Organizers hope to collect more than 2,700 pledges by year end, enough to convince a national union to initiate a formal petition for representation through the National Labor Relations Board. The fledgling effort has so far convinced 98 employees to “take the union pledge” online. They’re trying to form a bargaining unit of 4,500 employees, seeking $30 in hourly pay, 180 paid vacation hours per year and the right to be represented at employee disciplinary meetings. Ritze is one of about two dozen founding members of Unionize Amazon KCVG. “I think through COVID people realized their worth.” “Working people have had enough,” said Ritze, a tug driver at the Amazon Air Hub in Hebron, Ky. He thinks thousands of his co-workers are ready too. After nearly two years as an Amazon employee, Griffin Ritze is ready for a change. Matt Austin who owns Austin Legal, LLC, a boutique law firm based in Ohio that limits its representation to employers dealing with labor, employment, and OSHA matters.HEBRON, Ky. This customer alleged that his reputation in the neighborhood had been diminished, neighbors and family members questioned whether he had a gambling addition or problem, and one neighbor stopped doing business with him since the leafletting commenced.Īccording to the judge, there is no doubt that the union illegally tried to coerce casino patrons from going to the casino. The leaflets described him and his wife as being regular customers of the casino.

The union refused to leave until the owners threatened to call the police to intervene.įor another example, the union members distributed leaflets to neighbors within a block of one of the casino’s patrons. For example, the union entered a restaurant owned by casino patrons and began questioning the restaurant’s customers about the casino habits of the owners. Here, the union frequently visited customers of the casino at their homes and businesses. According to the judge, Unite Here went way over that line. Constitution and an illegal secondary boycott. A fine line exists between free speech protected by the First Amendment of the U.S. A secondary boycott is a tactic used by unions to stop a neutral third party (casino customers) from doing business with the target of the union’s labor dispute (the casino). Part of the organizing strategy was to harass customers of the casino at their homes and businesses through a secondary boycott. Unite Here tried to organize workers at an Indiana casino to join the union.

Casino union organizing strategy