Posts tagged District of Columbia
Former Officer Pleads Guilty to Embezzling More than $30,000 from DC Department of Corrections Union
November 3, 2024 // As part of his guilty plea, Parker admitted that he misappropriated more than $30,000 of union funds to pay for unofficial travel, lodging, and entertainment for him and his friends. For example, he spent more than $7,000 on a trip to New York city for his friends and him, including $4,000 on rooms and expenses at a Times Square hotel, more than $370 on tickets to a New York Knicks game, and an additional $616 on tickets to Summer: The Donna Summer Musical. He also spent more than $2,000 in union funds to purchase four tickets to a Diana Ross concert in North Bethesda, Maryland. The Honorable Rudolph Contreras, who accepted Parker’s guilty plea, scheduled sentencing for March 6, 2025.
Starbucks workers at Nashville location vote to unionize
September 27, 2024 // Starbucks Workers United said the location at Hillsboro Pike and Graybar Lane is joining a growing movement of more than 10,500 baristas working together to “win justice at work.”
Proposed Biden-Harris Apprenticeship Rule Would Exacerbate Skills Gap
August 14, 2024 // PROPOSED RULE WOULD DISCOURAGE WORKERS AND DISINCENTIVIZE BUSINESSES FROM PARTICIPATING IN APPRENTICESHIP PROGRAMS Under the Biden-Harris Administration, the U.S. Department of Labor has proposed a nearly 800-page rule that would burden apprenticeship programs with red tape, extra costs, and more bureaucracy. The rule includes several problematic new requirements, including
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.
Sofitel Lafayette Square Employees Have Successfully Obtained Secret Ballot Vote to Remove Unite Here Union from Hotel
June 10, 2024 // After Unite Here union officials imposed union control over hotel employees without a secret ballot vote, workers at Sofitel Washington DC Lafayette Square have successfully obtained an election to remove the union. Sofitel employee Mwandu Chibwe submitted on May 15 a petition asking the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to hold a decertification election at her workplace. Ms. Chibwe is receiving free legal aid from the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation.
DHS Security Guard’s Federal Lawsuit Forces IGUA Union Bosses to Stop Illegal Forced Union Dues Demands
June 6, 2024 // Crawley is not a member of the IGUA union, but is still subject to IGUA’s monopoly bargaining power over the security guards at the DHS Nebraska Avenue Complex. As part of the settlement, IGUA union bosses must reduce the compulsory fee that they seize from Crawley as a condition of keeping her job. Before she filed suit, union bosses demanded the equivalent of full membership dues from her. In her federal lawsuit, which she filed at the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, Crawley sought to defend her rights under the 1988 Right to Work Foundation-won CWA v. Beck Supreme Court decision.
WASHINGTON D.C.: Sofitel Lafayette Square Employees Have Successfully Obtained Secret Ballot Vote to Remove Unite Here Union from Hotel
May 28, 2024 // After Unite Here union officials imposed union control over hotel employees without a secret ballot vote, workers at Sofitel Washington DC Lafayette Square have successfully obtained an election to remove the union. Sofitel employee Mwandu Chibwe submitted on May 15 a petition asking the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to hold a decertification election at her workplace. Ms. Chibwe is receiving free legal aid from the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation.
25 states will hike minimum wage in 2024
December 22, 2023 // Sean Higgins, an analyst at the libertarian Competitive Enterprise Institute, said many food and hospitality workers already earn more than their state minimum. He noted that employers have raised salaries to compete for a shrinking pool of applicants. “Raising state and local rates does hurt the smaller businesses, the classic mom and pop enterprises, who will employ local high school or college-age kids if they can but may not be able to justify that if the minimum rate increases,” Mr. Higgins said.
More than 75,000 Kaiser Permanente workers threaten strike if labor agreement not reached
September 25, 2023 // The Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions warned Kaiser that more than 75,000 workers will strike in early October if an agreement is not reached by the end of next week. The unions say understaffing has led to dangerous wait times for patients. Kaiser Permanente is the largest nonprofit health-care organization in the U.S. serving nearly 13 million patients. Kaiser has called the unions’ claims misleading and urged employees to resist a call for a strike.
Commentary: Analysis shows $17 minimum wage could exacerbate rising prices, pushing child care costs up 20%
August 15, 2023 // Such massive cost increases would almost certainly price some families out of child care completely. Some parents who want to work would be pushed out of the labor force, leading to lower household incomes. Households that have only one parent and must use child care would be more likely to turn to non-licensed, typically illegal, child care. On top of that, child care jobs would be lost, even as employment among child care workers, declined by 18.2% between 2019 and 2022. While not all parents want or need full-time child care, a $17 minimum wage could also hurt families who use only part-time child care or even occasional babysitters. For example, a family who currently pays $10 per hour for 10 hours of after-school care per week would face an extra $70 per week, or $3,640 per year, in added costs.