Posts tagged collective bargaining
Newt’s World Episode 899: Employee Rights Act
October 13, 2025 // Newt talks with Vincent Vernuccio, President of the Institute for the American Worker about the Employee Rights Act of 2025, a legislative proposal aimed at enhancing and safeguarding the rights of American workers while promoting fairness and accountability in the workplace. Introduced by Senator Tim Scott and Congressman Rick Allen, the bill represents a Republican vision for the workforce, focusing on empowering workers, improving unions, and fostering innovation and growth. Vernuccio highlights the outdated nature of current labor laws,
Commentary: When fighting Trump, take union claims with a grain of salt
October 7, 2025 // Government unions faced another momentous reform seven years ago when the Supreme Court ruled in Janus v. AFSCME. The court held that public sector workers have a First Amendment right to completely withdraw from union membership and dues. In essence, the court created a nationwide right-to-work law for all public sector workers, including teachers, police officers, firefighters, and all other federal, state, and local government workers. No longer would they have to join or pay a union to keep their job. Government unions hated this ruling, of course. In a desperate attempt to sway the Supreme Court, union-paid prognosticators predicted massive negative economic effects if the court ruled against unions.
Newsom signs bill giving 800,000 Uber and Lyft drivers in California the right to unionize
October 7, 2025 // California is the second state where Uber and Lyft drivers can unionize as independent contractors. Massachusetts voters passed a ballot referendum in November allowing unionization, while drivers in Illinois and Minnesota are pushing for similar rights.
California to weigh in on private labor disputes if NLRB can’t
October 2, 2025 // AB 288 expands the state Public Employment Relations Board's powers over private sector labor disputes like unfair labor practice charges and enforcing collective bargaining agreements. Other blue states, including New York, are trying to expand their state labor agencies' powers over issues that would normally be decided under the National Labor Relations Act, citing Trump's antipathy to organized labor.
Denver library staff fight to unionize amid budget cuts
September 29, 2025 // Many library workers on Wednesday said library staffers are burning out from huge workloads, including caring for homeless or immigrant patrons. “A lot of people know that a lot of library staff are not fairly compensated,” said Jeremey Bongers, an activities coordinator at the library. “There's a lot of the work that people are doing in the vein of social work that is not recognized.”
Proposal to allow Frederick city employees to unionize tabled
September 25, 2025 // Shortly before the Frederick City Council voted on Thursday to table an ordinance allowing employees to collectively bargain, Council Member Ben MacShane said, “It really feels like we don’t know what we’re talking about.” Council members spent a large portion of Thursday’s meeting discussing provisions like the number of unions allowed and whether the ordinance should stipulate the timeline of a unionization election.
A Senate bill seeks to restore collective bargaining for a huge swath of federal workers
September 22, 2025 // Warner was quick to point out what union representation for federal workers does not do. “Let’s be clear, a federal union doesn’t have the ability to strike, or negotiate pay or benefits,” Warner said. But, he said, union representation for federal workers is designed to prevent discrimination and unlawful firings, as well as offer protections for whistleblowers.
Loyola Marymount abruptly rescinds recognition of faculty union, claiming religious exemption
September 21, 2025 // A 1979 Supreme Court decision regarding the Catholic Bishop of Chicago ruled that the NLRB should not seek to regulate religious institutions, arguing that problems with religious freedom protections enshrined in the 1st Amendment can arise when a government office tries to determine if certain activities are religious or not. In the decades since, rulings by federal courts and the NLRB have focused on creating a standard to deem whether a school is a religious institution, and whether the labor board can assert itself when it comes to employees who are not involved with its religious mission. Recent rulings have further curtailed the NLRB’s reach.
Fred Rogers Prod. & Spiffy Pictures Animation Writers Unionize Under WGA East-PBS Contract
September 15, 2025 // The Writers Guild of America East (WGAE) announced Friday that children’s entertainment studios Fred Rogers Productions and Spiffy Pictures have both recognized the organization for collective bargaining for animation writers working on their public television programs. The move achieves unionization for writers on future seasons of PBS KIDS favorites Alma’s Way, Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood and Carl the Collector.
Op-ed: Can Zohran Make NYC a Union Town Again?
September 9, 2025 // The new mayor could host big online unionization trainings with the Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee, as Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio Cortez have already done. If this led even a small fraction of Zohran’s 60,000-plus volunteers and over 6 million social media followers to start organizing their own workplaces—or to take a strategic job to unionize it—this could potentially generate thousands of new unionization campaigns. And were Mamdani to act upon our proposal to launch a broad Movement for an Affordable New York (MANY), then the pool of new potential workplace organizers would grow significantly.