Posts tagged Bernie Sanders
Bernie Sanders’ 32-hour work week hypocrisy
April 30, 2024 // the UAW has several career opportunities available. Nearly all the full-time jobs note that these are “Monday to Friday” for an “8-hour shift.” In other words, if you want to work for the United Auto Workers, you better be ready to work five days a week for at least 40 hours. As for Sen. Sanders, his public job applications are vague about how many actual workdays and hours he requires from his employees. But it’s notable that recent reviews from staff members frequently cite “long hours” and “long workweeks” among the cons of working for him. It’s not uncommon for Capitol Hill offices to have 40-, 50- or even 60-hour workweeks. If Sanders and Fain believed fewer hours for the same pay makes sense, they would do it for the jobs they offer. They want to force others to do what they refuse to do. That’s hypocrisy.
Push to mandate two weeks of paid vacation for workers
March 25, 2024 // Reps. Nikki Budzinski (D-Ill.), Greg Casar (D-Texas.) and Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas.) are co-sponsors of the bill. Democratic lawmakers joined by union leaders held a press conference on Capitol Hill on Wednesday to garner support. “Those who are most in need of time off are the ones who can least afford to take it unpaid,” Political Director with UNITE-HERE, Susan Valentine said. She emphasized that denying workers the basic benefit of paid time off perpetuates inequality.
Could the U.S. adopt a four-day workweek?
March 16, 2024 // “They would ship those jobs overseas or they would automate to replace those workers for whom they have an increased expense, or they would dramatically increase prices to make them stay afloat,” Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) said. Some witnesses in Thursday’s hearing agreed with Cassidy arguing it could put some industries and workers at a disadvantage. “We also potentially disadvantage older workers who cannot necessarily physically do the same amount of work in a shorter time,” Liberty Vittert, Professor of the Practice of Data Science at the Olin Business School said.
10 Questions Julie Su Is Afraid to Answer in Front of the American People
February 27, 2024 // Under the rule of Chairman Bernie Sanders, the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee will instead hold a closed-door executive session to rubber-stamp Su’s nomination. It does not appear that Senators will have any opportunity to question the nominee––in fact, she likely won’t even be required to appear in person. Moreover, as the HELP website states, “There is no video broadcast for this event.”
Ranking Member Cassidy Urges HELP Committee Chair to Hold Hearing on Renomination of Julie Su
February 16, 2024 // I respectfully request that you hold a hearing for Ms. Su’s renomination so that Senators may question her record, and that you hold a public mark-up on her nomination,” continued Dr. Cassidy. “Any other act will circumvent this Committee’s constitutionally mandated advice and consent role for Presidentially-appointed, Senate-confirmed (PAS) positions.”
Opinion: Minimum Wage Changes Spell Trouble for Virginians
February 8, 2024 // The Virginia House of Delegates voted in favor of bill HB1 that would increase the states’ minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2026. If enacted the minimum wage increase would lead to job loss between 34,600 and 57,700 jobs An increase to a $15 an hour minimum wage would cost the state of Virginia over 83,000 jobs in the three years following enactment.
Opinion: Senate minimum wage bills make bipartisan compromise possible
January 7, 2024 // Setting a national minimum wage is difficult politically. State and local economies vary significantly . For example, both average salaries and cost of living in states with the highest, Massachusetts and Hawaii, respectively, are more than 70% greater than in Mississippi, one of the poorest, where the average salary is $45,000 and the cost of living is $32,000. As of Monday, 22 states increased their minimum wages, raising pay for an estimated 9.9 million workers and resulting in $6.95 billion in additional income, the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute estimates. Minimum wages in Maryland, New Jersey, and upstate New York reached or exceeded $15 an hour for the first time, joining California, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Washington, and the rest of New York. Seven more states have passed legislation or ballot measures to reach or surpass $15 an hour in the coming years: Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Nebraska, Rhode Island, and Virginia. Washington has the highest state minimum wage, increased from $15.74 to $16.28 due to an inflation adjustment. Still, by increasing the federal minimum to $17 an hour over five years, the Democrats’ Raise the Wage Act of 2023 would affect 28 million workers,
25 states will hike minimum wage in 2024
December 22, 2023 // Sean Higgins, an analyst at the libertarian Competitive Enterprise Institute, said many food and hospitality workers already earn more than their state minimum. He noted that employers have raised salaries to compete for a shrinking pool of applicants. “Raising state and local rates does hurt the smaller businesses, the classic mom and pop enterprises, who will employ local high school or college-age kids if they can but may not be able to justify that if the minimum rate increases,” Mr. Higgins said.
Bitter strike over as nurses, N.J. hospital reach tentative agreement after 120+ days
December 3, 2023 // For months, the union members went without paychecks and benefits, which the hospital had cut off in September. The two sides were at a standstill, and for a time, it was unclear how they would find a path forward. The strike drew national attention, as U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) visited Rutgers University in October to hold a Senate committee hearing on the labor dispute and hospital staffing guidelines. At the event. Sanders expressed support for the nurses and the ratios they sought while lambasting hospital leaders for not appearing. The hospital — ranked the fifth best in New Jersey by U.S. News and World Report — had maintained that strict staffing ratios would not allow it the necessary flexibility during times of high patient volume. But many nurses said they were working in untenable conditions, often forced to juggle five or six patients during a given shift, which they said impacted the patients’ well-being as well as the nurses’ ability to provide adequate care.
Black Friday strike could mark the beginning of the end for Amazon’s war on unions
November 21, 2023 //