Hilary Russ

NEW YORK (Reuters] – A rise in the number of high-profile union organizations across the United States has been attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic as well as the labor shortage and Black Lives Matter movement. On Friday, Amazon’s victory attracted national attention.

Amazon would require union negotiators to continue negotiations with them over issues such as pay and work conditions at their New York City warehouse.

Not all labor drives succeed, even the preliminary results of a ballot counting of Amazon warehouse workers from Alabama.

Just 10.3% of U.S. salary and wage workers were members of a union in 2021. This is half the number of 1983. In contrast, 6.1% of private sector union membership – which includes Amazon and Starbucks (NASDAQ): – was only 6.1% in 2020.

The total number of union elections held in January/February this year was 149, as compared to 103 the previous two months in 2021. Below are some noteworthy recent wins in union elections:

AMAZON: Workers at Amazon.com’s (NASDAQ) Staten Island facility voted Friday in favor of creating a union. This makes it the first U.S.-based facility to form a union.

Labor activists have been pushing for new industries with recent successes, such as the victory of a separate union at America’s second largest private employer.

STARBUCKS – Employees of nine Starbucks stores in the United States voted recently to become Workers United. Workers United is an affiliate union of Service Employees International Union. There are five unionized Starbucks locations in Buffalo, New York. Two in Mesa, Arizona. One each in Seattle and Knoxville.

Another 150 people also have filed petitions for election. In the coming weeks, ballot counts will be conducted at more than 12 cafes.

In one Buffalo location, the company defeated the union.

NEW YORK TIMES – More than 600 engineers, designers and data analysts at the news service voted March for the NewsGuild of New York. This group won a variety of elections during the previous two years.

These results resulted in the creation of the largest tech worker union in America with collective bargaining rights. NewsGuild is also the U.S. journalist representation of Reuters.

GOOGLE FIEBER – Last week, contractors for high-speed internet provider Google Fiber in Kansas City voted to unionize. Despite only 10 workers being involved, this was the first Alphabet Workers Union (AWU) to have bargaining rights.

AWU states that it counts 800 members as of its launch just more than a year ago. However, these members are not entitled to bargain collectively.

CANNABIS INDUSTRY – On June 23, the United Food and Commercial Workers and CannaCraft Manufacturing, reached agreements to unify their Californian workers.

Union drives have increased in popularity as dispensaries and growers have become more common. UFCW is now the largest union of cannabis workers in the country, with over 10,000 members.

SILICON Valley – Kickstarter employees in 2020 voted for union membership, making it the first large tech company to do this. Mapbox workers lost their August bid to form union in the face of opposition from other location data startups.