offered instead to let the union choose between the two. The company also agreed to expand fertility treatment benefits.
Levy said the company has also offered to raise wages by 5.5% upon ratification of the contract, followed by 3% increases in 2023 and 2024. That would be an increase from the 2.2% annual increases in the expired contract.
Cowley said the union is seeing 10% pay raises at ratification, which she said would make up for the pay raises not received over the past two years.
She also said the union wants the contract to guarantee employees the option to work remotely some of the time, if their roles allow for it, but the company wants right to recall workers to the office full time. Cowley said the Times has required its staff to be in office three days a week but many have been showing up fewer days in an informal protest.
Washington — Congress is moving swiftly to prevent a looming U.S. rail workers strike, reluctantly intervening in a labor dispute to stop what would surely be a devastating blow to the nation’s economy if the transportation of fuel, food and other critical goods were disrupted.
The House is voting on Wednesday after President Biden asked Congress to step in. The bill lawmakers are considering would impose a compromise labor agreement brokered by his administration that was ultimately voted down by four of the 12 unions representing more than 100,000 employees at large freight rail carriers. The unions have threatened to strike if an agreement can’t be reached before a Dec. 9 deadline. They are also considering a separate measure to provide workers with paid sick days.
Lawmakers from both parties expressed reservations, but the intervention was particularly difficult for some Democratic lawmakers who have traditionally sought to align themselves with the politically powerful labor unions.
Sen. Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent who caucuses with Democrats, announced that he would object to fast-tracking the president’s proposal until he can get a roll-call vote on the amendment that would guarantee seven paid sick days for rail workers. Some of the more liberal lawmakers in the House such as Reps. Jamaal Bowman of New York and Cori Bush of Missouri tweeted that they couldn’t support the measure.
And a handful of Senate Republicans have expressed their opposition to Congress intervening.
“I’m not going to vote to impose this on them against their will with the force of law,” said Sen. Josh Hawley on Wednesday.
Still, the bill is expected to receive a significant bipartisan vote. That show of support began when the Republican and Democratic leaders of the House and Senate met with Mr. Biden on Tuesday at the White House.
“We all agreed that we should try to avoid this rail shutdown as soon as possible,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Tuesday as he returned to the Capitol.
A letter from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Democratic colleagues promised two votes, reflecting the consternation she was hearing from members. The first vote will be on adopting the tentative labor agreement. The second will be on a measure to add seven days of paid sick leave for railroaders to the agreement.
“It is with great reluctance that we must now move to bypass the standard ratification process for the Tentative Agreement,” Pelosi wrote. “However, we must act to prevent a catastrophic strike that would touch the lives of nearly every family: erasing hundreds of thousands of jobs, including union jobs; keeping food and medicine off the shelves; and stopping small businesses from getting their goods to market.”
Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer address the media after a meeting about avoiding a railroad worker strike with President Biden at the White House on Tuesday, Nov. 29, 2022.
Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images
The compromise agreement that was supported by the railroads and a majority of the unions provides for 24% raises and $5,000 in bonuses retroactive to 2020 along with one additional paid leave day. The raises would be the biggest rail workers have received in more than four decades. Workers would have to pay a larger share of their health insurance costs, but their premiums would be capped at 15% of the total cost of the insurance plan. But the agreement didn’t resolve workers’ concerns about demanding schedules that make it hard to take a day off and the lack of paid sick time.
Lawmakers from both parties grumbled about stepping into the dispute, but they also said they had little choice.
“The bottom line is we are now forced with this kind of terrible situation where we have to choose between an imperfect deal that has already been negotiated or an economic catastrophe,” said Rep. Jim McGovern, a Democrat from Massachusetts.
“This is about whether we shut down the railroads of America, which will have extreme negative effects on our economy,” said Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland, the No. 2 Democrat in the House. “We should have a bipartisan vote.”
Republicans needled the Biden administration and Democrats for Congress being asked to step in now to avert an economic crisis. But many indicated they were ready to do so.
“This has got to be tough for Democrats in that they generally kowtow to unions,” said GOP Sen. Mike Braun of Indiana.
“At this late hour, it’s clear that there is little we can do other than to support the measure,” said Republican Rep. Tom Cole of Oklahoma.
Business groups including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the American Farm Bureau Federation said earlier this week in a letter to congressional leaders they must be prepared to intervene and that a stoppage of rail service for any duration would represent a $2 billion per day hit to the economy.
On several past occasions, Congress has intervened in labor disputes by enacting legislation to delay or prohibit railway and airline strikes.
Railroad unions on Tuesday decried Mr. Biden’s call for Congress to intervene in their contract dispute, saying it undercuts their efforts to address workers’ quality-of-life concerns.
Conductor Gabe Christenson, who is co-chairman of the Railroad Workers United coalition that includes workers from all the rail unions, said Mr. Biden and the Democrats are siding with the railroads over workers.
“The ‘most labor-friendly president in history’ has proven that he and the Democratic Party are not the friends of labor they have touted themselves to be,” Christenson said.
Railroad unions on Tuesday slammed President Joe Biden’s call for Congress to intervene in their contract dispute, saying the move undercuts their efforts to improve working conditions and Mr. Biden’s claim to be a pro-labor leader.
Mr. Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said that lawmakers will be asked to vote this week to impose the terms of the deals the 12 unions agreed to before an original strike deadline in September — even though four of those unions, who represent more than half of the 115,000 rail workers, rejected them. Eight other unions ratified the five-year deals that include 24% raises and $5,000 in bonuses.
Biden said he reluctantly agreed that it would be best to override the union votes because the potential damage to the economy would be too great.
“Economy’s at risk”
“Congress I think has to act to prevent it,” Biden said Tuesday. “It’s not an easy call but I think we have to do it. The economy’s at risk.”
Meanwhile, business groups stress that it is crucial to avoid a strike next week, claiming it would devastate the economy.
The law allows Congress to impose a compromise agreement that had been backed by business and labor leaders in September, and which leaves out provisions demanded by four rail unions to boost sick leave. But rail workers and union leaders say forcing the deal on workers — a majority of whom voted against it — is siding with businesses over workers
“It is not enough to ‘share workers’ concerns’,” the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes Division union said in a statement. “A call to Congress to act immediately to pass legislation that adopts tentative agreements that exclude paid sick leave ignores the railroad workers’ concerns.” The union is one of the four that rejected their deal.
The railroads that include BNSF, Union Pacific, CSX, Kansas City Southern and Norfolk Southern have refused to consider adding sick time because they didn’t want to spend any more on the labor deals than they agreed to in September. They have also argued that rail unions have agreed over the decades to forego paid sick time in favor of higher wages and stronger short-term disability benefits.
Conductor Gabe Christenson, who is co-chairman of the Railroad Workers United coalition that includes workers from all the rail unions, said Biden’s move sides with employers over workers.
“The ‘most labor-friendly president in history’ has proven that he and the Democratic Party are not the friends of labor they have touted themselves to be,” said Christenson, whose group encouraged workers to reject these deals. “These wolves in sheep’s clothing have for decades been in bed with corporate America and have allowed them to continue chipping away at the American middle class and organized labor.”
Paul Lindsey, a longtime Union Pacific engineer based in Pocatello, Idaho, who is active with Railroad Workers United, said Congress and Biden seem to be sending the message that “your quality of life, your time off, your days, your standard of living doesn’t matter if you getting a pay increase is going to hurt business.”
Vote on paid sick leave?
Sen. Bernie Sanders said that he intends to hold up the rail deal until there is a vote on paid sick time for rail workers. “At a time of record profits in the rail industry, it’s unacceptable that rail workers have ZERO guaranteed paid sick days,” the Vermont independent said on Twitter.
At a time of record profits in the rail industry, it’s unacceptable that rail workers have ZERO guaranteed paid sick days. It’s my intention to block consideration of the rail legislation until a roll call vote occurs on guaranteeing 7 paid sick days to rail workers in America.
But business groups that have been pressuring Congress and Biden to intervene in the talks praised the president’s decision and emphasized the potential monetary losses from a strike.
“Truly, the only thing standing in the way of ensuring the American economy doesn’t take a major hit as a consequence of a catastrophic rail strike is the United States Congress,” said Mike Sommers, president and chief executive officer of the American Petroleum Institute. “We need to make sure that the United States Congress acts on this as quickly as possible.”
A rail strike would affect nearly every industry because so many businesses rely on railroads to deliver their raw materials and finished products. The railroads have estimated that a strike would cost the economy $2 billion a day and could force many manufacturers to shut down and lay off workers. Plus, commuter railroads and Amtrak would be disrupted because many of them rely on tracks owned by the freight railroads.
Mike Seyfert, CEO of the National Grain and Feed Association, said the widespread severe impact that’s expected if there is a rail strike should inspire bipartisan agreement among lawmakers. The impact of a strike would begin to be felt up to a week before the deadline because railroads would begin halting shipments of hazardous chemicals and perishable products ahead of time to ensure they wouldn’t be stranded along the tracks.
“Last time I checked, every constituent of every member of the House and Senate has to eat,” Seyfert said. “And so I would think that when you look at potential impacts to the food and ag supply chain hopefully that would help to move this agreement along.”
One of the largest U.S. railroad unions on Monday rejected a proposed wage deal with leading industry players, raising the specter of a strike that could cripple rail transportation just ahead of the holiday shopping season.
Railroad engineers accepted a deal with the railroads that will deliver 24% raises, but the group representing conductors, known as SMART Transportation Division, voted against the pact.
“SMART-TD members with their votes have spoken, it’s now back to the bargaining table for our operating craft members,” said SMART-TD President Jeremy Ferguson said in a statement. “This can all be settled through negotiations and without a strike. A settlement would be in the best interests of the workers, the railroads, shippers and the American people.”
Even the threat of a work stoppage could tangle the nation’s supply chain as railroads will freeze shipments of chemicals and other goods that could create hazards if disrupted midway to their destination.
The split vote Monday follows the rejection by three other unions of their deals with the railroads that the Biden administration helped broker before the original strike deadline in September. Seven smaller unions have approved the five-year deal that, on top of the 24% raise, includes $5,000 in bonuses.
But many union members have voted to reject the contracts because, they say, they fail to address demanding schedules and quality of life issues for employees. All 12 must approve the contracts to prevent a strike that could cripple supply chains and hamper a stressed U.S. economy still emerging from the pandemic.
Potential for “enormous disruption”
The Retail Industry Leaders Association said a rail strike “would cause enormous disruption to the flow of goods nationwide” although retail stores are well stocked for the crucial holiday shopping season.
“Fortunately, this year’s holiday gifts have already landed on store shelves. But an interruption to rail transportation does pose a significant challenge to getting items like perishable food products and e-commerce shipments delivered on time, and it will undoubtedly add to the inflationary pressures already hitting the U.S. economy,” said Jess Dankert with the group that represents more than 200 major retailers.
The unions that rejected their deals agreed to return to the bargaining table to try to hash out a new agreement before a new strike deadline early next month. But those talks have deadlocked because the railroads refuse to consider adding paid sick time to what was already offered.
It appears increasingly likely that Congress will have to step in to settle the dispute. Lawmakers have the power to impose contract terms if both sides can’t reach an agreement. Hundreds of business groups have urged Congress and President Joe Biden to be ready to intervene if needed.
Quality of life concerns
Workers frustrated with the demanding schedules and deep job cuts in the industry pushed to reject these contracts because they don’t resolve workers’ key quality-of-life concerns. The deals for the engineers and conductors did include a promise to try to improve the scheduling of regular days off and negotiate the details of those schedules further at each railroad. The unions that represent engineers and conductors also received three unpaid days off a year to tend to medical needs as long they were scheduled at least 30 days in advance.
The railroads also lost out on their bid to cut crew sizes down to one person as part of the negotiations. But the conductors in the Transportation Division of the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers union still narrowly rejected the deal with roughly 51% voting against it. A smaller division of the SMART-TD union that represents about 1,300 yardmasters did approve the deal.
“The ball is now in the railroads’ court. Let’s see what they do. They can settle this at the bargaining table,” SMART-TD’s Ferguson said. “But, the railroad executives who constantly complain about government interference and regularly bad-mouth regulators and Congress now want Congress to do the bargaining for them.”
The railroads maintain that the deals with the unions should closely follow the recommendations made this summer by a special panel of arbitrators Biden appointed. That’s part of the reason why they don’t want to offer paid sick time. Plus, the railroads say the unions have agreed over the years to forgo paid sick time in favor of higher pay and strong short-term disability benefits.
The unions say it is long overdue for the railroads to offer paid sick time to workers, and the pandemic highlighted the need for it.
The group that negotiates on behalf of the railroads said Monday that the unions that rejected their deals shouldn’t expect to receive more than the Presidential Emergency Board of arbitrators recommended. The National Carriers Conference Committee said businesses could start to be affected by the threat of a strike even before the deadline because railroads will start curtailing shipments of dangerous chemicals and perishable cargo days ahead of the deadline.
“A national rail strike would severely impact the economy and the public. Now, the continued, near-term threat of one will require that freight railroads and passenger carriers soon begin to take responsible steps to safely secure the network in advance of any deadline,” the railroads said.
$2 billion hit
It’s unclear what Congress might do given the deep political divisions in Washington D.C. and a single lawmaker could hold up a resolution. But the head of the Association of American Railroads trade group, Ian Jefferies, said “if the remaining unions do not accept an agreement, Congress should be prepared to act and avoid a disastrous $2 billion a day hit to our economy.”
Republicans may try to impose a deal that includes only what the Presidential Emergency Board recommended while Democrats who still narrowly hold control of both the House and Senate during this lame-duck period might be willing to force the railroads to make additional concessions.
The unions that voted Monday represent more than half of the roughly 115,000 rail workers involved in the contract dispute with Union Pacific, Norfolk Southern, BNSF, Kansas City Southern, CSX and other railroads.
Lines formed at gas stations as some pumps have been running dry in France because of a strike by energy workers, as seen here on October 12, 2022 in Paris.
Geoffroy Van der Hasselt/Anadolu Agency/Getty
Paris — France’s premier ordered striking oil workers back to their refineries on Wednesday, as long lines persisted at gas stations across the country. Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne told France’s parliament that the situation had become “unbearable” in some parts of France, as drivers lined up for hours and many gas pumps ran dry.
Her decision to order the requisition of essential workers came after a deal was negotiated Monday between oil producer Esso, the French branch of ExxonMobil, and two workers’ unions. Other unions voted to continue the strike at two Esso refineries, despite the order from the government in Paris.
The striking workers said they would continue their action despite the government’s move. The workers are demanding a pay rise, arguing their salaries cannot keep up with inflation that has soared to almost 6% in France this year. The strike action began two weeks ago, shutting down refineries across much of the north and east of the country.
Angered by the requisition order, another union joined the strike on Wednesday, extending the blockades.
A CGT Trade Union member (C) gestures as he speaks to journalists at the ExxonMobil refinery site, in Port-Jerome-sur-Seine, near Le Havre, northwest France, October 12, 2022.
LOU BENOIST/AFP/Getty
Government spokesman Olivier Véran warned that the requisition of essential workers could be extended to strikers at four other refineries, owned by France’s TotalEnergies.
Officials have said that more than 30% of gas stations across France are now having trouble getting fuel supplies. Véran said, however, that once essential workers were ordered back to an Esso plant in Normandy, it should free up supplies and prompt “a real improvement” in the situation at gas stations.
There have been some raised tempers in the long lines for gas, but most station owners have said people are trying to make the best of the situation. Riders were seen pushing scooters and motorcycles, rather than wasting precious fuel, and most drivers seemed more worried about the levels in their tanks than the high cost of the gas.
A gas station worker and a police officer set up a ribbon as they close a gas station in Paris, October 11, 2022, amid supply shortages caused largely by strikes that have hit French fuel refineries.
Christophe Ena/AP
In Vincennes, just outside Paris, drivers waited in line patiently, hoping their turn would come before the pumps ran dry.
Najat Hakem, 36, said she had already tried several gas stations that day. “Every time, it says they have diesel, and when it’s my turn they run out, because people jump the queue,” she said. “People on scooters, cars like Ubers, they all say they have a valid reason to jump the queue. But I work, too.”
She said the minimum wait was around an hour. “This is my third attempt; I’ve been up since 6.30 a.m.,” she said.
Odette Libert, 81, said she was in favor of requisitioning the refinery workers and was against the strike.
“This is not acceptable in France, just because a few people want to annoy everyone. It’s their problem, not the problem of all the French people,” she said. “They have jobs, there are many people who can’t get work. If they don’t want to work there, they should leave and go elsewhere. So, requisition.”
Six of France’s seven refineries have been hit by the strikes. Only the Lavera refinery near Marseille was still operating normally on Wednesday. It is one of the largest refining sites in southern Europe, with the capacity to process 210,000 barrels per day.
The war in Ukraine has hit energy supplies in Europe hard, and prices have soared since it began. That, in turn, has pushed inflation higher and raised the general cost of living. Inflation in France is currently at 5.6%.
The third largest railroad union rejected its deal with freight railroads Monday — renewing the possibility of a strike that could cripple the economy — but before that could happen, both sides will return to the bargaining table.
About 56% of the voting track maintenance workers represented by the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes Division union opposed the five-year contract, which included 24% raises and $5,000 in bonuses. Union President Tony Cardwell said the railroads didn’t do enough to address worker concerns about the lack of paid time off — particularly sick time — and demanding working conditions after the major railroads eliminated nearly one-third of their jobs over the past six years.
“Railroaders are discouraged and upset with working conditions and compensation and hold their employer in low regard. Railroaders do not feel valued,” Cardwell said in a statement. “They resent the fact that management holds no regard for their quality of life, illustrated by their stubborn reluctance to provide a higher quantity of paid time off, especially for sickness.”
Cardwell noted that the membership “voted in record numbers,” showing they are closely following the negotiations.
The railroads didn’t immediately comment on the rejected contract.
Four other railroad unions have approved their agreements with the freight railroads that include BNSF, Union Pacific, Kansas City Southern, CSX and Norfolk Southern, but all 12 unions that represent a total of 115,000 workers must ratify their contracts to prevent a strike. One other union, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, initially rejected its deal but has since renegotiated a new contract. The voting won’t be completed until mid-November.
President Joe Biden put pressure on the railroads and unions to reach a deal last month ahead of a mid-September deadline to allow a strike or walkout. Many businesses also urged Congress to be ready to intervene in the dispute and block a strike if an agreement wasn’t reached because so many companies rely on railroads to deliver their raw materials and finished products.
In general, the deals the unions agreed to closely follow the recommendations a special panel of arbitrators appointed by President Biden made this summer. That Presidential Emergency Board recommended what would be the biggest raises rail workers have seen in more than four decades, but it didn’t resolve the unions’ concerns about working conditions. Instead, it said the unions should pursue additional negotiations or arbitration with each railroad individually — a process that can take years.
The Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way union said it agreed to delay any strike until five days after Congress reconvenes in mid-November to allow time for additional negotiations.
Quality of life issues took center stage at the end of these negotiations. The unions that represent conductors and engineers held out until the end to get three unpaid leave days a year to tend to medical appointments, along with a promise that railroads will negotiate further about giving those employees regularly scheduled days off where they aren’t on call. The engineers and conductors have complained that strict railroad attendance policies make it hard to take any time off.
The track maintenance workers in the BMWED generally have more regular schedules than engineers and conductors, but all the rail unions have objected to the lack of paid sick time in the industry — particularly after working to keep trains moving throughout the pandemic.
