Former NYT Labor Reporter—Century Foundation Sr. Fellow—Author of "BEATEN DOWN, WORKED UP: The Past, Present & Future of American Labor: "Engrossing..Panoramic"
In my new book, Beaten Down, Worked Up, my goal was to explain labor unions & worker power—past & present—to people who are eager to know more about labor. I write about the rise of unions & how they lifted millions of workers & built the middle class
BREAKING--Costco, the nation's second-largest retailer, announces that it's adopting a $16 minimum wage for its 180,000 workers next week.
That tops Amazon's and Target's $15 minimum and Walmart's paltry $11 minimum
Not Quite Profiles in Courage:
@SenatorCollins
said she'd oppose the bill if it cut taxes for millionaires. It does
@SenBobCorker
said he'd oppose it if it increases the deficit. It does.
@JeffFlake
said he'd oppose the bill unless he got ironclad pledges on DACA. He didn't.
Leilani Jordan, a grocery worker, died at age 27 from Covid-19. She said her store provided neither gloves, nor hand sanitizer.
She continued working because she wanted to help people. Her mother received Leilani's last paycheck: it was just $20.64.
This 31-year-old speech therapist at a public school was so appalled when she heard how ignorant Betsy DeVos was during DeVos's confirmation hearing that she decided to run for office & was just elected Arizona's Superintendent of Education as a Democrat.
In my 25 years writing about labor, the unionization victory at the Amazon warehouse in Staten Island is by far the biggest, beating-the-odds David versus Goliath unionization win I've seen
A fired Amazon worker took on Amazon's union busters & unionized a 5,000-worker warehouse
When Christian Smalls & other current & former Amazon workers began organizing Amazon in Staten Island last year, many said his chances of winning were infinitesimal.
But after today's count, 1518 to 1154, a win for Smalls' union is inevitable—That's huge
With the Democrats winning control of the Michigan state legislature for the 1st time in 40 years (and with Gretchen Whitmer re-elected), I'm told that one of the very 1st things—and perhaps the 1st thing—the new legislature will do is move to repeal Michigan's right-to-work law
BREAKING—In another hugely embarrassing blow to Howard Schultz & his anti-union campaign, workers at Strabucks' elite Seattle Roastery—in Starbucks' hometown—voted 38 to 27 in favor of unionizing
The union has now won 26 out of 28 unionization votes at Starbucks.
I wish the NYT & other news media would stop calling Social Security & Medicare "entitlements." Millions of Americans worked for decades & paid in for decades to receive Social Security & Medicare. It would be better to call them "social insurance" or "old age insurance" programs
Crazy that Frito-Lay workers had to go on strike nearly 3 weeks just to win the right not to have to work 12 hours a day, 7 days a week
Now they can "only" be forced to work 12 hours a day 6 days a week
Going from 84 hrs a week to 72 hrs sounds like a 19th century labor victory
BREAKING—Frito-Lay workers in Topeka vote to ratify 2-year contract, ending their 3-week strike
Union says the contract guarantees one day off a week & does away with requirement to work “suicide shifts,” 12-hour shifts with just 8 hours in between shifts
Michael Bloomberg says the tax bill will increase the national debt by $1.7 trillion.
Under the Byrd rule, if the tax bill increases the debt by more than $1.5 trillion, then 60 votes are needed for passage.
Will
@SenSchumer
& other Senators ask for a new, accurate score?
Meatpacking companies said their plants needed to stay open, warning that the U.S. faced a severe meat shortage. At least 89 meatpacking workers died
It was a fake meat shortage. Turns out American meatpackers shipped a record amount of pork to China.
One thing the media keeps missing about the Clarence Thomas scandal.
Harlan Crow is chairman of the board of the American Enterprise Institute. AEI may not be a direct litigant, but it files MANY amicus briefs with the court.
That creates a huge conflict of interest for Thomas.
Four Dumb Things Amazon Did That Help Explain the Union's Big Win on Staten Island
1) Amazon got the police to arrest Christian Smalls & 2 other organizers for going on Amazon property to deliver food to Amazon workers. Amazon looked heartless & turned Smalls into a hero.
LANDSLIDES
Art Institute of Chicago workers vote 142-44 to unionize
Starbucks workers in Mesa, Arizona, vote 25-3 to unionize
REI workers in Manhattan vote 88-14 to unionize
New York Times tech workers vote 404-88 to unionize
There's something happening here. QUITE A TREND
Breaking: Undergraduate students at Grinnell College just won the first wall-to-wall undergraduate union in the United State in a landslide 327 to 6 vote.
The union will cover every hourly student workplace, in dining halls & elsewhere on campus.
BREAKING: A HUGE, HISTORIC UNION WIN
NLRB's final count is 2,654 to unionize, 2,131 against
Many experts said it would be nearly impossible to unionize an Amazon warehouse because Amazon is so fiercely anti-union
Big congratulations to Christian Smalls & the Amazon Labor Union
Boston Globe editorial—"Make no mistake: Brett Kavanaugh’s a liar. He lies about little things. He lies about big things. He lies under oath....The only way for senators to convince themselves that Kavanaugh (isn't) a habitual liar is to lie to themselves"
Meghan says her union protected her when she was at her old job.
But she said the royals, the institution didn't protect her in a time of need the same way her union used to protect her.
The Starbucks union crushes it in Michigan
The union crushes Starbucks in 5 vote counts today
15-1 in Ann Arbor ( State & Liberty)
10-2 in Ann Arbor (Jackson & Zeeb)
14-0 in Ann Arbor (4585 Washtenaw)
10-3 in Ann Arbor (Main & Liberty)
10-2 in Ann Arbor (University & Church)
VOTER SUPPRESSION > Jennifer Jones, a Morehouse School of Medicine student, went to vote, excited to cast her ballot for Stacey Abrams & Raphael Warnock. But she was informed she couldn't cast a regular ballot because right-wing folks were challenging her
The nation's Democrats really need to give HUGE THANKS to the Las Vegas-based Culinary Union.
Without the huge political operation of the 60,000-member Culinary Union, Cortez Masto would not have won re-election & the Democrats might not have retained control of the Senate.
Chief Justice John Roberts holds himself out as a centrist institutionalist
But history will remember Roberts as the chief justice whose court did more than any previous chief justice's to sabotage our democracy—to let voting rights be eroded, to bless egregious gerrymandering..
BREAKING—A Double Shutout for the Union
At the Starbucks on Commonwealth Ave in Boston, the workers vote 11 to 0 in favor of unionizing
At the Starbucks on Harvard Ave. in Brookline, the workers vote 14-0 to unionize
The union has won at 18 of 19 Starbucks where workers voted
CRAZY >> Obama said it was dumb for a cop to arrest a black Harvard professor who was entering his own home & it was a month-long story.
Trump had an affair with a porn star & paid her $130,000 in hush money a few weeks before the 2016 election, and it was just a one-day story.
In a Nutshell, Here's What's Wrong with the U.S. Political System --Just days after Congress passes the tax law that will save the Koch Brothers billions, Charles Koch and his wife give Paul Ryan nearly $500,000 in contributions
BREAKING >> BIG UNION VICTORY -- With the NLRB counting ballots in a union vote at 3 Starbucks in the Buffalo area, the NLRB count shows that the union won at the first cafe counted, making it the first of the 8,900 company-operated Starbucks in the U.S. to be unionized
BREAKING: An Amazon Labor Union lawyer tells me there was a fire at Amazon's JFK8 warehouse on Staten Island today & tonight 150 workers did a 1-hour sit-in in the break room demanding that management negotiate w/ them on fire safety. Right now they're doing a "march on the boss"
It has become unarguably clear that Clarence Thomas is hugely corrupt, has brazenly violated disclosure laws and and has shown contempt for ethical standards & conflict-of-interest rules
Thomas has disgraced the Supreme Court. It's time for him to resign
BREAKING: In an important victory for labor, workers at a Chipotle store in Lansing, Michigan, vote 11 to 3 to make their store the first unionized Chipotle in the U.S.
BREAKING—In a great day for the union & humbling day for Howard Schultz, the union wins at 5 of 5 Starbucks
Just now: the union won 13-0 in Colfax, CO
Earlier it won 10-3 in Miami Springs FL
8-1 & 10-7 in Jacksonville
15-2 in Linthicum Heights MD
Union has won in 60+ Sbucks
A few months ago hardly anyone thought we'd see a giant Amazon warehouse unionized, an Apple store unionized & 158 Starbucks unionized, especially since they're 3 intensely anti-union corporate giants
Many young workers are evidently very eager to unionize & have a voice at work
Retired 4-star general Barry McCaffrey: "The president is starting to wobble in his emotional stability & this is not going to end well. Trump’s judgment is fundamentally flawed...& the more isolated he becomes, his ability to do harm is going to increase”
Even though Missouri's Republican governor made Missouri one of the first states to cut off $300 a week in federal unemployment benefits, workforce experts have seen virtually no increase in job applicants in Missouri since those benefits were ended
WOW -- The Trump campaign challenges the legitimacy of members of the U.S. military voting in Nevada when they've been temporarily transferred from Nevada for military work elsewhere. It accuses them of "criminal voter fraud."
More than 1,000 coal miners have been on strike for more than 100 days in Alabama, and according to a new study, the three major cable news networks -- CNN, Fox News & MSNBC -- have not had a single mention of this strike against Warrior Met.
@mmfa
BREAKING: Waffle House workers in Georgia join the wave of labor militancy—Waffle House workers in Conyers went on strike today to demand an end to the company’s policy of deducting a ‘meal credit’ of at least $3 from worker pay every shift, regardless of whether they eat a meal
The NYT's brutal editorial about William Barr's DOJ -- A Cruel Parody of Antitrust Enforcement
The DOJ is roughing up Trump’s political enemies.
"The DOJ"s investigation is an act of bullying, plain and simple: a nakedly political abuse of authority."
The Teamsters have a powerful argument why Amazon drivers should unionize >> Teamster official says Amazon drivers earn $16 an hour in southern California, while unionized UPS drivers there earn $38 an hour, with $29 more an hour in health & other benefits
Breaking: In a big win for labor, workers at the Art Institute of Chicago have voted in favor of unionizing, joining the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. The vote was 142 for unionizing and 44 against.
@markknoller
WAIT -- Isn't it illegal under the Hatch Act for federal employees to do such overt, egregious politicking on federal property on official work time?
John Dean on Trump's behavior -- "What we're witnessing is a very public obstruction of justice. What we're seeing exceeds anything Nixon did (in terms of obstructing justice)"
John Dean adds: "Trump is Nixon on steroids and stilts."
4) Amazon's general counsel—at a meeting Bezos & other senior execs attended—called for smearing the recently fired Smalls by calling him "not smart or articulate"
That was widely seen as racist & won support for Smalls among the Staten Island warehouse's many workers of color
Fascinating >> Charles Barkley tells about an unusual phone call he received from basketball legend Bill Russell & how Russell persuaded rich Mr. Barkley to stop complaining about how much he paid in taxes
In a great interview with
@davidaxelrod
at 12:07
Breaking: Biden has asked the NLRB's general counsel Peter Robb to resign.
Robb -- who is is known for his aggressive anti-union, pro-business positions -- is the first NLRB general counsel to be forced out in more than 50 years.
Best piece I've read on the historic & unorthodox Amazon union drive in Staten Island--the first Amazon warehouse in the U.S. to be unionized.
The organizers held picnics, used TikTok, got arrested, delivered free pizzas & organized at bus stops.
While Bezos bathes in money, remember at one Amazon warehouse in Pennsylvania, temperatures sometimes soared to over 100 as workers raced all day to pick goods from the shelves. So many workers fainted or grew dehydrated that Amazon had paramedics parked in ambulances nearby.
Jeff Bezos's new Washington, DC home, two adjacent mansions purchased for $23 million, will have 25 bathrooms, 287 fire alarm sprinklers and 1,006 light fixtures.
@washingtonian
:
Whole Foods has fired workers in 6 states for wearing Black Lives Matter apparel
The workers & NLRB say labor law protects their right to wear BLM apparel, but a Whole Foods lawyer told the NLRB that "President Trump referred to BLM as a 'symbol of hate'"
SCARY >> In 2010, the top 100 individual donors gave $73 million to federal candidates. In 2016, they gave over $900 million.
That's a BIG DANGER to our democracy & helps explains why the tax bill lavishes so many goodies on corporations & the 1%.
Breaking: Starbucks just fired the employee responsible for Igniting the unionization wave at Starbucks
The fired employee, Alexis Rizzo, said, "This is retaliation at its worst."
@SBWorkersUnited
@realDonaldTrump
Mr. Trump you inspired this. You inspired this ugliness and hatred and incipient insurrection. This is on you. These are your Proud Boys.
BREAKING: Starbucks union wins 5 of 5 today
In Appleton WI workers vote 10-7 to unionize
At Disneyland Starbucks 26-15 to join
@SBWorkersUnited
In Pittsburgh:
Penn Center East 15-6
Eastside 10-0 to unionize
In Buffalo (East Robinson) 7-3
NOW ALMOST 160 STARBUCKS UNIONIZED
BREAKING— Fed up with Starbucks’ union-busting and with its delays in contract negotiations, baristas plan a one-day strike today at 110 Starbucks across the U.S. — in by far the largest job action by
@SBWorkersUnited
A secretive group backed by right-wing billionaires is behind the push to roll back child-labor laws.
The group, the Foundation for Government Accountability, is lobbying to reduce government accountability & oversight & let children do dangerous jobs.
3) Amazon fired Smalls for violating social distancing rules after Smalls led a protest asserting Amazon was doing far too little to protect workers against Covid— including not doing enough social distancing of workers. That gave Smalls huge cred & made Amazon look hypocritical.
WOW--The guy who orchestrated the GOP power grab in Wisconsin suggested Madison & Milwaukee (& their black residents) are not legitimate parts of the state. “If you took Madison & Milwaukee out of the state election formula, we would have a clear majority”
@AnnCoulter
Maybe the solution is to deport Ann Coulter, whose horrible advice helped persuade President Trump to shut down the government, hurting 800,000 dedicated federal workers and their families.
Starbucks combines its offer to help employee travel for abortions with union busting
Starbucks offers all employees enrolled in its health plan access to abortion travel & gender-affirming care, BUT SAYS it can't "promise" that for unionized stores
2) While Smalls & his union said their goal was minimum pay of $30 an hour, Amazon kept telling workers that with a union, they could end up with decreased pay
With unemployment so low & wages rising, workers saw Amazon's message as lame & saw the union's message as VERY HOPEFUL
@mattgaetz
@MichaelCohen212
But you still need to explain how you, as an adult, could have said something so gross, horrendous, threatening and insensitive and something that's such blatant witness tampering.
Are you blinded by being a member of the pro-Trump cult?
SWAMP >> An Oklahoma buddy of Pruitt's helped Pruitt get $973,000 in mortgages to buy a lavish home even though Pruitt earned just $38,400.
That buddy was banned from the banking industry, but Pruitt named him to oversee the nation's Superfund program.
In my 25 years writing about labor, the union victory at the Amazon warehouse in Staten Island is by far the biggest, beating-the-odds David versus Goliath unionization win I've seen
A fired Amazon worker took on Amazon's union busters & unionized an 8,000-worker warehouse
Outrageous Gerrymandering in Wisconsin:
Democrats received 1.31 million votes for the Wisconsin State Assembly (54%), while Republicans received 1.1 million votes for the Assembly (46%)
YET Republicans won 63 Assembly seats while Democrats won just 36.
When Christian Smalls & other current & former Amazon workers began organizing Amazon in Staten Island last year, many said his chances of winning were infinitesimal.
But after today's count, 1518 to 1154, a win for Smalls' union is inevitable—That's huge
Trump is right—the economy is strong. He inherited a strong economy from Obama. But job growth has been slower in Trump's first 19 months than in Obama's last 19. And real hourly wage growth has been lower under Trump (0.3% vs. Obama's 0.8%)
@SteveRattner
CRAZY—When 7 Wisconsin hospital workers quit to work at another hospital for better pay & work/life balance, the 1st hospital didn't try to match the 2nd hospital's offer. It instead got a judge to issue a temporary order blocking the workers from leaving.
I don't like to use the phrase "right-to-work." It's a phrase pushed by the right wing. The media have adopted it & many people are familiar with it
To my mind, the best substitute is to call it an "anti-union-fee law," but that's awkward & many folks don't know what that means
@jaketapper
@PressSec
Has there ever been a White House press secretary who so cavalierly (and dishonestly) insults the legislative branch -- a co-equal branch under the United States Constitution?
BREAKING The RWDSU announces it will file objections to overturn the Amazon election, saying "the election should be set aside because conduct by the employer created an atmosphere of confusion, coercion & fear of reprisals & thus interfered with the employees' freedom of choice"
BREAKING — A Unanimous Union Win at Starbucks >> Workers at a Seattle Starbucks (Broadway & Denny) vote 9-0 in favor of unionizing, becoming 1st Starbucks on the West Coast to unionize
This victory in Starbucks' hometown means the union has won 7 of the 8 Starbux that have voted
In the last 4 union elections, Starbucks has lost in embarrassing shutouts: 17-0, 20-0, 11-0, 14-0
If I were a Starbucks shareholder, I'd be asking why the hell is Starbux forking over millions & millions to its anti-union law firm, Littler Mendelson, which keeps losing BIGTIME
@realDonaldTrump
Mr. Trump, We're Tired of So Much Winning
We're No 1—with most Covid-19 deaths of any nation
We're No. 1—with most layoffs, 16.9 million unemployment claims in 3 weeks
We're No 1—The Dow Jones Industrial Average has worst 1st quarter in history
Breaking--Even though the NLRB says it's illegal for Starbucks to give certain raises & benefits to its non-union employees, but not its unionized ones, Sbux defies the NLRB & now promises even more benefits to non-union baristas, but not to unionized ones
Important > Looks like Biden's National Labor Relations Board may finally be moving toward declaring that Uber & Lyft drivers & DoorDash delivery workers are not independent contractors who can't unionize, but are instead employees with a right to unionize
Starbucks seems to be playing dirtier and dirtier. They’re trying as hard as they can to tell their “partners,” If you seek to unionize, bad stuff might suddenly happen to you. Your store might close. You might get fired. Your hours might get reduced. You might not get that raise
America's exceptionally bad treatment of workers could speed the spread of the Coronavirus
The U.S. is the ONLY wealthy nation that doesn't guarantee all workers paid sick leave, paid family leave & health coverage. This means many workers go to work sick
"Kavanaugh’s apoplectic, ultra-partisan opening statement should alone disqualify him. If he’s innocent his anger is understandable—But there’s no way a man who rails against Dems for seeking “revenge on behalf of the Clintons” can even feign impartiality"
So how does Starbucks mark Black History Month?
It fires a bunch of Black baristas who are backing a unionization effort in Memphis, the city where Dr. King was killed while supporting Black sanitation workers' right to form a union.
I never thought a billionaire could be such a baby
Ackman mercilessly attacked Claudine Gay over plagiarism & more
Now he's whining that, no surprise here, others are investigating plagiarism by his professor wife
Billionaires who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones
It has been the case since as far as I can remember in business and in media that family was off limits, unless of course the family is directly involved in the business.
The code of the road was that you can attack the protagonist as much as you want, but not his wife and not
Breaking—THERE ARE NOW 200 UNIONIZED STARBUCKS
Baristas at a Cleveland Starbucks voted 11-9 to unionize, making it the 200th unionized store. Last year not one Starbucks was unionized
@SBWorkersUnited
has won an amazing rate—about 5 of 6 elections. It has won 52 unanimous votes
Hugely moving to see Matthew Shepard's parents join the roll call from Wyoming and thanking Joe Biden for helping to enact the Matthew Shepard & James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act
They thank Biden for "his passion for social justice & his bottomless compassion for others"
More Trump BS — Under Obama, the jobless rate fell from 10.0% peak to 4.8% when Trump was inaugurated. Under Trump, it has fallen to 3.9%. More jobs were created during Obama's last 19 months than during Trump's first 19 months. The Dow rose 148% under Obama, 40.7% under Trump.
@jaketapper
@PressSec
Maybe Sanders is too obtuse to understand Congress has many staffers who are experts on the tax code -- folks who are probably a lot smarter than Sarah Sanders and Donald Trump and who understand the tax code far better than Trump does.