Posts tagged election.
UAW Election Results Delayed to “Challenged” Ballots
March 7, 2023 // The outcome will be decided by 1,608 “challenged ballots.” The court-appointed monitor is determining whether the challenged ballots come from eligible voters. In many cases, the voters never included the number of their Local Union on the ballot. In other cases, the elections officer appointed by the monitor was unable to determine if the voter appeared on a list of a local union’s list of active or retired members, observers said. “The independent monitor is continuing to conduct the vote count process. No outcome has been determined,” the Curry Solidarity Team said in a Facebook post. “This is a process that make take a while,” Members United noted. So far, the elections officer has counted 137,591 votes and Fain, boosted by the fallout from a scandal, is leading by 645 votes, according to the unofficial results compiled by the monitor, who was appointed in the wake of the recent scandal during which a dozen union officials were sent to prison.
Professional salaried workers at Walla Walla Community College look to unionize
March 7, 2023 // “The bluntest way (to describe professional exempt employees) would be middle management,” she said. “They are typically — not always, but often — coordinators, managers, directors.” When it comes to representing people in those roles, securing better working conditions and recognition tend to be at the top of the priority list, Strickland said. That’s been the case at other colleges and universities where similar groups have formed, she said.
Foxx to NLRB: Proposed Rule Puts Unions Before Employees
February 3, 2023 // “The NLRA is intended to protect the right of workers to organize or refrain from doing so in conditions free of interference, not to permit an employer to anoint a union as the employee representative. History and experience have shown that the secret ballot election is the most reliable method of assessing whether a majority of employees support union representation, while the card check process is notorious for its lack of privacy and invites intimidation and coercion of workers.”
She made history as Chicago mayor. Reelection may be harder
January 24, 2023 // Elected as a reform-minded outsider who would rid the city of pay-to-play politics, Lightfoot was criticized when a campaign staffer sent out an email to public school teachers seeking students to volunteer for the campaign in exchange for class credit. Lightfoot apologized, calling it a mistake. Inspectors general are reviewing for possible policy violations. Some of Lightfoot’s biggest battles have been with the Chicago Teachers Union, which backed her opponent in Lightfoot's first run for mayor. The two sides butted heads during an 11-day teachers strike in 2019 and bickered over returning to in-school instruction during the pandemic. This year, the teachers union has endorsed Lightfoot rival Brandon Johnson, a Cook County commissioner and former Chicago teacher and union organizer.
Philly’s largest municipal union has endorsed Jeff Brown for mayor in a surprise vote
January 18, 2023 // Garrett said the union invited all of the mayoral candidates to speak before the board except former Councilmember and real estate magnate Allan Domb. Garrett said Domb’s record was not in line with his members’ values. Although many of the other candidates, as veteran city officials, have more experience with the union, Brown won the board over during the interview process, Garrett said. Jeff Brown, mayor
The UAW’s Candidates for President Are Making Their Case
January 18, 2023 // Ballots for the UAW’s runoff officer and board elections began to be mailed out on Thursday, to be completed by members and mailed back by February 17 to get in before the February 28 deadline. At stake is exactly how much members want their union, which was mired in a corruption scandal for years, to change.
Dates set for Ultium Cells to vote to join UAW
November 28, 2022 // Dates have been set for workers at Ultium Cells in Lordstown to vote to join the United Auto Workers (UAW) union. This voting comes after months of efforts from Ultium Cells workers to unionize. In August, 85% of Ultium Cells workers signed union authorization cards. 94% of workers have voted to strike should General Motors not recognize them as a union.
California teachers union spends over $2.8 million on school board elections
November 13, 2022 // This year, unions backed multiple ballot propositions on topics such as the “Clean Water, Clean Air, and Green Jobs Environmental Bond” in New York or Colorado’s Proposition FF to raise taxes to fund a school meal program. The trend of union involvement in politics is nothing new. Unions bankrolled over $1.8 billion in political lobbying and political activities in the 2020 election cycle, $1.4 billion of which came from union dues. AFFT offers detailed breakdowns of union spending on our website.
Teachers union spends $1M on Michigan governor’s race
November 2, 2022 // Yet the MEA, along with its parent organization, the National Education Association, is heavily funding Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s reelection campaign, as well as some Michigan school board races. The NEA is spending $1 million in Whitmer’s favor. The MEA is also endorsing nearly 200 candidates in local school board races and giving more than $1,000 each to many candidates across the state. This amount goes a long way in local school board elections. The NEA and MEA are supporting candidates who will back the status quo. The Washington Examiner reported April 7 that the NEA spent $66 million on political activities and another $117 million on political contributions, gifts, and grants for the 2020-21 reporting cycle. MEA’s total spending for 2022 is not yet available.
An election to watch, before November hits
October 26, 2022 // So far, six unions, representing less than 20 percent of the freight rail workforce, have ratified their contracts. Two unions have voted theirs down, sending their leadership back to the negotiating table to try again. At issue for the rail workers is benefits like time-off policies, not pay.