Posts tagged bankruptcy
The Messenger Staffers Stir Unionization Talk Amid Whispers the Startup News Site Is ‘Out of Money’
October 26, 2023 // It’s not clear how many people were hired by the outlet, but in industry circles, it’s well known that the company in recent months dangled jobs to multiple journalists, but never offered actual contracts. Those who did get hired are now “quietly … pushing to unionize the newsroom,” according to The Daily Beast. They’re also lobbying for a company town hall to explain the Beckman’s comments, and to explain the whereabouts of Editor-In-Chief Dan Wakeford, who The Daily Beast said, “continues to be MIA.” It had reported in July that the former editor of People Magazine was “essentially ceding day-to-day newsroom duties to deputy editor Michelle Gotthelf.”
Opinion: Biden says he’s most pro-union president ever. But his policies hurt striking UAW workers
October 2, 2023 // Unfortunately, UAW leadership continues to advocate for their own best interests. Those who have worked in the auto industry know that negotiations must walk a fine line. If the Big Three have to file for bankruptcy protection, as General Motors and Chrysler did in 2009, all autoworkers are in a much more precarious position. UAW leadership has a responsibility to preserve their members’ jobs − securing raises that will improve their members’ standards of living, but that are not so excessive they threaten workers’ long-term job security. Moving forward, UAW leadership should target the real problem: Bidenomics. The UAW supported Biden in 2020 and enthusiastically endorsed his Inflation Reduction Act, despite the fact that it included electric vehicle subsidies that are accelerating the elimination of union jobs.
International Longshore and Warehouse US dockworkers union files for bankruptcy
October 2, 2023 // The union has been facing a looming trial on claims that it illegally slowed down operations over several years at the Port of Portland, then operated by an affiliate of Philippines-based maritime company, according to a Wall Street Journal report. The International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) representing U.S. dockworkers has filed for a chapter 11 bankruptcy protection to resolve a pending litigation with the Oregon affiliate of the International Container Terminal Services Inc (ICTSI).
UAW demands cost-of-living salary adjustment as Americans feel pinch of inflation
September 26, 2023 // COLA, or cost-of-living adjustments to paychecks, are well-known by Social Security recipients, millions of whom live on a fixed income and carefully track the yearly, inflation-adjusted tweaks to their benefits. But for anyone else, the pay bumps that were baked into many union contracts for decades have fallen away over the last half-century. The government has even stopped tracking data on them. The prominence of unions in the 1970s and '80s also helped COLA numbers. Data from the BLS shows that 20% of American workers were union members in 1983 ‒ the first year for which comparable data are available ‒ versus 10% in 2022.
‘I have a pension; they don’t’: Why United Auto Workers are fighting to end a two-tier system for wages and benefits
August 30, 2023 // U.S. automakers over the years have justified tiering as a way to stay competitive because of globalization, Lichtenstein said. “Whether the automakers are doing well [financially] or not, they’ll say the competition, like Toyota, will eat our cake.” But “across the board, the rank-and-file hated [tiering],” said Marick Masters, a business professor at Wayne State University in Detroit. “It was a sore point from Day 1. They viewed it as discriminatory that people were doing same job and getting paid substantially less, and that [some workers were] treated as second-class citizens.”
Yellow closure affecting 800 Hoosier union truckers
August 21, 2023 // The nearly 100-year-old company was known for its “less-than-truckload” business model, meaning it delivered freight for multiple customers on the same truck. The company was significantly popular, growing to be one of “the Big Three” carriers in the country until trucking was deregulated in 1984. That meant nonunionized carriers could come to market, building competition for the big three.
Union for Philadelphia Orchestra musicians authorize strike if talks break down
August 21, 2023 // Local 77 of the American Federation of Musicians said Sunday that 95% of voting members approved the strike authorization a day earlier. In addition to an agreement on compensation and benefits, the union said it wants 15 vacant positions filled. Base salary in 2022-23 was $152,256, including electronic media agreement wages, the union said. Each musician received a supplemental payment of $750 or $1,500 in each year of the contract. “We are disappointed in the decision by AFM Local 77 and the musicians of the Philadelphia Orchestra to authorize a strike,” management said in a statement. “We will continue to negotiate in good faith towards a fiscally responsible agreement that ensures the musicians’ economic and artistic future.”
From Detroit to Hollywood, New Union Leaders Take a Harder Line
August 18, 2023 // The full-throated demands can also backfire in economic terms. Yellow, a trucking company with 30,000 employees, declared bankruptcy several months after talks with the Teamsters broke down. The company’s chief executive said in a statement that the Teamsters’ intransigence drove Yellow out of business, though analysts note that the company showed signs of mismanagement for years. The risks may be even higher in industries under pressure to embrace a new business model. The major U.S. automakers have said that they need the ability to team up with nonunion battery manufacturers to secure additional capital and expertise. But Mr. Fain, the new U.A.W. president, has said that the failure to organize more battery workers was a major failure of his predecessors, and that battery workers must receive the same pay and working conditions that union workers enjoy at the Big Three. Many U.A.W. members say the tension between the automakers’ goals and the union’s indicates that a strike will be hard to avoid when their contract expires in mid-September. But they do not appear to be shrinking from that possibility.