Factbox-Recent U.S. union wins at Amazon, Starbucks and more By Reuters

By Hilary Russ

(Reuters) -The COVID-19 pandemic, labor scarcity, Black Lives Matter motion and different social and financial forces have contributed to an uptick in high-profile union organizing throughout the US together with a victory on Friday at an Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:) warehouse in New York Metropolis.

Amongst U.S. wage and wage employees final 12 months, 10.3% have been in a union – half of the 1983 proportion – and union membership within the personal sector together with Amazon and Starbucks Corp (NASDAQ:) was simply 6.1% final 12 months. There have been 149 union elections in January and February of this 12 months, in comparison with 103 in the identical two months final 12 months.

Here’s a have a look at some notable current union victories.

AMAZON

Staff at an Amazon.com facility in New York Metropolis’s Staten Island on Friday voted in favor of forming a union, making it the web retailer’s first U.S. facility to arrange.

The victory by a brand new, impartial union on the No. 2 U.S. personal employer provides to current successes by labor activists pushing into new industries. Not all labor drives are profitable, together with the preliminary results of a poll depend at Amazon warehouse employees in Alabama.

STARBUCKS

Workers at 10 U.S. Starbucks areas have voted in current months to affix Staff United, an affiliate of the Service Workers Worldwide Union. The cafes embrace 5 in Buffalo, New York; two in Mesa, Arizona; one every in Seattle and Knoxville, Tennessee; and a Starbucks Reserve Roastery in New York Metropolis.

A minimum of 170 others had petitioned for elections as of Friday. Poll counts are scheduled for greater than a dozen different cafes within the subsequent couple weeks.

Starbucks beat again the union in a single Buffalo retailer.

NEW YORK TIMES

About 600 designers, software program engineers, knowledge analysts and different tech workers on the New York Instances voted in March to affix the NewsGuild of New York, which has gained quite a lot of different elections previously two years.

The March outcomes created the most important union of tech employees in the US with bargaining rights. The NewsGuild additionally represents Reuters’ U.S. journalists.

GOOGLE FIBER

Contractors for the high-speed web supplier Google Fiber, a part of Alphabet (NASDAQ:) Inc, in Kansas Metropolis, Missouri voted final week to unionize. Whereas solely 10 employees are concerned, it was the primary group of Alphabet Staff Union (AWU) with bargaining rights.

AWU stated it has 800 members since launching simply over a 12 months in the past, however these members do not need the proper to collectively cut price.

CANNABIS INDUSTRY

In June, the United Meals and Industrial Staff reached agreements with hashish lab Sonoma Lab Works and hashish producer CannaCraft Manufacturing to unionize their employees in California.

Because the variety of hashish growers and dispensaries have grown, so too have union drives within the business. UFCW stated it’s now the most important hashish employees union in the US with greater than 10,000 members.

SILICON VALLEY

In 2020, the crowdfunding platform Kickstarter’s workers voted to affix a union, the primary large tech firm to take action. Staff at location knowledge startup Mapbox in August misplaced their bid to type a union.