Posts tagged election.
4 reasons why labor unions love Tim Walz
August 8, 2024 // The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers noted that Walz, a former teacher, understands the struggles of working people. The AFL-CIO hailed the governor as a principled fighter and labor champion. The Service Employees International Union pointed to what it called "the Minnesota Miracle," a sweeping package of pro-worker laws passed by the state's Democratic legislature last year and signed into law by Walz.
Unions applaud ‘most pro-union president in history’ following Biden’s decision to end campaign
July 24, 2024 // As president, Biden instituted reforms aimed at rebuilding the federal workforce, both increasing recruitment at federal agencies and restoring rights taken away during Trump’s first term in office. Shortly after taking office, he rescinded Schedule F, an abortive—though not abandoned—effort to reclassify tens of thousands of federal employees in policy-related jobs into the government’s excepted service, effectively making them at-will employees.
‘This is the year’: SF labor unions prepare for hectic elections
July 15, 2024 // The Labor Council, which represents more than 100 unions, has already signaled it’s unlikely to reach a consensus on an endorsement. “Historically in San Francisco it’s been a bit all over the map,” said Jay Bradshaw, executive secretary-treasurer for the Nor Cal Carpenters Union. “There are times when there’s been alignment, and times when there’s not ... labor gets lumped in like a monolith — and labor is not.” At the state and national levels, unions have historically backed Democratic candidates. In a city where every legitimate candidate is a Democrat, labor organizers are taking a nuanced look at both the policy positions of — and personal relationships with — the candidates.
Biden, Trump battle for blue-collar voters as steel merger looms
June 30, 2024 // But Rudy Sanetta, a maintenance worker at US Steel, prefers Trump on the economy and because of his stance on gun rights. "I like him for his resistance to the politicians," Sanetta said of Trump. "The other guy, I have no confidence." Working class voters "are the most pivotal because they're the ones who have actually demonstrated that they're willing to select either Trump or Biden," said Jonathan Cervas, a political scientist at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.
Labor’s GOP flirtation heightens Democrats’ 2024 election nerves
June 20, 2024 // In February, the Teamsters made its first major donation to the RNC since 2004 after its president, Sean O'Brien, met with former President Trump the previous month. O'Brien has since requested speaking slots at both the Republican and Democratic conventions. Another sign of a potential shift: The United Auto Workers — a powerful force in battleground Michigan — waited until January to endorse Biden amid tensions over electric vehicles. The Biden administration has enacted policies strengthening unions, with the president also taking the unprecedented step of visiting a UAW picket line last September before winning the group's endorsement.
Alabama Mercedes-Benz Employees Declined to Unionize. The UAW May Win Anyway
June 5, 2024 // Unions defend this anti-democratic system as a necessary response to corporate shenanigans, but that claim ignores how the deck is stacked in unions’ favor. Unions have an incentive to allege illegal activity regardless of whether it happened, and under the Biden administration, the NLRB is much more inclined to agree with unions. The Cemex decision itself is proof of the board’s union bias. The NLRB is run by people appointed by the self-described “most pro-union president ever.” Lo and behold, they make pro-union decisions. The Alabama autoworkers should be terrified. They couldn’t have been clearer in their rejection of the UAW.
Police responded to AFSCME District Council 33′s offices after union leaders allegedly got into a fight
June 5, 2024 // Greg Boulware, who is running to be president of the 9,000-member American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees District Council 33, said he was in the offices of the union’s health and welfare fund Monday morning when his rival in the runoff election, interim president Omar Salaam, stormed in. Boulware said he eventually stood up and was injured above his eye when Salaam punched him and “got probably one good shot in.” Boulware said he fought back in self-defense and “locked him up.” The fracas left a hole in the wall, Boulware said, and Salaam had left by the time police arrived.
Commentary: Large Drop of UAW Membership in Michigan Is Bad for Biden and Democrats but Great for Trump
April 11, 2024 // Particularly Democrats who hailed it as a new era for union membership and a win for blue-collar workers everywhere and who traditionally have unions and those workers who support them blindly. Now it looks like their victory lap may have been premature, and the happiness may not last long-term. Since those deals were struck last October, I have started to hear grumblings that the rank and file are not as happy as they were possibly at first because of the devil in the details that they were sold on at the time. Particularly the members who do not have seniority, which guarantees them many things they thought they were going to receive.
Pro-Worker, Not Pro-Union
January 31, 2024 // What the Right has often overlooked in this debate is that the protection of independent-worker status can be coupled with a revamping of worker-benefit options. Lack of benefits is frequently cited as the main drawback of independent work. Republicans could burnish their pro-worker credentials, while protecting businesses from reclassification and other draconian left-wing policies, by proposing a flexible benefit setup for contractors and gig workers that has features similar to a SEP-IRA. It would use a system of employer contributions while giving workers the ability to make pre-tax contributions of their own. The funds could be used for benefits such as paid sick leave, unemployment insurance, or even health insurance, some of which could be purchased through newly created worker-benefit exchanges that act as brokerages for the benefits. Benefit-flexibility concepts can be applied as well to retirement savings, even those of noncontract workers. The current system largely relies on employer-based retirement plans, but many workers find it difficult to roll old retirement accounts over to new jobs. That has led to a proliferation of abandoned “orphan” accounts. Automatic portability for retirement accounts would make it possible for more workers to take their accounts with them to new jobs. Also due is a nuanced rethinking of noncompete agreements in labor contracts. While libertarian notions of the freedom of contract have long led right-leaning policy-makers to resist the imposition of restrictions on contractual arrangements, recent years have seen more free-market proponents question the efficacy of noncompetes with respect to their impact on worker freedom and earnings.
UAW president says Biden has ‘history of serving others,’ while Trump ‘serving himself’
January 29, 2024 // When asked if it is difficult to convince UAW members to support Biden in light of his push towards electric, Fain said, ” Look, our- our union has a history going back- I- I saw a statement 54 years ago in 1970, UAW President Leonard Woodcock was talking about, we needed to get away from the internal combustible engine because it’s poisoning the environment.” “Look, the UAW has always been at the forefront of environmental issues, and of working class issues. The biggest thing to us is, no matter which way we go on this, we’re gonna have security for our members and for the working class people,” Fain added, pointing to the assurances in the UAW’s new contract.