Posts tagged health care
VA severs ties with most federal unions, terminating worker contracts
August 7, 2025 // Veterans Affairs leaders on Wednesday announced plans to terminate nearly all of its collective bargaining contracts with federal unions, upending employment agreements for hundreds of thousands of department workers. The move affects members of the American Federation of Government Employees, the AFL-CIO (AFGE), the National Association of Government Employees (NAGE), the National Federation of Federal Employees (NFFE), the National Nurses Organizing Committee/National Nurses United (NNOC/NNU) and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU).
House food service workers, Democrats stage boycott in fight to keep union jobs
July 24, 2025 // Congressional Labor Caucus co-chairs Reps. Steven Horsford (D-Nev.), Donald Norcross (D-N.J.) and Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.) joined food service employees in front of the Capitol building after final votes Thursday to protest the new vendors’ delay in recognizing the Unite Here Local 23 bargaining unit’s existing agreement. Union members are asking lawmakers, staff and Capitol visitors to boycott six of the new venues: Starbucks, Pakistani food restaurant CHA Street Food, Jimmy John’s, Common Grounds, Java House and PX Tacos.
Hearing | Freedom to Work: Unlocking Benefits for Independent Workers
July 17, 2025 // Patrice Onwuka, director of Independent Women’s Center for Economic Opportunity, will testify before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP). In a hearing titled “Freedom to Work: Unlocking Benefits for Independent Workers,” Onwuka will discuss portable benefits and supporting America’s independent contractor and freelance workforce.
Federal and State Leaders Take Aim at Empowering America’s Flexible Workforce
July 16, 2025 // However, while federal leaders build support for national reforms to help workers all across America, states are not sitting idle. They know that not only do self-employed workers support greater access to portable benefits, but their residents in general think this warrants policy reforms as well. Instead, many are forging ahead with legal pathways for flexible, portable benefits, maximizing what they can do at the state level in ways that will be further enhanced by federal reforms when they occur. Many states introduced legislation this year to legalize voluntary benefits, but several pioneering states now have laws enacted.
Legislation helping independent workers access portable benefits introduced
July 10, 2025 // Currently, while 80 percent of independent workers would like access to workplace benefits, decades old federal labor and employment law prevent them from doing so. The legislative package is supported by independent worker organizations like Flex Association, the Institute for the American Worker and the National Retail Federation, to name a few. “The Unlocking Benefits for Independent Workers Act is an important step toward addressing some of the federal legal hurdles that complicate efforts to connect independent contractors with portable benefits while ensuring that the millions of Americans who choose to earn on their own terms can continue doing so without risking the independence and flexibility they value. Flex looks forward to working with Senator Cassidy and other forward-thinking policymakers as there is additional work to be done on this issue at the state and federal levels,” Kristin Sharp, CEO of Flex Association.
How the Teamsters Cost 30,000 People Their Jobs
July 10, 2025 // "That's true," says Palagashvili. "[Yellow Corp] was having a lot of financial issues. But if you're on the verge of collapse, the last thing you need is a Teamsters Labor Union contract that says you have to increase labor costs. Yellow is basically covered in gasoline, and Sean O'Brien comes and lights the match." Meanwhile, union leadership help themselves. The Teamsters now brag that it has $1 billion in assets. Sean O'Brien pays himself more than $430,000 per year. The same year Yellow went bankrupt, United Auto Workers went on strike against Stellantis, the company that owns Chrysler. Stellantis gave in, giving the UAW a pay raise and promising to open a new plant. But then Stellantis started laying off workers: 1,340 during the strike and 2,450 more the next year.
Portland hospital workers vote to organize, join service employees union
July 9, 2025 // More than 1,100 caregivers at Portland's Providence St. Vincent Medical Center have voted to unionize, joining the Service Employees International Union Local 49. Hospital staffers, including certified nursing assistants, cooks, lab assistants, pharmacy techs, environmental workers and patient representatives, will soon begin collective bargaining with management over a new work contract.
UPS offers buyout to union drivers, drawing ire from Teamsters
July 7, 2025 // The package offered through its “Driver Voluntary Severance Plan” is in addition to any retirement benefits, including health care and pension disbursements, according to a company emailed cited by Bloomberg. But according to the Teamsters union -- which represents 340,000 UPS (NYSE:UPS) drivers -- the “illegal” plan violates the contract between UPS and the Teamsters signed in August 2023, and would be less than what rank-and-file Teamsters now earn and could continue to make over the life of the current agreement.
Philadelphia, city’s largest blue-collar workers union to continue talks Sunday as strike looms, union says
June 30, 2025 // CBS News Philadelphia asked if any contingency plans were being made, but the mayor didn't answer that question. If an agreement is not reached, the strike would start at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday morning, which is only days before the city's Wawa Welcome America July Fourth Festival.
10 Roads Express strike nearing an end
June 23, 2025 // More than 160 drivers at Breakthru locations across Florida have gone on strike – a strike that has slowed liquor distribution in Florida for the past two weeks. The Teamsters union alleges the work stoppage comes after the company illegally fired workers for union activity and refused to bargain in good faith with the Teamsters.