Posts tagged Kansas
How state unemployment benefits impact the UAW strike
September 27, 2023 // "We were very confused if we were going to get (strike pay) or not," Halle Heinz, one of the Ford employees laid off, told WXYZ-TV in Detroit. "They were trying to hold as much strike pay as they could in order to make everything survive." Under Michigan law, UAW workers generally won't qualify for unemployment if they get laid off because of a labor dispute involving other workers at the same worksite, Brett Miller, an attorney specializing in labor law for Butzel in Detroit, tells Axios. UAW's Ohio and Indiana director is also navigating murky waters when it comes to unemployment. "It's clear as mud," UAW Region 2B director David Green told Crain's Cleveland Business. "I don't want to say all our members are going to get unemployment, because that's not going to happen." Disputes over unemployment benefits could end up in court, he said.
Electric vehicle jobs are booming in the anti-union South. UAW is worried
September 22, 2023 // “The auto industry’s move south hangs over these talks because now only a minority of workers are in unionized assembly plants,” said Stephen Silvia, a professor at American University and author of “The UAW’s Southern Gamble: Organizing Workers at Foreign-Owned Vehicle Plants.” While all of the Big Three’s plants are unionized, not a single plant in the South is unionized. Automakers’ transition to electric vehicles is accelerating these regional trends. Ford and GM are building battery plants below the Mason-Dixon Line, where states have laws that make unionization much harder than in the traditional working-class bastions of the Midwest. UAW leaders and union supporters worry the shift will lower compensation and cut out unions from the auto industry’s future, and they are seeking to address these concerns in talks with the Big Three.
Jeep maker Stellantis makes a new contract offer as auto workers prepare to expand their strike
September 21, 2023 // GM said that the UAW strike at its assembly plant near St. Louis caused it to idle a plant in Kansas with about 2,000 workers because “there is no work available” — the plant depends on parts stamped in the St. Louis-area facility. GM said it does not expect to restart the Kansas plant until the strike ends, and it won’t provide supplemental pay to the workers. The company said the layoffs demonstrated “that nobody wins in a strike.” Stellantis, which makes Jeep, Chrysler and Dodge vehicles, said it expects to lay off more than 300 workers in Ohio and Indiana because “storage constraints” caused by the UAW strike at its assembly plant in Toledo, Ohio.
Federal judge upholds ouster of Boilermakers union president by his own top executives
August 23, 2023 // In what he called a preliminary ruling from the bench, Chief Judge Eric F. Melgren, of the U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas, upheld a June 2 decision by the union’s top executives to remove Jones as president. “As of that day, Mr. Jones was removed from office,” Melgren said. The judge said he would issue a final, written ruling on the issue within the week. After the hearing, members of the union’s executive council said they’d unanimously elected former International Vice President Warren Fairley, who retired in February, to be the union’s new leader.
ILLINOIS: SEIU HEALTHCARE MEMBERS EMPOWERED TO DROP UNION
August 16, 2023 // With locals in Illinois, Indiana, Missouri and Kansas, the union purports to represent more than 91,000 members. A closer look into reports published by the U.S. Department of Labor, however, reveals that SEIU HCII represents only about 59,000 workers. At least one third of those represented by SEIU HCII don’t seem to think the union’s services are worth their money. And they’re right. While the union collects tens of millions of dollars in membership dues each year, only a fraction is spent on “representational activities,” including collective bargaining and contract enforcement. In 2022, less than 22 percent of SEIU HCII’s $47 million in spending went towards member representation. The rest was spent on politics, administration, and other misguided union leadership priorities.
Spirit AeroSystems to halt work at Wichita plant as union votes to strike
June 22, 2023 // In an emailed statement, IAM said 79% of workers voted to reject the contract and 85% voted to strike. About 55% of Spirit's U.S. workers were covered by the agreement, which will expire this month.
Kansas City, KS-based union in turmoil as execs head to court over president’s ouster
June 15, 2023 // The Kansas City, Kansas-based union filed a civil suit against three of its executives, requesting a temporary restraining order to prohibit the removal of International President Newton Jones after they issued a finding that Jones misused union funds for personal gain. Jones is refusing to step down, denying any wrongdoing and contending the officers had no authority to remove him. A hearing on the restraining order is scheduled for 10 a.m. June 20 in the federal courthouse in Kansas City, Kansas. Chief Judge Eric F. Melgren, of the U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas, will hear the case. Jones, 69, also filed internal disciplinary charges against the three international vice presidents who removed him and another who brought forth the allegations, saying the four violated the union’s constitution. The remaining international vice president has sided with Jones against the others.
Opinion: NLRB Trips Over Itself to Promote the SEIU
May 11, 2023 // Now the NLRB has launched a new tactic to “encourage” union wins—a preemptive bargaining order requiring an employer to recognize and bargain with a union. So-called Gissel bargaining orders are meant to be used only in particularly egregious cases where an employer is alleged to have engaged in misconduct so pervasive that no fair election could be held. In the case of a Starbucks store in Overland Park, Kansas, however, NLRB administrative law judge (ALJ) Arthur Amchan recently decided to impose a Gissel bargaining order to cover a re-run election that hasn’t even been scheduled yet. That is truly egregious.
Arkansas teachers freed from compulsory union membership; what about Kansas?
April 28, 2023 // K.S.A. 75-5501 currently has an unconstitutional minimum 180-day dues-withholding requirement with no provision for employees to resign and stop paying dues whenever they wish. The Kansas National Education Association (KNEA) only allows teachers to resign and stop paying dues in August. Restrictions of this nature effectively make union membership compulsory. There have been several attempts to protect public employee rights in the Legislature, but teachers’ and other public employees’ rights are still not recognized in Kansas, but legislators are not giving up.