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As it became clear that many workplaces – essential and less so – would remain open throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, ALIGN became a key player in a coalition of 70 unions, workers’ centers and nonprofits that have pushed the NY HERO Act. The bill sets enforceable workplace standards for testing, PPE, social distancing, hygiene and more. Maritza Silva-Farrell has led ALIGN, an alliance of labor and community organizations, since 2016.
52. Charlene Obernauer
Executive Director, New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health
NYCOSH, the watchdog nonprofit that Charlene Obernauer leads, is well known for its annual report on construction deaths in New York state. The latest report on calendar year 2019 found that while construction-related deaths dipped slightly across the state, they rose 10% over the previous year within the five boroughs. In her role, Obernauer has advocated for better COVID-19 protection at New York work sites and also conducts tr
Amazonians United: A new trap for workers
Last month, the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU) lost its unionization vote at the Amazon warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama by a more than two-to-one margin. The RWDSU, which relied on the backing of the Biden administration, Democratic members of Congress and even right-wing Republican Senator Marco Rubio, was incapable of generating any significant support from workers.
As the
World Socialist Web Site has explained in a numberofarticles analyzing the RWDSU union drive, from the outset the effort was a top-down operation, an initiative of the Democratic Party and AFL-CIO, rather than an expression of workers’ opposition from below. The Democrats have made a calculated decision that the unions, having proven themselves reliable caretakers of corporate interests, must be provided further institutional support, so they may better serve as a brake on the class struggle and keep it from developing in a more radical, social
(AP Photo/Jon Elswick)
Earlier this month activists lost their battle to unionize workers at a warehouse in Alabama. The results, as Ed noted at the time, were not close. The final tally announced by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) was 738 votes in favor of the union and 1,798 against. Naturally the union is refusing to take the L and has instead filed a formal complaint alleging all sorts of misbehavior by Amazon, 23 counts in fact.
Several of the 23 objections listed in the filing center on the mailbox that Amazon installed earlier this year in the parking lot and urged employees to use to mail their ballots. While union elections are typically done in-person with NLRB officials present, due to the pandemic the NLRB allowed for voting by mail, over Amazon’s strenuous objections. The ballots, which were mailed to the homes of eligible employees, could be cast in any USPS mailbox. The union had cried foul over Amazon’s new mailbox ahead of the results.
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City University of New York Chancellor Félix Matos Rodríguez has followed through on increasing faculty diversity. Nine new college presidents – including two Asian Americans, three African Americans and three women – were appointed in the past year. Early on in the COVID-19 pandemic, CUNY established the Chancellor’s Emergency Relief Fund with $1 million each from the Carroll and Milton Petrie Foundation and the James and Judith K. Dimon Foundation. This grew to more than $8 million by the fall and allowed CUNY to distribute emergency grants to more than 10,000 students.
2. Jim Malatras
SUNY Empire State College
Union alleges Amazon interfered with failed vote by threatening layoffs
The retail union that failed to organize Amazon workers at an Alabama warehouse wants the results of a recent vote to be thrown out, saying that the company illegally interfered with the process.
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The Associated Press ·
Posted: Apr 19, 2021 2:15 PM ET | Last Updated: April 19
People in Los Angeles protest in March in support of unionizing efforts by Alabama Amazon workers. Workers at the Bessemer, Ala., warehouse overwhelmingly voted against forming a union earlier in April. (Lucy Nicholson/Reuters)