Today's Workplace Blog

Starbucks broke the law more than 200 times in effort to squash union organizing, labor board says

May 9, 2022 No Comments

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is taking Starbucks’ union-busting campaign very seriously. The board’s regional director in Buffalo issued a complaint late Friday accusing the company of 29 unfair labor practices involving 200 violations of the law. The complaint specifically names interim CEO Howard Schultz for dangling improved benefits if workers didn’t

APRIL JOBS REPORT: STRONG JOB GROWTH AS WORKERS DEMAND BETTER JOBS

May 9, 2022 No Comments

Nationwide—The unemployment rate remained at 3.6% in April according to this morning’s monthly jobs report. Approximately 428,000 jobs were produced, and 5.9 million workers remained unemployed. The unemployment rate for Black workers declined slightly, from 6.2% to 5.9%, yet the Black unemployment rate remained substantially higher than the rate for white workers

I’m a Black, Queer Woman Working as an Adjunct Professor—And I’m Going on Strike

May 6, 2022 No Comments

Last fall, after nearly two years of underemployment due to the Covid-19 pandemic, I began teaching at Mercy College in New York as an adjunct professor. I was excited to finally be back in the classroom doing the thing I loved: teaching. I knew the terms of my contract, and while I wished the compensation was

Starbucks is very unhappy about all the customers ordering drinks under the name ‘Union Strong’

May 6, 2022 No Comments

Starbucks keeps escalating its anti-union campaign, taking it ever more public and more blatant. From quietly shifting national-level managers into the first stores where workers organized, to firing pro-union workers, to interim CEO Howard Schultz whining volubly about the “assault” on Starbucks, the company has ratcheted up and up, and it’s not

Amazon Workers Decide Not to Form Union at a Second U.S. Facility—But Organizers Pledge to Fight On

May 5, 2022 No Comments

One month after making history by organizing the first U.S. Amazon warehouse, workers voted against forming a union at another facility in New York. Update (May 2, 2022): Following a hard-fought campaign, the Amazon Labor Union came up short at the LDJ5 complex, with 380 workers voting in favor of the union and 618 against. In response, ALU

Safer Surveillance: How Much Is Too Much?

April 27, 2022 No Comments

When we think of surveillance in a business, there is no doubt that it is a double edged sword. It can’t be denied that surveillance can be an important part of keeping workers safe and providing security for staff – not only against outsiders, but also from the potential actions