Tag Archive for: Region 9A

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In Major Escalation, UAW Members at General Dynamics – Electric Boat Authorize Strike, Hold Massive Rally

GROTON, CT – At a high-energy rally yesterday, UAW President Shawn Fain and Local 571 President Bill Louis stood shoulder-to-shoulder with more than a thousand union members to announce a major escalation in the ongoing labor dispute at General Dynamics Electric Boat.

The marine drafters — the highly skilled workforce responsible for designing the U.S. Navy’s nuclear submarine fleet — have voted to authorize a strike against their employer, marking a pivotal moment in the fight for a fair contract. The decision highlights growing frustration with the defense contractor, which has reported massive profits even as the workers behind a cornerstone of the nation’s nuclear deterrence fight for a contract that delivers on their core priorities — including fair pay, retirement security for all, and dignity on the job.

After announcing that the strike authorization vote was successful, Fain said, “These workers aren’t just drafting blueprints — they’re designing the backbone of our national defense. This isn’t just any job — it’s mission-critical work, funded by the American taxpayer. And yet, while General Dynamics pockets billions in government contracts, the very people doing this essential work are being left behind. That’s not just unfair — it’s outrageous. The company has a choice. They can get back to the table and get serious about our demands. Or they can keep messing around. The choice is theirs. And the clock is ticking.”

UAW members at Electric Boat are fighting to win cost-of-living adjustments (COLA) so their pay keeps up with inflation, affordable healthcare, and the restoration of pensions, which were taken from workers hired after 2010. Despite raking in over $13 billion in profits over the past three years, General Dynamics is pushing for 52% to 161% increases in weekly medical insurance costs. The company reaps the benefits of massive, years-long contracts to replenish the U.S. Navy’s nuclear submarine fleet — a project that highlights the critical nature of the work done by Electric Boat employees.

JoAnna McClenathan, a UAW member and Councillor at MDA Local 571, ended her remarks by calling on her fellow coworkers to act in the coming weeks. “If we don’t fight now—if we don’t pressure the company for something better—this company will continue to cut until there is nothing left for us or the next generation of workers,” said McClenathan. “We need to stand together today so we don’t fall further behind tomorrow.”

Inferior compensation at Electric Boat is leading to worker shortages and production delays. In 2024, the Navy stated that Virginia-class submarines and Columbia-class subs are now years behind schedule because of “skilled labor shortages.”

The company has refused to bargain with good faith, hiring well-known anti-union firm Morgan Lewis. Their intimidation tactics have resulted in unfair labor practice (ULP) charges filed with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).

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Billions in Profits, Cuts for Workers: UAW Workers at Electric Boat Turn Up the Heat in Fight for Fair Contract

GROTON, CT – More than 2,400 UAW Local 571 members at General Dynamics – Electric Boat are turning up the pressure in their fight for a fair contract — rallying to demand better wages, retirement security for all, and respect on the job.

Fresh off the expiration of their contract on April 4, these skilled workers — who design submarines for the U.S. military — are sending a clear message to the company: it’s time to deliver a contract that honors their critical work.

The rally marks an escalation in ongoing negotiations, as UAW members stand united around core priorities like improved pay, retirement security for all, and dignity at work.

General Dynamics, despite raking in over $13 billion in profits over the past three years, is pushing for 52% to 161% increases in weekly medical insurance costs. Meanwhile, the company reaps the benefits of a massive, years-long contract to replenish the U.S. Navy’s nuclear ballistic missile submarine fleet — a project that highlights the critical nature of the work done by Electric Boat employees.

Ahead of the action, the union released a new video outlining their key demands, which can be accessed here on YouTube (media is invited to use the footage).

WHAT: Rally with UAW Local 571 members at General Dynamics – Electric Boat

WHERE: 75 Eastern Pt Rd., Groton, CT 06340

WHEN: Thursday, April 10 at 2:00pm ET

Workers at General Dynamics – Electric Boat have faced eroded wages, reduced pensions, and a lack of cost-of-living adjustments to protect against inflation, which is typical in the defense sector. Additionally, General Dynamics has hired a well-known anti-union firm, employing intimidation tactics and engaging in bad faith bargaining. The company is currently facing numerous unfair labor practice (ULP) charges filed with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).

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At 37 Actions Across the US, Tens of Thousands Rally to Stop Cuts to Federal Research, Health and Education

Detroit, MI — Thousands of people across the country came together yesterday for Kill the Cuts, a national Day of Action to raise awareness and fight back against the Trump administration’s devastating attacks on research, health, and higher education. The events (see the full list here) were sponsored by a coalition of education, labor and health advocates, including UAW, SEIU, AFSCME, UE, NEA, AFT, CWA, AAUP, HELU, Labor for Higher Education, the Debt Collective, and more.

Researchers and educators who have had their funding cut spoke about the effects this assault on publicly-funded research is having at their institutions and across the country. Below is a collection of remarks and associated photography:

 

“NIH is the bedrock of American health,” said Haley Chatelaine, a postdoctoral fellow at the National Institutes of Health and member of UAW 2750, which represents 5,000 workers there. “I’ve spoken with patients whose lives depended on the groundbreaking research we do. Any delay–whether it’s due to pauses in grant funding or firings of federal workers–puts Americans’ health at risk. That’s why we, the workers who do the research, are standing up to protect it.” (Photos here, credit UAW)

“By cutting funds to lifesaving research and medical care, the Trump administration is abandoning families who are suffering and costing taxpayers billions of dollars,” said Rafael Jaime, president of UAW 4811, which represents 48,000 workers at the University of California. “These cuts are dangerous to our health, and dangerous to our economy.” (Photos here, credit UAW)

“Federal research funding is critical to my research into how neurons in our brains communicate, making it possible to develop better therapeutics for severe health conditions that range from cancer to depression to learning disorders,” said Dagan Marx, a Postdoc at Weill Cornell Medicine and member of the Weill Cornell Medicine Postdocs United-UAW Bargaining Committee. “Recklessly slashing funding that institutions like Weill Cornell depend on for medical breakthroughs and supporting researchers has devastating impacts on our research and our working conditions.” (Photos here, credit New York City Central Labor Council)

“I’m proud to be researching ways to better detect ovarian cancer after losing my mom to the disease two years ago. There are still no routine screening tests for ovarian cancer, which would save lives. Without funding from the NIH, breakthroughs won’t happen and that’s a tremendous loss for research and the general public,” said Mari Hoffman, an Academic Student Employee in Molecular & Cellular Biology at the University of Washington and member of UAW 4121. (Photos here, credit UAW)

 

President Trump has recently issued Executive Orders attacking the NIH, NSF, while dismantling the Department of Education. These attacks jeopardize medical and scientific progress and threaten the jobs of researchers across the country studying critical topics including climate change, renewable energy, cancer, viral pandemics, heart disease, diabetes, and Alzheimer’s. Not only do these attacks impede lifesaving care for millions of Americans, but delays in treatment are projected to cost the public billions of dollars.

More information about the National Day of Action and a list of rally locations can be found at www.killthecuts.org.

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UAW President Shawn Fain Headlining Allentown “Rally with the Working Class” with Rep. Susan Wild, UAW Members and Leaders

The rally kicks off a day of union-led door-to-door canvassing to elect UAW champions in the Allentown, PA area. 

 

WHAT: UAW “Rally with the Working Class” to elect Harris-Walz

WHO: UAW President Shawn Fain, PA-07 Rep. Susan Wild, UAW Region 9 Director Daniel Vicente, UAW Region 9A Director Brandon Mancilla

WHEN: Sunday, Oct. 20, 10:30 a.m. ET

WHERE: UAW Local 677, 2101 Mack Blvd. #1, Allentown, PA 18103

RSVP to team@feldmanstrategies.com

 

ALLENTOWN, PA – On Sunday, UAW President Shawn Fain and U.S. Rep. Susan Wild (CD-7) will join UAW members, leaders, and allies at the “Rally with the Working Class” to elect Kamala Harris and Tim Walz and Democrats up and down the ballot. Sunday’s rally is a joint event hosted by UAW Regions 9 and 9A.

“Kamala Harris is the candidate of the working class,” said UAW President Shawn Fain. “She stood with us on the picket line while Donald Trump did nothing. She and President Biden bet on the American worker and brought manufacturing jobs back to the U.S. Donald Trump doubled down on NAFTA and sent our jobs to Mexico. He is a con man and a scab. He will side with the billionaires and sell out to the working class. Kamala Harris stands with us and that’s why UAW members are standing up, speaking up and showing up to elect her president.”

In August, the UAW launched its most ambitious political program in decades. The Union’s program includes mobilizing UAW members online, at worksites, and in the field with a door-to-door program to reach members, retirees, and their families around a pro-worker, anti-Corporate Greed agenda. The Union’s one million active and retired members form a core base of support for the Harris-Walz campaign and will provide a major piece of the campaign’s margin of victory in key races in battleground states like Pennsylvania, Ohio, Wisconsin, and Michigan.

The UAW’s plan to win stems from the vision that launched 2023’s Stand Up strike and movement. By putting out the facts, uniting the working class, and letting members lead the way, the UAW’s “Stand Up, Speak Up, Show Up” campaign will mobilize a mass campaign to defeat the billionaire class at the ballot box.

At UAWStandUp2024.org, UAW members will find resources, videos, flyers, and links to factual information around the candidates’ records, and why the UAW is ready to stand up, speak up, and show up in November.

Press must RSVP to team@feldmanstrategies.com

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Economic Justice Victory for Automobile Technicians in New York State

Today, September 4, 2024, New York State Governor Hochul will be signing a.4066B (Burgos) / s.5085C (Kennedy) into law. This law Requires Motor Vehicle Dealer Franchisors to Fully Compensate Franchised Motor Vehicle Dealers for Warranty Service Agreements.

As of today, New York State will ensure that Technicians employed at Dealerships will earn equal pay for equal work.

The UAW is proud to have led the fight for the passage of this legislation that supports the highly skilled, knowledgeable, and experienced Technicians who serve as the backbone of Dealerships across New York State.

With today’s signing, New York State will abolish the two-tiered compensation system imposed by the highly profitable Vehicle Manufactures. The Manufactures were permitted, by law, to pay less than fair-market labor time allowances to Technicians for diagnostic and warranty / recall repairs they perform versus the actual fair market labor time allowances charged for out-of-warranty diagnostic and repairs because yesterday’s law offered no definition for what “reasonable compensation” meant.

Today, New York State will define “reasonable compensation” to mean the labor time allowances published in the retail labor time guides utilized by Dealerships for non-warranty diagnostic and repairs. It will also require Vehicle Manufactures to fully fund warranty diagnostic and repairs at Dealerships which enables the Dealerships to pay the equitable labor time allowances to Technicians.

This change is monumental and will add $900 million to New York’s taxable wage base while putting money in New Yorker’s pockets, not multinational corporations. Today, New York State will effectively increase the weekly earnings for both union and non-union Technicians.

Today, New York State is living up to our state motto, Excelsior; we are slamming the door shut on this egregious example of corporate greed. Highly skilled, knowledgeable, and experienced Technicians will no longer have the vehicle manufacturers ripping off their labor, as today, economic justice prevails!

Special recognition to Local 259 members Carlos Gonzalez, Daniel Kunz, Paul Scaperotta, Estaban Sanchez, Will Ganshaw, Tim Gray, Bill Glynn, Krystine Ahearne, Saif Ahmed, Roger Sterk, Sebastian Ragonesi, Paul Tubito, and Pat McGrath. Each sacrificed many hours and days traveling to Albany so to lobby the Assembly and Senate. There were many ups and some significant downs, but we never blinked, we did not give up, and we did not give in.

And many thanks and much solidarity to our sisters and brothers in Region 9 and particularly Locals 686, 774, 897 and 1097. This legislation would not be possible without them. The greedy manufacturers attempted to splinter us, but because there was never any daylight in our SOLIDARITY, we prevailed!

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The Bronx Defenders Union Announces Unlimited Unfair Labor Practice Strike Beginning Week of July 22, 2024

Bronx, NY  – On July 2, 2024, one day after the contract between The Bronx Defenders (BxD) and its wall-to-wall union, The Bronx Defenders Union–UAW Local 2325 (BxD Union), expired, BxD Union’s Bargaining Committee voted to authorize an unlimited Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) strike beginning the week of July 22, 2024.

The difficult decision to authorize a strike comes after the Bargaining Committee attempted for months to engage BxD’s executive management team in bargaining without success. BxD’s failure to bargain in good faith—an unfair labor practice—has left BxD Union with no choice but to call for a strike. 

“For the past six months, the Bargaining Committee has worked tirelessly to meet the demands of all 260 of our members. BxD Management, in their failure to bargain in good faith, has shown us that they don’t serve the Bronx communities we defend. Sadly, the solidarity, equity, and empathy with which our union operates appears foreign to them,” said Tyler Johnson, Bronx native, Civil Legal Advocate, and member of the Bargaining Committee. “Nonetheless, BxD Union stands ready to show BxD Management the value of our labor and the power of our collective solidarity. We cannot be bullied, gaslit, or intimidated. We’re ready to strike.”

The Bargaining Committee was empowered to call for a strike by a historic strike authorization vote. On June 27, 2024, with 93% of members participating, 93% of BxD Union voted to authorize the Bargaining Committee to call for a strike if necessary. With this vote, BxD Union became the first of the alternate providers formed after 1994 to authorize a strike in thirty years, since the Legal Aid Society went on strike under Mayor Giuliani.

Members of BxD Union cannot effectively defend the people of the Bronx when they are among the lowest-paid public defenders in New York City, contending with high attrition and unmanageable caseloads. On strike, they will protest BxD’s unfair labor practices and call for competitive salaries and benefits, no rollbacks of existing benefits and protections, a one-year contract, and key noneconomic benefits, including free speech and sustainable working conditions.

BxD Union is prepared to return to the bargaining table and make every effort to avoid this strike. BxD’s management can avert the extreme disruption a strike will cause, including interruption of client services, by agreeing to BxD Union’s reasonable contractual framework.

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American Folk Art Museum Workers To Vote On Unionization

New York, NY  – On Thursday, June 6, staff at the American Folk Art Museum will vote on whether to unionize with Local 2110 UAW. The wall-to-wall unit includes curators, retail staff, educators, IT, communication staff, and others. The Museum is the latest in a growing movement of museum workers to organize.

Staff members cite lack of transparency and a desire for fair wages, benefits, recognition, and sustainable working conditions as reasons for unionizing. 

“I love the Museum, its exhibitions and programs,” Jean Seestadt, Manager of Events, says, “but I want employment here to be sustainable over a longer period. We’ve seen too many great colleagues leave.” 

Eve Erickson, Executive Assistant, adds: “The staff are an important part of the Museum and by unionizing, we have a voice in our own conditions of work and our future at the Museum.”

The last few years have seen thousands of workers in cultural institutions decide to unionize. Employees at the Jewish Museum, The Dia Foundation, the Guggenheim Museum, Whitney Museum of American Art, the Brooklyn Museum, the Hispanic Society of America, Film Forum, Anthology Film Archives, MASS MoCA, Film at Lincoln Center, Studio in a School, the Portland Museum of Art, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston voted to unionize with Local 2110 since November 2020. Many reference similar issues of low pay, and lack of job security or opportunity.

The American Folk Art Museum, located at 2 Lincoln Square on the Upper West Side has existed for over fifty years. 

Local 2110 UAW also represents workers at the Museum of Modern Art, the Guggenheim, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MASS MoCA, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Brooklyn Museum, Columbia University, Film Forum, Teachers College, ACLU, Center for Reproductive Rights, The New Press, and many more. The union has a reputation for its successful organizing and bargaining. 

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Legal Worker Union Ratifies Contract Offer, Calling to End Historic 13-Week Strike

New York, NY – On Monday, 72% of participating union members at Mobilization for Justice (MFJ) voted to ratify the contract offer presented by MFJ Management last week. Pending MFJ Board ratification, this agreement will conclude the Union’s nearly three-month strike — the longest NYC legal services strike since 1991 — with major victories including double digit raises for MFJ’s lowest paid workers.

“We presented contract demands to Management in November, aiming to promote racial and economic justice by lifting wages, sustaining healthcare, and improving workplace equity,” said Union Bargaining Team member and paralegal Ella Abeo. “Management responded with demands for givebacks, antagonistic counter-offers, and repeated violations of their duty to bargain in good faith. Striking was our only option to compel them to honor MFJ’s mission.”

The Union’s recent pressure campaign on MFJ’s funders and other stakeholders led to Management meeting several core Union demands, including a starting base salary of $60,000. This sector-leading victory results in a 17% raise for administrative staff and a 13% raise for paralegals. Law graduates will receive an 18% raise, while other staff—including attorneys, social workers, and specialists—will receive a 4% increase for 2024. All unionized staff will receive 3% annual raises in 2025 and 2026, along with a one-time ratification bonus.

The strike expanded protections for the Union’s most vulnerable members. Management will offer full-time union positions to two workers initially hired through temp agencies, including one who was unjustly fired for asserting her union rights. The agreement also ensures enhanced due process for disciplinary cases and equitable remote work policies for all workers.

The Union preserved its health care plan with no premiums and retained the right to veto changes by Management. Additionally, there were no givebacks on sick leave and vacation accrual.

Union members formed strike committees and used direct actions, boycotts, and relentless picketing to pressure Management into a fair agreement. “Management pushed us, but we pushed back harder,” said Abeo. “This strike shows that when workers unite, we will win.”

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Unionized NYC Legal Workers Hold Longest Strike in Over Two Decades

New York, New York – Seeking to strengthen high-quality free legal services for New Yorkers and fight high turnover, union members of Mobilization for Justice (MFJ), a nonprofit legal services organization, hit a historic landmark this week as their strike enters its seventh week. The strike is the longest legal services walk-out in New York City history since 2003, when unionized MFJ staffers held a nine-week long strike.

The Union is fighting for a fair and dignified contract to maintain its quality of free legal services to New Yorkers by addressing MFJ’s unprecedented staff attrition rate. The strike has garnered support from state and national elected officials, such as U.S. Congressman Jamaal Bowman, who joined the picket line last week. Labor leaders have also joined the strikers in their demands that MFJ offer a fair contract. In a rally in North Carolina last week, UAW International President Shawn Fain issued a stern rebuke against MFJ Management’s union busting: “the management at MFJ is a disgrace and they are betraying the values that they claim to hold dear. But I know one thing: our members are strong, that the community’s behind them, and that they are going to win!”

In 2003, Mobilization for Justice (then known as MFY Legal Services) staffers struck for nine weeks when Management offered a contract which would eliminate spousal/partner health coverage. Chaumtoli Huq, an Associate Professor at CUNY School of Law and former MFJ staff attorney, was part of the 2003 strike. Professor Huq said that the proposed healthcare cuts would have disproportionately affected lower-paid, BIPOC workers. “I was pregnant with my son during the 2003 strike. Cutting my spousal health care would have meant that I would have had to pay more out-of-pocket expenses for family care. Legal services workers should have a right to support our loved ones, especially when we make so little money.” Professor Huq said that she “absolutely” supports the ongoing strike and Union members’ demands for a fair contract. “MFJ’s corporate board has forgotten an important lesson from the 2003 strike. You cannot strip frontline workers’ healthcare benefits and pay and expect them to take it without a fight.”

The current strike comes in the context of the worst homelessness crisis in modern New York City history, increasing evictions of poor and working-class tenants, and the unprecedented need for legal services for immigrants given recent waves of mass migration of asylum-seekers and refugees. Striking workers from MFJ include attorneys, paralegals, and social workers who advocate and represent these individuals in courts and in front of city, state, and federal agencies every day when working. “MFJ Union members are at the courts multiple days each week as part of our strike-focused Court Watch. We’re watching, with heartbreak for our clients, as MFJ managers clearly cannot handle the caseloads,” said Craig Hughes, social worker at MFJ’s Bronx office. “Executive Director Tiffany Liston has prolonged a strike on the backs of the clients MFJ is sworn to support. She is clearly indifferent to what happens to our clients, frontline staff, middle management, and the sustainability of the organization as a result.” He continued, “seven weeks in and MFJ is falling apart. Where is the leadership?”

Union members say that MFJ Management has delayed resolution of their contract negotiations, engaged in unfair labor practices, and mounted an aggressive union busting campaign. MFJ Management terminated staff healthcare without notice to staff hours after the Union declared a strike. This sudden, unannounced interruption in benefits caused Union members significant problems, including a Senior Staff Attorney whose three-year-old child was hospitalized with Leukemia. MFJ Management did not return to the bargaining table until the fourth week of the strike. MFJ Management also hired temporary strikebreakers to cover the labor shortage. Union members say that the untrained strike breakers are unable to adequately cover the organization’s caseload, which reached over 15,000 last year. Members expressed concerns that MFJ Management’s prolonged refusal to bargain in good faith will negatively impact their clients.


The MFJ Union will be picketing at the following locations this week:

– Wednesday, April 10, 1pm to 3pm: Bronx Housing Court (1118 Grand Concourse)
– Friday, April 12, 9:30am to 11:30am: MFJ Manhattan office (100 William Street)





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Academic Student Workers at The New School Set March 6 Strike Deadline

New York, NY – After more than six months of bargaining their successor contract, teaching fellows, teaching assistants, course assistants, research assistants, and tutors at The New School, represented by United Auto Workers (UAW), will go on strike this coming Wednesday. Having authorized their strike with 94% voting yes, and a historic 77% of members participating, academic student workers have a powerful mandate for its work stoppage. For over half a year the workers have bargained continuously and in good faith with The New School. The university, meanwhile, has dragged its feet, and offered insulting poverty wages in a time of skyrocketing inflation. The strike will proceed unless the university comes back to the table before March 6 with an acceptable offer.

Less than one year after their professors walked off the job for 25 days, academic student workers began negotiating the terms of their new union contract. The workers are asking for higher wages and improved health care, alongside workplace and standard of living reforms like access to a childcare fund and better support for international students. Unlike many graduate students in the U.S., most at The New School pay tuition and do not receive stipends. The average academic student worker makes about 11K per year, and none make more than 24K. This is a special hardship for international students who are restricted from most forms of off-campus work. Academic student workers do not earn a New York City living wage and none make enough to afford even a shared apartment within a 90-minute commute from campus. To be an academic student worker at The New School is to be in a state of near constant financial anxiety.

Union members regularly report delays in pay and disbursement of stipends due to bureaucratic mismanagement by the university, which has left several members scrambling to figure out how to pay for basic necessities like housing and transportation. Workers have been forced to draw down from savings or rely upon the goodwill of friends, with little to no clarity from the university on when these issues will be resolved.

These experiences are not exclusive to research assistants. Non-academic student workers in a range of campus locations including dorms, libraries, wood and metal shops, admissions offices, Human Resources, Information Technology, and more are prepared to walk off the job with their colleagues. The predominantly undergraduate workforce is awaiting a ruling from the National Labor Relations Board about their ability to form a wall-to-wall student worker union with the striking academic student workers.

Academic student workers are 6.5% of the total workforce at The New School. They are asking for a compensation and health care package that would be worth less than 1% of the university’s operating budget. The university’s last insulting compensation offer for the over 500 workers, which wouldn’t even begin to address their financial hardship, is for less than what New School executives made in bonuses alone in 2022. While academic student workers experience both housing and food insecurity, New School executive salaries continue to bloat, with pay packages, including bonuses, on par with those at far wealthier Ivy League institutions. Perpetually strapped for cash, The New School still spends big on executive salaries by keeping its labor force—the workers that actually keep the school going—in abject poverty.

At a university founded on progressive values, and once a sanctuary to scholars fleeing the spread of fascism in Europe, the union believes that The New School can do better not just for its academic student workers, but for its workforce and student population as a whole. Academic student workers are merely picking up where their professors left off. Barring an acceptable offer from the university, the workers will strike for higher wages and for the betterment of the university community as a whole.


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About ACT-UAW 7902: Founded in 2002, ACT-UAW Local 7902 represents over 5,000 part-time and adjunct teachers, student educators, and healthcare workers. It consists of four units: the NYU Adjuncts, New School part-time faculty, student employees at The New School, and New School student health service employees.

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