UE NEWS Updates

On August 3, 2023 Local 770 member David Disbrow died from an ongoing health condition while performing regular job duties at his workstation at Hendrickson Suspension, a manufacturing facility for medium and heavy-duty mechanical vehicle suspensions. While there is no evidence that working conditions contributed directly to Dave’s death, the company’s inadequate response to his passing did not honor Dave or protect his coworkers. Steward Tony Lowry said, “There was only one garbled announcement, at first no one knew what was going on. Now everyone is asking, ‘will the company do the same thing if this happens to me at work?’”

Members of UE Local 234 who manufacture precision scales in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom opened their contract in May, securing larger wage increases than the local has seen in over a generation. Management had approached the union about a wage re-opener, but the local insisted on taking advantage of the leverage workers have in the current economy to negotiate a new contract which will go through October 2025.

The new four-year contract between amalgamated UE Local 203 and the Flynn Regional Box Office boosted wages to $17 per hour when it went into effect on July 1, representing a double-digit percentage increase for workers who previously made between $15 and $15.50. Wages will increase to $17.68, $18.21, and $18.76 in the second, third and fourth years of the agreement.

Thousands of Stanford graduate workers wrapped up the 2022-2023 academic year with a record-breaking vote to unionize under the UE banner. The newly formed Stanford Graduate Workers Union broke UE's record for the most cards signed on the first day of a campaign (2,571) and is the first graduate union to complete a card drive and NLRB election in the same quarter. Hundreds of student organizers volunteered their time and energy for this campaign - turning out friends and colleagues to vote, phonebanking, texting, and tabling on campus.