Posts tagged health insurance
Ohio labor unions fight back against bill to ban strikes
May 30, 2023 // Bill sponsor state Sen. Jerry Cirino (R-Kirtland) wants to put a stop to this. "To hold the students hostage to getting the instruction that they have paid for in advance of the semester just seems to me [as] not putting the students first," Cirino said. Strikes paying families at the whim of educators and disadvantaged students just trying to learn, he added. "We have opportunities to negotiate on other bases without having to put the students' right to get the instruction they paid for any way at risk," the Republican said.
Union group home workers strike across Connecticut
May 24, 2023 // More than a thousand union group home workers walked off the job Wednesday morning, demanding a new contract that includes better pay. As the governor and state lawmakers get closer to the deadline on budget negotiations, about 1,200 unionized group home workers walked off the job at 6 a.m. Wednesday morning. SEIU District 1199NE, the New England Health Care Employees Union, represents over 25,000 caregivers in Connecticut and about 4,000 in Rhode Island. The union said that most of its workers have been without a contract for about three weeks and are demanding what they call “living wages,” affordable health insurance and better retirement benefits.
Reality TV Workers Launch Union Drive at ‘The Kitchen’ and ‘Trisha’s Southern Kitchen’ Producer
March 24, 2023 // A majority of the collection of 19 workers (whom the guild is calling writer-producers) at the Montclair, New Jersey-based development and production company have signed union cards in an attempt to join the Writers Guild of America East, the union announced Monday. The WGA East is calling on management at the company to voluntarily recognize the group, a means of unionizing that avoids a formal National Labor Relations Board election. Eater was the first to report the news. The push at BSTV Entertainment marks the WGA East’s latest effort to make inroads in the largely nonunion sphere of unscripted entertainment. After the guild unionized its first unscripted shops (Lion Television and Optomen Productions) around 10 years ago, it now has additional unions at Jigsaw Productions, VICELAND, Vox Entertainment, NBC News Service and Sharp Entertainment.
NY Gov. Hochul and teachers union at odds
February 21, 2023 // The “Pay and Resolve” bill, which would require health insurers to pay hospital billing claims immediately without reviewing the medical necessity of the billing claims, was publicly opposed by the United Federation of Teachers (UFT). The union claimed that the proposal could lead to a hike in costs for union members. UFT President Michael Mulgrew explained, “The added costs are passed along to us. That is silly and that has got to stop.” Other unions joined UFT’s opposition, such as Teamsters and SEIU Local 32 BJ. Her proposal, which is a part of the state budget proposal, would keep the current state cap of 460 charter schools but free up 85 more slots for new charter schools across the state by eliminating regional caps. The proposal would create more slots for charter schools in New York City, which currently has a cap of 275 charter schools. In a statement, Hochul said, “I believe every student deserves a quality education, and we are proposing to give New York families more options and opportunities to succeed.”
Voluntary Recognition of Unions Is Increasingly Popular Among U.S. Employers
January 23, 2023 // In January 2023, Microsoft recognized a union of playtesters at its subsidiary ZeniMax Studios; Major League Baseball voluntarily recognized minor league players’ choice to join the Major League Baseball Players Association in September; workers at a number of media organizations had their unions recognized throughout 2021 and 2022; and mission-driven organizations such as charities, museums, civil rights and environmentalist groups, think tanks, and other nonprofits all voluntarily recognized worker unions as well. Other businesses, including The Metals Company, Forever Energy, and the Association of Independent Commercial Producers, signed neutrality agreements with unions, under which the firms agreed to refrain from engaging in anti-union tactics during an election. Some companies have communicated that they have pursued voluntary recognition because their own organizations’ goals broadly align with those of workers. In particular, a number of mission-driven organizations have opted for voluntary recognition in recent years, including the Whitney Museum, the Shed, the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) Los Angeles, the Brookings Institution, the National Center for Transgender Equality, Capital Roots, Code for America, and others. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), a national nonprofit that litigates to protect civil liberties, first voluntarily recognized the unionization of national staffers with the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE) Local 70, also called the Nonprofit Professional Employees Union, in 2021.* One of the ACLU’s state affiliates, the ACLU of Texas, also recognized its workers’ choice to unionize with United Auto Workers (UAW) Local 2320 in 2022. Indeed, as the ACLU of Texas stated after recognizing its employee union: Media and news organizations have seen some of the largest voluntary recognition agreements signed in the United States. Along with workers at Politico, The Atlantic, Public News Service, The State, and others, employees at Condé Nast won voluntary recognition for their staff union with the Communications Workers of America (CWA) in 2022. Spurred on by their co-workers at The New Yorker and other Condé Nast publications that voted in favor of joining the NewsGuild-CWA in 2018, these workers organized a union that covers 500 workers, including 100 subcontractors. Workers have also won voluntary recognition in the entertainment industry, including at the International Documentary Association, Seven Seas Entertainment, and the iHeartPodcast Network, as well as through the Animation Guild.
Transit Union: Contract Offer ‘Insulting’
January 19, 2023 // Under Keolis’s latest offer, commuter bus drivers, dispatchers, and some technicians would earn $40 an hour at the top of the pay scale. That makes them competitive with other wages in the region such as the $43 for WMATA drivers or $40 at the DC Circulator. But local bus drivers and others would top out at $27.36, continuing the disparity that existed under the previously separate contracts.
Salesforce to cut workforce by 10% after hiring ‘too many people’ during the pandemic
January 5, 2023 // In a letter to employees and a corresponding filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff referenced the “challenging” environment in which it’s operating, pointing to the “more measured approach” its customers are making with their purchasing decisions. Similar to other companies hit by significant layoffs over the past year, Benioff added that Salesforce had hired too many people through the pandemic during the boom times. For context, the company claimed 79,000 employees last February, a 30% increase on 2020.
UAW workers to vote on CNH offer 8 months after strike began
January 4, 2023 // More than 1,000 striking CNH Industrial workers will soon vote on an offer from the maker of construction and agricultural equipment for the first time since they walked off the job eight months ago. The United Auto Workers union said this week that it decided to put the company’s “upgraded last, best and final offer” to a vote, but the union didn’t offer any details of what is included in it.
Looming Akron teacher strike: Here’s what parents and caregivers need to know
January 2, 2023 // AEA has a strike organization in place and will work with its membership to staff selected picket lines, Shipe said. She did not elaborate on those plans, but said AEA has received an outpouring of support from the Akron community, from all APS unions like bus drivers, secretaries, custodians, cafeteria works and others, including labor unions in other school districts and private-sector unions. "Our labor brothers and sisters are united in our efforts to secure safe schools and responsible and fair wages," she said.
Union wins made big news this year. Here are 5 reasons why it’s not the full story
December 29, 2022 // Spirited union campaigns at coffeehouses, on university campuses and at companies such as Starbucks and REI that have long positioned themselves as progressive have brought a new generation of workers into labor's fold. Whether they stay will likely depend on their career prospects in other fields and how they fare in collective bargaining.