Posts tagged Alabama
Federal judge blocks Biden labor protections for foreign farmworkers
November 27, 2024 // hose new rules, implemented by the U.S. Department of Labor in April, expanded protections for H-2A visa-holders, including requiring employers to ensure they would not intimidate, threaten or otherwise discriminate against foreign farmworkers for "activities related to self-organization" and "concerted activities for the purpose of mutual aide or protection relating to wages of working conditions." "In perhaps its most blatant arrogation of authority, the Final Rule seeks to extend numerous rights to H-2A workers which they did not previously enjoy through its worker voice and empowerment provisions," Judge Reeves wrote.
US federal workers hope Republicans will curb Trump, Musk firings
November 22, 2024 // The U.S. government is the country's largest employer. While workers are concentrated in Washington, D.C., and nearby Maryland and northern Virginia, some of the greatest concentrations of federal workers can be found in areas like southern Oklahoma and northern Alabama, which are represented by Republicans in the House. The biggest federal employees' union, the American Federation of Government Employees, which represents 750,000 federal workers, is also looking to Congress, said Jacqueline Simon, the AFGE's policy director.
Amazon ordered to let workers vote on unionizing — for the 3rd time
November 7, 2024 // Amazon says it plans to appeal the ruling. "This decision is wrong on the facts and the law," Spokesperson Mary Kate Paradis said in a statement. She criticized the labor board and the union for "trying to force a third vote instead of accepting the facts and the will of our team members."
NC Farm Bureau sues US Dept of Labor
October 29, 2024 // “Our complaint is that the DOL doesn't have the authority to require collective bargaining or to provide collective bargaining and self-organization rights to workers; that's Congress' job,” said Jake Parker, general counsel for the North Carolina Farm Bureau Federation.
Proposed federal pay adjustment could boost wages for thousands of blue-collar feds
October 9, 2024 // Geographically, based on the proposal, OPM’s regulations would give federal pay increases mainly to FWS employees working in Alabama, California, Maine, Maryland and Pennsylvania. In particular, the proposed regulations would most prominently impact federal employees working at three major military installations: Tobyhanna, Letterkenny and Anniston Army Depots. The challenges leading to the persistent federal pay disparities are two-fold. In some cases, there are differences between blue-collar FWS employees and white-collar GS employees. In other cases, there are pay disparities among FWS employees working within the same wage area, OPM explained.
The long-haul harms of an East Coast port strike and automation ban
October 1, 2024 // But the problem with banning automation is that just as automated tollways enable cars and trucks to move more efficiently across the roadways, automated gates and other port operations enable goods to move more efficiently into, out of, and throughout the U.S. The lack of automation is a primary reason that U.S. ports rank near the bottom of global port efficiency ratings. According to the World Bank’s 2022 Port Performance Index, the average North American port ranking is three times lower than East Asian ports, almost twice as bad as Central American, South American, and Caribbean ports, and not far ahead of sub-Saharan African ports. One of the most efficient ports in the U.S., ranked No. 44 out of 348, is Virginia Beach. It’s likely not a coincidence that the Virginia Beach port is one of the only ones that includes some automation, which Daggett said the ILA was forced to inherit. The Mobile port ranks No. 238, and five other East Coast ports rank No. 300 or worse, with Savannah, Georgia’s port ranked dead last in the world.
Largest port on U.S. East Coast, New York/New Jersey, begins prepping for what could be first union strike since 1977
September 20, 2024 // The ILA represents over 85,000 port workers, and a strike would shut down five of the 10 busiest ports in North America, and a total of 36 ports along the East and Gulf Coasts. Close to half (43%-49%) of all monthly U.S. imports would be impacted, representing billions of dollars in trade, and logistics firms are preparing contingency plans last used during Covid and 2018 tariffs. Currently, there is an estimated $34 billion in freight in route to these ports on 147 ocean vessels.
A year after the strike is the UAW still winning?
September 19, 2024 // HSU: Yeah. And Ailsa, you know, people who closely follow the auto industry have told me, you know, it's a very cyclical industry. We saw car sales go through the roof during the pandemic, when people - when Americans were flush with cash. That was never going to last forever. And now the automakers are also in the middle of this really messy and costly transition to EVs. The UAW is really fighting for its place in that transition. It did make some progress in the last contract negotiations - for example, getting GM battery workers under the National Labor Agreement. BISAHA: Yeah. And along those lines, earlier this month, we had a thousand battery workers at a GM joint venture battery plant in Tennessee. They joined the UAW, too. HSU: Yeah. That was a big win for the UAW. But, you know, as for Stellantis, this week, the union filed federal labor charges against the company, really in an attempt to get Stellantis to follow through on its investment promises, including reopening that plant in Belvidere. You know, this is just not going to be an easy fight, and it's one that I expect will probably end up in court.
States are pushing back with anti-labor laws as union popularity grows, policy experts say
September 18, 2024 // Growing union organizing across the country has triggered an anti-labor legislative response in some states, but cities and counties are increasingly pushing back, a new report found. The report, released this month by the New York University Wagner Labor Initiative and Local Progress Impact Lab, a group for local elected officials focused on economic and racial justice issues, cites examples of localities all over the U.S. using commissions to document working conditions, creating roles for protecting workers in the heat and educating workers on their labor rights.
Just 5 percent of private sector workers voted for their unions
September 12, 2024 // There are 7.4 million unionized private sector workers according to the Labor Department. Just under 5 percent of those workers voted in favor of the union that represents them according to an analysis of department data by the nonprofit Institute for the American Worker, a free market think tank. The vast majority of those workers joined workplaces that were already organized and have had to accept the union to keep their job. The workers almost never get a chance to weigh in themselves. The National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), the federal law covering union activity, does not require that a union ever have to reaffirm that it has the workers’ support once it is recognized. This is true even if none of the workers who originally voted for the union are still around.