Cohost Union News

Hadley, Massachusetts–already the site of the first unionized Trader Joe's in America–has another union campaign in town this year as Barnes & Noble workers in the town are seeking to unionize their store. Affiliated with United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1459, they're on track to become the second unionized B&N store in the United States.

According to the union, as reported in The Shoestring, a local outlet:

[...]the majority of our [B&N] staff are still underpaid and without benefits, even while many of us are working nearly or actually at full time hours. Our schedules are inconsistent and often fall outside of our (unreasonably low) rostered number of hours. Our hours are constantly subject to unexpected and unexplained cuts, despite our store being consistently understaffed.

Other concerns, interestingly, included a lack of communication and accessibility from management–particularly about the way the store has been laid out. The union says here: “We are reminded that we must set up the store in a way that purposefully makes it difficult for customers to navigate. While this may make sense for able-bodied customers who will stop to look at displays, it is a nightmare to navigate under any other circumstance for customers and workers alike.” To say the least: it's unusual to see such an intersection of disability/accessibility rights and unionization efforts, but very welcome.

An election date for the union has not been set.

Forming graduate unions and unionizing on-campus workplaces isn't the only kind of militancy going on at universities currently. In a wonderful development this week, students and faculty at the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence, RI walked out in support of Teamsters Local 251, which has been on an indefinite strike since April 3.

Local 251 unionized last year in February by an overwhelming vote of 52-4, and began contract negotiations with RISD in June. These negotiations were mostly productive–but the university has completely refused to budge on the question of wages, an essential sticking point for members of the union. A major demand of Local 251 is pay of $20/hr for all workers in the union who have more than one year on the job. According to Hyperallergic, an art publication which has covered labor developments at the school, "31 of the current 61 union members make less than $16" while custodian pay averages $16.74/hr, below a living wage in Providence.

RISD has refused to budge, however. Even after a strike authorization on November 20, 2022, the school refused to entertain this proposal. An open letter which has received more than 1,400 signatories at the school and in the Providence community to date has likewise failed to move the needle among leadership at RISD. Even with three unfair labor practices filed against the university, movement has been scarce. With little other option, picketing turned to a one-day unfair labor practice strike turned to a now-indefinite strike.

This is where students and faculty have wonderfully come in. A petition by students for the university to bargain "fairly, honestly, and with full transparency" has received 2,800 signatories in just 6 days. Hyperallergic reports that "...the architecture, digital and media, and sculpture departments have all announced their solidarity with the striking Teamsters." And on Wednesday (April 12), in the biggest show of support to date, a substantial chunk of the student body–which numbers approximately 2,500–and faculty walked out in support of the Local:

(Walkouts today appear to have been similarly well attended.) RISD is even getting critiqued by politicians at this point for its obstinate position. 10 city councilors from the Providence City Council signed an open letter demanding RISD acquiesce to the union. Although it's not clear what it would take to bring RISD back to the table, the tide is unambiguously with the union at this point–and this is the clearest sign to date that what's happening at universities right now is something special.

In a huge update to this story, Rhode Island School of Design capitulated to Teamsters Local 251 on Monday (April 17), and yesterday evening (April 18), custodians ratified a six-year contract with the university. According to reporter Olivia Ebertz, the highlights include:

• Guaranteed minimum wage of $20.20/hr that goes into effect in July 2023
• Back pay through October 2022
• Guaranteed raises of 14% over the contract life
• Longevity raises for workers of over 20 years

These are essentially the union's demands and more. Direct action gets the goods!

After the federal government of Canada failed to meet their demands yesterday evening, workers of the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) began a general strike at 12:01am ET today. The 155,000 workers are spread across two major groups: approximately 35,000 Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) workers, and 120,000 workers throughout a variety of Canadian federal agencies and departments that range from the RCMP to the Canadian Coast Guard to Health Canada. At least 23 agencies will see parts of their staff involved in the strike and have their service impacted accordingly. Picket lines will be active at at least 250 locations around the country.

While we don't have specific numbers on the strike votes–which have been ongoing for approximately one and a half months–or the overall mandate, PSAC says that an "overwhelming majority" of workers were in favor of doing so. According to PSAC president Chris Aylward, most members of the union are struggling with cost of living and make anywhere between make between C$40,000 and C$65,000 a year (which converts out to a range of $29,862 to $48,526 USD, as a crude point of comparison). Pay is, accordingly, a very big bargaining point between the federal government and PSAC's workers.

Other interesting points of negotiation have been raised however, and those are worth lingering on too. CBC reported previously that work-from-home provisions have also been a serious sticking point for the union, and the union would like to see shift premiums adjusted to account for inflation. These are, in short, additional pay added to hours worked past 4 p.m. and before 8 a.m. on weekdays and any hours on weekends–the current addition is C$2.50 an hour, which has not been adjusted since 2002 and has been eroded by inflation in that time.¹ The union has also apparently put forward two proposals relating to Indigenous peoples: one would allow self-IDed Indigenous people up to five days of paid leave to engage in traditional practices; another would provide a $1,500 annual bonus to federal workers who speak an Indigenous language at work. A complete set of proposals can be found here.

Presumably, a quick attempt to resolve the strike is oncoming due to the number of strikers and level of disruption this is certain to cause; however, as of last night the federal government had no statement on the matter. We'll see.

1. To the tune of about C$1, as I understand. C$2.50 in 2002 is something like C$3.60 today.

Although the terms of the agreement have not been released pending the union looking them over, IFT-AFT and UPI Local 4100 at Governors State University are touting their strike as won today, and have returned to work while they await a vote on the agreement. Their statement is as follows:

An agreement was reached between administration and the faculty and staff union at Governors State University (GSU) – GSU University Professionals of Illinois (GSU UPI, IFT Local 4100) – causing an end to the strike that began on Tuesday. GSU UPI President Mike Hart released the following statement:

We’re relieved that we’ve come out of this process with a contract that addresses workload concerns so that we can better support students, and that gives our outstanding faculty and staff fair compensation for the great work they do every day. This contract is a step towards strengthening our university and the support we can give our students, and it will contribute to attracting high-quality educators and retaining the excellent faculty and staff we have. We are looking forward to reviewing the details with our members and will hold a vote to ratify the contract.