Posts tagged Kentucky
The Delivery Business Shows Why Unions Are Struggling to Expand
May 29, 2024 // But the union has also suffered losses. Yellow, a trucking company that employed 24,000 Teamsters, shut down and filed for bankruptcy protection last year. Amazon and FedEx said they were confident in their approach to managing and compensating workers. Amazon said it had made investments that bolstered pay and benefits at its delivery contractors. FedEx said its nonunion model allowed it to quickly increase pay whereas UPS’s union employees were bound by the terms of five-year contracts.
Mercedes workers in Alabama reject union, dealing setback to UAW
May 19, 2024 // VW workers twice voted against the UAW before last month's win, and Nissan workers at a plant in Mississippi rejected the UAW by a wide margin in 2017. In 2021, workers at an Amazon.com warehouse in Alabama voted against forming a union by a more than 2-to-1 margin. The loss complicates the story of how the UAW can market its influence, especially in the South, but it likely will not deal a significant blow to the rest of the UAW's organizing efforts, labor experts said.
Judge: Kentucky distillery influenced union vote with free bottles of bourbon
April 11, 2024 // According to the judge’s decision, the distillery often gave employees bottles of bourbon for occasions such as the Kentucky Derby or when specific goals were hit but the targets were announced in advance. However, the November 2022 bottles appeared to be the idea of an upper-level manager who emailed “it may not be a bad time to gift all our employees a nice bottle like we have done a few times before,” according to the decision. Brown-Forman said the distribution was “solely in recognition of them achieving 5 consecutive months” of productivity records between May and September. However employees had not been notified in advance of a specific goal as an incentive, making the timing suspect, the judge said.
UPS Teamsters unionize new group of workers in Louisville
March 20, 2024 // Teamsters General Secretary-Treasurer Fred Zuckerman, of Louisville, and General President Sean O’Brien are working to expand the agreement nationwide to organize roughly 5,000 more UPS workers in similar roles at different facilities.
Union reaches tentative contract at 38 Kroger stores in West Virginia, Kentucky, Ohio
March 11, 2024 // Bargainers for a union representing workers at 38 Kroger stores in West Virginia and two other states reached a tentative agreement with the grocery chain on a contract Thursday. The announcement came a week after members of the United Food & Commercial Workers Union Local 400 rejected a previous contract offer and voted to authorize a strike.
UAW, Ford reach agreement; strike at truck plant in Louisville avoided
February 22, 2024 // Last Friday, the union issued a release that said nearly 9,000 workers at the Kentucky Truck Plant in east Louisville would strike on Feb. 23 if Ford failed to address certain issues. Point of contention included health and safety inside the plant, including minimum "in-plant nurse staffing levels and ergonomic issues," plus the company's attempts to "erode the skilled trades" at the plant.
Commentary: For Teachers’ Unions, Strikes Are the New Normal
February 19, 2024 // Meanwhile, students trapped in blue states – or blue cities – effectively run by teachers’ union political power, remained hostages to the demands of even more funding, hazard pay, increased “teacher work periods,” etc. In many cases, the demands even included political concessions like guaranteed housing and expanding Medicare for All. Don’t forget: Some teachers’ unions had to issue reminders for teachers not to post vacation pictures while the schools were closed. Because let’s call a spade a spade: The teachers’ unions used the COVID pandemic as history’s largest and longest strike, during which they tried to exact concessions they would have never achieved at a normal negotiating table.
Ford CEO says company will rethink where it builds vehicles after last year’s autoworkers strike
February 15, 2024 // Ford’s highly profitable factory in Louisville, Kentucky, was the first truck plant that the UAW shut down with a strike. “Our reliance on the UAW turned out to be we were the first truck plant to be shut down,” Farley told the conference. “Really our relationship has changed. It’s been a watershed moment for the company. Does this have business impact? Yes.”
Meet the new Kentucky AFL-CIO president focusing on the future of young workers
January 31, 2024 // One area he hopes to focus on is the cost of living, which he sees becoming more oppressive to young workers. While 22 states will increase the minimum wage this year, Kentucky's minimum wage will remain at $7.25, the rate it has sat at for the past 14.5 years.