Posts tagged firefighters
LAFD union boss who blamed lack of funds for limited response to wildfires took home $500,000 in pay and overtime
May 1, 2025 // But even as Escobar was denouncing reductions in workforce and budgets, he was pulling in more than $500,000 a year. He had also helped secure four years of pay raises for the city's 3,300 firefighters with Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass. He saved the cushiest carve-outs for himself and other top union leaders, a new report from the Los Angeles Times claimed. Most of the union's top brass padded their paychecks with overtime on top of six-figure union stipends.
‘Trump and Musk are setting the example’: how companies are becoming emboldened to be more anti-union
April 10, 2025 // That tougher behavior under former president Ronald Reagan sped the decline of private sector unions. Today, just 6% of private sector workers are in unions, while 32% of public sector workers are. Anti-union ideologues are increasingly targeting public sector unions, which often support Democrats. “Because almost half of the labor movement is now in the public sector, the assault that we’re seeing now is really focused on the public sector,” McCartin said. “That really threatens to break the spine of the labor movement.”
Trump signs executive order to end collective bargaining at agencies involved with national security
March 27, 2025 // President Donald Trump moved Thursday to end collective bargaining with federal labor unions in agencies with national security missions across the federal government, citing authority granted him under a 1978 law. The order, signed without public fanfare and announced late Thursday, appears to touch most of the federal government. Affected agencies include the Departments of State, Defense, Veterans Affairs, Energy, Health and Human Services, Treasury, Justice and Commerce and the part of Homeland Security responsible for border security.
Unions prepare to fight Ohio bill that bans university faculty from striking
March 24, 2025 // The bill that would ban most mandatory diversity training in higher education is headed back to that chamber to approve changes the House made before passing it mostly along party lines. Republicans have said Senate Bill 1 would combat what they see as liberal indoctrination at public universities. But labor unions are ready to fight it. "This is really the the most significant undercutting of collective bargaining since that was attempted with Senate Bill 5 back in 2011," said Scott DiMauro, president of the Ohio Education Association, the state's largest teachers' union which represents K-12 teachers as well as some higher education faculty. Senate Bill 5 sought to restrict collective bargaining rights for 400,000 Ohioans in public sector unions, including teachers and law enforcement. Unions came out in force against it and then mounted a campaign to repeal the law, submitting a record 1.3 million signatures to put it on the fall 2011 ballot. Nearly two-thirds of voters approved overturning it.
Hundreds of Washington state Attorney General employees walk off job over proposed budget cuts
March 23, 2025 // “Any dollars cut from our funding impedes our ability to do our work, and it costs a lot more down the road,” Savage said. “That money now more than ever is necessary for us to protect not only Washingtonians but the most vulnerable within our populations.” The Attorney General’s Office has a budget of $671.5 million for 2023 to 2025, supporting a staff of 1,816 employees. Savage said the walkout was meant to send a clear message to lawmakers, who are ultimately responsible for finalizing the state’s budget. “We can’t strike like a typical government agency; we’re prevented from doing that,” she said. “The best we can do is a walkout to send a message to legislators that these cuts will cause more problems than they solve.”
UTAH, Opinion: Republicans Need to Learn Government Unions Can’t Be Trusted
March 3, 2025 // On Feb. 14, Gov. Spencer Cox signed a law I sponsored banning public-sector collective bargaining. This makes Utah the best state in the nation for protecting taxpayers and ensuring that government employees can negotiate their own employment terms. But this victory came only after fruitless attempts to work with government unions—efforts that exposed their pattern of saying one thing while doing another. In early 2024, I introduced a bill that would have required public-sector unions to hold regular recertification elections. As I argued at the time, unions representing teachers, firefighters and police should have to prove continuously that they represent a majority of workers. Taxpayers, too, have a stake: If a union doesn’t speak for most employees, why should the rest of the state be on the hook for its demands?
Utah Legislature bans collective bargaining for teachers unions and other public sector jobs
February 11, 2025 // “If there’s not going to be consensus, then let’s just run it on its face,” said Sen. Kirk Cullimore, the bill’s Senate sponsor. Labor experts say the proposal, which is headed to the governor’s desk, would establish one of the most restrictive labor laws in the country as Republicans seek to curb the political influence of teachers unions.
The Facts About U.S. Union Membership
January 29, 2025 // The total number of workers who are union members is 14.3 million. Of those, 7 million are public sector workers, so roughly half of U.S. union members work for the government. The National Education Association reported to the Department of Labor that it had 2.8 million members in 2024. The American Federation of Teachers reported 1.8 million members. That means 32 percent of all U.S. union members are in the two major teachers’ unions.
Unions organize against bill cracking down on public employee collective bargaining
January 24, 2025 // Rep. Teuscher said he is planning a proposed amendment enshrining Utah's "Right to Work" law in the state constitution. If that were to pass, it would be placed on the ballot for voters to decide. "Your employment, whether they hire you or fire you, cannot be based on whether you are or are not a member of a union. That’s been in state law for over 50 years. My constitutional amendment would bring that into the state constitution," he said.
Chicago Firefighters’ Union Casts “No Confidence” Vote Against CFD Leadership
December 18, 2024 // The union representing Chicago's rank-and-file firefighters, EMTs, and paramedics unanimously voted Thursday that they no longer have confidence in leadership at the Chicago Fire Department, after going nearly 3 ½ years without a new contract. Chicago Fire Fighters Union Local 2 President Patrick Cleary confirmed the unanimous no-confidence vote on Thursday afternoon.