On this edition of Your Call, we discuss the continued wave of organizing across the country, from Starbucks to major airports.
University of California postdoctoral employees and academic researchers returned to work on Monday after ratifying a new contract, but 36,000 academic student employees and student researchers are still on strike.
A coalition of business and restaurant trade groups say they have enough signatures for a ballot measure that would overturn California's Fast Recovery Act, a law that gives fast-food workers two seats on a 10-person council to decide wages, hours, and working conditions. The groundbreaking law could raise wages to $22 an hour. It’s the first of its kind bill in the country.
We’ll also discuss President Biden's decision to sign a bill blocking a nationwide rail worker strike.
Guests:
Steven Greenhouse, former labor reporter for the New York Times, senior fellow at the Century Foundation, and author of Beaten Down, Worked Up: The Past, Present & Future of American Labor
Kenzo Esquivel, head steward of UAW Local 2865, agroecology student, and graduate student researcher at UC Berkeley's department of Environmental Science, Policy & Management
Sandro Flores Avonce, organizer with Fight for $15, fast food worker, and Cal State Los Angeles graduate
Web Resources:
The New York Times: University of California Academic Workers Partly End Strike
The Nation: I’m a Rail Worker, and Biden Screwed Us
The New Republic: The Culture Workers Go on Strike
The Intercept: The railroad fight was the product of eight years of militant rank-and-file organizing
The Los Angeles Times: Fast-food industry pushes to halt AB 257, a California law that could raise worker wages
The City: The Other New York Times Workers On Strike
Axios: The year labor organizing came to tech
The Washington Post: New penalties for companies that illegally fire workers who unionize
