Posts tagged Indiana
Commentary: More Jobs, Fewer Workers: Is the Labor Market Strong or Weak?
November 5, 2024 // Even after factoring in the BLS’s acknowledgment that its reports overstated job gains by 818,000 from March 2023 to March 2024, there still appears to be about five times as many new jobs created over the past year as there are additional people working. While media reports and markets tend to focus on jobs reports, what matters most to the economy and to human flourishing is how many people are working. Currently only 60.2% of people ages 16 and over in the U.S. are working. This is a gap of about 2.6 million workers compared to pre-pandemic employment rates.
Union wants management off the GM assembly line or workers will strike
November 4, 2024 // “If I didn’t have to get national authorization, I would have struck on Oct. 2,” LeTourneau said. Two other GM plants – Bowling Green (Kentucky) GM that produces Corvettes and Tonawonda Engine in New York are also refusing to accept management on their lines. Both plants refused to “exploit temporary workers,” LeTourneau said. “If you’re not going to hire them, they’re not helping us.” The problem is that part-time temporary workers who work 32 hours a week can be strung along as temps “forever” because there’s no provision to hire them. They have to be temps for nine months in order to get hired, LeTourneau said.
UAW’s Fain says strike will cripple Stellantis
November 3, 2024 // Kevin Gotinsky, who heads the UAW’s Stellantis Department, described the Local 1166 vote as a low-turnout election, with about 61% voting in favor. He said the union is confident it can get “everybody moving together” going forward, with a more aligned approach over the next three months. More than a dozen locals have withdrawn grievances filed as part of the process, according to the company, but the union can refile them. UAW Stellantis Department Director Kevin Gotinsky speaks during a rally outside of the UAW Local 51 office in Detroit on Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2024, highlighting Stellantis' refusal to follow through on the $19 billion in product and investment commitments made during the 2023 Stand Up Strike. Strike authorization does not guarantee a strike will happen, but provides leverage for the union as it negotiates with the company, which says a strike under these circumstances would not be legal.
UAW Local 2209 initiates strike authorization vote at GM’s Fort Wayne plant
October 30, 2024 // United Auto Workers (UAW) Local 2209 is set to hold a critical vote on Wednesday regarding a potential strike at General Motors’ Fort Wayne Assembly Plant in Indiana. The plant produces full-size trucks, including the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra. The vote stems from ongoing tensions between the union and GM over how temporary workers are treated at the facility. The union’s leadership has expressed frustration over GM’s decision to lay off approximately 250 temporary workers at the end of September following an inability to reach an agreement to extend their employment
GM Laying Off Hundreds Of Part-Time Temps At Two US Plants
October 2, 2024 // The vast majority of them are stationed at Fort Wayne Assembly in Indiana where the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra are built. This site employs roughly 4,000 people across three shifts, and of these employees, approximately 250 are part-time temporary workers. The remaining part-time temporary workers losing their jobs are at the Bowling Green site, which produces the Chevrolet Corvette and employs 1,458 people.
Marion County Public Defenders want pay bump in first contract after unionizing
September 6, 2024 // The office is understaffed, and low pay is one reason why. Employees say the shortage has led to unmanageable caseloads for public defenders and delays in the justice system for the individuals they're representing. The big picture: The public defenders voted to unionize last year, adding the office's approximately 230 non-management employees to the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 481.
Federal judge says H-2A workers don’t have right to unionize
August 28, 2024 // In her ruling, Judge Lisa Wood acknowledged the Department of Labor has the authority to make rules governing H-2A workers. However, she says the Labor Department does not have the authority to “create law or protect newly created rights of agricultural workers.” That authority, she says, belongs to Congress. Citing previous legal precedents, Woods determined that issuing a nationwide injunction would give a single district court an outsized role in the federal systems. Therefore, her ruling only affects those listed as plaintiffs in the case initiated by the Southern Legal Foundation.
Commentary: Unions are bad for cities
August 16, 2024 // The truth is that unionization doesn’t even increase wages for all union members. Single-salary schedules ensure that senior members earn the most and new members the least, regardless of value or merit. While union leaders may brag about the union member premium — the ostensibly higher wages that unionized workers earn — it only exists for older members, where it exists at all. What’s more, unions’ seniority layoff system protects longer-serving union members before anyone else. The most junior employees are the first to be let go and the last to be rehired. Last-in-first-out layoffs do nothing to improve productivity, but they do a lot to protect senior members.
17 states allege Biden opens path to unionize foreign farmworkers
July 17, 2024 // The Department of Labor denies the allegation, saying the rule merely gives foreign farmworkers the right to protect wages and working conditions through "concerted activities" and "self-advocacy." The AGs accuse the department of hiding "behind linguistic smoke and mirrors." "If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, then it's probably a duck," the motion for a preliminary injunction reads.