Museum of History and Industry workers are unionizing: Workers at Seattle’s premier local history museum announced yesterday they intend to join the Communication Workers of America, citing “opacity in decision making and ineffective leadership from executive management, lack of benefits for part time and on-call workers, chronic understaffing, unsustainable workloads, minimal professional development or training, and wage stagnation despite rising living costs and unmet promises of improvement.”
In addition, “Workers report that trust in senior leadership, as well as staff morale, has steadily declined as major hiring decisions and organizational changes have been made with little to no staff input. They further allege that workers who have raised concerns around ethics, staff capacity, and institutional sustainability, have experienced retaliation.”
Employees walk out at Washington’s largest employer (which is Washington): As promised, Washington’s unionized state workers walked out en masse yesterday in protest of the state refusing to raise wages during recent rounds of contract negotiations. Governor Bob Ferguson pledged not to raise taxes and instead cut costs heading into an economic slump to cover the rising cost of state services. This is austerity spiraling 101, but there’s someone he forgot to ask…