NEWS: Amazon spent more than $14.2 million on anti-union consultants last year, new Labor Department filings show.

I've never seen another company disclose spending anywhere close to that in a single year.
huffpost.com/entry/amazon-a… These days employers typically pay around $3,200 per day, plus expenses, for each anti-union consultant on the job. That's ~20 times the daily pay that many Amazon warehouse workers start out at.

BREAKING: The Labor Dept has released some horrifying findings in its child labor investigation in meatpacking plants.

They say Packers Sanitation employed *at least 102 kids* as young as 13 across 8 states. Minors cleaned 'back saws, brisket saws and head splitters.' [deleted initial tweet that said kids operated such machines -- they were cleaning them with hazardous chemicals. sorry for the error.]

BREAKING: In a rare bipartisan win, the Senate just voted to include the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act in the omnibus spending package. The amendment passed 73 to 24.

This has been a years-long fight to guarantee basic accommodations for pregnant workers. It's a very big deal. There's a separate vote coming up that would expand the right to pump breast milk at work to millions of additional workers. If that passes as well, then the omnibus would be landmark workers rights legislation.

Some labor news today: The @MLBPA just announced they are joining the @AFLCIO. That’s right, they were not an affiliate until now. Tony Clark says they’ve reflected a lot on the shortened 2020 season and the lockout and how to be “part of the broader labor discussion.” This would be one of the smallest unions in the AFL-CIO but of course one of the best known. Joining the federation puts the players union in a formal alliance with unions like UNITE HERE, which represents thousands of ballpark concessions workers who were hurt by the lockout.

Some big Starbucks news: The labor board just issued a huge complaint saying the company broke labor law by firing workers, closing stores and surveilling pro-union workers in the Buffalo area, where the union campaign began last year huffpost.com/entry/starbuck… Among the many charges: Starbucks illegally fired six workers; promised benefits if workers opposed the union; monitored employees' conversations; interrogated workers about the union; selectively enforced work rules against union supporters; and closed stores as retaliation.

NEW: Starbucks is NOT happy with Biden's meeting y'day with union leaders that included @SBWorkersUnited. The company wants its own meet-and-greet: "We are deeply concerned that Workers United was invited... while not inviting official Starbucks representatives."

Letter to WH: IMO this right here is what Biden was getting at when he apparently told @Shut_downAmazon that he'd gotten the president in trouble. These union campaigns and their public support are pressuring the White House to take a stand, and companies like Starbucks aren't gonna like it.

BREAKING: Disclosure filings show Amazon spent *$4.3 million* on anti-union consultants last year in an effort to defeat organizing campaigns. That's an enormous sum for a single year of union avoidance work. huffpost.com/entry/amazon-a… Amazon waited until pretty much the last minute to file this (it's required at the end of the 1st quarter the following year, i.e., today). They certainly would not have wanted this public ahead of workers voting in elections in Alabama and NY. The filing: big.assets.huffingtonpost.com/athena/files/2…

We're through the first 200 ballots in the Amazon BHM1 union election, and it's a dead tie, 100-100. Roughly 2,000 ballots total to get through, so a long way to go. Union thought this one would be closer. So far, it is. OK we’re through the first 431 ballots in the Amazon BHM1 union election, and the no votes lead 231-200. If it stays this close we may not know the results for weeks, since the unopened challenged ballots could come into play.

The vote count is about to start for the Starbucks union election in Mesa AZ. If @SBWorkersUnited gets a majority of votes then this will be the third store to unionize (after two in Buffalo), with 100+ other petitions pending. ~30 workers at this store, so count won't take long. There are 31 ballots total. The eligibility of three ballots has been challenged by either the union or the company and will be set aside, unopened, for now. If the union can get 16 ballots they will have it. If they get less and it's close, election may hinge on the challenges.

Starbucks has lost yet again at the labor board in their quest to stop a union election vote count. Ballots will be tallied for the Mesa AZ store at a date TBD. Ballots are scheduled to be counted at three NY stores at 1 pm today but not without another NLRB decision by then. Here is a link to the board’s rejection of Starbucks’ arguments, which could grease the wheels for these vote counts to happen faster: apps.nlrb.gov/link/document.…

Some news: OSHA has informed S.C., Ariz., and Utah that they intend to take over workplace safety enforcement in those states, b/c the states haven't implemented COVID safety regs for health care workers. It's a big deal, and a preview of the looming vax fight. I'll explain. 1/x States can handle workplace safety on their own, so long as they meet basic requirements. A lot of these "state plans" have lax enforcement, and employers like it that way. Fed OSHA says these 3 (GOP-governor-run) states are ignoring Biden's new COVID rule for health care. 2/x

A spox for the studios (AMPTP) tells me they have reached a deal with IATSE, confirming Deadline's report. Union source tells me they have reached a deal on the basic agreement (i.e., workers in L.A.) but not on area standards (i.e., workers outside L.A.) The basic agreement is the big one, but bear in mind these were two separate strike authorization votes. IATSE says more info coming from their end soon.

BREAKING: ~10,000 John Deere workers officially on strike as of midnight central time 10/14, per @UAW Full statement from the union here. "Our members at John Deere strike for the ability to earn a decent living, retire with dignity and establish fair work rules." uaw.org/uaw-members-jo…

Here we go: Biden’s new general counsel at the NLRB, Jennifer Abruzzo, has just released a memo arguing that college athletes are workers eligible to unionize. She also says misleading them to believe otherwise is a violation of the NLRA. Full memo: big.assets.huffingtonpost.com/athena/files/2… Abruzzo says she will pursue cases against schools that misclassify players as "student-athletes," on the grounds that it creates a chilling effect and discourages them from asserting their rights. So I suspect we'll be hearing that phrase a lot less from presidents and AD's:

Should be interesting to see how OSHA enforces a nationwide vaccine mandate that applies to 80 million workers. Due to chronic understaffing it would currently take the agency ~160 years to inspect every workplace under its purview. There is one inspector for every 83,000 workers Those figures come from the AFL-CIO’s latest Death on the Job report, which every year details how Congress has allowed OSHA to wither: aflcio.org/reports/death-…

Amazon union election update: The period of ballot challenges is over, the count will come next. Per the union there were 3,215 ballots received. 5,805 went out. That’s a participation rate of ~55%. Much higher than organizers previously told me they expected. What does the higher-than-expected turnout mean for the union? Well, if a lot of those people voted ‘yes,’ that’s good for the union. If they voted ‘no,’ then that’s bad for the union. Guess what I’m saying is don’t read too much into the turnout.

Talking with Amazon workers in Alabama, I was surprised at how many had union experience themselves or in their families. My dispatch on how Birmingham’s union past is shaping this campaign, and testing (false) preconceptions about labor and the South huffpost.com/entry/amazon-b… I'd been reaching out to a lot of Amazon workers not involved in the campaign, to get a clearer view of things. The first one I spoke to said she was voting yes partly because her grandmother urged her to. A long time ago grandma had a union job at the phone company.

When I was in Alabama I hung out with a guy who’d driven from Oregon just to help the union’s Amazon campaign. No arrangement, just showed up. He volunteered his video skills then was hired. There’s a lot of that — just an eagerness to pitch in from all over. Really something. There were volunteers who came down from Boston as well. No arrangement. They just asked how they can help. Organizers took them out to lunch, probably to check their motives. Then they let them help. Knock on doors, pass out fliers at the ballgame. It is a unique thing happening

I just spent three days in Bessemer AL where the Amazon union election is happening. There’s a ton of interest in this election -- the biggest in ~20 years -- so I want to share some observations and let you all know where things stand. (thread) This is an unusually long 7-week mail-in election for 5,800 Amazon workers, with two weeks left to go. Organizers expect maybe 40% participation. Back of the napkin suggests thousands of workers still have ballots out there, hence the hard campaigning on both sides

I’ve seen a bunch of viral tweets about boycotting Amazon in solidarity with the warehouse workers in Alabama. To be clear, the union involved in the election @RWDSU has NOT called for a boycott and has nothing to do with this, a spokesperson confirms. Boycotts are serious business. They are carefully deliberated within unions. Less so on Twitter!

BREAKING: The labor board has denied Amazon's request to stop the union election from going forward at its Alabama warehouse. Ballots are scheduled to go out in the mail Monday morning. This thing is on. Amazon asked the board to review its case arguing that the election should happen in-person *during a full-blown pandemic*. In a two-sentence order the board said it found "no substantial issues warranting review." Amazon's motion to stay also denied.