Posts tagged Kentucky
DHL Express workers extend picket lines across US
December 17, 2023 // The Teamsters represent more than 1,100 DHL employees who load and unload freighters at CVG, and 6,000 workers nationwide. Workers voted in April to join Teamsters Local 100 after a yearlong campaign and began collective bargaining for their first contract in July. They went on strike Dec. 7 after demands for better pay and safety conditions as well as an end to alleged union-busting activities were not met. The labor action comes at the busiest time of year for parcel carriers, who are in the final sprint of delivering online purchases and personal gift exchanges in time for the holidays. DHL brought in temporary workers and managers to pick up some of the labor slack in Cincinnati and diverted cargo jets to other gateways in its air network in an effort to maintain service schedules.
Wisconsin’s Anti-Union Model Faces Reckoning as Top Court Shifts
December 12, 2023 // “They’ve been trying to overturn it through the legislature and the ballot box and have been wholly unsuccessful,” said Brett Healy, president of the conservative John K. MacIver Institute for Public Policy, which estimates Act 10 has saved taxpayers $16.8 billion as of this year. Act 10 also made it easier for school districts to fire low-performing teachers and retain good ones, said Walker, now president of the Young America’s Foundation, a conservative activist organization for youth. The former governor pointed to the state’s standardized test scores and graduation rates, which typically meet or exceed national averages. “We’ve seen tremendous success,” Walker added. “All the attacks they said at the time, how this would devastate schools, proved be just that—attacks. They don’t match reality.”
No strike: UPS and Teamsters avoid strike threat at Louisville facility
December 11, 2023 // Late Thursday, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, the union representing 340,000 UPS workers nationwide, made an announcement that UPS workers in Louisville were considering go on strike Monday, claiming the company had committed unfair labor practices. Avral Thompson, president of Teamsters Local 89 in Louisville, previously told the Courier Journal the issue that led to the strike threat was that the union worked to unionize a group of employees who had previously been non-union workers at UPS. After going through arbitration, these workers were deemed union eligible, and the workers voted to join the Teamsters.
Amazon Forces Removal of Pro-Union Display at Major Cargo Hub
December 3, 2023 // The workers last week filed a charge with the National Labor Relations Board, arguing the threats were designed to chill protected union speech at Amazon facilities. Managers allegedly gave final warnings to about a dozen employees who had refused to remove the display, but the workers ultimately relented to avoid getting fired and to protect their union effort, according to interviews with three people involved as well as audio and video recordings the workers provided to Bloomberg Law in support of their account. Kentucky and most other states allow one person to legally tape record a conversation without informing the other participants.
UAW launches campaign to unionize Toyota, Tesla and other automakers
November 30, 2023 // United Auto Workers union said its next target is to unionize factory workers at Lucid, Rivian, Tesla and 10 foreign automakers, a move that comes after it garnered new employment contracts from Detroit's Big Three automakers. BMW, Honda, Hyundai, Nissan, Mazda, Mercedes, Subaru, Toyota, Volkswagen and Volvo are based overseas but all have manufacturing operations in the U.S. Because these companies have brought in billions of dollars in profit over the past decade, their hourly factory workers deserve to make more money, UAW President Shawn Fain said in a video Wednesday.
Ford production workers at Kentucky, Louisville vote against new labor deal
November 13, 2023 // Production workers at Ford's (F.N) Louisville assembly and Kentucky truck plants have voted against the tentative labor agreement, while skilled trades workers voted in favor, the local chapter of the United Auto Workers (UAW) said on Monday. The ratification of the contract was voted down by 55% of the production workers whereas 69% of the skilled trades workers, which includes maintenance and construction employees backed it, the UAW Local 862 said in a Facebook post.
Ford lays off another 150 workers citing UAW strike
October 20, 2023 // Ford Motor (F.N) said late on Wednesday it is laying off another 150 workers in Michigan because of the ongoing United Auto Workers strike, bringing the total to 2,730 workers furloughed. Ford said the UAW's walkout last week at its Kentucky Truck Plant prompted the new layoffs at a Michigan axle plant. Another 16,600 Ford employees are on strike at three assembly plants, including Kentucky Truck, the company's largest plant worldwide.
AUTOS Ford lays off 700 who were building electric version of F-150
October 17, 2023 // The company said it will temporarily cut one of the three shifts at its Rouge Electric Vehicle Center in Dearborn, Michigan, near the company's main headquarters. It will rotate the layoffs between the three shifts. Ford had temporarily closed the plant this summer to upgrade its production capability, and the company said this latest layoff is related to "multiple constraints, including the supply chain and working through processing and delivering vehicles held for quality checks after restarting production in August."
UAW strike update: Union changes approach to adding members to picket lines
October 16, 2023 // UAW President Shawn Fain will no longer wait until Friday to add more union members to the strike, he announced during an update. "We’re entering a new phase of this fight, and it demands a new approach," he said.
Ford says it is ‘at the limit’ with UAW contract offer
October 13, 2023 // Ford officials said on Thursday that cutting a deal that does not allow the company to survive makes no sense and that striking the Kentucky truck plant would also hurt the UAW's profit-sharing checks. In a sign of the strike's expanding impact, Delta Air Lines (DAL.N) said on Thursday it is feeling a pinch from the automotive and entertainment labor strikes. Delta President Glen Hauenstein said the UAW strike has curtailed a "significant" amount of business in Detroit. Automakers have more than doubled initial wage hike offers, agreed to raise wages along with inflation and improved pay for temporary workers, but the union wants higher wages still, the abolishment of a two-tier wage system and the expansion of unions to battery plants. The UAW has room to expand its walkouts and increase the pressure on the Detroit Three to offer bigger wage gains, richer retirement packages and more assurances that new electric vehicle battery plants will be unionized.