Posts tagged hours
NLRB Pushes Schools to Release Student Information to Unions: Navigating Privacy Considerations in Light of Recent Guidance
August 14, 2024 // Private colleges and universities employing student workers face the unique challenge of balancing privacy obligations and a growing push from federal labor authorities to release student information to unions. Recent guidance from the National Labor Relations Board’s (NLRB) General Counsel has brought these issues to the forefront, particularly as the federal agency offers schools its view about how to satisfy your duties under both the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA).
Texas sees surge in union membership, defying state’s anti-union history
August 14, 2024 // In total, there are about 586,000 union workers in Texas, a fraction of the millions who work here. And yet, the increase is somewhat remarkable given the state's long history of hostility toward unions. And nationwide, union membership dipped during the same time. Texas is one of 26 so-called right-to-work states. Texas lawmakers first passed that law in 1993. The law allows for workers the option to not pay unions due and the right to work in a unionized workplace without being a part of the union itself. And more recently, the Republican-controlled Legislature passed a law aimed at stopping local governments from enacting progressive-leaning worker protections and other policies.
State of the unions: 8 facts you need to know about unions in Colorado
August 8, 2024 // Colorado is a modified “right to work” state because, under the state’s Labor Peace Act, workplaces with unions may hold a second election to become an all-union workplace. If at least 75% of eligible workers approve its Labor Peace Act election, the workplace becomes all-union, meaning every worker must join the union and pay dues. The act was passed in 1943 as a compromise between unions and business owners. In 2023 and 2024 to date, nine Labor Peace Act elections have been held — six won and three lost, according to the Colorado Fiscal Institute.
California labor takes a rare “L” in 2024
August 2, 2024 // Whatever the reasoning, it seems workers are fed up with controversial labor groups who claim to speak for them but don’t share their views or values. It’s possible this latest union rejection could represent a trend for workers across California who are sick of suffering under bad union policies and subpar representation. One thing is certain: 2024 is shaping up to be a year of reckoning for California’s labor unions and their indefensible agendas.
Texas judge vacates joint employer rule
March 9, 2024 // Judge J. Campbell Barker of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas vacated the National Labor Relations Board’s joint employer rule late Friday. The rule was set to go into effect Monday. The new rule would be “contrary to law” and “arbitrary and capricious,” Barker ruled. The court had been considering a legal challenge brought in November by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, along with other business groups.
Biden’s campaign plans to recognize a union organizing effort from its staff
February 26, 2024 // The move will trigger a collective bargaining effort between the reelection effort’s leadership and qualifying staff over conditions like salary, working hours and overtime pay. The union will represent staff in headquarters and based in battleground states. Biden’s staff union will affiliate with the Campaign Workers Guild, which has represented staff for a number of Democratic state parties and other campaigns. Members of the Democratic National Committee staff officially formed a union in 2022, joining the SEIU.
Workers at an employee-owned Utah grocery vote to unionize, citing ‘unsustainable’ conditions
February 14, 2024 // A bill moving through the Utah Legislature would add requirements for public unions and prohibit them from using public money or public property for union activities, including organizing and paying for union leave hours. HB285, authored by State Rep. Jordan Teuscher, R-South Jordan, passed to the House floor on an 8-4 vote in late January after a two-hour hearing where most public comment was against the bill. The federal statistics on union membership do not differentiate between public-sector workers and private-sector employees.
Opinion: NLRB says ‘common law’ — and common sense — defines joint employers
December 5, 2023 // The mandate, to take effect Dec. 26, says when two employers — think a local McDonald’s franchise and McDonald’s headquarters in Chicago — control a worker’s toil, from wages and hours to duties and work rules to hiring and firing to uniforms and training, then both are responsible for obeying or breaking Labor law. And that means it should be easier for workers to organize and bargain without being bounced from pillar to post when it comes to whom to bargain with. Using that same “basic common sense” explanation, AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler called the new rule “an important win” for workers.
U.S. labor board delays new unionization rule after business groups sue
November 20, 2023 // The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other business groups — including the American Hotel and Lodging Association, the International Franchise Association and the National Retail Federation — sued the NLRB in federal court in Texas last week to block the rule. They say the rule upends years of precedent and could make companies liable for workers they don’t employ at workplaces they don’t own. But the NLRB says the current rule makes it too easy for companies to avoid their legal responsibility to bargain with workers.
New federal rule could allow millions of workers to more easily unionize at big companies
November 16, 2023 // The rule only applies to labor relations. The Department of Labor sets its own joint employment standards for issues like meeting minimum wage requirements. Still, the new rule could have a major impact. Local franchise owners employ more than 8 million people in the U.S., according to the International Franchise Association. Millions more work for subcontractors or temporary agencies.