Credit: (NJ Spotlight News)Unions are trying to gain steam around the country. Workers are demanding improved working conditions, better benefits and asking for increased pay amid inflation concerns and higher costs of living.
The National Labor Relations Board reported an increase in union organizing activity in 2022 — and a 53% increase in union election petitions between October 2021 and September 2022. However, according to analysis by the Economic Policy Institute, a think tank that focuses on low- and middle-income workers, “more than 60 million workers wanted to join a union, but couldn’t.”
In New Jersey, workers at Rutgers University, Starbucks and Medieval Times in Lyndhurst have been some of the major points for union organizing. What are employees asking for? Are employers stalling on negotiations?
Here is a breakdown:
Rutgers
Members of Rutgers AAUP-AFT and the Rutgers Adjunct Faculty Union recently voted to authorize a strike at Rutgers University. Staff members have been working for eight months without a contract and negotiations between the university and the unions have failed to deliver a new contract. The two unions represent 7,500 of the university’s 20,000 unionized employees.
Union members are asking for salary increases, job security, and extended parental leave benefits.
The unions have proposed 5% pay increases for three years out of a four-year contract for full-time faculty to keep up with inflation. Rutgers has countered with 3% increases in the first two years of the contract. The unions have also asked for a 37.6% increase for teaching assistants and graduate workers over four years. Rutgers has offered no additional increase for them.
The unions are part of the Coalition of Rutgers Unions, which represents 20,000 workers within the Rutgers community.
Starbucks
Since December 2021, workers at nearly 300 Starbucks stores across the United States have voted to unionize; these include four stores in New Jersey. Workers at stores in Hopewell Township, Hamilton, Summit and Montclair have been waiting between six and 10 months for a first collective bargaining agreement, as required by the National Labor Relations Act.
The former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz testified before the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions committee this week over union-busting allegations. “Sir, Starbucks Coffee Company unequivocally, and let me set the tone for this very early on, has not broken the law,” said Schultz. He said he took offense at being branded a union buster.
Starbucks and the union — Starbucks Workers United — have failed to reach any collective-bargaining contract for any of the unionized stores. Negotiations between the sides are stalled.
The workers are asking for improvements to stores’ health and safety standards and compensation for excess work, among other items.
Medieval Times
In July 2022, workers voted to join the American Guild of Variety Artists, which represents a wide range of performers, including the Radio City Rockettes.
Medieval Times Performers United are asking for higher — and what they call equitable — wages and want the company to address concerns to keep employees, guests and horses safe at the dinner-theater chain.
Negotiations between the company and union continue amid allegations of union-busting. In June, HuffPost reported the company retained a union-avoidance consultant at a cost of $3,200 per day, plus expenses, to sway workers against the union.
