Posts tagged Assembly
After years of setbacks, California legislative workers win the right to unionize
October 9, 2023 // Several factors gave supporters hope this year. Chief among them was the Legislature’s leftward shift after the 2022 midterm election, which brought in a fresh class of diverse, progressive and labor-friendly Democrats. McKinnor amassed 42 co-authors from both chambers, including Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas (D-Hollister) and Senator Dave Cortese (D-Santa Clara), chair of the Senate labor committee. Last month, California lawmakers in both chambers approved AB 1 by more than a two-thirds majority. Many of the Democrats champion unions and labor issues, a point of contention among some staffers who argued the members should play by the same rules as the rest of California’s employers.
Legislative staffer unions percolate beyond D.C.
January 26, 2023 // Part of its argument is that the legislative union would violate the separation of powers because it would be overseen by Oregon’s Employment Relations Board, a part of the executive branch. “All of its members are appointed by the governor, so it's controlled by the executive branch, and that subjects the legislature to the executive branch in a specific way,” Freedom Foundation attorney Rebekah Millard told POLITICO.
HEMMED OUT: Why Legislative Employees Can’t Unionize Under the Taylor Law
December 12, 2022 // Union advocates have argued that employees of the New York State Legislature are covered by the Taylor Law, the 1967 state law that requires state and local public employers, including state agencies, municipalities, and school districts, to recognize and bargain with employee unions. However, applying the Taylor Law to the Senate, the Assembly, or individual members of either house would raise numerous practical and constitutional issues, and any attempt to enforce a contract negotiated under the Taylor Law would likely be voided by state courts.
This fresh blow to newspapers — and our democracy — must be stopped | Editorial
October 4, 2022 // For nearly two centuries, and across the country, the job has been done by contractors who are not classified as employees of the newspapers. But now the state Department of Labor is strictly enforcing a law that’s been on the books since the FDR era, upending tradition by ordering these workers to be treated as employees. That means newspapers, or the firms they hire to handle delivery, would have to pay taxes to cover benefits like unemployment and disability, just as they do for full-time employees. It would cost the Star-Ledger, already diminished by layoffs and buyouts, about $3 million a year. The state’s intentions are good, even if its swing is a bit wild. This is part of a movement, mostly in progressive states, to combat the spread of abuses related to contract work. It was inspired first by the growing use of lower-paid contract workers on constructions sites, many of them working full-time and standing shoulder to shoulder with regular employees. And contract work has exploded in the gig economy, at companies like Uber and Grubhub.
Worker unions split on Atlantic City casino smoking ban. The mayor is against it.
May 2, 2022 // The United Auto Workers wrote a letter to legislators this week calling on them to hold hearings on a bill that would end a 16-year-old loophole carving casinos out of a statewide prohibition on smoking in most indoor public places in New Jersey.
Labor Unions Trying Again for “Card Check” for California Farmworkers
April 14, 2022 // Card check elections give employers cause for concern. Commenters have noted that by taking away a voter’s secrecy, the employee’s vote is subject to intimidation because there is no longer voter anonymity – union representatives are able to track an employee’s votes. A union may also prefill a ballot card and present it to employee for signature without anything more. There is also concern of unions intimidating and threatening workers who do not sign off on the ballot cards, or pro-union employees using peer pressure to change a co-worker’s “vote.”