The Amalgamated Transit Union has successfully secured enough signatures from the 14,000 ridesharing drivers working for Uber and Lyft in New York to trigger an official vote on union representation. This comes after Uber, attempting to head off official union organization, formed the Independent Drivers Guild, a non-union group, with the Freelancers Union. Uber maintains that its drivers are independent contractors, and thus cannot unionize under federal labor law.
Workers at Boulder Station Casino in Las Vegas voted in favor of representation by the Culinary Workers Union Local 226. The bargaining unit is comprised of approximately 570 employees, ranging from food and beverage service workers to housekeepers.
Two union elections at charter schools in Pennsylvania and New York had opposite results. Workers at the Pennsylvania Virtual Charter School voted in favor of representation by the Pennsylvania State Education Association, while staff at Hyde Leadership Charter School in New York voted against representation by the United Federation of Teachers.
Membership in the American Council of Employees at Volkswagen’s plant in Tennessee has fallen below the required threshold for regular meetings with management. The group, which initially represented about 15 percent of the plant's workforce, was formed as an “alternative” to the United Auto Workers. The UAW has referred to ACE as an “anti-union” group, and continues to maintain its recognition at the plant after an election last year.
Comcast NBCUniversal producers voted for union representation by the Writers Guild of America East. The election occurred in 2013, but the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB or Board) impounded the votes until the Board’s recent ruling that the workers were eligible for unionization. NBCUniversal had argued that the producers were supervisors, and thus not covered by the NLRA.
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka stated that unions will have an “easy task” organizing graduate research and teaching assistants at private universities following a ruling by the NLRB involving graduate research and teaching assistants at Columbia University.
