Posts tagged Kentucky
Red States Lead the Way on Protecting Workers
May 5, 2023 // It’s not just school choice and tax cuts. Red states have also made 2023 a banner year for labor reform, the best in years. Credit goes to governors and lawmakers who want to empower workers, save money for taxpayers, and make their states more competitive and responsive to citizens’ needs.
Kentucky Coinkydink
May 4, 2023 // The teachers who conducted the Kentucky sickout were officially unaffiliated with the Kentucky Education Association. They formed a Facebook group and called it KY 120 United. After the protests were over, they solidified their organization and eventually turned it into a union, affiliating with AFT, which previously had no real presence in the state. KY 120 United has had an uneasy relationship with KEA ever since. KY 120 United was recognized as a labor organization by the Fayette County Schools in 2021, but the school board rescinded that recognition last month, stating that the union had failed to file required paperwork. A district spokesperson said the union had to “show through bylaws and a democratic method that they represent our employees in order to ensure this is truly a representative group.”
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.
New UAW Leader Already Has Issues With Detroit Automakers
April 25, 2023 // Speaking to the Automotive Press Association in Detroit, Fain said members are demanding that the union win back cost-of-living pay raises and pensions they lost, and the elimination of tiers of workers who are paid differently but do the same jobs. They also want assurances that good-paying union jobs will be preserved as the companies transition from gasoline-powered vehicles to those that run on electricity. Auto companies, he said, have made billions over the last decade but workers haven’t gotten their fair share since the companies got into financial trouble in 2009. “I want to work with the companies. I want to have a good relationship,” Fain said. “But if they’re not going to treat our members with respect and not give them their due, then we’re going to have issues.”
Tied vote stymies union effort at Lower East Side Trader Joe’s
April 24, 2023 // A two-day union vote at a Lower East Side Trader Joe’s ended in a tie, handing a loss to workers who supported the effort, the union announced Friday. The final vote at the Essex Crossing Trader Joe’s was 76-76, legally marking a win for the company, worker-led union Trader Joe’s United said in a news release. Despite the tie, however, worker-organizers at the store said they would continue to fight for a union.
Four states advance bills prohibiting union dues deductions
April 21, 2023 //
Sysco Picketing Lawsuit Hinges on Standard for Secondary Strikes
April 18, 2023 // The conflict arose earlier this month after Sysco workers in Indiana and Kentucky went on strike over wages and retirement benefits. Sysco workers belonging to Teamsters Local 117 in Washington state followed suit, exercising a clause of their contract that allows them to refuse to cross a “lawful, primary picket line,” according to court records. In a complaint filed in US District Court for the Western District of Washington, Sysco Seattle argued that the workers there couldn’t join the picket because its operation is a separate entity from Sysco Louisville and Sysco Indianapolis.
‘Inmates?’ DHL Express, Teamsters locked in struggle at CVG unionization drive
April 10, 2023 // Tensions are rising at the DHL Express global hub at the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport in Hebron as the International Brotherhood of Teamsters attempt to unionize 900 workers. Having invested more than $280 million at the airport since 2009, DHL operations have quickly grown, becoming an employer of more than 3,000 local workers. Strong growth amid a labor market shortage prompted the package carrier to raise hourly wages 15-18%, including a starting wage of $20 to $23 per hour for operations agents for different shifts. But the fast pace and working conditions have lead the Teamsters to seek a vote on unionizing. The drive comes as Amazon workers at CVG are also seeking to organize.
Police union executive led scheme to smuggle opioids marked ‘party favors,’ feds say Read more at: https://www.sacbee.com/news/california/article273770265.html#storylink=cpy
March 31, 2023 // The executive director of a California police union faces federal charges of running an opioid-smuggling scheme, federal officials say. Joanne Marian Segovia, 64, works for the San Jose Police Officers Association, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Northern California said in a Wednesday, March 29, news release. A criminal complaint accused Segovia of using her home and work computers to arrange at least 61 shipments containing thousands of synthetic opioid pills to her home over the course of about seven years, the release said.