The union behind Starbucks workers’ remarkably successful union drive is celebrating as a group of seven workers known as the “Memphis Seven” have been reinstated after the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ruled that they were illegally fired by the company. According to Starbucks Workers United, the workers have all returned to their jobs at the now-unionized store as of Saturday, a “triumphant” win for the union, it said. In February, Starbucks fired a group of workers at a unionizing store in Memphis, Tennessee, who the union said made up nearly the entirety of the organizing committee at the store.…
Tennessee
Tennessee Abortion Clinics Grapple With Uncertainty as SCOTUS Decision Looms
Corinne Rovetti is worried about what will happen to the Knoxville Center for Reproductive Health if the Supreme Court overturns the constitutional right to abortion. The clinic, where she has worked for 33 years helping people across a four-state region, could close. “We’re unsure if we’ll be able to maintain services at all,” said Rovetti, who is the co-director and a nurse practitioner at KCRH, which provides medication abortions and abortion procedures, as well as gynecological and family planning services. Each year, the center provides abortion services to 1,300 to 1,400 patients, including people from Kentucky, Georgia, and Virginia. The…
Federal Judge Strikes Down Tennessee’s Anti-Trans Bathroom Rule for Businesses
A federal judge has struck down an anti-trans law in Tennessee that required business owners offering inclusive restroom options to put up signage using decidedly non-inclusive language. House Bill 1182 was signed into law one year ago, and went into effect on July 1, 2021. One week after that, Bob Bernstein, the owner of a restaurant in Nashville called “Fido,” filed a lawsuit alongside the ACLU of Tennessee. Bernstein’s restaurant allows patrons to decide for themselves which restroom they feel most comfortable using. However, the notice that the new law required all businesses to post would suggest that his establishment…
Tennessee Republicans Push a Bill That Would Circumvent Marriage Age Limits
Republicans in Tennessee are pushing a bill through the GOP-controlled legislature that would establish an “alternative form of marriage,” creating a class of common-law marriage that would be limited to heterosexual people and circumvent age limits. The bill, HB 233, would make it so that children of any age could be married. The bill’s main sponsor, Republican state Rep. Tom Leatherwood, told WKRN that the bill would create “an alternative form of marriage for those pastors and other individuals who have a conscientious objection to the current pathway to marriage in our law.” He has confirmed that “[t]here is not…