Labor News & Commentary February 8, 2024 judges order Starbucks to reinstate unlawfully-dismissed, pro-union employees

https://onlabor.org/february-8-2024/

By Divya Nimmagadda

Divya Nimmagadda is a student at Harvard Law School.

In today’s labor news: SEIU president announces plans to step down and judges order Starbucks to reinstate unlawfully-dismissed, pro-union employees.

Mary Kay Henry has been president of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) for fourteen years and was the first women elected to the position. The SEIU has a membership of almost two million workers across the healthcare, public sector and property services industries. Her leadership was instrumental in the “Fight for $15” campaign which sought to organize fast-food workers and advocate towards an industry-wide $15 minimum wage. This initiative has been credited with enacting wage changes in major cities, including Chicago and New York, and the discussion in some states, like California, has progressed beyond the original ideal to a $20 minimum.

Related to this theme of industry-centric changes, in 2019, Henry introduced the “Unions for All” campaign. This vision elevated the concept of sectoral organizing where labor activism, instead of organizing employer-by-employer, is focused on creating unions across industries, and sometimes across geographies. This approach, common in many European countries, is beginning to gain traction in the U.S. with the creation of some state-wide councils to set sector-wide health, safety and/or wage standards in the fast-food and healthcare industries. Many political candidates, including Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren and Pete Buttegieg, incorporated aspects of “Unions for All” into their platforms.

The union will elect Henry’s successor through a delegate vote at the quadrennial convention in May.

FULL story at link above.