Posts tagged cost of living
Teachers strike ends after union, district reach tentative deal
February 16, 2026 // • An 8.5% raise over two years for classified employees such as paraeducators, and a 5% raise over two years for teachers and certificated employees. • Local property-tax revenue will fund health care at Kaiser Permanente rates for union members’ families starting July 1, and health care for unionized employees starting Jan. 1, 2027. • Relief for special educators that include raising overage pay and reduced caseloads for certain programs.
Academic showdown: NYU professors launch strike authorization vote
February 4, 2026 // Contract Faculty United-UAW (CFU-UAW) said it would open the strike voting on Feb. 9, with balloting continuing through Feb. 20. The union represents close to 950 full-time non-tenure track professors and librarians across 12 New York University (NYU) schools, accounting for roughly half of the higher-education facility’s full-time faculty.
Why SAG-AFTRA’s 2026 Contract Talks Matter for Los Angeles and the Business of Hollywood
January 29, 2026 // Artificial intelligence looms as perhaps the most complex issue on the table. Advances in voice replication, digital doubles and performance synthesis have raised concerns that actors’ likenesses could be reused without meaningful consent or compensation. Astin characterized AI as an immediate labor issue rather than a speculative one, particularly in a market like Los Angeles, where background performers, day players and voice actors form a large part of the workforce.
Union Organizing Plummets in 2025: A Win for Worker Freedom and Choice
January 22, 2026 // For supporters of voluntary association and employee freedom, these numbers highlight a positive reality: fewer workers are being swept into union representation through the NLRB process. This trend aligns with broader patterns showing declining union density in the private sector, where membership hovers around just 6 percent of workers.[viii] Forced unionism—where employees can be compelled to pay dues or join as a condition of employment—continues to lose ground as more Americans exercise their right to opt out or avoid unionization altogether.
Opinion: Labor relations group: Big labor Virginia state senator spins anti-right-to-work fables
January 6, 2026 // Right-to-Work is overwhelmingly popular with the commonwealth’s citizens, and states with such laws typically enjoy far faster employment growth and substantially higher cost-of-living-adjusted disposable incomes than forced-dues states.
Telluride Ski Resort in Colorado to close Saturday due to labor dispute
December 30, 2025 // The Telluride Professional Ski Patrol Association voted Tuesday to strike Saturday after contract negotiations since June failed to yield an agreement on pay. With no more talks planned before the weekend, Telluride Ski Resort said it will not open that day.
3 CT state employee unions to get pay hikes worth 4.5%
December 4, 2025 // The raises, ordered for judicial marshals, their supervisors and a third group that includes probation officers, information technology analysts, assistant clerks, counselors and other support staff, are retroactive to July 1, when the fiscal year began. The award announced Wednesday also increases the likelihood that dozens of additional bargaining units in state government — which haven’t yet settled compensation deals — will get similar raises. And if that happens, it will mark the fifth consecutive year state employees’ compensation has increased by about 4.5%. (A step hike typically adds about 2 percentage points to the overall raise value.)
RADIO: Vincent Vernuccio- Pro-Worker Labor Legislation That Promotes Worker Freedom
November 17, 2025 // Senator Bill Cassidy announced a swath of pro-worker labor legislation that promotes worker freedom and curbs undue influence and abuse by unions
LACMA Employees Push to Unionize, Calling for ‘Fairer Compensation’ and ‘Expanded Benefits’
October 30, 2025 // The AFSCME Cultural Workers United District Council 36 has aided in the unionization efforts at other LA museums, including the Museum of Contemporary Art, the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures and Foundation, and the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County and La Brea Tar Pits. The larger AFSCME Cultural Workers United represents employees at museums like the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Philadelphia Art Museum, the Denver Art Museum, the Baltimore Museum of Art, the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, the Frost Art Museum in Miami, the Brooklyn Museum, the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., and the Harvard Art Museums in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Why is UAW pushing a strike vote at Volkswagen Chattanooga?
October 28, 2025 // "We are disappointed the UAW chose to call a strike authorization vote before giving our employees a say on our strong final offer that was on the table," a Volkswagen spokesperson told The Tennessean. "Our final offer meets many of our employees' priorities and delivers strong investments in our workforce and in our plant's future."