Posts tagged 401(k)
Boeing and IAM announce new contract vote on Nov 4
November 1, 2024 // With the assistance of Secretary of Labor Julie Su, the International Association of Machinist (IAM) 751 & W24 will be allowing its 33,000 members on Monday, November 4, to vote on an updated contract offer by Boeing with hopes to ending a 49-day strike that has cost billions of dollars in lost revenue.
Boeing Strike Is a Hot Mess. The Union Has Risk, Too.
October 29, 2024 // “The biggest change I’ve seen [recently] is it’s become cool among younger people to be part of a union,” says Jacobs. “It’s been decades since that’s been true…it’s a form of activism, it’s a form of progressive political behavior and that’s something I’ve never seen before.”
Opinion: What Buc-ee’s Can Teach Us About the Port Strike
October 12, 2024 // They care most about sheer numbers, from which both union dues and political power—and thus the leaders’ incredibly high salaries—are derived. So, they’ll fight like hell to keep the people they have, even as doing so contradicts not only the economics—and real-world lessons like Buc-ee’s—but also our current labor market reality, in which workers, not jobs, are increasingly scarce. In that world, it makes oodles of sense to embrace automation and other productivity enhancements, whether at the ports or anywhere else, and any other benefits are just the barbecue sauce on top. In the union’s world, however, the system’s working perfectly, and the government-protected sauce already flows.
Machinists’ strike could cost Boeing $1 billion a month, estimate suggests
October 10, 2024 // Right now, Boeing is graded a BBB- on the S&P scale, meaning the company has "adequate capacity to meet financial commitments," but is "more subject to adverse economic conditions." With the strike nearing the end of its first month with no end in sight, the financial analysis company could downgrade the aerospace manufacturer to a BB rating, meaning it faces "major ongoing uncertainties to adverse business, financial and economic conditions." This would drop the company below an investment-grade rating. In a statement sent Tuesday night, Boeing COO Stephanie Pope said the strike has "deeply affected our business, our customers and our communities," but said the company remains committed to reaching an agreement with machinists that "recognizes our employees and preserves our company's future." Pope alleged that during the latest negotiations the union made demands "far in excess of what can be accepted if we are to remain competitive."
Op-Ed: Biden’s Longshoreman Strike
October 3, 2024 // American ports are less efficient than most in the world owing to union work rules and restrictions on automation.
Textron Aviation workers go on strike after rejecting company’s offer
September 24, 2024 // If the strikes continue over a month, issues could form in the supply chains. Other workers who talked to KSN on Monday after the strike began say the negotiations were helpful but did not go far enough. “The negotiations got pretty far, said Troy Greene, who is also a shop steward. “There were some things in the deal that were pretty good. But we decided to hold out and get what we think we deserve.”
Boeing union members are angry they lost their pension plan. They’re not likely to get it back
September 24, 2024 // But the fact is that the traditional pension plans, once a staple of the retirement of many workers, have become exceedingly rare in the modern American workplace. And once a company drops traditional pensions plans to shift employees to a 401(k) type of retirement account, they are almost always gone for good. While other unions have also sought to have lost pension plans restored, as the United Auto Workers union did during its successful strike at General Motors, Ford and Stellantis last fall, no American union has ever succeeded in bringing them back. Even though the auto strike produced a deal with record pay raises and other gains for the UAW, it did not restore pension plans to workers hired since 2007.
Boeing locks out its firefighters amid union fight for pay
May 6, 2024 // Boeing officially locked out 125 of its Washington firefighters after the firefighter's union failed to come to an agreement with Boeing after two-and-a-half months of negotiations, primarily over pay. This is the first time in over four decades that a group of firefighters have been on a lock out in the U.S.
The Texas Tribune Is Unionizing
January 25, 2024 // That collaborative environment extends to the organizing effort – the Texas Tribune Guild is a wall-to-wall union, meaning that it will represent not only journalists, but around 50 eligible staff members including photographers, designers, and engineers. “We all feel like none of us can do our jobs without one another.” More than 95% of eligible staff members have signed onto the union’s mission statement; 90% have signed the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) authorization card. Many at the Tribune come from other news organizations that were already unionized, or that they themselves helped organize. María Méndez, the Tribune’s service and engagement reporter, was previously with the Austin American-Statesman, where she saw how Gannett couldn’t pull the rug out from under staff thanks to the Austin NewsGuild. After Gannett suspended 401(k) matching during the pandemic, the union filed an Unfair Labor Practice charge with the NLRB and was able to get that reinstated, along with back pay, due to status quo protections in place while a contract is negotiated.
How More Than 200 Employees Have Been Forced Into a Union Only 8 of Them Voted For
January 18, 2024 // The union filed an application for an election when the company was in its infancy and there were only 14 eligible voters. At the time of the election, there were nearly 100 flight attendants, but through a loophole in the law, only the original 14 were allowed to vote, and of them, eight voted for the union. Since then, the company has continued to grow. Now, Avelo Airlines’ 200-plus flight attendants are saddled up with a union voted in by eight people. Think of that: More than 200 people have been forced into an affiliation with an entity that only eight of them embraced.