Posts tagged benefits
Watchdog report exposes teachers union ‘political machine’ funneling more than $1 billion to liberal causes
April 27, 2026 // According to research from Defending Education, national teachers unions alone have directed roughly $669 million toward left-wing political groups, advocacy organizations and campaigns since 2015. When state and local affiliates are included, that figure balloons to more than $1 billion in total political spending. The reports track spending from the two largest unions, the National Education Association (NEA) and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), as well as their state-level affiliates, using federal filings and campaign finance records.
Local orchestra members one step closer to unionizing
April 25, 2026 // The group decided to unionize under the American Federation of Musicians in the spring of 2024. However, their status has not been formally recognized by TCVO’s board of directors.
Opinion GOP’s fatal attraction to unions is the start of a bad romance
April 21, 2026 // Instead of offering flowers and chocolates, they aim to impress labor by slicing up the PRO Act and feeding it piecemeal to the rest of the GOP. The Faster Labor Contracts Act, sponsored by Hawley and Rep. Donald Norcross (D-NJ), is the first portion. It would allow federal mediators to essentially write union contracts for newly organized workplaces, if businesses and unions can’t agree on terms within four months of a union’s workplace-election win.
Department of Defense ends union agreements at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard
April 20, 2026 // The U.S. Department of Defense is terminating collective bargaining agreements for two unions representing workers at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard. It's a move union leaders said could have significant impacts on employees. Workers with the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners and the American Federation of Government Employees said they were notified Friday of an executive order issued by President Donald Trump and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. Union presidents said these agreements have long played a critical role in ensuring safe working conditions, fair wages, benefits, and time off for their members. With those protections now ending, many workers are raising concerns about what comes next.
New York unions say fixing Tier 6 will drive hiring. Data suggests otherwise.
April 19, 2026 // The situation in Albany, where retirement costs account for about 9% of the city's budget, underscores a reality for many cash-strapped local governments across New York. And the dire financial outlooks are in place as state lawmakers weigh whether to address changes to the Tier 6 state pension system. Rochester, for example, is facing a budget gap of $131 million, the largest in the city's history. Rochester's largest expenditure is its increasing pension and health care costs. Those projected pension costs for the next fiscal year are $74 million. Health care costs for active and retired employees have escalated to $108 million. "This budgetary framework is simply not sustainable," Mayor Malik D. Evans told a state legislative panel last month. "And it threatens the incredible momentum we're making toward violence reduction, job creation, workforce development, affordable housing, home ownership, economic
Unleash Prosperity Hotline: Unions Are SOOO Yesterday
April 14, 2026 // We all want higher wages for workers, but we wince when the Bernie Sanders Dems and the NatCons say the way to reach that goal is to expand union power. That can’t work today because, as Rachel Greszler of Advancing American Freedom notes in her latest policy brief, only one in 16 private workers is in a union. And that percentage keeps drifting down.
Commentary: Maryland Portable Benefits Success Shows a Model For States to Follow
April 10, 2026 // Maryland has become the third state in the nation to complete a portable benefits pilot – highlighting how independent workers can maintain the freedom they value while accessing the benefits they want. Following successful pilots in Pennsylvania and Georgia, DoorDash launched and funded a four-month portable benefits pilot in Maryland, bringing more than 4,000 Dashers into the program. DoorDash and Dashers contributed more than $800,000 to their portable benefits accounts, setting aside money to be used for healthcare, paid time off, retirement, and more, an independent analysis from BW Research showed. Crucially, an overwhelming majority (96%) of participants support legislation requiring companies to contribute to flexible benefit accounts while preserving independent contractor status.
The Looming Legislative And Labor Push Against Artificial Intelligence
April 10, 2026 // Meanwhile, the Minnesota legislature is presently considering legislation that would, if passed, impose new limits on all employer use of AI. Senate File 4689 seeks to regulate the use of what it calls “Automated Decision Systems” (ADS). It would essentially cover all employment-related decisions relating to the implementation of AI. It would require advance notice of, and employee consent to, the use of ADS, would impose significant recordkeeping obligations, and employees would have the right to know when and how ADS influenced “adverse” employment decisions.
Deal Or No Deal?
April 8, 2026 // Workers at the Moda Center, with the exception of a handful of engineers, are not unionized. That, Davison said, is atypical—particularly in states like Oregon without right-to-work laws. The Teamsters have union contracts at Lumen Field and Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle, Oracle Park in San Francisco, and Ball Arena in Denver, while other unions, like the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Union, have a number of stadium contracts as well. But neither of those unions have a foothold at the Moda Center.
Op-ed: Florida made public-sector unions more accountable — Oregon did the opposite
April 7, 2026 // In 2023, Florida passed a law requiring a recertification election for public-sector unions that fail to maintain the support of 60 percent of their dues-paying membership. What followed was revealing. Between June 2025 and January 2026, there were 218 such recertification elections in Florida. In 192 of them — 88 percent — fewer than half of eligible employees bothered to vote. Under existing rules, the unions were certified anyway. For example, at the University of South Florida, exactly 41 employees out of 2,169 eligible cast votes for union representation. Nonetheless, the union now holds exclusive bargaining authority over all 2,169. At Florida A&M, three votes out of 202 eligible employees had the same effect. In one Broward County unit, two votes bound 51 employees to their union. The new bill will change that.