Posts tagged inflation
University of Michigan Lecturers’ Union to vote on strike authorization
April 23, 2024 // Contract ratification requires that an overall majority of voting members approve the contract, with majority approval on at least two campuses. In a statement to TV-5, university spokeswoman Colleen Mastony said the university has negotiated in good faith, offering an annual 3% salary increase over the next four years and a $2,000 lump-sum payment in the first year. She called the offer fair, saying she hopes both parties can reach an agreement soon. “A work stoppage would undermine the progress both parties have made over the past six months. It also would also needlessly hurt students during a critical period in the academic year,” Mastony said.
Michigan’s largest unions have seen plummeting membership over the past decade
April 18, 2024 // Analysis Michigan’s largest unions have seen plummeting membership over the past decade Jobs and incomes are up, workplace injuries are down By Jarrett Skorup | April 16, 2024Share on FacebookShare on X Photo by Kateryna Babaieva on Pexels In recent years, most of Michigan’s largest labor unions saw massive declines in membership, despite significant job growth in most industries. The reason? A decade with right-to-work law, which gave workers the ability to choose whether to join a union, as a member or through a fee, or not. The reports many labor unions are required to file with the federal government reveal the state of labor union membership, as do reports from the Michigan Civil Service Commission. Every one of Michigan’s 15 largest unions or so has seen a decline, whether in state government, schools, local government, or private industries such as construction or food service. But the declines are uneven. A variety of AFSCME associations, representing mostly state and local government workers, have seen a loss of more than half their members. The SEIU, which mostly represents workers in health care and local government, is down nearly 70%. Despite job gains in the auto sector over the past decade and a highly publicized strike last year, the UAW branches in Michigan have lost 16,000 members over the past decade. Other private sector unions have seen fewer losses. These include the United Food and Commercial Workers (-8.7%), Michigan Regional Council of Carpenters (-6.8%), the Operating Engineers (-2.5%) and Michigan Nurses Association (-3.7%). Losses in the public sector are much more pronounced than those in the private sector. The Michigan Education Association has now lost more than 38,000 members, or one-third, since the right-to-work law went into effect in 2013. The American Federation of Teachers branch, the bulk of which is in the Detroit Federation of Teachers, is down more than 25%. The Michigan public school system added 27,000 employees since 2012, but its largest employee unions have lost a combined 45,000 members. The total number of public sector union members in Michigan has dropped by 80,000 since the right-to-work law was passed. Unions representing state of Michigan employees are down by more than one-third. That may soon change. The Democratic-led Michigan Legislature repealed the state’s right-to-work law in 2023. The UAW and other unions representing workers for private employers can now require them to rejoin or pay fees. A 2018 ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court means that public sector employees such as schoolteachers still have the right to decline paying or joining a union. Repealing the law is expected to boost union membership and financial support for the Democratic Party. In fighting in 2012 against a law allowing workers to opt out, SEIU Healthcare Michigan President Marge Faville said unions needed the forced funds to “make sure Democrats get [elected].” Just before legislators voted to enact a right-to-work law, a local Michigan Education Association leader sent an email out on a public server to tell other public school employees that “[emergency management] is the future in Michigan with a Republican governor and Legislature” and union members need to “[get] everyone we know to vote for Democrats.”
Some movement in negotiations as Salem nurses, Salem Regional Medical Center officials face strike deadline
April 16, 2024 // The nurses' union has posted an online petition asking for residents to sign. As of Tuesday afternoon, 638 people have signed the petition, which claims, "In the last 3 years, the hospital lost over 100 registered nurses, largely because nurse wages and benefits have not kept up with other area hospitals." Harklewood said that 116 Registered Nurses at the hospital are prepared to strike if nurses and the hospital don’t come to an agreement on a new contract.
Momentum for Open Bargaining Grows in the Letter Carriers
April 15, 2024 // So far 23 NALC branches and one NALC state association have passed an open bargaining resolution first put forward by NALC Branch 9 in Minneapolis. In many more branches, members are discussing the resolution and plan to bring it forward in the weeks to come. The resolution calls for NALC leaders to articulate clear demands up front, and to give regular updates about the progress of bargaining. Currently members are kept completely in the dark. It also calls for the NALC to mobilize the membership through nationally coordinated rallies, like the contract rally held by Branch 9 in Minneapolis last spring, that would bring together the membership, the broader labor movement, and the public in support.
Workers at Philadelphia sports stadium hit picket lines for one-day strike
April 11, 2024 // The union — which represents people who work at the Wells Fargo Center and neighboring Lincoln Financial Field and Citizens Bank Park, where the Philadelphia Eagles and Philadelphia Phillies, respectively, play — say their wages and benefits are not keeping up with inflation. The union said some staffers who work at all three stadiums make different hourly wages at each site, and union members say they are treated as seasonal workers rather than year-round employees, based on each sport’s season.
McDonald’s $25 Deal Goes Viral, Linked Directly to California’s Minimum Wage Hike
April 10, 2024 // Her video showcasing a $25 McDonald's meal — 40 nuggets and two large fries, but no drink — got people talking. "OK, so it's $25.39 for 40-piece nuggets and two large fries. You couldn't even throw in the Sprite?" she quipped, highlighting a surprising lack of beverages for the price.
CALIFORNIA: Dave’s Hot Chicken tests kiosks, bigger drinks in face of $20 CA wage
April 3, 2024 // “We didn’t see the ability to pull labor out of the restaurant, but we did see some positive impact on sales,” Bitticks said. Dave’s labor deployment at the cash register — the position most likely to be replaced by kiosks — is already fairly small. The brand still needs workers present to assist customers with kiosks, in the same way grocery stores deploy workers to oversee the self-checkout process, he said. Tickets placed at kiosks are about 7% to 8% higher than orders placed with an employee, Bitticks said. This increase is driven by greater orders of the brands’ entrees, and possibly by guests trying new items they notice on their own, rather than trying items based on conscious upselling. Dave’s managers report customers across age demographics are using the kiosks, Bitticks said, rather than just younger diners.
SEIU, allies say $20 fast food wage should have minimal impact on employment
April 3, 2024 // “Our fight was never just about the raise, but having the power to improve our industry,” said Angelica Hernandez, a Los Angeles McDonald’s worker and member of the Fast Food Council created by AB 1228. Hernandez, speaking through an interpreter at a press event hosted by the Service Employees International Union and the Roosevelt Institute, a liberal American think tank, said employers are retaliating against supporters of AB 1228.
Unionized Science Museum workers await contract as cultural nonprofits face changing labor market
April 1, 2024 // Inspired in part by pandemic-era lay-offs, as well as record inflation, Twin Cities labor movements have seen an uptick in mobilization. Janitors, school teachers, university graduate students, plow truck operators, firefighters, nurses, rideshare drivers and coffeeshop baristas have all recently taken their arguments for better pay and working conditions to the public picket line, or threatened to. Museums have had a lower-profile in those labor efforts, but workers at the Minnesota Historical Society in St. Paul, Walker Arts Center in Minneapolis and Science Museum all have unionized in the past four years with the goal of collective bargaining for employee-friendly contracts. Most of the Science Museum’s workers were laid off and sent home when the pandemic forced closures in March 2020, only to be gradually called back months later into a climate marked by social distancing and general uncertainty. Hazard pay for frontline staff in visitor services disappeared after a few months. Workers rallied and got it back.