Posts tagged climate change
Workers in climate change and clean energy-related jobs make new push to unionize in Colorado
February 19, 2025 // Organizers said there is always pus back when trying to organize. Right now, there is a debate at the Colorado state legislation over a proposal to lower the threshold to negotiate and bargain. The City of Denver, that’s been a driving force behind a lot of green jobs, said top priorities including making sure people can make a career out of this industry, while providing a safe and equitable work place.
EXCLUSIVE: Bill Cassidy To Introduce Bill To Stop Left-Wing Investing From Taking Over Retirement Funds
September 27, 2024 // “Asset managers should prioritize helping Americans achieve the best return for their retirement, not funneling their clients’ money to fund a left-wing political ideology,” Cassidy, who serves as the ranking member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pension Committee, said. “This legislation protects 152 million Americans who depend on a strong retirement to live after their career is over.” Under current Department of Labor rules, administrators of employee retirement plans are allowed to consider ESG factors when choosing between investment opportunities they have determined to be of equivalent quality. If a retirement fund determines multiple investment options are of equal value under Cassidy’s bill, it must document how it made that determination and then choose at random between the options.
How a union joined the Trump-proofing craze
June 4, 2024 // While Biden aims to cast himself as “the most pro-union president in American history” and shores up protections for science within agencies, government employees using collective bargaining to thwart a potential Trump administration is unprecedented and could act as a blueprint for other unions to follow suit. AFGE’s new deal also comes after the Biden administration finalized a rule in April to cement protections for civil servants, as Trump has flirted with the idea of returning to his Schedule F policy that would allow him to easily fire or reclassify government workers. The agreement would not be able to prevent a Republican-aligned EPA from enacting policy, but Cantello anticipates the agency could appeal to the Federal Labor Relations Authority if an arbitrator ruled in favor of the union.
Flight Attendants’ Union President Hints Climate Change To Blame For Turbulence That Killed Singapore Air Passenger
May 22, 2024 // "As our climate changes, severe and clear air turbulence instances are on the rise. Always follow crew instructions and wear your seatbelt whenever seated. It is a matter of life and death." Nelson has been vocal about clear air turbulence, stating in April that the reason cabin crews suffer most of the injuries is pretty straightforward.
Labor leader Shuler touts union support as possible auto strikes loom
September 1, 2023 // Unions would support President Joe Biden in his reelection campaign next year, Shuler said, praising the president’s work to deliver federal infrastructure spending. Biden campaigned on infrastructure improvements and supported the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure law Congress passed in 2021. The law supports millions of jobs, she said, not only in construction and transportation but in the service industry as well. Every job created by the federal spending should be a union position, Shuler said.
Five Years after Janus, Government Unions Are Weaker — and More Desperate
July 5, 2023 // When SEIU HCII, which operates across four states, is removed from the picture, the overall public-sector-union membership in Illinois has decreased by over 10 percent. These declines are not isolated to a single entity but spread across all public employers, with teachers’ unions such as the Illinois Education Association and Illinois Federation of Teachers losing a combined 9.4 percent of their members or fee-payers. AFSCME Council 31 — the union that represented Janus — has seen an 18.5 percent drop. A significant decrease in union membership is a sign that workers are exercising their Janus freedoms. It also means that $25 million didn’t flow into government-union coffers in 2022. This is a financial blow to a movement that’s accustomed to having huge cash reserves to fund the politicking that gets the union bosses exactly what they want. Such a dramatic shift illustrates how many government workers feel underrepresented by their unions, pushing them to distance themselves from groups now charging more and delivering less. Which points up another consequence of Janus: Government unions are in a fight for their lives. Desperation has made them even more polarizing, extreme, and political — and greedy.
Opinion: The green movement is a jobs killer. Are unions finally figuring this out?
May 15, 2023 // Even now, as Biden cozies up to the Sierra Club and Greenpeace and places a metaphorical blade at the neck of the blue-collar union workers, the union bosses are reluctant to call for a divorce with “lunch bucket Joe.” After acknowledging the threat that Biden posed to the livelihoods of tens of thousands of union members, the UAW’s Fain warned that “another Donald Trump presidency would be a disaster.” How? Union workers saw huge job and wage gains when Trump was president. Fain even muttered some disingenuous mumbo jumbo about getting "behind a pro-worker, pro-climate agenda" for the working class. That’s an oxymoron.
UPS is the next big labor deal to watch
April 18, 2023 // The union, part of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, has a new president, Sean O'Brien, who's been outspoken about the demands of delivery drivers all year — holding rallies and talking to workers around the country. Like so many workers in the U.S., UPS employees are more fired up coming out of the pandemic about their workplace demands. Plus, they've seen big changes in their workloads over the past few years as the pace and volume of online deliveries have grown.
As Federal Cash Flows to Unions, Democrats Hope to Reap the Rewards
February 13, 2023 // In places like West Virginia, money from three major laws passed by Congress is pouring into the alternative energy industry and other projects. “I think it’s a renaissance for the labor movement,” said one union official. Beyond the inflation act, Democrats, with help from a few Republicans, were able to add prevailing wage requirements to the semiconductor bill. And both the Energy and Transportation Departments are making clear that access to unions, payment of prevailing wages and commitments to local hiring will be big advantages for competitive bidders seeking infrastructure and highway electrification projects, though Republican governors like Joe Lombardo in Nevada are trying to block some of those requirements.
Offshore wind boosted as Biden, East Coast governors team up
June 24, 2022 // A national agreement signed with North America’s Building Trades Unions covers contractors working on those projects and future ones, with no termination date on the project labor agreement. It sets the terms and conditions for union workers to build offshore wind farms, with targets to ensure a diverse workforce. It contains provisions for training to ensure they can construct the complex infrastructure, which costs billions of dollars. Vineyard Wind, South Fork Wind, David Hayes, Diane Hoskins, Heather Zichal, American Clean Power Association,