Posts tagged insurance
Unveiling Financial Transparency Failures in Labor Organizations
July 24, 2025 // In 2024 alone, the DOL recorded 177 union enforcement actions involving fraud, embezzlement, wire fraud, and falsified records. These are only the crimes that rise to the level of federal prosecution. Far more ethical violations, financial misuses, and questionable behaviors fall below the radar leaving union members in the dark and are quietly buried through internal repayments, hush resignations, or legal threats — all without any formal DOL investigation or public accountability. Despite 16 years as a union official, I did not become aware of the existence of LM-2 financial disclosure filings until our local filed a lawsuit against our state affiliate. Imagine that: even as a union president and past treasurer, I was unaware that both our state and national unions were required to submit LM-2 forms to the Department of Labor. If someone like me — deeply engaged in union governance — was kept in the dark, how can we expect average members to know their rights, much less exercise them?
Indiana Duke Energy workers could soon go on strike
July 9, 2025 // If the union decides to strike, Wilson fears there will be rolling blackouts and people will be left without power longer after storms. He pointed to record temperatures and the heighted storm season. "There's just not enough qualified individuals to [respond to] that," he said. "It's going to be while before we get to that point where we push to full on go on strike. We're going to give the company every opportunity to make it right with the members. That's the direction we're trying to get squared away."
Following layoff announcements, Sharp medical office workers unionize
July 7, 2025 // The election took place by mail from June 9 to 30 to join the union, which represents 120,000 healthcare workers across California. The medical office workers at all six offices known as SharpCare in Coronado, Chula Vista, La Mesa, San Diego, Santee and Spring Valley join 6,000 Sharp workers across the region — including more than 650 earlier this year.
Backgrounder: Executive Order: Exclusions from Federal Labor-Management Relations Programs
March 31, 2025 // The practice of “official time” is when unionized federal employees perform union-related activities, rather than their actual public service duties, while being paid by taxpayers. The Federal Unions EO requires that agencies, upon termination of an applicable collective bargaining agreement, reassign any workers who performed “official time” to positions where they perform solely agency business. It also contains language regarding existing grievance proceedings and allows for the head of each agency to submit a report to the President within 30 days highlighting any agency subdivisions that were not covered but should have been covered under the Federal Unions EO.
For federal employees, remote work ought to be exception, not rule
February 9, 2025 // But the public sector is a different ballgame. Whereas most private sector employees can be fired at any time and for any reason, the process for firing federal workers is intentionally onerous. Federal employees' right to "due process" means that employers must give them a 30-day advance notice and explanation of alleged misconduct before a termination can go into effect. Federal employees then have the right to appeal the firing to an independent agency, retain independent counsel, file a complaint with the Office of Special Counsel, and then be reinstated with back pay and benefits should the appeal succeed.
Op-Ed: The Case for Gig Worker Benefits
December 19, 2024 // Independent workers miss out on many fringe benefits associated with regular employment, such as disability insurance, life insurance, or health insurance. They are also ineligible for paid family or medical leave. In 2022, the proportion of self-employed adults lacking health insurance (18 percent) was substantially higher than that among all working-age adults (12 percent). These disparities result to some extent from tax policy. For the best part of a century, businesses have provided health insurance, pensions, and other fringe benefits to employees with pretax dollars—perks that self-employed workers did not enjoy.
Contractor at a NASA center agrees to higher wages after 5-day strike by union workers
July 2, 2024 // In addition to higher wages, the agreement included a broadening of S3’s life insurance policy and comprehensive health care, dental and vision options, according to a statement from the company. Workers will also receive an additional holiday.
House Panel Advances GOP Bill to Ban College Athletes as Employees
June 17, 2024 // Good suggested that college athletes should be pleased with having recently "won new freedoms," including name, image and likeness and the ability to transfer schools without enhanced restriction. Classifying those developments as "new freedoms" is debatable. NIL removed NCAA restrictions barring athletes from using a legal right they already possessed, the right of publicity, and only came about after states passed NIL statutes. As to the NCAA lifting transfer restrictions, that only surfaced after the NCAA lost in court on those very restrictions.
Union workers push for health care and insurance bills following coordinated strikes
March 15, 2024 // After thousands of Twin Cities union workers went on strike last week, workers are pushing for changes at the Capitol — including public health insurance open to all Minnesotans and insurance for striking workers. About 200 unionized health care, education and property service workers with the SEIU Minnesota State Council met with legislators Wednesday for an organized lobby day. “I would make the case that over the last few years here in Minnesota because of the leadership of SEIU and our allied partners, we have maybe made more progress than we have in a generation around workers and union rights,” said Gov. Tim Walz,
OP-ED: Labor Department’s new independent contractor rule is a mess. We need a clear national standard instead.
February 2, 2024 // This confusion has serious consequences. Worker classification affects not only minimum wages and overtime, but also fringe benefits, taxes, insurance, liability for injuries, and union organizing. It can even implicate antitrust law. So if a business classifies a worker incorrectly, it can face serious legal penalties. And those penalties aren’t just monetary: some states have even made misclassification a crime. And make no mistake, this isn’t only a problem for companies; it’s a problem for workers too. Look no further than what has happened in California. In 2020, the state changed its classification rules to crack down on supposed misclassification. The state’s goal was to shift workers out of independent contracting and into employment. But not only did contracting dry up, so did employment. A new study shows that more than ten percent of contractors and four percent of employees in the affected professions simply lost their jobs. Businesses were so afraid of the new classification rules that they cut opportunities across the board.