It’s Friday, and we have five labor-related stories that you might not have heard yet:
🌿 Cannabis labor peace agreements create legal smoke:
The pushback continues against several states’ mandates that cannabis employers enter into Labor Peace Agreements (LPAs), under which they agree to remain neutral during union organizing campaigns. UFCW has aggressively lobbied for states to adopt LPAs, and one employer is now sounding the alarm on “the commercial equivalent of the death penalty.”
Curaleaf Holdings has sued New Jersey regulators over the licensing requirement to obtain LPAs before operating in a state. As an employer, the company alleges that this requirement violates the NLRA and cannot be federally enforced. In Curaleaf’s case, their LPA with the UFCW expired in April, with no renewal agreement between the two sides reached yet.
🧠⚙️ AI worker burnout, straight ahead:
By now, you have probably heard about the “996” work-schedule trend that birthed in China and has taken root with the San Francisco tech circuit. The Washington Post recently detailed the Silicon Valley crowd’s adoption of the 72-hour workweek embraced by AI startups in their race to do “great things” via 9 am to 9 pm workdays, six days per week.
The lifestyle pitch appears to cater to younger tech workers who are game to live in “hacker houses,” where holding 1:00 a.m. meetings is not unusual. If that wasn’t enough, the Wall Street Journal reported that some AI startups are edging into 100-hour workweeks in an effort to beat the competition. Yet if these arrangements become industry expectations, it’s easy to see how this “movement” could fuel unionization in tech.
As usual, too much additional AI-related news has surfaced this week, including of an AI-fueled construction boom brewing to build data centers.
🌐🩺 Those H-1B visa fees are hitting business:
President Trump’s executive order (EO) establishing a $100,000 H-1B visa fee on certain specialty hires received more clarification from the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services. The fee will only apply to new applicants who don’t already work in the U.S., and exceptions exist for groups including international students who already live stateside and workers who held H-1B visas issued before Sept. 21, 2025.
At present, no exemption has been carved out for the healthcare field, which could put further strain on rural hospitals where staffing remains especially dire. Additionally, Walmart paused offers to candidates who would require H-1B visas, which presents the question of how much disruption Trump’s EO will create for private industry workforces.
🚘 Chattanooga UAW members don’t sound too thrilled right now:
The UAW’s first win at a Southern auto plant went down in April 2024 and hasn’t produced a contract yet. Last week, Volkswagen made its “last, best, and final offer” public since the union declined to do so, and now, the pressure is on to see if the UAW would accept the 25% wage increase over four years, a “first-ever” COLA clause, and a $4,000 ratification bonus with a $1,500 cherry on top if ratified by Oct. 31. Oh, and an 8% attendance bonus? Some union members are into it.
The Chattanooga Times Free Press quoted several workers who are more than ready to call the deal done. One worker even claimed, “We’re not being heard. The majority of the people on these floors at work want this contract, but we’re being told we’re not allowed to make that choice. They are pretty much taking our voice away.” Another worker went further in criticizing the union: “I feel like there’s been a lot of greed in the process.”
Meanwhile, the UAW announced a strike vote for Oct. 28-29.
✈️ Machinists send Boeing’s latest offer into the sky:
IAM’s St. Louis strike is fast approaching the three-month mark after union members rejected a 5-year deal with a 24% wage increase and $4,000 signing bonus. This week, the two sides went back to the bargaining table with no apparent progress made. Boeing revised its offer to add a 1.5% general wage increase along with a 2.5% lump sum in year four for top-paid workers. The company also offered $3,000 in stock units while splitting the previously offered ratification bonus between years.
How did the Machinists respond? Despite the presence of a federal mediator for these talks, the union refused to bring the offer to a vote, so 3,200 workers, who manufacture military aircraft along with composite parts for the aerospace company’s 777X line of planes, will remain on strike.
In late breaking news, the two sides will go back to the bargaining table next week.
