Posts tagged Alaska
10 States with the Largest Declines in Union Membership
August 26, 2024 // Daniel Li, CEO and Co-Founder of Plus Docs, commented on the findings: "It's interesting to see where states are seeing union memberships surge, especially as although there is a general increase in the South and Midwest, it is also true that neighboring states can see vastly different results. While Mississippi has nearly doubled its union membership, their neighbor, Alabama, has gone the opposite way."
Minimum Wages Wreak Labor Havoc
August 9, 2024 // Let’s consider the recent experience of California. It raised the minimum wage of restaurant workers from $16 to $20 per hour. In just the first two months after the law took effect, 10,000 jobs were destroyed and prices at restaurants have risen. In 2019, lawmakers in New York City passed a nearly identical piece of legislation. They increased the minimum wage from $13 to $15 per hour (equivalent to $18.72 today). The result was eerily similar. 90 percent of restaurants surveyed had raised prices, nearly 77 percent reduced employee hours, and 36 percent eliminated jobs. As then-president of the Queens Chamber of Commerce, Thomas Grech, pointed out, “[small businesses are] cutting their staff. They’re cutting their hours. They’re shutting down.”
Biden Pushes Early Renomination of Failed NLRB Chair in Effort to Deny Possible Trump Administration Control over Labor Board
June 12, 2024 // The NLRB is composed of five members, usually three of whom are from the president’s political party and two from the opposing party. The Board uses both adjudication and rulemaking to put forward its interpretations of the NLRA, but it needs a quorum of three members to act. Currently, there are four Board members (see Board composition here). Three of the members are Democrats, while one is a Republican. The other Republican seat has been vacant since December of 2022, because President Biden chose not to nominate anyone to that vacancy for a year and a half. While agency vacancies and delays on nominations are nothing new in Washington, this one is notable and shows an unusual partisanship and dishonesty.
This Week’s Teachers Union Report Card: NEA-Alaska Sues to Kill Correspondence Study Program
May 7, 2024 // Anchorage Superior Court judge Adolf Zeman ruled in April that the state-funded correspondence programs used by over 22,000 students are unconstitutional. Unless the Alaska legislature drafts a new correspondence study program law, students will lose access to the popular educational option. The union is celebrating shutting down opportunities for thousands of students. Union president Tom Klaameyer described the lawsuit’s outcome as “a big win.” When filing the complaint last year, the NEA-Alaska leader declared, “We want to make sure all of the public money that is rightfully allocated to the public school system stays within the public school system.”
EDUCATION JUSTICE University of Alaska student workers union members protest for contract, after judge bars strike
May 2, 2024 // Hundreds of University of Alaska graduate students protested in marches on Monday at the Fairbanks and Anchorage campuses to increase pressure on the university system as it negotiates a contract with their union. The marches are a step down from a strike the Alaska Graduate Workers Association planned, after a Fairbanks Superior Court judge issued a temporary restraining order on Friday at the request of the University system. Student employees say the marches come as their window to negotiate closes.
Ravn cuts workforce two years after pilots unionize
February 27, 2024 // The airlines had declared bankruptcy in 2020, sold off some of its aircraft, and reorganized. Its parent company is FLOAT Alaska. Ravn is suffering from a labor shortage, competition, and inflation, it reported. But in 2022, its pilots joined a union — Airline Pilots Association. Two years later, their company is evidently struggling to stay alive.
New IC rule will have ‘unintended consequences’
January 23, 2024 // For Jim Burg, owner of Warren, Michigan-based James Burg Trucking Company, being an independent operator helped him build his business, and he views being an owner-operator as a potential stepping stone for others wanting to do the same. Burg started his company in 1984 with one truck as an independent contractor. His company is now a 94-truck operation with a terminal in Michigan City, Indiana. His trucks primarily haul steel for the automotive and manufacturing industries. "I drove over 1.2 million miles during the early years of my company's existence. Being an IC gave me the experience to understand the trucking industry and how to run a business, Burg recalled, "and it allowed me to gain knowledge of both as I set out to establish my own company."
Op-Ed: Public workers deserve full First Amendment protection from compelled union speech
January 8, 2024 // SCOTUS’s ruling in Janus logically leads to a conclusion that public workers’ income cannot subsidize a private matter on issues of substantial public concern without voluntarily waiving their First Amendment right. To voluntarily waive a fundamental right demands individual rights have been thoroughly communicated and understood. The First Amendment protects both the freedom to speak as well as the freedom to refrain from speaking. The state of Alaska urges the Supreme Court to reaffirm Janus which equally supports employees who wish to support union causes and those who “strongly object to the positions the union takes” as the court stated in 2018. Mountain States Policy Center firmly agrees with those asking SCOTUS to fully clarify the First Amendment rights of workers to not be forced to provide financial support to union causes or membership without direct consent first. We’ll soon know if the U.S. Supreme Court agrees.
Bethel bank employees postpone unionizing vote
December 26, 2023 // Walker Sexton, a personal banker, had filed notice of a union election to join Communications Workers of America’s Wells Fargo Workers United cancelled their vote on Wednesday, the day that a Wells branch in Albuquerque, N.M., voted to create the first unionized branch of any major U.S. bank. Communications Workers of America is a division of UNI Global Union, an international union that is a staunch critic of Israel and that does not condemn Hamas terrorist operations. The abandonment of the union vote effort left Rep. Mary Peltola holding the bag. The “worker power” effort had the full support of Peltola, who wrote last month, “Worker power doesn’t stop where the road system ends. I’m excited to see workers standing together in my hometown of Bethel.” Global unions demand international protection and justice for the people of Palestine Peltola comes out in favor of bankers union But not everyone in the bank seems to have agreed with Peltola.
Some Wells Fargo employees vote in favor of unionization; others reject
December 22, 2023 // In the lead-up to the vote, the bank had highlighted several measures it had taken to address some of the concerns raised by its employees, such as improving compensation and benefits for lower-paid workers and bumping up median base salaries. But at a hearing before the Senate Banking Committee earlier this month, CEO Charlie Scharf, when asked if the bank would remain neutral during the unionization effort, said Wells Fargo would exercise its right "to speak with (the employees) to make sure they make an informed decision". Employees at the Daytona Beach, Florida branch and Atwater, California have also filed for union elections which are expected to be held in January, two sources said.