Posts tagged inflation
Boeing union ready to strike after rejecting contract offer
August 24, 2026 // These are members of Boeing’s SPEEA union, which represents 13,000 engineers and 4,000 technical workers. The contract offer would have boosted the average pay for those who design Boeing planes by nearly 30 percent over four years. They would have received three extra days of paid leave, lower limits on mandatory overtime, and more opportunities for virtual work.
New Jersey employers face evolving union negotiations
August 11, 2026 // New Jersey’s worker-protection laws add further complexity. “When worker-protection laws are enacted or amended in New Jersey, they add layers to collective bargaining,” Gonzalez said. “There’s no requirement to bargain over a law’s implementation, but where statutes are ambiguous, employers must negotiate the gaps.” She pointed to CREAMMA [the state’s Cannabis Regulatory, Enforcement Assistance, and Marketplace Modernization Act] as an example. “The law prohibits adverse action based on cannabis use outside of work,” she noted. “But unionized employers still need to address how drug testing, safety policies, and fitness-for-duty standards interact with the CBA.” Benefits like paid sick leave and NJ WARN Act severance can also stack on top of contractual obligations. “That dual obligation can catch employers off guard if they are not planning for it at the bargaining table,” she detailed.
Newsom celebrates boosting California’s minimum wage to highest rate in the country
August 3, 2026 // California's push for higher wages has also faced opposition from business groups that warn increased labor costs can translate into higher prices, reduced hiring, or fewer hours for workers. The debate has been particularly pronounced around the state's fast-food wage law. Newsom, meanwhile, has increasingly contrasted California's economic policies with those of the president and congressional Republicans as he raises his national political profile.
Minimum Wage Myths are Flooding the Internet
July 27, 2026 // Salaries are a function of supply and demand, not government planning. Employers hire workers up to the point where the value of their labor justifies the wage, while workers decide whether to supply their labor based on the pay offered. As the Texas example shows, the true minimum wage is whatever the market decides, and in 2026 that’s almost never as low as $7.25. Minimum wages can also hurt the workers that they’re meant to help. California’s minimum wage is among the highest in the nation, and California now has the highest unemployment rate of all 50 states.
Union workers rally with Yousef Rabhi at Ann Arbor city hall
July 25, 2026 // Mayor Pro Tem Travis Radina said the full-time salaried position in the city’s budget for the AFSCME union president is unique among city unions. Even the county’s larger union does not have a president position paid by taxpayers, he said. The position elimination was on the bargaining table since the beginning of the contract negotiations, before Kastner was elected president, because the city has not been able to get contractually mandated reporting about how the time is being spent, he said. Since salary increases for all AFSCME members seemed to be the union’s priority, the city considered the position elimination again because the savings it could generate could be redistributed to give all other AFSCME members an extra 1% increase, Radina said.
Affordability at forefront of union negotiations between Pinellas district and teachers
July 23, 2026 // If the district and teachers association are unable to negotiate a contract ahead of the July 31 deadline they will reach impasse. Impasse is a deadlock in negotiations between workers and employers. Though this has not occurred since 2009, association members and officials are saying that this year, impasse is not an impossibility. If an impasse is reached, Florida’s Public Employees Relations Commission will appoint a special magistrate who will make recommendations on disputed contract items. If those recommendations are not approved by both parties, it will head to the school board which will make a final ruling on any remaining disputes.
KC Streetcar workers are unionizing after record-high passenger traffic during World Cup
July 13, 2026 // The workers would be represented by Teamsters local 955. They want higher pay, more staffing, better working hours and more safety protections on the job. The union, which could include more than 70 streetcar operators and maintenance workers if approved, would also work to get clear hiring, firing and discipline policies. Erhardt said one other priority is securing bathroom breaks, which aren’t currently guaranteed.
Maryland board rules state violated bargaining agreement with union
July 6, 2026 // The Maryland Public Employee Relations Board said the Department of Budget and Management failed to bargain in good faith with the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 3 when it denied access to information about telework eligibility. The board, in a ruling issued Wednesday afternoon, ordered the state to provide the requested information in 14-days. The decision marks another bump in what has been an uneven relationship between Democratic Gov. Wes Moore and the union that represents 50,000 workers statewide — more than half of those working in state government positions.
Dream Team of Three Congressional Primary Winners Joins UAW Union Rally for Columbia University Researchers
July 5, 2026 // Three recently elected Democratic nominees for Congress — Darializa Avila Chevalier, Claire Valdez and Brad Lander — spoke at a Tuesday rally for CPW-UAW Local 4100, the union that represents 1,600 postdoctoral workers at Columbia University. The lunchtime rally was held in a pedestrian plaza outside the university’s massive medical center in Washington Heights. Drawing over 200 participants, it took place on the day CPW-UAW’s current contract was set to expire and right before a bargaining session between the union and Columbia. As of Wednesday afternoon, the university and the union have yet to settle on a new contract.
JD Vance Courts Sean O’Brien and the Teamsters
June 1, 2026 // Mr. O’Brien is desperate for a win in Washington to sell to his 1.3 million members as he runs for re-election. Some Republicans in Congress seem eager to give him one—maybe two—as they seek to burnish their bona fides as defenders of the working class. These Republicans are doing more to help Democrats—the primary beneficiaries of Teamster campaign donations—than workers. The Teamsters’ membership has shrunk by nearly half since the 1970s amid a broader decline in organized labor. Technology has improved productivity. At the same time, jobs have migrated to states with right-to-work laws, which prohibit unions and employers from making union membership a condition of employment. The Teamsters have also lost rank-and-file support. Between 2016 and 2025, members filed 373 petitions to decertify the Teamsters, according to Reason magazine. Some 60% of the decertification elections succeeded. You can’t blame union members for wearying of paying dues that bankroll Democratic candidates and lavish lifestyles of union leaders. In the 2023-24 election cycle, 92% of Teamsters PAC donations to federal candidates went to Democrats, as did 91% of the union’s contributions to party committees.