Posts tagged Covid
Opinion: Unions’ victories shake Utah politics
April 25, 2025 // Legislators will not go quietly into the night, allowing an activist judge to dismantle Utah’s school choice program. Expect legislation to shore up the program, and judges to once again be recipients of legislative ire. Pignanelli: Unless resolved soon, the role of public employee associations will be a feature in political party conventions and swing legislative districts. The Supreme Court’s ultimate ruling on the scholarship program could foster another constitutional ballot proposition.
Amazon workers reject union in vote at North Carolina warehouse
February 19, 2025 // Amazon workers at a facility near Raleigh, North Carolina, overwhelmingly voted against unionizing on Saturday. Of the 3,276 ballots cast, there were 2,447 votes opposing the union and 829 in favor, according to the National Labor Relations Board. There were 77 challenged ballots, a gap that’s too narrow to change the outcome of the election. The results still need to be certified by the NLRB.
New documents show TSA screeners illegally unionized, pro-worker group says
February 11, 2025 // “During the Obama administration, the TSA administrator did an abrupt about-face, and TSA moved ahead with allowing screeners to unionize in violation of the law,” Dave Dorey, an attorney specializing in labor and employment law who represented AFFT, told the Washington Examiner. “Multiple administrators of TSA have stated publicly that TSA screeners are not covered by Title V, which includes significant rights for unionized workers — including the ability to file claims of unfair labor practices with an independent board and ultimately vindicate their rights in federal court. TSA screeners have none of these protections.”
House Oversight Republicans open Congress with rants against telework, unions
January 17, 2025 // Rachel Greszler, a visiting fellow at the conservative Economic Policy Innovation Center and a former Heritage Foundation and Project 2025 contributor, described actions like the Social Security-AFGE telework contract update as an effort to “Trump-proof” agency workforces and suggested Congress should pass legislation allowing presidents to reopen collective bargaining agreements upon assuming office. And they should ban official time, the practice by which agencies agree to pay union officials their normal salary for time spent on representational duties, like in collective bargaining negotiations or representing employees during grievances or disciplinary hearings.
Principal, administrator unions rising steadily since COVID
January 15, 2025 // AFSA is affiliated with the AFL-CIO. Meanwhile, school systems in cities like San Francisco, Washington, D.C., and New York City created supplemental COVID agreements during negotiations with principals and alongside their school leader unions, he said. “In those supplemental COVID agreements, the principals were able to work out a number of issues, very similar to what the teachers were able to work out,” Treibitz said. “So post-COVID, we started getting a lot more calls” from school administrators from a wide variety of districts inquiring how to unionize, he said.
In Rare Move, Some Providence Physicians Prepare to Strike Alongside Nurses
January 8, 2025 // Thousands of Providence healthcare professionals around the state are preparing to strike, and for the first time in recent history, physicians are among their ranks. In late December, nearly 5,000 Providence healthcare professionals represented by the Oregon Nurses Association voted to approve a strike at all eight Providence hospitals to begin Jan. 10. The called strike came after several weeks of unsuccessful contract negotiations. The union claims the health care system fails to follow state staffing guidelines and doesn’t offer competitive wages and benefits. On Dec. 30, ONA gave the required 10-day notice to strike.
From Amazon warehouse to port strikes, shippers and the DOT are preparing for an unpredictable 2025
January 2, 2025 // In recent years, the logistics industry has become familiar with "black swan" events, the biggest being Covid, which brought the global supply chain to a halt. The lessons learned during the pandemic led to new digital solutions for companies to track trade and solve for the lack of communication and data sharing that contributed to massive congestion at ports. Those solutions will continue to play a major role in dealing with trade disruptions.
New York’s Fastest-Growing Union Is Management’s Best Friend — and Some Workers Don’t Even Know They’re Members
December 20, 2024 // Though she last worked for Five Borough two months ago, she stopped receiving pay stubs long before that, she said — paperwork that would have had to show deductions, including for union dues. Supervisors ignored her repeated requests for pay records, she said. Through such voluntary recognition deals with management, less than a decade after its founding, HHWA has exploded in size. It currently claims some 43,000 members, up from 14,141 in 2018. An investigation into Home Healthcare Workers of America by THE CITY, based on interviews with past and current members, legal records and other public statements, reveals that this fast-growing union is a tool of company management in the form of a labor organization.
Senator Sanders Issues New Report Unfairly Criticizing Amazon’s Workplace Safety Record
December 16, 2024 // Significant criticisms have been levied at Sanders over this investigation. For example, the report, which was drafted by Sanders’ staffers rather than safety experts, relies on outdated data and unverified anecdotes. It also ignores the significant investments and improvements Amazon has made since 2019 to enhance worker safety and health. Additionally, Sanders’ investigation and subsequent reports have been conducted and issued without any involvement from other members of the Senate HELP Committee, indicating that no other Senators on the committee agreed with the approach taken by Senator Sanders.
Delta flight attendants remain without a union but advocates are hopeful for a future vote
December 9, 2024 // Delta Air Lines is the only major U.S. airline without a union for its flight attendants. In the past, there have been three failed attempts by the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, the union representing flight attendants, to organize this work group.