Posts tagged inflation
House panel probes Labor Department’s leak of revised jobs data to Wall Street firms
September 26, 2024 // The House Committee on Education and Workforce, which is chaired by Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC), sent a letter early Wednesday morning to the acting secretary of the Labor Department, Julie Su, asking for more information on the botched release of the revised data. “At best, BLS’s botched release of the job numbers caused significant uncertainty and confusion and undermined confidence in the data,” the committee’s letter to Su read.
Opinion: The Dangers of Union Expansion in Missouri
September 25, 2024 // Consider the fact also that the UAW has spent lavishly on travel, hotels, and executive salaries over the past several years. For example, from 2013 to 2018, the UAW spent $43 million on hotels and resorts and $4 million on restaurants and bars. Two past UAW Presidents have been convicted of felonies involving financial mismanagement. Meanwhile, current President Shawn Fain is under investigation by a federal court-appointed watchdog. Fain has been accused by two union officials of retaliating against them when they refused to take actions that would have benefited Fain’s fiancé and her sister.
Textron Aviation workers go on strike after rejecting company’s offer
September 24, 2024 // If the strikes continue over a month, issues could form in the supply chains. Other workers who talked to KSN on Monday after the strike began say the negotiations were helpful but did not go far enough. “The negotiations got pretty far, said Troy Greene, who is also a shop steward. “There were some things in the deal that were pretty good. But we decided to hold out and get what we think we deserve.”
Commentary: Labor strikes add to Harris union headache after Teamsters snub
September 23, 2024 // The announcement laid bare what could be a major liability for Harris ahead of the election. She is supported by most labor leaders, but rank-and-file members could deny her the presidency if they show up instead for Trump. But Harris also has a second emerging labor headache: Several unions are considering strikes, threatening to upend supply chains weeks out from the November election. Last Friday, more than 30,000 Boeing workers walked off the job, and dockworkers at ports along the Gulf and East coasts are threatening their own strike next month. United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain similarly announced on Tuesday his organization will hold strike authorization votes against auto manufacturer Stellantis.
Half a century later, ILA returns to strike mode
September 13, 2024 // The ILA is one of the least aggressive unions when it comes to coastwide strikes, especially relative to its militant West Coast counterpart: the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), which orchestrated stoppages and slowdowns just last year to attain its desired contract. In many respects, then, the ILA is riding the wave of labor’s recent successes that were achieved through hard-line tactics. In August 2023, the Teamsters celebrated the ratification of a new agreement with UPS. A few months later, the United Auto Workers secured large pay raises and other benefits for its members after a 46-day strike against Ford, Stellantis and General Motors.
Union workers at Detroit Marathon refinery go on strike
September 4, 2024 // This strike comes after the teamsters' contract expired on January of this year, with Teamsters authorizing a strike with a 95 percent vote. Teamsters Local 283 includes more than 800 workers, including board operators, field operators, chemists, laboratory technicians, electricians, and mechanics.
Sean Higgins: Inflation has ruined progress on wages
September 2, 2024 // A new Labor Department rule promises to crack down on this alleged “worker misclassification.” The Federal Trade Commission also promised to crack down on the practice, though it hasn’t issued a rule to date. The Labor Department’s rule will make companies wary of hiring contract workers. Never mind that many workers prize the flexibility this freelance work allows. So workers have fewer options in the traditional jobs they could apply for, and fewer opportunities to earn a living through non-traditional methods such as freelancing. Wage growth has been largely wiped out by inflation. In short, the current administration couldn’t stick the landing for the economy as it recovered from the lockdown.
Syracuse University employees to hold public rally after voting against contract offer
August 26, 2024 // According to a spokesperson for the union, workers feel that management has not acknowledged the difficult work employees performed through COVID-19 to keep the university running. The four-year contract would have provided a 3%raise. When juxtaposed with the university's $1.85 billion endowment and the recent rise in total enrollment costs to $88,000 per year per student, union members felt it was an unfair proposal.
Op-Ed: Two visions of government contend in the 2024 elections
August 20, 2024 // Trump cites mass immigration and U.S. job losses to other nations as harming American workers by increasing the supply of job seekers while reducing the demand for labor. Trump’s policy proposals focus on creating jobs and favoring current U.S. workers, attending to both sides of the problem.
Strike On Time: Cornell UAW Workers Strike on Student Move-In Day
August 19, 2024 // As students and their families arrive at Cornell for the start of the academic year, the strike threatens to disrupt essential campus operations, including dining services, facilities maintenance, and other critical functions. The decision to strike follows a strike authorization vote that passed with 94% approval from the union's approximately 1,200 members, including custodians, groundskeepers, cooks, food service workers, greenhouse workers, gardeners, and mechanics. The last time UAW workers at Cornell went on strike was 43 years ago in 1981, when the union and the university ratified their first contract.