Two dozen Culinary Union members were detained during civil disobedience near Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas as contract negotiations with airport food vendors stalled. The Culinary and Bartenders unions represent hospitality workers across 21 airport outlets — cooks, bartenders, servers, porters, fast-food workers. The key issues: workers have not received raises in three…

The Center for American Progress just modeled what would happen if the United States adopted sectoral bargaining — a system that sets minimum standards across an industry while still allowing workplace-level negotiations to build on those standards. The conclusion: more than double the share of U.S. workers would be covered by collective bargaining agreements. For…

The NLRB just ordered Kuraray America to bargain with a unit of lab analysts it refused to recognize. The case is a textbook run of the “technical refusal to bargain” playbook. Last October, lab analysts at Kuraray’s La Porte, Texas plant voted in a self-determination election to join an existing production and maintenance unit represented…

A new Commonwealth Foundation report tallied the political spending of the four largest public-sector unions — NEA, AFT, SEIU, and AFSCME — during the 2024 election cycle. The number: $915 million combined. 86% of it ($650 million) came from member dues. For context, the four unions’ combined political spending was up significantly from $708 million…

Last week the Board hit a Puerto Rico janitorial contractor with an 8(a)(5) violation for the most avoidable mistake in labor law: ignoring a union information request. Per the decision (OS-DB-JV-2, LLC, 374 NLRB No. 115), SEIU Local 1996 emailed the employer in February 2024 asking for payroll records, work schedules, and holiday/vacation/sick pay data…

A new Board decision out of Illinois is the closest thing to a “How-Not-To” manual employers will see all year. Per the NLRB (Atlantic American Fire Protection Co., 374 NLRB No. 114), Sprinkler Fitters Local 281 won an election 10-1 at a small Elgin sprinkler shop in December 2022. Within two weeks, the owner had…