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By Pete Meyers, on June 30th, 2011
The world’s largest hair salon corporation, Regis/Cost Cutters, agrees to remove “Yellow Dog Contracts” it forced workers to sign and to provide Notices and a DVD recording informing employees of their rights
(Ithaca, NY) The National Labor Relations Board has settled unfair labor practice charges against Minneapolis-based Regis Corporation which operates some 10,000 hair salons with over 57,000 workers nationwide, including three Regis Corporation salons in the Ithaca area. The Tompkins County Workers’ Center/JwJ, representing two Cost Cutters’ (one of Regis’ 34 ‘brands’) workers, filed the charges in 2010.
The settlement requires Regis to remove all the “Yellow Dog Agreements” it forced workers to sign from its files. These agreements, called by Regis “Protection of Secret Vote Agreements” and signed by workers during 2009-10, were written promises by workers that any union authorization cards they might sign in the future were null and void. This was deemed illegal by the NLRB.
The settlement also requires Regis to post a NLRB notice at all of its store locations nationwide describing for workers their rights to union representation and the commitment of Regis to respect these rights. This same notice will also be recorded by an agent of the
Continue reading Tompkins Workers’ Center Wins Major Workers Rights Case Against World’s Largest Hair Salon Chain
By rand wilson, on May 11th, 2011
Comcast’s “Easy Pay” locations throughout Massachusetts were visited on May 11 by their customers and local community leaders concerned about the company’s treatment of its employees and lack of respect for workers’ rights.
Customers and community activists are disturbed about Comcast management’s refusal to discuss wages and working conditions with the majority of workers at its Fairhaven and Fall River, Massachusetts garages who freely decided to form a union with IBEW Local 2322 last fall.
“The workers at these garages have exercised their basic rights to form a union and have requested that management begin good faith negotiations with them,” said Eric Hetrick. “Giant corporations like Comcast should respect their civic and moral duty to comply with the law and our community’s values.”
The “day of action” coincided with Comcast’s Annual Shareholders meeting in Philadelphia.
“While the top bosses are celebrating their huge profits in Philly, community leaders are delivering letters asking local managers to communicate our concerns,” said Russ Davis, director of Massachusetts Jobs with Justice. “We need this company to respect workers’ rights and begin negotiations for the good jobs that our communities need.”
Jobs with Justice is one of the groups organizing visits to more than 45
Continue reading MA JwJ spearheads customer campaign to raise concerns about Comcast’s respect for workers’ rights
By jwjnational, on March 26th, 2011
Sarita Gupta joins Maine State Representative Diane Russell with Lara Flanders on GritTV to discuss the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire and parallels that workers and our communities are facing today.
More GRITtv
By jwjnational, on February 18th, 2011
 In this still-struggling economy, Indiana needs one thing: more good jobs. But instead of focusing on finding ways to create good jobs, politicians have turned their attention to political payback to the corporate CEOs who spent more than $1 billion on the November elections. We need Indiana residents to ACT NOW.
A “Right to Work” bill is slated for a hearing on Monday morning in Indiana. Earlier this week, several anti-worker bills moved out of committee at the Indiana state house (see below). More anti-worker bills are expected to be rolled out in the coming weeks.
We need your URGENT ACTION to let our politicians know that we won’t let them roll back the clock on workers’ rights.
- Send a message to your legislators
- Can you come to the State House next week? Help recruit religious leaders? Talk to the media? Offer someone a couch to sleep on in Indianapolis? Please let us know how you can help.
Take action and urge your representatives to OPPOSE these anti-worker bills:
Amendments to HB 1585 that prohibit state employee collective bargaining as a matter
Continue reading Hoosiers: ACT NOW to Stop the Attacks on Indiana’s Workers!
By MaryBe McMillan, on August 30th, 2010
 Forty-seven years after the 1963 March on Washington, the union movement and our allies are preparing for our own march in October. Under the banner of One Nation Working Together, union members, civil rights activists and other concerned citizens will rally in support of good jobs, a quality education for every child, immigration reform and workers’ freedom to form a union. Our rallying cry is that we must reverse the dangerous trend toward greater income inequality and finally create an economy that works for all.
To achieve that goal and to become a truly united nation working together, leaders of the One Nation coalition partners—particularly our nation’s labor leaders—could learn a valuable lesson from that earlier march on Washington: The road to justice and equality must go through the South.
During the 1963 march, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. eloquently illustrated this point when he said:
“Let freedom ring from the mountains of New York… Pennsylvania…. Colorado…. California. But not only that: Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia…. from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee….f rom every hill and molehill of Mississippi….let freedom ring.”
Civil rights leaders knew the only
Continue reading Opinion: Workers Who Win the South Change the Nation
By Margaret Butler, on April 28th, 2010
 Last night, just a few miles away from Nike’s global headquarters, two Honduran workers spoke out strongly about how Nike’s destructive labor practices have hurt them, their families and their co-workers. Gina Cano and Lowlee Urquía testified in front of members of the Portland Area Workers’ Rights Board and a crowd of more than 100 community members.
Both women had worked in Nike-contracted factories for many years in Honduras before being laid off without notice, and without legally mandated severance pay in January 2009. “We’re here in Oregon, the home of Nike, because we want to put a face to the consequences of Nike’s behavior”, said Lowlee Urquía. “We’re saying to Nike that it is responsible every step of the way.”
The two women represented over 1,700 workers who are owed $2.2 million in severance pay. The workers are also owed health care premiums, which were deducted from their wages but never paid to the health care system. This meant that workers could not access health care in the four months before the closure. At least one worker, who had been receiving cancer treatment, died because of this denial of care,
Continue reading Honduran Workers Demand $2.2 Million from Nike at Portland Area Workers’ Rights Board Hearing
By rand wilson, on October 26th, 2009
By Steve Early and Rand Wilson
Twenty years ago, 60,000 workers from New York City to Maine rallied against healthcare cost-shifting at the telecom giant then known as NYNEX (since “rebranded” as Verizon).
NYNEX was a very profitable, multinational company seeking to capitalize on a demoralizing decade of lost strikes, contract givebacks and widespread unionbusting. At a time when many workers were forced to make concessions, NYNEX strikers held the line for four months and emerged victorious. They successfully resisted the company’s demand that they pay hundreds and eventually thousands of dollars a year for medical benefits. But this singular union win didn’t come cheap. Customer service was disrupted by the work stoppage, resulting in tens of millions of dollars worth of lost wages. Hundreds of strikers were arrested, fired or suspended–and one, Gerry Horgan, was killed on a picket line in Westchester County.
In every other advanced industrial nation, the contentious issue of who pays for medical care was taken off the bargaining table long ago. And no worker would ever lose his or her life defending job-based private health insurance.
To this day, members of the Communications Workers of America (CWA) and the International Brotherhood of Electrical
Continue reading Why the Health Insurance Excise Tax Is a Bad Idea
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