Posts tagged discipline
Court allows Trump to end union bargaining for federal workers
August 5, 2025 // Trump's order exempted more than a dozen federal agencies from obligations to bargain with unions. They include the Departments of Justice, State, Defense, Treasury, and Health and Human Services.
OPM calls for quicker firings, more stringent performance standards
June 25, 2025 // Don Kettl, professor emeritus and former dean of the University of Maryland School of Public Policy. “In the case of any downsizing in government, training is always the first to go. So is there going to be investment to try to make happen what they’re proposing?” The former HR official said the plan to reduce performance improvement plans to 30 days belies the overall memo as a “red herring.” “If you can’t articulate why someone’s failing and you only give them 30 days to show that they’re no longer failing, it becomes a procedural widget to sustain a termination,” they said. “[And] the Trump administration has done such a thorough job in the last five months cutting the balls off of unions—which is a mistake, because they help provide due process—and the Merit Systems Protection Board, the [Equal Employment Opportunity Commission] and [Office of Special Counsel], it’s going to be hard for current employees under these constraints to win anything.”
Writers Guild West Names Members Who’ve Been Expelled or Disciplined for Breaking Strike Rules
April 14, 2025 // The Writers Guild of America West has gone public with its discipline of six union members for allegedly writing during the labor group’s 2023 strike and one for a purported constitutional violation, a move that four writers have appealed, with one saying he was “punished for being transparent.” Writers Julie Bush, Tim Doyle, Edward Drake and Roma Roth have all sought to overturn disciplinary rulings from the union’s board of directors, which followed hearings before five-member trial juries and investigations from a committee aimed at uncovering authorized work during the strike. The union announced the discipline and appeals to members on Friday.
How New York Can Prevent Another Prison Worker Strike
March 7, 2025 // The governor should hold both sides to account. She needs a handshake deal with lawmakers to restore some of the discretion that prison superintendents previously wielded to impose solitary confinement in the most extreme cases. Such an agreement can be codified in the forthcoming state budget. In return, state law should require every DOCCS employee to wear a body camera whenever in the presence of an inmate and give the department more latitude in curbing the arrival of drugs and contraband. Finally, Hochul needs to identify and terminate the strike’s instigators. Any capitulation, real or perceived, will tempt other public employees to instigate their own illegal strikes—though some of damage in this regard has already been done.
Union contracts should not protect drunken teachers
March 6, 2025 // The Bay City union contract spelled out the process: A teacher’s first offense resulted in a written reprimand and the teacher was required to go through counseling. The second offense resulted in a three-day suspension without pay and mandatory counseling. Third offense: a five-day suspension without pay and mandatory counseling. Fourth offense: a 10-day suspension without pay and mandatory counseling. Only upon the fifth offense could the district fire the teacher. It gets worse. A teacher using illegal drugs at school got three strikes before she could be fired. Even teachers caught selling drugs could not be fired until their second offense.
NY reaches tentative deal to end prison strike by suspending anti-solitary confinement law
March 2, 2025 // A law restricting the use of solitary confinement in New York’s prisons would remain partly suspended for 90 days if corrections officers accept a tentative agreement the state reached with their union to end an ongoing wildcat strike. There will be no departmental discipline for any of the thousands of corrections officers if they return to work by Saturday, according to a memo the governor released. The agreement also includes provisions to reduce mandated overtime, increase the overtime pay rate and temporarily hire retired corrections officers to assist in transporting incarcerated people.
AT&T BellSouth Worker Slams CWA Local 3122 With Federal Charges for Imposing Illegal Discipline, Dues Demands
February 28, 2025 // https://www.nrtw.org/news/cwa-att-miami-02272025/
NYC’s Only Unionized Pizzeria Is Closing Due to ‘Rising Costs and Diminished Sales’
February 13, 2025 // Shapell and Walton purchased Barboncino in Fall 2022. As the summer of 2023 approached, workers at the popular wood-fired Neapolitan pizza shop filed for a union election through the National Labor Relations Board with the support of Workers United, a national labor union. In May 2023, Barboncino Workers United asked the restaurant’s owners to recognize the union, which would have prevented the need for an NLRB election. When the deadline for recognition passed, the employees moved forward and voted unanimously to unionize in July 2023.
Attorney: Campton Hills retaliated against cop for unionizing attempt
February 6, 2025 // DiMaggio and Walsh appeared Wednesday at a Campton Hills Fire and Police Commission hearing on whether the officer should be put on unpaid leave. “Officer DiMaggio has been on paid leave for 10 months now while the village has sought reasons to discipline him after he investigated and formed a union for the police officers,” Walsh said.
“Warehouse Worker Protection Act” Reintroduced with Bipartisan Support
October 2, 2024 // The bill imposes restrictions on employers’ use of productivity quotas to measure workers’ performance or output and includes substantial notice requirements to workers on the use of such quotas, discipline for failing to meet the quotas, and workers’ rights under the act, among other things. It mandates breaks for covered workers and recordkeeping obligations for employers. The WWPA also requires the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to issue two new rulemakings and creates a new category of unfair labor practices under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). It also expands the federal bureaucracy by creating a Quota Task Force as well as the Fairness and Transparency Office within the Department of Labor. This legislation is a thinly-veiled attack on large companies like Amazon that the Democratic Party and labor organizations do not support. The original sponsors of the WWPA were Senators Markey, Bob Casey (D-PA), and Tina Smith (D-MN). The cosponsors now include Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Laphonza Butler (D-CA), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Hawley, Alex Padilla (D-CA), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), and Peter Welch (D-VT).