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On the picket line
McDonald’s workers win settlement
In Los Angeles, between April and August 2020, workers at a McDonald’s complained about inadequate protection from COVID, including lack of social distancing and forcible exposure to customers who refused to wear masks. Following strikes to protest these unsafe working conditions, McDonald’s management retaliated by firing several workers.
On the fired workers’ behalf, Service Employees Union Local 721 filed a letter with the California Labor Commissioner’s Retaliation Complaint Investigation Unit. The Labor Commission’s judgment requires McDonald’s to pay more than $125,900 in lost wages and retaliation penalties and orders that management offer the workers their jobs back.
Letter to the editor: Health care union busting has long history nationally, in Portland
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Modern labor struggles frequently witness use of legal consultants hired to ensure a “union-free environment.” By 1979 such legal consultants had become a major industry in the nation, with annual sales of well over a half-billion dollars.
Labor union records of the period indicated that out of 6,000 organizing campaigns, two-thirds of them witnessed some form of outside anti-union experts. A dramatic glimpse of such wholesale legal activity to weaken unions was reflected in the fact that the firm Modern Management Methods, Inc. provided anti-union legal consultants in 500 organizing drives by labor in 1978-1979. Some estimates indicate that more than 100 firms and 1,500 individuals were engaged on a full-time or part-time basis in union-busting activity.
Governor Janet Mills spoke out this week about a Portland hospital s decision to use Maine COVID-19 vaccines to protect out-of-state contractors.
MaineHealth offered the vaccine to consultants who came to Maine for an informational session, according to the hospital. WMTW-TV says the employees of Reliant Labor Consultants were brought to Maine just as the nurses at the hospital were considering a strike. MaineHealth has since acknowledged that they offered the vaccine, as part of providing it to all frontline workers in their hospital.
Governor Janet Mills released a statement on Tuesday, condemning the decision by MaineHealth, calling it an inexcusable act. She said we have a limited supply and so must prioritize its distribution to those most in need. At this point, that includes frontline workers and people over 70, who are most at risk of complications.