Posts tagged Hawaii
OTS makes ‘last, best and final’ offer to union
November 4, 2025 // She clarified that this contract is for TheBus only and other services like HandiVan would still operate. In a letter to members, the Hawaii Teamsters Local 996 called on workers to vote no, saying the company’s offer still falls short on critical issues like wages, pensions, and hazard pay.
Kaiser Permanente employees return to work after 5-day strike
October 21, 2025 // The strike was part of a walkout involving 31,000 members of the United Nurses Associations of California/Union of Health Care Professionals (UNAC/UHCP). Members include registered nurses, pharmacists, physician assistants, rehab therapists, dietitians, speech-language pathologists, nurse anesthetists, nurse practitioners, midwives and other specialty health workers. Picketing was held at three facilities in San Diego County: Zion Medical Center in Grantville, San Diego Medical Center in Kearny Mesa and San Marcos Medical Center.
Tens of thousands of healthcare workers are set to stroke against Kaiser Permanente next week. If the strike happens, it would be the largest ever against Kaiser.
October 7, 2025 // Fox 5 reports thousands of frontline registered nurses and healthcare workers would strike for five days at more than two dozen hospitals and clinics across California and Hawaii.
1,900 Kaiser Permanente hospital workers in Hawaiʻi voting on union strike authorization
September 18, 2025 // Local bargaining started in April, and national bargaining with Kaiser Permanente, the country’s largest not-for-profit healthcare system, began in May. Union leaders point out that some Hawai‘i workers are paid up to 30% less than their counterparts on the mainland and face growing concerns over burnout and patient care. If approved, the vote would give union leadership the authority to call a strike once current contracts expire on Sept. 30. The online vote began at 6 a.m. on Sept. 15, with results expected by the end of the week or early next week. Meanwhile, rallies are scheduled to take place on Friday across the state.
Commentary: Unions Are Shrinking Nationwide—But Not in California
September 3, 2025 // California, though, is noteworthy for its steady union presence. It hasn’t fluctuated much since 2005, despite the national decline. Further, the federal data set used to produce the union figures does not include home health care and child care workers who are classified as self-employed. In California, that takes in some 700,000 workers, even though their hourly wages are negotiated with individual counties through unions.
Labor Day 2025: More protests than parades and picnics
August 20, 2025 // But the biggest blowout, organizers hope, is going to be on Labor Day itself. Local events can be found at MayDayStrong.org. There is also a toolkit for event hosts and organizers to coordinate their actions. The organizers hope to exceed the estimated five million people who hit the streets on No Kings Day back in April. The key demands at all the protests will be: “stop the billionaire takeover and rampant corruption of the Trump administration, protect and defend Medicaid, Social Security, and other programs for working people,” plus “fully funded schools, and healthcare and housing for all.” Marchers will also demand the Trump regime “stop the attacks on immigrants, Black, indigenous, trans people, and all our communities and invest in people, not wars.”
5.9% of Washington Workers Are Union Members, 6th Most in the U.S.
June 9, 2025 // Union membership in the United States has declined to its lowest point in decades. In 1979, unions represented 24.1% of the American workforce. By 2024, that share had fallen to just 9.9%, according to figures from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and UnionStats. In absolute terms, this represents a drop of roughly 6.7 million members—from a peak of 20.9 million in 1979 to around 14.2 million in 2024.
Hawaii: New Contracts Give More Than $1 Billion In Union Pay Raises
April 29, 2025 // Bargaining wrapped up shortly after the Hawaiʻi Commission on Salaries awarded total raises ranging from 35% to 48% over six years to top state leaders, including the governor and his department heads. By comparison, unionized state workers received raises of 4% or less per year for the next four years. Union leaders say the state urgently needs to boost public workers’ pay to help recruit people to fill vacant state jobs, but the new contracts won’t do that.
Commentary: VA is selectively enforcing Trump’s order stripping workers of union rights
April 22, 2025 // But the same notice, without explanation, exempts eight small labor groups within the VA from Trump’s edict, effectively allowing them to retain their collective bargaining rights. Those unions include the Laborers International Union of North America, the Western Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals, the Veterans Affairs Staff Nurse Council Local 5032 in Wisconsin, the International Association of Firefighters in Arkansas, the Teamsters Union Local 115 in Pennsylvania and the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers in Hawaii. While Trump’s order exempts law enforcement and firefighter unions from losing their collective bargaining rights, that exception would apply only to the IAFF local.
Hawaii nurses unions call for law regulating staffing ratios
January 23, 2025 //