Posts tagged Collective bargaining agreements
Trump Signs Order Ending Remote Work; Mandates Federal Workers Return To Office
January 20, 2025 // Union leaders express a strong commitment to retain remote-work options where necessary for some federal employees. Specifically, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Social Security Administration have already agreed to remote work (telework) arrangements as part of their current collective bargaining agreements.
Key union vows to fight back after Trump says he would end remote work for federal employees
December 19, 2024 // Trump, who spoke to reporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, called the deal "very terrible" and said it's interfering with his plans for how to handle the federal workforce, which include ending remote work. He said he would seek to challenge the rule in court. "If people don't come back to work, come back into the office, they're going to be dismissed, and somebody in the Biden administration gave a five-year waiver of that, so that for five years people don’t have to come back into the office,” Trump said at his first post-election news conference.
Plaintiffs’ letter adds wrinkle to $2.8 billion NCAA settlement
December 12, 2024 // Although the letter lauds the terms of the settlement, House, Prince and Harrison warned that without player representation in negotiations with their schools and conferences, athletes would "inevitably remain in a vulnerable position" and the industry would remain mired in "continued litigation." They asked for the court to "lend its imprimatur" to athletes' efforts to collectively negotiate in the future through a players' association.
Judge finds Florida’s anti-union law union unconstitutional and ‘unreasonable’
November 12, 2024 // U.S. District Court Judge Mark Walker ruled that public teacher union members in Pinellas and Hernando counties had been damaged by the Florida Public Employees Relations Commission after the passage of SB 256, which had a component banning payroll deductions for the purpose of paying dues. Hernando United School Workers and the Pinellas Classroom Teachers Association argued that prohibiting payroll deductions was unconstitutional, violated their right to be free from the state impairment of contracts. The state argued the law was necessary to promote transparency and “allow union members to decide how to pay their dues and understand how much they were paying.”
New Biden Executive Order Gives Unions Leg Up on Federally Funded Projects, Imposes New Disclosure Requirements
September 14, 2024 // On September 6, 2024, President Biden announced his new Executive Order on Investing in America and Investing in Americans (“EO” or “Order”), which requires certain federal agencies to consider criteria related to labor standards when prioritizing which projects will receive federal financial assistance. The criteria includes not only traditional labor standards, such as wages, paid leave, and workplace safety, but controversial provisions as well that clearly favor unions, such as project labor agreements and neutrality and card check agreements. The EO will also effectively require agencies to collect information related to labor practices from companies that work on or bid on federally funded projects. The administration claims the Order “supports the creation of well-paying jobs, especially union jobs.” Business groups and Republicans, however, claim the EO is less about setting standards and more about using federal funds to favor unions at the expense of nonunion companies and employees.
Op-Ed: Bye Bye Right to Work?
August 25, 2024 // We believe the labor laws should be rewritten in such a way that nonunion workers are exempt from collective bargaining agreements and only dues-paying union members would be covered by union contracts. This would solve the free-rider problem that union officials justifiably complain about – and everyone’s freedom to choose is protected.
Audubon staff union announces 3-day strike
August 23, 2024 // The Bird Union, represented by the Communications Workers of America Local 1180, plans to start a three-day strike Sept. 10, “in response to the nonprofit’s continued violation of workers’ rights under federal labor laws,” the union said. The planned strike marks the latest chapter in an ongoing dispute within the group, where management and staff union have struggled to finalize a collective bargaining agreement since employees unionized in 2021.
Florida judge rejects a lawsuit challenging public-employee union restrictions
August 2, 2024 // Unions argued that the ban on withholding dues from paychecks would force them to use other, more-difficult methods to collect money from members. The membership authorization forms drew criticism, in part, because of wording required by the state that many union members found objectionable. Also, the changes required unions to be recertified as bargaining agents if fewer than 60 percent of eligible employees have submitted the membership authorization forms and paid dues. Plaintiffs in the lawsuit are the Florida Education Association, the United Faculty of Florida, unions representing employees of the Alachua County, Hernando County, Lafayette County and Pinellas County school districts and the University of Florida and UF professor Malini Schueller. Defendants are members of the Public Employees Relations Commission, members of the University of Florida Board of Trustees and the school boards in Alachua, Hernando and Pinellas counties.
New report shows greater interest in labor unions, especially among young workers
August 2, 2024 // he report is based on a 2022 survey from the Worker Empowerment Research Network (WERN), focusing on about 2,500 frontline workers in five specific low-wage industries post-COVID-19: health care, hospitality, retail, telecommunications and warehousing. These workers' opinions on unions are important because these sectors experienced the most upheaval during COVID and there has been major union activity within these industries. Unlike other surveys with broad national samples, this survey zeroes in on job satisfaction, workplace issues (e.g., wage theft, harassment, scheduling instability) and workers' attitudes toward unionization.
Biden Administration Unveils Historic Rules for High-Paying Clean Energy Jobs The White House
June 19, 2024 // Clean energy projects that meet the requirements of these final rules will receive a fivefold increase for clean energy tax credits for deployment of wind, solar, nuclear, hydrogen, and other clean energy technologies, as well as for projects receiving allocations under the Section 48C Advanced Energy Projects credit., providing a significant incentive for project developers to pay prevailing wages to workers for construction, alteration, and repair of clean energy projects and to hire registered apprentices to earn while they learn by working on those projects. Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen and Acting Secretary of Labor Julie Su also published a blog highlighting the use of Project Labor Agreements as a best practice for large construction projects and a tool to help project developers comply with the prevailing wage and apprenticeship requirements. Project Labor Agreements, or pre-hire collective bargaining agreements that set the terms and conditions for employment on a construction project, help workers and developers alike by providing strong worker and wage protections while ensuring a reliable supply of skilled workers to help deliver projects on time and on budget.