Posts tagged cost of living
Momentum for Open Bargaining Grows in the Letter Carriers
April 15, 2024 // So far 23 NALC branches and one NALC state association have passed an open bargaining resolution first put forward by NALC Branch 9 in Minneapolis. In many more branches, members are discussing the resolution and plan to bring it forward in the weeks to come. The resolution calls for NALC leaders to articulate clear demands up front, and to give regular updates about the progress of bargaining. Currently members are kept completely in the dark. It also calls for the NALC to mobilize the membership through nationally coordinated rallies, like the contract rally held by Branch 9 in Minneapolis last spring, that would bring together the membership, the broader labor movement, and the public in support.
OPINION: The SEIU’s fake fast food union
February 12, 2024 // Struggling at the national level, the union turned to its legislative allies in California. It worked for several years to enact the so-called “Fast Recovery Act,” a scheme to create a new council that would regulate wages and working conditions for fast-food workers. The idea: Save the union the unproductive hassle of signing up new workers, and instead make all of them subject to a union-controlled government board. Though it took the union two legislative sessions to pass it, over fierce resistance from restaurants, it eventually got to the Governor’s desk in 2022. He signed it on Labor Day that year.
Teachers Union Strike in Mass. Amid Statewide Revenue Deficits
February 11, 2024 // Nearly two weeks later, and close to a million dollars in fines incurred by the illegal strike, the NTA and the District finally agreed to a 2.5 percent cost of living adjustment through fiscal year 2025, a 3.25 percent increase by 2026, and a .75 percent increase for 2027—a stepped total of 12.6 percent over four years. According to the NTA, the deal includes “the best parental leave benefits in the state,” with 10 additional paid days by the district. According to Newton officials, however, the deal cost their residents an additional $53 million more than budgeted. In March of 2023, Newton residents voted 53-47 against additional tax increases proposed to cover increased spending. Without the additional tax revenues to fund the union’s demands, Newton city Mayor Ruthanne Fuller, said during negotiations that the city would need to layoff teachers and other city employees, such as police and firefighters, to meet the bargaining demands.
Workers at Alabama Hyundai plant announce union as UAW drives deeper into Southeast
February 2, 2024 // Thirty percent of the workers at the sole Hyundai plant in the U.S., in Alabama, have joined the United Auto Workers (UAW). The announcement marks the third such public union drive at an automaker in the Southeast.
Meet the new Kentucky AFL-CIO president focusing on the future of young workers
January 31, 2024 // One area he hopes to focus on is the cost of living, which he sees becoming more oppressive to young workers. While 22 states will increase the minimum wage this year, Kentucky's minimum wage will remain at $7.25, the rate it has sat at for the past 14.5 years.
UAW President: If corporations won’t pay for pensions, taxpayers must
January 23, 2024 // "We have to take the issues that matter to the working class and poor, and we have to make our political leaders stand up with us," Fain said during his opening remarks. "Our message in doing this is simple: Support our cause, or you will not get our endorsement." Fain described political activism as an extension of the gains the union obtained this fall in its new contracts with the Detroit Three automakers. The new pacts delivered record wage hikes, resumed cost-of-living adjustments, obtained improvements to retirement packages and other benefits and secured billions of dollars in investments. The union, however, was unsuccessful in delivering its demand to secure pensions and post-retirement health care for all 146,000 autoworkers. Those hired after 2007 have 401(k)s with matching contributions that were upped in the latest round of negotiations. Analysts have estimated the union's demand would cost billions of dollars.
Dem Demands On Automakers Could Backfire On Their Own Climate Agenda And Americans’ Wallets, Experts Say
January 17, 2024 // “EV cars require fewer workers to build,” Higgins told the DCNF, noting that greater union membership in the auto industry is probably not possible with a corresponding transition to EVs. “That’s just a fact. But that may not matter as much as you might think to the UAW. Believe it or not, only about 150,000 of the UAW’s 400,000 or so members actually work for Detroit automakers. The union has branched out into other areas, such as education, and those areas are growing… So fewer auto workers will hurt the union but not kill it.”
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,
UAW President Shawn Fain plans to keep automakers sweating
January 1, 2024 // "I don't like what I've seen in my work career with the UAW leadership, where they were too damn close to the companies," UAW President Shawn Fain told CNN earlier this month. But when asked if things work better for his members when there's a less contentious or more contentious relationship between the UAW and the Big Three, Fain responded, "We just negotiated the most successful contracts in our history," he said. "For the last 30 years that I've been a member, we went backwards. So I like to let the body of work speak for itself," Fain said. The success of those contracts is the reason that Shawn Fain is CNN Business' labor leader of the year.
Amazon, Starbucks worker unions are in limbo, even as UAW and others triumph
December 29, 2023 // More than two years have passed since the first Starbucks stores voted to unionize in Buffalo, N.Y. Close to 380 Starbucks stores have since followed. But not one has a contract. Starbucks and Workers United, the union representing the vast majority of unionized Starbucks stores, have each accused the other of not bargaining in good faith.