Posts tagged economy
‘A huge opportunity for the labor movement’: Unions jump on newly won Democratic trifectas
December 1, 2022 // And if Democrats succeed in repealing certain laws in Michigan — and in pushing through other union-backed measures — union officials and campaign operatives hope to rekindle the labor movement’s influence in other states. Democrats are putting their energy toward raising the minimum wage, banning so-called captive audience meetings where employers can warn against unionization, and more. “We’re busy preparing our legislative agenda, because we put everything we had into the ground game for this election,” AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler said in an interview. “How can we go on offense to pass legislation to protect people’s voice and ability to exercise their rights?”
NY POST Opinion: Union Joe suddenly turns into Union-Buster-in-Chief — to save himself
December 1, 2022 // With Americans already facing Bidenflation and a potentially painful recession, a rail strike would utterly slam the nation’s economy — and his legacy. “I am calling on Congress to pass legislation immediately to adopt the Tentative Agreement [reached in September by] railroad workers and operators,” Biden said Monday, insisting no “path to resolve the dispute at the bargaining table” exists. Hmm. Just this year he was backing unionization of Amazon workers, warning, “Amazon, here we come. Watch.” Last year, too, he pushed unionization drives and praised organized labor for winning workers better terms. His proposed Protecting the Right to Organize Act and American Jobs Plan aimed to unionize practically the entire US workforce (by nixing states’ right-to-work laws, for example).
Rail strike threat escalates as third union rejects deal
November 15, 2022 // The International Brotherhood of Boilermakers (IBB) announced Monday its members voted against ratifying a tentative agreement with the major freight railroads, making IBB the third labor group to turn down the deal brokered by the Biden administration and upping the chances of a nationwide strike.
How Biden’s Victory With Railroad Unions Could Be Derailed
November 1, 2022 //
Railroad worker negotiations head off the rails over paid sick leave
October 26, 2022 // November 17, the two largest unions announce their votes, and a few days later the deadline for BMWE's cooling off period expires. The possibility of a holiday strike looms.
Should Union-Backed Fraud Be Legal?
October 11, 2022 // Last week, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued rulings in cases brought by the Freedom Foundation alleging that government unions forged public employees’ signatures on membership agreements in order to continue deducting dues from their pay. Perhaps the most egregious of the decisions is found in Zielinski v. SEIU 503, in which SEIU forged Mr. Zielinski’s signature twice on two separate dues authorizations. These decisions essentially authorize government-employee unions to ignore the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark 2018 ruling in Janus v. AFSCME by engaging in state-sanctioned fraud.
Major Rail Union Rejects Biden-Backed Deal, Reigniting Strike Fears
October 11, 2022 // While four of the dozen rail unions have thus far ratified, if the members of any union fail to agree to the terms, all 12 unions will go on strike, the AP reported. By rejecting the deal, the BMWED will return to negotiations with railways, entering a “status quo” period where unions cannot strike until Nov. 19, five days after Congress reconvenes, the BWMED stated.
MCMAHON: On Labor Day, The Data Shows The Struggles Of Our Country’s Small Businesses And Workers
September 7, 2022 // Research from Alignable shows that 40% of small businesses could not pay their rent in August, and the most affected sectors are agriculture, automotive, restaurants, and education. And when you ask these small businesses if they think things will improve, research from CNBC Small Business Index demonstrates that 77% will tell you that they expect inflation to get worse, while 57% believe we are already in a recession.
The Americans Who Never Went Back to Work After the Pandemic
September 6, 2022 // Padded by transfer payments, disposable income in America spiked in 2020 and 2021, reaching previously unattained heights despite the economic crisis. And after the initial steep but temporary plunge in consumer spending from the Covid shock, the stimulus-funded rebound pushed consumer demand well above its pre-Covid trend line. Americans actually had more money in their pockets during pandemic emergency years than they cared to spend—so their savings rates doubled. In 2020 and 2021, a windfall of more than $2.5 trillion in extra savings was bestowed by Washington on private households through borrowed public funds. That nest egg could supplement earnings—or substitute for them.
Another Weirdness of the COVID Labor Market
September 2, 2022 // The early retirements problem came into view as pandemic unemployment “cleared” and the labor market returned to status quo ante. The 65-plus group accounts for between 50 percent and 100 percent of the decline in the population-to-employment ratio, amounting to .7 percent of the entire workforce, perhaps a million or so workers, and about half that number were among those who chose to hang up their cleats ahead of time. These early retirements are interacting with the overall market in some unique ways. In a normal recession, businesses tend to cut labor costs through automation. As the old jobs are eliminated, workers are “reallocated,” meaning they move into new occupations. The NBER study finds that the COVID-19 recession saw almost no reallocation except in low-skill leisure and hospitality occupations. In the meantime, the number of workers in professional occupations grew as a share of the labor market. This relative expansion of professional jobs was also accompanied by “downskilling” (i.e., the relaxation of educational and experience requirements reflected in help-wanted ads) as firms responded to the tight labor market by making it easier for less credentialed workers to qualify for openings further up the value chain.